A searing indictment of rigid education, this iconic video is as powerful and unsettling today as it was over four decades ago.
The Song
"Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2" is the most commercially successful segment of a three-part composition featured on Pink Floyd's eleventh studio album, The Wall, released on November 30, 1979. Written by bassist and lyricist Roger Waters, the song serves as a potent protest against corporal punishment and abusive schooling methods. Its distinctive sound, notably incorporating elements of disco, was a suggestion from producer Bob Ezrin, a move initially met with skepticism by guitarist David Gilmour but embraced by drummer Nick Mason and Waters.
The track's most memorable feature is undoubtedly the children's choir, composed of 23 students aged 13 to 15 from Islington Green School in North London. Engineer Nick Griffiths recorded the children, overdubbing their vocals 12 times to create the sound of a much larger choir. Waters' personal experiences at the Cambridgeshire School for Boys in the 1950s heavily influenced the lyrics, aiming to inspire individuality against controlling authority figures rather than being a blanket condemnation of education itself.
The Artist
Pink Floyd is an English rock band formed in London in 1965, known for their progressive and psychedelic rock, philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, and elaborate live shows. By the time of The Wall, Roger Waters had become the primary lyricist and conceptual force, shaping the band's artistic direction. The album, a rock opera, tells the story of Pink, a jaded rock star who builds a metaphorical wall of isolation around himself, with the songs serving as "bricks" in this psychological barrier.
The Wall was an ambitious project, conceived by Waters during their 1977 "In the Flesh" tour after an incident where he spat on a fan, leading him to reflect on the growing distance between the band and its audience. The album's creation was marked by internal tensions, with Waters having significant control over the project. Keyboardist Richard Wright was dismissed by Waters during production but continued to perform on the subsequent tour as a salaried musician.
Chart Performance
"Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2" was a monumental commercial success for Pink Floyd, becoming their only number-one single in both the UK and the US. Released as a single on November 23, 1979, in the UK, it quickly soared to the top of the charts, becoming the UK Christmas No. 1 of 1979 and the final No. 1 of the decade. It held the top spot for five weeks.
In the US, the single reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on March 22, 1980, and stayed there for four weeks. The song topped singles charts in 14 countries worldwide and sold over four million copies globally. Despite Pink Floyd's immense success as an album-oriented band, this single stands out as their lone US chart-topper and only Top Ten hit.
Cultural Impact
The video for "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2" from Pink Floyd: The Wall film became a powerful visual representation of the song's themes, directed by Alan Parker with animated sequences by Gerald Scarfe. The striking imagery of children marching in unison through a meat grinder, emerging as "putty-faced" clones, before rebelling and burning down the school, underscored the song's protest against oppressive and dehumanizing educational systems. This visual narrative significantly amplified the song's message of rebellion against authoritarian control.
The song's lyrics resonated deeply, particularly in South Africa during apartheid, where it was adopted by black schoolchildren to condemn educational apartheid. This led to the song being banned in the country in 1980. The track's universal message of challenging conformity and asserting individuality has cemented its place as a timeless anthem. It was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Performance by a Rock Duo or Group and won Roger Waters a British Academy Award for Best Original Song for its appearance in The Wall film. Rolling Stone also ranked it at number 384 on its 2010 list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
Fun Facts
- Producer Bob Ezrin convinced Pink Floyd to release "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2" as a single, despite the band's general aversion to releasing singles that were also on albums, believing their work was best appreciated in the context of a full album.
- The children's choir was recorded in about 40 minutes during class hours. Engineer Nick Griffiths initially planned for just a few kids, but, inspired by Todd Rundgren, recorded a larger group and multi-tracked them to create a full choir sound.
- After the song became a massive hit, there was a minor controversy in the UK press because the children were not initially paid for their contribution. Pink Floyd eventually gave each child a free copy of the album and donated £1,000 to the school. In 2004, 25 years later, the singers were tracked down and began receiving royalties.
- Roger Waters himself provided the distinctive Scottish voice of the abusive schoolmaster in the song.
- The film Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982), which features the iconic animated sequences, was directed by Alan Parker, with animation by Gerald Scarfe. Bob Geldof of The Boomtown Rats played the lead role of Pink.
- David Gilmour was initially reluctant to incorporate disco elements, recalling that he "forced myself out and listened to loud, four-to-the-bar bass drums and stuff and thought, Gawd, awful!" but ultimately nailed the guitar solo in one take.