Roger Waters tours The Wall

Considering the response when I wrote about Pink Floyd recently (ostensibly about the album The Final Cut) I figured there might be some interest from Blog on the Tracks readers now that Roger Waters has announced that he is touring The Wall. He is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the album - taking it out on the road. At this stage it's just American dates (from what I can tell) and then, presumably, the tour will roll on through Europe. And perhaps it will make its way, brick by indulgent brick, to Australia - and maybe to New Zealand - sometime in 2011...
So - what do you think? Would this be the best night out - seeing Roger Waters performing The Wall? Or would you prefer that the wall was actually built up around you so that you didn't have to hear it?
I am pretty sure I do not need to see Richard Gere's twin brother reliving/rebuilding The Wall.
I'm all for seeing old heroes play old classics - I loved seeing Leonard Cohen last year. But isn't this just a bit ridiculous? The Wall: 30 years on. Do people really care?
It would be hard to re-form Pink Floyd now, granted. But what has Roger Waters really done since leaving Floyd? He's released three studio solo albums that sound like Floyd. And while he has dabbled in opera and written some new tunes, his live shows focus on recreating Floyd-without-Floyd; essentially he travels the globe in a bid to prove authorship.
We know he wrote the songs.
He was here a while back doing The Dark Side of the Moon album in its entirety. Before that - with the In the Flesh live album - there was a heap of Floyd material; not just Floyd songs but Floyd recreations. Roger Waters performing his Pink Floyd songs as he wants to hear them now - and that means that next up you will get to hear The Wall.
The Wall is something of a polarising album - some Floyd fans love it, many can't stand it. It is rightfully regarded as the height of the band's excess - in terms of overwrought and overarching song/album concepts. And it also has some of David Gilmour's greatest guitar playing and a few good songs.
I am not sure I am much of a fan of The Wall.
But - don't get me wrong - I definitely was a fan. I watched the movie so many times through my high school and university daze. I even watched it three times in a row one day. Hey, I grew up in Havelock North, pre-flat whites and vineyard lunches. It was either watch The Wall three times or watch people be subtly racist (ironic, I know).
I also had a videotape of when Roger performed The Wall in Berlin with all sorts of famous guest vocalists (Van Morrison, Cyndi Lauper, Ute Lemper, Bryan Adams and so on). I watched that videotape - recorded from the TV during an all-night music festival - in 1990.
The double-CD was soon part of my collection.
I've even got the country-cover of The Wall: Rebuild The Wall by Luther Wright & The Wrongs. (I thoroughly recommend fans and non-fans check out this CD. It's ace).
So I've done my time with Pink Floyd, been a big fan - but you know that from the previous post I linked to at the top of today's entry; I still have every Floyd album - and everything that Roger Waters has done since leaving the band. I just don't listen to the material that often these days.
The thing that killed The Wall for me - probably - was seeing the tribute act, The Pink Floyd Experience, doing their version of it live. It just seemed such a redundant concept. The weirdest thing that happened that night was hearing a person ask at the merchandise counter whether the band had any CDs available. I wanted to lean over and go, "yeah, they've got about 14 albums - they're in stores under the name Pink Floyd!" But I didn't. I just waited until the bricks came tumbling down, the show was over, and it was time to leave.
I won't write any more about The Pink Floyd Experience because one time I mentioned them on the radio and received threatening phone calls. And when I reviewed the show where they performed The Wall, there were angry letters and phone calls.
I guess just seeing them doing it - and I'm not knocking their skills as musicians at all - made me realise what a strange idea it is to want to hear this music recreated live; to have the need to hear something played note-for-note as you remember it. No spontaneity, no soul. No energy. Not even the anger that is in parts of the album. A live version of The Wall - and you can see this on Roger's Berlin show that I mentioned earlier - is all just stupid pantomime. It is the band at its worst. And to see Waters doing it live just shows he has nothing to offer at all beyond working on his retirement fund.
If you are keen to go see Roger Waters "tear down the wall" (again) - you'll be pleased to hear that Snowy White is playing guitar for the tour.
So are you up for a rebuilding of The Wall? Or would you prefer it stayed in blocks on the ground?
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http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/blogs/blog-on-the-tracks/3579156/Roger-Waters-tours-The-Wall

