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"Another Brick in the Wall" is the title of three songs set to variations of the same basic theme, on Pink Floyd's 1979 rock opera, The Wall, subtitled Part 1 (working title "Reminiscing"), Part 2 (working title "Education"), and Part 3 (working title "Drugs"). All parts were written by Pink Floyd's bassist, Roger Waters. Part II is a protest song against rigid schooling in general and boarding schools in the UK in particular. It was also released as a single and provided the band's only number-one hit in the United Kingdom, the United States, West Germany and many other countries. In addition, in the US, along with the tracks, "Run Like Hell", and "Don't Leave Me Now", "Another Brick in the Wall" reached number fifty-seven on the disco chart. In the UK, it was their first single since 1968's "Point Me at the Sky"; the song was also the final number-one single of the 1970s. For Part II, Pink Floyd received a Grammy nomination for Best Performance by a Rock Duo or Group and lost to Bob Seger's "Against the Wind". In addition, Part II was number 375 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". The single sold over 4 million copies worldwide.

The single, as well as the album The Wall, were banned in South Africa in 1980 after the song was adopted by supporters of a nationwide school boycott protesting racial inequities in education under the apartheid regime.

Concept

Each of the three parts has a similar tune, which carry different meanings, and lyrical structure (though not lyrics, aside from the "all in all" refrain), and each is louder and more enraged than the one before, rising from the sadness of Part I to the protesting Part II to the furious Part III.

Part 1

Composition

Part 1 of the song is very quiet dynamically and features a long, subdued guitar solo. The vocals are softer and gentler in tone than in Parts 2 and 3, although there is a short, sharp rise in dynamics and tone for a brief period towards the end of the lyrical portion. Sniffing, shouting, wailing, calling, and children can be faintly heard in the background. The song's beginning coincides with the final chord of "The Thin Ice", and the echoing multi-guitar solo (after the lyrics) crossfades into the helicopter and yelling-teacher sounds of "The Happiest Days of Our Lives".

Plot

"The Thin Ice" discussed during the previous song breaks when Pink becomes older and learns of the death of his father. Pink is devastated by this reality and begins to build The Wall. And then he sucked his private parts.

Film version

Pink's mother is seen praying in a church after the death of her husband overseas. Pink, however, is, at this point, oblivious of his death, and can be seen playing with a toy aeroplane. The song continues with Pink playing in a public park after his mother leaves him to go shopping. He sees a man who he takes a liking to in the absence of his own father. The man gives Pink a lift onto a ride, and it's clear Pink feels as if this man is his real father. Pink follows the man's son around, copying him, but doesn't understand why the other boy's father isn't paying attention to him. He grabs the man's hand but is shooed away, only to grab the man's hand again. The man pushes Pink away again, and dejectedly he sits on a swing (which is too far off the ground for him to swing himself). He looks over at the other parents swinging their kids, feeling even more alone.

Part 2

Composition

In the album version of The Wall, "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" segues from "The Happiest Days of Our Lives", with Roger Waters' signature scream. The song has strong drums, a well-known bass line and distinctive guitar parts in the background with a smooth, yet edgy guitar solo. The song also features a group of school children for lead vocals in the second verse: as the song ends, the sounds of a school yard are heard, along with the teacher (portrayed as a Scotsman) who continues to lord it over the children's lives by shouting such things as "Wrong! Do it again!", and "If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding! How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?!", and "You! Yes! You behind the bikesheds! Stand still, laddie!", all of it dissolving into the dull drone of a phone ringing and ending with a deep sigh.

School choir

Producer Bob Ezrin had immediately recognised the hit potential of this song, but it took some maneuvering behind the band's back until "Part II" had the now familiar shape.

It was Ezrin's idea to use a school choir for this song, as he explained to Guitar World in 2009:

The most important thing I did for the song was to insist that it be more than just one verse and one chorus long, which it was when Roger wrote it. When we played it with the disco drumbeat I said: "Man, this is a hit! But it's one minute 20. We need two verses and two choruses." And they said, "Well you're not bloody getting them. We don't do singles, so fuck you." So I said, "Okay, fine", and they left. And because of our two set up, while they weren't around we were able to copy the first verse and chorus, take one of the drum fills, put them in between and extend the chorus. Then the question is what do you do with the second verse, which is the same? And having been the guy who made Alice Cooper's School's Out, I've got this thing about kids on record, and it is about kids after all. So while we were in America, we sent Nick Griffiths to a school near the Floyd studios . I said, "Give me 24 tracks of kids singing this thing. I want Cockney, I want posh, fill 'em up", and I put them on the song. I called Roger into the room, and when the kids came in on the second verse there was a total softening of his face, and you just knew that he knew it was going to be an important record.

