Brilliant masterpiece or exercise in self pity?

The latter

"It's a little bit of both" is accurate. Not an easy answer at all. It's tough to admit that the guy who made one of your favorite albums (or movies, shows, novels, whatever) is a jerk, but Roger Waters really IS one of the biggest egomaniacs rock music ever puked up, let alone that he had to be a miserable pessimist who is so pacifist that he acts (however sad it was that his dad died--which it is, very sad) like World War II was fought EXCLUSIVELY to kill his father (see the lyrics to "When The Tigers Broke Free.")

And yet, I'm 31 now and find myself LIKING Waters' self-pitying tortured misery schtick more than I used to--I actually never bothered to hear "The Final Cut" before this year, and I really liked it, in spite of both Roger being really smarmy AND the music endlessly rehashing "The Wall."

I think the real problem with "The Wall" is that when you're a kid it all seems so deep and a huge part of music history to boot. As you get older you find out more of the details and it starts to turn you off a bit--the misogyny (I didn't even grasp as a teenager that the groupie from "One Of My Turns" wasn't also "Pink"'s wife--I didn't realize he was cheating on his wife with a groupie because she's cheating on him first because he's such a jerk), for one thing, as well as just a self-pitying 36 year old multilmillionaire jet set rock star making an enormous monument to his own misery. I didn't get that stuff when I was a teenager, I hadn't seen the movie, or even read the All-Music Guide review, which pointed out that it's a total Me Decade relic. I eventually abandoned it for "Piper At The Gates Of Dawn" as my favorite Floyd album, but it's a fascinating story the band went through all the same. I still like the album, but it's mostly for the songs--Roger's message can go to hell.

One doesn't exclude the other! Plenty of great art has been made in bouts of self-pity... Anyway, I'll say it's a masterpiece when a guy like me, a huge culture consumer who's had internet access since age 10, is impressed by the timeless visuals and bombastic storytelling that The Wall serves up. Not too many things can do that for me.

If dolphins are so smart, how come they live in igloos

It explores abandonment and isolation, symbolized by a metaphorical wall. The songs create an approximate storyline of events in the life of the protagonist, Pink, a character based on Syd Barrett and Roger Waters, whose father was killed during the Second World War. Pink is oppressed by his overprotective mother, and tormented at school by tyrannical, abusive teachers. All of these traumas become metaphorical "bricks in the wall". The protagonist eventually becomes a rock star, his relationships marred by infidelity, drug use, and outbursts of violence. As his marriage crumbles, he finishes building his wall, completing his isolation from human contact.

The album and music: Brilliant Artistic Masterpiece

The lyrics & film: an exercise in self pity, self focus, self loathing.

The end seems to have a positive message, he breaks out of the wall and has to face those outside it...


and like the rest of us who can't afford to spend any real time dwelling on how everyone in our life died, smothered, mistreated, or abandoned us -

because we're too busy working real jobs, paying bills, and dealing with those issues in real time, without time to dwell on how hurt we are about them.

It just seems ludicrous that we're supposed to feel sorry for a rich rock star who ought to be cherishing his gifts and relationships rather than excessively dwelling on his personal pain. He obviously can't count his blessings and get on with his life, as the actual members of Pink Floyd have done in real life (even Waters, not so much Barrett).

That said, the story IS interesting, and Roger Waters has truly created something fascinating to explore and think about. Not to mention, it IS a great tragedy that Syd Barrett lost his mental faculties, and seemed to opt for as much exclusion from relationships as possible until his death.

Syd's story is not one of the rich rock star whining about his lot in life - he may have truly been victimized by those who admired him - who may have spiked his tea with too much LSD too many times - though it is said that he often deliberately took large amounts of it and shared it (and other drugs) with them as well, so...

according to PF's members, he didn't have to choose to take so many drugs so often - after all, they didn't.

Both. We're all guilty at some time or another indulging in some self pity. It's part of human nature.

a bit of both actually




so many movies, so little time