Yes biography - Part I

Yes are an English progressive rock band that was formed in London in 1968. Their music is marked by sharp dynamic contrasts, extended song lengths, abstract lyrics, and a general showcasing of instrumental prowess. Yes blends symphonic and other 'classical' structures with their own brand of musical style. Despite a great many lineup changes, occasional splits within the group and the ever-changing trends in popular music, the band has continued on for over forty years and still retains a large following. Band members Chris Squire, Steve Howe and Alan White toured in late 2008 and early 2009 with vocalist Benoît David and keyboardist Oliver Wakeman on the In The Present Tour.

History

Formation
Yes was formed in 1968 by vocalist Jon Anderson and bassist Chris Squire. Anderson had already recorded a single in 1964 as a member of The Warriors, a beat band formed by his brother Tony, and later sang on a couple of 45s for Parlophone Records under the pseudonym Hans Christian. He was also briefly a member of the group The Gun. Squire had been a member of The Syn, a flower-pop outfit that recorded a couple of singles for Deram Records (one, "14-Hour Technicolour Dream", celebrating the "happening" held at Alexandra Palace on April 29/April 30, 1967). After the breakup of The Syn, Squire spent a year developing his bass-playing technique, strongly influenced by The Who's bassist, John Entwistle. Then, in May 1968, he met Anderson in a Soho nightclub, La Chasse, where Anderson was working. The two had a common interest in vocal harmony and began working together soon afterwards.

Squire was in a band called Mabel Greer's Toyshop with Clive Bailey, and Anderson also started singing with the group. Drummer Bill Bruford was recruited from an ad he had placed in Melody Maker, replacing Bob Hagger. A jazz aficionado, Bruford had played just three gigs with Blues revivalists Savoy Brown before leaving. The group also included guitarist Peter Banks.

With Bailey's departure, Banks' return and the addition of organist/pianist Tony Kaye, the band became Yes. Banks came up with the three letter name, with the rationale that it would stand out on posters. The classically trained Kaye had already been in a series of unsuccessful groups (Johnny Taylor's Star Combo, The Federals, and Jimmy Winston and His Reflections).

Early Days
Yes played their first show at East Mersea Youth Camp in England on August 4, 1968. Soon after this, they opened for Cream at their 1968 Farewell Concert from The Royal Albert Hall. Early on, influenced by bands like 1-2-3 (later Clouds), the group earned a reputation for taking other people's songs and drastically changing them into expanded, progressive compositions. In September, they subbed for an absent Sly and The Family Stone at Blaise's and as a result of that appearance gained a residency at The Marquee club. Soon after, they made their first radio appearance on John Peel's programme and, when Melody Maker columnist Tony Wilson selected them and Led Zeppelin as the two bands "Most Likely To Succeed" (as he states on the liner notes of the band's debut LP), it appeared that their future was assured.

Their eponymous debut album Yes was released on July 25, 1969. The harmony vocals of Anderson and Squire were an immediate trademark of the Yes sound. The band's optimistic, vaguely futuristic outlook on the world was delivered with a combination of melody and virtuosity. Standout tracks were a jazzy take on The Byrds' "I See You" and the album closer, "Survival", which displayed the band's vocal harmonies and deft song-construction. Notably, the album was given a favourable review by Lester Bangs in Rolling Stone magazine, which described the band as promising, the album displaying a "sense of style, taste and subtlety"

In 1970, the band released their second album, this time accompanied by a 30-piece orchestra. Time and a Word featured mostly original compositions and two cover songs, Richie Havens' "No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed", and "Everydays" by Stephen Stills, originally recorded by Buffalo Springfield. The reworking of Havens' song also included excerpts from the theme song of the movie The Big Country. Although musically exceptional in terms of melody delivery, the orchestra (and keyboardist Tony Kaye) overpowered Banks and much of the vocal work, leaving Time and a Word somewhat uneven. Before the album's release, guitarist Peter Banks was fired and ex-Tomorrow guitarist Steve Howe was hired. Howe was included in the front cover photo of the American release despite not having played on the album.