Griffiths did indeed approach music teacher Alun Renshaw of Islington Green School about the choir, around the corner from Pink Floyd's Britannia Row Studios.

Though the school received a lump sum payment of £1000, there was no contractual arrangement for royalties from record sales. Under a 1996 UK copyright law, they became eligible for royalties from broadcasts, and after royalties agent Peter Rowan traced choir members through the website Friends Reunited and other means, they lodged a claim for royalties with the Performing Artists' Media Rights Association in 2004.

Disco beat

The idea for the disco beat came likewise from Ezrin. As David Gilmour explained in 2009:

It wasn't my idea to do disco music, it was Bob's. He said to me, "Go to a couple of clubs and listen to what's happening with disco music," so I forced myself out and listened to loud, four-to-the-bar bass drums and stuff and thought, Gawd, awful! Then we went back and tried to turn one of the parts into one of those so it would be catchy.

Of the final outcome, Roger Waters has commented:

It was great—exactly the thing I expected from a collaborator.

While Gilmour added:

And it doesn't, in the end, not sound like Pink Floyd.

Plot

After being insulted by the teacher, Pink dreams that the kids in his school begin to protest against their abusive teachers. The song talks about how he had a personal wall around him from the rest of the world, the teachers were just another brick in the wall.

Film version

Following "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" Pink starts to daydream during his class. He imagines several students marching in unison to the beat of the song, following a path until they enter a steamy tunnel section to re-emerge as putty-faced clones void of individual distinction and proceed to fall blindly into an oversized meat-grinder. Starting with Gilmour's guitar solo, the children destroy the school building using hammers (foreshadowing the subsequent neo-fascist Nazi-like animated sequence with its marching hammers) and crowbars, creating a bonfire, dragging their teacher out of the burning school kicking and screaming while chanting "We don't need no education." The song ends with Pink rubbing his hand, which the teacher slapped with a ruler in the song previously.

During the song, the teacher's "meat and pudding" lines are folded into the first few lines of the school choir's lines (with the instrumental breaks between shortened by a bar in 2 places), and are performed by the teacher in the film, played by Alex McAvoy.

Music video

Prior to the film, the first video for the track, directed by album/concert/film art designer Gerald Scarfe, depicted students running in a playground and the teacher puppet from The Wall concerts was used. The video also mixed in some animated scenes later used in "The Trial" and "Waiting for the Worms". After the media furore surrounding the song, the Islington Green school head teacher Margaret Maden refused permission for the children who sang on the song to appear in the video or on Top of the Pops, although at the time they were told it was because they didn't hold Equity Cards.

Once the film was completed, the actual scenes of "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" and "Another Brick in the Wall, Part II" were combined into a new video, which now represents the music video for "Another Brick in the Wall".

Live Versions

When performed as part of the various live shows of The Wall, the teacher is represented by a giant inflatable puppet, based on the figure from Scarfe's animations. This puppet duly becomes the focus of the song's anger and frustration.

Alternative versions

• The single version has a short 4-bar rhythm guitar and drum intro before the initial lyric, but fades out earlier—ending after approximately 3 minutes 11 seconds.
• The 1981 compilation A Collection of Great Dance Songs includes a hybrid (3:54) version which, like the single version, omits the segue from "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" and includes the 4-bar guitar/drum intro—but retains the longer playground ending of the studio version, fading out just before the telephone sounds.
• The versions from live albums and videos Delicate Sound of Thunder and Pulse (recorded after Waters' departure from the band) feature the main guitar solo by David Gilmour, followed by an additional tapping guitar riff by touring guitarist Tim Renwick. These are backed by Guy Pratt's slap bass lines. On Delicate Sound of Thunder, the children's choir part is played from tape, while on Pulse, it is performed by the backing singers.
• The version from Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980–81 (from the 1980–81 concerts at Earls Court, London) also features an extended solo by Snowy White and an organ solo by Richard Wright.
• In 1990, prior to The Wall – Live in Berlin a rare, limited edition promo CD titled "The Wall Berlin '90" was issued to radio stations (Columbia CSK 2126) which included "When the Tigers Broke Free" and a new version of "Another Brick in the Wall Part 2" credited as a "New Recording by The Bleeding Heart Band / June 1990".
• The version from The Wall Live in Berlin has Cyndi Lauper singing lead vocals, and features Rick DiFonzo playing the original solo, Snowy White playing a second guitar solo, Peter Wood playing an organ solo, and Thomas Dolby playing a synthesiser solo.
• The song was included with "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" in the compilation Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd, and segues into the first note of an edited version of "Echoes".
• Roger Waters' 2000 US tour, In the Flesh – Live (released on CD and DVD in 2006), featured the song—segued in from "The Happiest Days of Our Lives"—with live backup singers and the taped children's choir singing with Waters in the second verse, and—after two guitar solos—a third verse (same lyrics as second verse).
• During The Wall Live tour 2011, Waters added an acoustic coda to "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" with brand new lyrics referring to the death of Jean Charles de Menezes: According To the 2012 Tour program this song is called The Ballad Of Jean Charles de Menezes.

