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Stoned, Puking Baby-Boomers

Edgy MD Jun 07 2012 07:07 AM

So, The Wall. Help me out. What's the BFD? I feel like I knew what it was about, and then it sort of kind of became about something else, but it was already about that, but the substance behind the metaphor was a deeper metaphor itself --- a meta-mataphor. Or maybe it's such a plastic metaphor that whatever it was about then, it's about something else now, and that's OK, because the MAN is ever-changing, a Coyote trickster, as are his methods, but the psycho-political oppression, and it's cruel impact on the human person, is the same. Is that right? It came out when I was 13, somaybe it should have hit me right between the eyes, but perhaps not quite. But I was eh and kind of liked the movie more than the record. But it keeps shifting as time passes me by, and it's sort of become like the emperor's nu clothes, something that's so allegedly deep and powerful, we all pretend we see right to the heart of it, but nobody wants to call bullshit. And I try and say that with humility (if not much generosity), as I'm completely open to the idea that I'm just too shallow/literal/stodgy to see what deep and powerful shit it is. I say this in the light of a Facebook post from MGiM, who, after numerous posts of photos and high praise for his evening with Roger Waters, added the hilarious coda: "Now, the downside might be that I've never seen that many stoned, puking baby boomers." "Exactly," I'm thinking. I admit I've long had a problem being particularly generous with progressive rock/art rock, but for a few years there, King Crimson and the Talking Heads were practically the same band, so maybe I need to do the hard work of the SELF to sort out why art rock bullshit stinks to high Heaven to me, but I'm perfectly willing to indulge nu wave bullshit (celebrate it, even, to varying extents). Maybe it's just a microgenerational thing. If I was a few years older, I'd be that guy who never shuts up about Quicksliver Messenger Service or some shit, who angrily rejects all Queen music after Sheer Heart Attack, and breaks his wife's heart using his vacation time to attend scholarly conferences with names like "Tangerine Dream and Space-Age Theocide Movement." But I was born when I was born. It's all good if you delight in the spectacle. I certainly waste my time and money on other duMbEr sTuffS. But the whole intellectual pinnacle of rock that it's treated as. WHOOSH! You know?

John Cougar Lunchbucket Jun 07 2012 07:15 AM Re: Stoned, Puking Baby-Boomers

I never had any idea what The Wall was about myself (still don't), but that has something to do with my interest in finding out. I think the music's OK but thanks to radio's lack of imagination I will never need to hear 'Comfortably Numb' or a half-dozen other tracks on that platter again in my life. So what is The Wall about? I[crossout:1ngcvgxy]don't[/crossout:1ngcvgxy] need [crossout:1ngcvgxy]no[/crossout:1ngcvgxy] education.

TransMonk Jun 07 2012 07:53 AM Re: Stoned, Puking Baby-Boomers

Is that a rhetorical question? Have you seen the movie? Did you go to high school? It's been a while, but I think I spent about a year straight listening to this album. Right now, I consider it Pink Floyd's 5th best album, which speaks to their high quality of work in the 70's. The Wall is basically an autobiography of the life of Roger Waters. The film includes the song "When The Tigers Broke Free" which is about the fictional Pink losing his dad to WWII, which I believe happened to Waters as well. IMO, it would have been one of the better songs on the album had it been included. Waters tries to tie his own life and his problems with the successes of Pink Floyd into some social commentary and some of the second half of the album becomes a little of a mess. Pink is born, loses his father, goes to school, is over-protected by his mother, gets married, joins a rock band. He finds his wife is cheating on him while he is on the road and this, coupled with his trouble dealing with the success of being a rock star and a real person at the same time, causes him to seek out a groupie to keep him company, but then drives her away by throwing a tantrum. He contemplates suicide, laments the failures and pitfalls in his life, does some drugs and then is roused by his band manager to wake up for the show that night. Pink then turns bad, berating his audience for being conformist rock concert go-ers, comes down off of his high and then puts himself on trial in his head for all of his inadequacies. Finally, he is sentenced to "tear down the wall" that he has built up in his head in order to block himself off emotionally from his surroundings. I am a nerd. IRL, Waters was always kind of pissed off about Pink Floyd's success, and the motivator for writing the album was to actually build a wall on stage so that he wouldn't have to look at the thousands of rock and roll fans that were attending PF shows. He would have rather stayed the art-rock band that they were in the early 70's and all of the rock kids drove him a bit batty. The bulk of the album was written and sung by Waters. The hits you hear on Classic Rock radio are primarily Gilmour's vocals. Ultimately, the amount of control that Waters dictacted in the writing and production of the Wall broke up Pink Floyd.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Jun 07 2012 08:00 AM Re: Stoned, Puking Baby-Boomers

No, never saw the movie. Thanks!

Ceetar Jun 07 2012 08:02 AM Re: Stoned, Puking Baby-Boomers

Not sure I've heard it.

Mets – Willets Point Jun 07 2012 08:04 AM Re: Stoned, Puking Baby-Boomers

I've never paid much attention to Pink Floyd. They seem like one of those niche things like Magic: The Gathering or lowriders with velvet engine cases that I know have a big following and I get some of the references just from cultural osmosis but have never focused my mind on for too long.