All in all it's just another brick in the wall

All in all you're just another brick in the wall

Just another blunder

Just another lousy call

Just another clap of thunder

And apologies ring hollow

From the guilty in Whitehall

And there's no hint of sorrow

Just the whitewash on the wall

Just one man dead

And nothing is gained

Nothing at all

And Jean Charles de Menezes remains

Just another brick in the wall

Charts and certifications

Part 3

Composition

This song is louder than the previous two parts, expressing Pink's rage. It is also the shortest part of "Another Brick in the Wall", and cross-fades into "Goodbye Cruel World".

Plot

Pink decides to finish this wall as a result of his rage after his wife's betrayal. He states that he has seen "the writing on the wall". He concludes that he no longer needs anything at all, dismissing the people in his life as just "bricks in the wall".

Film version

In the film, the song is accompanied by a montage of events that contributed to the construction of the wall. This version was also completely re-recorded with a faster tempo.

Award

The song, part number unspecified, won Waters the 1983 British Academy Award for 'Best Original Song' from the movie of The Wall.

Personnel

Part I

• Roger Waters - lead vocals, bass guitar
• David Gilmour - guitars, harmony vocals
• Richard Wright - Prophet-5 synthesiser, minimoog

Part II

• Roger Waters - bass guitar, vocals (unison with Gilmour)
• David Gilmour - guitar, vocals (unison with Waters)
• Nick Mason - drums
• Richard Wright - Hammond organ

with:

• Islington Green School students (organised by Alun Renshaw) - vocals

Part III

• Roger Waters - bass guitar, vocals, rhythm guitar
• David Gilmour - guitar
• Nick Mason - drums
• Richard Wright - Prophet-5 synthesiser

Cover versions

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

• In the wake of The Wall's release, a teacher in Chicago cut his own record as a rebuttal to Pink Floyd, changing the lyrics to "We all need an education."
• In 1986, à;GRUMH... covered "Part II" on their Underground EP.
• In 1994 Polish thrash metal band Acid Drinkers presented their version of "Part II" on the Fishdick album.
• In 1995, Jaz Coleman released an album titled Us and Them: Symphonic Pink Floyd, including symphonic arrangements of Pink Floyd songs including "Another Brick in the Wall".
• In 1998, for the film The Faculty, "Part II" was covered by Class of '99. A cover of "Part I" also appeared on the soundtrack album.
• In 1999, Salt-n-Pepa sampled their 1998 hit "Gitty Up" with Pink Floyd's instrumental version of "Another Brick in the Wall" as "The Brick Track Versus Gitty Up", which became Salt-n-Pepa's final UK hit, peaking at #22.
• In 1999, Tournesol turned Parts I and II into an acoustic thump.
• In 1999, the British Rock Symphony with Eric Burdon released a cover of "Part II".
• In 1999, ApologetiX parodied the song under the name "Kick in the Wall Pt. 2" on their album Biblical Graffiti.
• Since 2001, Umphrey's McGee has performed a cover of "Another Brick in the Wall" over 20 times live. On Halloween 2008, they combined "Another Brick in the Wall" with Michael Jackson's "Thriller" to create a unique mash-up song.
• In 2001, Luther Wright and the Wrongs released Rebuild the Wall, a country and western version of The Wall, including cover versions of "Another Brick in the Wall".
• In 2004, Korn released their version of the song on the compilation album Greatest Hits Volume 1, consisting of all three parts of "Another Brick in the Wall" and "Goodbye Cruel World".
• In 2005, rock group Parason made a cover version of "Part II" named "Vaša škoła" (Ваша школа), meaning Your school in Belarusian.
• In 2005, DJ Snatch produced an electric version of "Part II".
• In 2005, Keller Williams released a bluegrass version of the song on the album Grass.
• Lounge/comedy group Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine covered "Part II" on their 2006 album The Sunny Side of the Moon: The Best of Richard Cheese.
• In 2008, Out of Phase covered Parts I, II, and III as part of his The Wall tribute.
• In 2006, Revolting Cocks parodied the chorus of the song in the track "Revolting Cock au Lait", from the album Cocked and Loaded, alluding topics like masturbation and child sexual abuse.
• In 2007, Eric Prydz released a remix of the song, entitled "Proper Education" which was released as a single.
• In 2007, Pearl Jam added a portion of Part II in their live performance of "Daughter" on their Lollapalooza performance.
• In 2008, the song was covered by the Taliesin Orchestra on the band's Rock Rhapsody album.
• Stahlhammer covers the song on their Killer Instinkt album.
• Bob Rivers made two parodies called "Another Dick in the Mall" and "Another Kick in the Balls".
• Yelawolf made a rap cover to the song with the same title.
• Ulver recorded a cover of "Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 1" for The Wall Re-Built! tribute compilation album for Mojo magazine (December 2009, issue 193).
• In 2011, during the No More Mr Nice Guy Tour, Alice Cooper, performed the song as a mashup with his song, "School's Out". He also performed it live at the 100 Club in London, accompanied by Johnny Depp
• In 2011, Serdar Ortaç covered "Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2".
• Inmates at the Centre County Correctional Facility in Pennsylvania performed Part 2 of the song to taunt Jerry Sandusky, who had recently been incarcerated at the jail after a conviction on child abuse charges.

"Las Mañanitas" version

During Roger Waters's The Wall Live concerts in Mexico City during December 2010, some fans suggested Waters play "Another Brick on the Wall Part II", changing the lyrics of the song to the verses of the traditional Mexican birthday song "Las Mañanitas". He performed it as an "experiment" in front of his fans during the concerts of 19 and 21 December at the end of The Wall performance and using acoustic instruments to the delight of the Mexican public.

For this version Waters used the first part of "Las Mañanitas" song for the normal verse of "Another Brick on the Wall", but he left the original chorus and, as the Another Brick on the Wall song, he performed it twice.

See also

• Proper Education

References

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2. Whitburn, Joel (2004). Hot Dance/Disco: 1974–2003. Record Research. p. 203.
3. Rolling Stone: The RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
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6. (UPI) "South Africa Bans Floyd's 'The Wall'" The New York Times 15 July 1980: C6
7. ^ Simmons, Sylvie, ed. (2009). ""Good Bye Blue Sky", (Pink Floyd: 30th Anniversary, The Wall Revisited.)". Guitar World. 30 (10). Future: 79–80. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
8. BBC News: Just another brick in the wall?, 2 Oct 2007
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12. "Pink Floyd – Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50. Retrieved April 12, 2013.
13. "RPM Volume 33, No. 5". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. 26 April 1980. Retrieved 12 April 2013.
14. "Toutes les Chansons N° 1 des Années 80" (in French). Infodisc.fr. 12 April 2013. Retrieved 12 April 2013.
15. "The Irish Charts – Search charts". Irish Recorded Music Association. 2008. To use, type "Another Brick in the Wall" in the "Search by Song Title" search var and click search. Retrieved 17 February 2013.
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    12. Another brick in the wall (part II) - Pink Floyd
17. "Nederlandse Top 40 – week 3, 1980" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40. Retrieved April 12, 2013.
18. "Pink Floyd – Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved April 12, 2013.
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20. John Samson. "Another brick in the wall (part II) in South African Chart". Retrieved 1 June 2013.
21. Davidalic (12 February 2010). "Listas de superventas: 1980". AFE. Listas De Superventas. Retrieved 12 April 2013.
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28. "French single certifications – Pink Floyd – Another Brick In The Wall" (in French). Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique.
29. "Gold-/Platin-Datenbank (Pink Floyd; 'Another Brick in the Wall')" (in German). Bundesverband Musikindustrie.
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32. id MUST BE PROVIDED for UK CERTIFICATION.
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35. ^ Fitch, Vernon (2005). 'The Pink Floyd Encyclopedia (3rd ed.). pp. 73, 76, 88. ISBN 1-894959-24-8.
36. Song that's driving teachers up the wall, vol. 9, Libertarian Review, September 1980, pp. 42–43
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38. Kelley, Daniel and Andrew Strickler (June 24, 2012). PRISON TARGET: Sandusky on suicide watch at jail where he heard harassing serenade. The Daily. Retrieved June 26, 2012.

Further reading

• Fitch, Vernon and Mahon, Richard, Comfortably Numb – A History of The Wall 1978–1981, 2006

External links

• Islington Green School's article on their contribution
• BBC story on royalties suit
• BBC – ONE Life – Islington Green singers reunion. Aired 3 October 2007.
• – Roger Waters's take of Las Mañanitas in one of the Mexico City concerts. December 2010.
• Template:MetroLyrics song

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• Cite certification used for United Kingdom without ID
• Use dmy dates from May 2011
• Single chart usages for Germany2
• Pink Floyd songs
• Eric Burdon songs
• Songs written by Roger Waters
• The Wall (rock opera)
• Songs about school
• Song recordings produced by Bob Ezrin
• Song recordings produced by David Gilmour
• Song recordings produced by Roger Waters
• Progressive rock songs