MFS62 Jun 07 2012 08:04 AM Re: Stoned, Puking Baby-Boomers

I spent more than two years listening to the Wall. I never cared for it when it first came out (it was just "ok"). But years later, I was in a car pool. It was a 40 mile trip that took just under an hour. One of the carpool drivers had the tape. And he played it over and over and over and ... , well, you get the general idea. He played it every friggin' time it was his turn to drive (at least once a week). If I'm ever captured by an enemy of America and they want me to crack they can just put me in a warm, humid room and play that song. Its a Small World would serve the same purpose, for similar reasons I've recounted here before. If you're going to play either of them, I'll just stand on the other side of the wall. Later

metsguyinmichigan Jun 07 2012 08:13 AM Re: Stoned, Puking Baby-Boomers

It was an amazing show, save for the stoned, puking baby boomers. It's pretty rare that I'm younger than the average age at a concert any more. What's it about? Waters once talked about how he had become so isolated and screwed up by the trappings of being a rock star -- how thousands of people would clap or whatever at a show just because he told them to -- that one time a fan climbed close to the stage and Waters spit on him. Later, he was so horrified at what he had done, and what he had become. So you get a semi-autobiographical tale of a messed up rock star -- "Pink" -- who is messed up because his father was killed in the war, his mother was over-protective, his teachers abusive, his wife unfaithful and his drug abuse plentiful, mixed in with a distrust for authority, especially the government and military. He becomes so isolated by all of these things that he builds an emotional wall between him and the world. He goes bonkers in the end like his old band mate, Syd Barrett. What my son noted after the concert was that Waters, at least in the character and context of the show, takes no responsibility for his actions. He's a victim, all the way. If you went to high school in the early 1980s, the Wall is AWESOME!!!! If not, well, it's pretty odd. Some of it holds up very well -- "Brick," "Numb," "Run Like Hell," "Young Lust." Some of it dragged then, and does so more today. Interesting was that for all the technologically amazing things -- and it was incredible -- the most effective part was during "Vera Lynn" and "Bring the Boys Back Home" when projected on the wall were those clips of soldiers coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan, surprising their kids at school, focusing on the emotion of the kids. People, even the stoned ones, were crying. Amazing.

sharpie Jun 07 2012 08:21 AM Re: Stoned, Puking Baby-Boomers

Pre-Dark Side of the Moon Pink Floyd holds up for me, both the Syd Barrett stuff and the post-Syd material (David Bowie owes a huge debt to Syd Barrett). I liked Dark Side and Wish You Were Here but classic rock radio has made them difficult to listen to in context. After that I have no real connection to them. When songs from "The Wall" come on the radio I don't switch it but they don't resonate with me. Transmonk called "The Wall" their fifth best album. I think I agree: 1. Meddle 2. Piper at the Gates of Dawn 3. Dark Side of the Moon 4. Wish You Were Here 5. The Wall 6. Ummagumma 7. A Saucer Full of Secrets 8. Atom Heart Mother 9. Animals I don't know the rest of the albums. Lenny Harris (the erstwhile poster, not the former Met) liked The Wall quite a bit. I took him and a friend to see Waters doing "Dark Side of the Moon." It was a pretty good show but I never think back on it. I saw Pink Floyd between "Dark Side" and "Wish You Were Here." They opened with "Wish You Were Here" which was unreleased at the time. Then they took a break and came back with "Dark Side of the Moon." Their encore was "Echoes" (a 20 minute song from "Meddle"). That show I remember fondly. I didn't like the movie at all.

TransMonk Jun 07 2012 08:27 AM Re: Stoned, Puking Baby-Boomers

The movie is pretty terrible...but if your having trouble with the non-visual context of the album, it serves as great Cliff's notes. I would imagine (having never seen it myself) that the actual live show would do the trick too. I'm jealous of MGIM. My PF album list would go: 1. Wish You Were Here 2. Animals 3. Meddle 4. Dark Side of the Moon 5. The Wall 6. Ummagumma 7. Piper At The Gates of Dawn 8. A Saucer Full of Secrets I don't know enough about the rest, but maybe I'll give Atom Heart Mother a few spins this weekend.

metsguyinmichigan Jun 07 2012 08:31 AM Re: Stoned, Puking Baby-Boomers

I didn't like the movie, either. It's a complete downer with no uplifting moments at all.

Chad Ochoseis Jun 07 2012 08:46 AM Re: Stoned, Puking Baby-Boomers

MFS62 wrote: If I'm ever captured by an enemy of America and they want me to crack they can just put me in a warm, humid room and play that song. Its a Small World would serve the same purpose, for similar reasons I've recounted here before. If you're going to play either of them, I'll just stand on the other side of the wall. Later Off topic, but NPR had a piece this morning on Christopher Cerf, who composed most of the "Sesame Street" music and his reaction when he found out that the theme was one of the songs used to torture prisoners (or "perform enhanced interrogation techniques on detainees", if you prefer) at Guantanamo. One of his comments was that if they wanted him to confess to anything, all they'd have to do is play "It's a Small World" for him a few times. I was in 9th grade or maybe 10th when "The Wall" came out, which meant that all I heard from anyone else I knew was how freaking cool it was that they were able to sing the phrase "We don't need no education." Yeah, great. Zzzzzzzz. So I never really gave the rest of the album a chance. I probably will sometime, but it's not high up on my list of things to listen to.

Vic Sage Jun 07 2012 08:55 AM Re: Stoned, Puking Baby-Boomers

what TMonk said. plus: the movie picks up on and intensifies the inherently fascistic quality of "rock star as das fuhrer" critique Rogers was offering about his own status (and that of his rock god colleagues). the notion that rock stars have undue influence over crowds of mostly young people who look up at them with slavish devotion is NOT a good thing, he is positing. In that way, it's a bit like TOMMY, with the pinball guru (aka rock star) imposing rigid control and then, after being overthrown by revolution, feeling purged and purified, ready to start fresh. I would suggest that, like TOMMY, narrative clarity is not THE WALL's strong suit, nor is it a prerequisite for appreciating either work, preference of musical styles aside. But, despite its indeterminate ending suggesting a cyclical structure to the story,THE WALL's themes are really not all that obscure, as noted by TMonk.