Entering the '70s
Vocalist Jon Anderson performing in concert with Yes in 1977
The 1970s Yes recordings are still considered the classic Yes sound by many fans. These albums feature complex classically influenced arrangements, unusual time signatures, virtuoso musicianship, dramatic, dynamic and metrical changes and oblique, stream-of-consciousness lyrics. Songs often exceeded the standard three-minute pop-song structure with lengthy multi-part suites sometimes lasting 20 minutes or more, making the band a leading 1970s progressive rock combo. Vocal verses alternated with atmospheric instrumental interludes, frenetic ensemble passages and extended guitar, keyboard and bass improvisations. The signature sonic features of this 'classic' period are Jon Anderson's distinctive high-register lead vocals, the group's strong vocal harmonies, Rick Wakeman (and Patrick Moraz) and Steve Howe's respective keyboard and guitar solos, Bill Bruford's and later Alan White's polyrhythmic drumming and Chris Squire's highly melodic and discursive bass playing, enhanced by the sound of his Rickenbacker model RM1999 bass.

Chris Squire was one of the first rock bass players to successfully adapt electronic guitar effects such as tremolo, phasing and the wah-wah pedal to the instrument. The rhythm section of Squire/Bruford and Squire/White was considered by some to be one of the best in rock music at this time.

The first two Yes LPs mixed original material with covers of songs by their major influences, including The Beatles, The Byrds, and Simon & Garfunkel. In 1970, Peter Banks departed and was replaced by Steve Howe. The group's emerging style coalesced on their next LP, the critically acclaimed The Yes Album, which for the first time consisted entirely of original compositions by the band. It was also the record that united them with long-serving producer and engineer Eddie Offord, whose studio expertise was a key factor in creating the Yes sound.

Steve Howe, lead guitarist for Yes, in 1977
In 1971, original organ/piano player Tony Kaye left the band, and though some reports attest that he was fired, others indicate that he left voluntarily. It is typically reported that the decision had to do with his unwillingness to use modern keyboard technology, as he considered himself to be simply an organist. He soon formed the group Badger. Although a talented player who contributed memorable chord passages on the Hammond organ (particularly on the classic "Everydays" and "Yours is No Disgrace"), Kaye, arguably, could not match Howe's guitar improvisation. He was replaced by the classically-trained Rick Wakeman, who had just left Strawbs and was already a noted studio musician with credits including T. Rex, David Bowie and Lou Reed. Wakeman brought the keyboards up to a level of improvisational skill comparable with that of Howe's guitar. Tony Kaye guested in ex-Yes guitarist Peter Banks' own progressive rock band, Flash. Oddly, Flash was accused of stealing Yes's musical sound – a sound Peter Banks and Tony Kaye themselves were instrumental in creating.

As a soloist, Wakeman proved to be the perfect foil for Steve Howe. He also brought two vital additions to the group's instrumentation: the Mellotron (which Kaye had been unwilling to employ) and the Minimoog synthesizer. Surrounded by banks of keyboards, his flowing blond hair and sequined cape provided a strong visual focus on stage.

The '70s Continued
With Wakeman on board, Yes entered what some consider their most fertile and successful period, cutting two highly acclaimed LPs. Fragile (1971) went Top Ten in America, as did Close to the Edge (1972). Yes enjoyed enormous commercial and critical success around the world and became one of the most popular concert attractions of the day. They also notably benefited from the tremendous advances in live music technology that were taking place at that time, and they were renowned for the high quality of both their sound and lighting.

Fragile also marked the beginning of a long collaboration with artist Roger Dean, who designed the group's logo and their album covers, as well as their stage sets.

In February 1972, in between Fragile and Close to the Edge, Yes recorded a non-album track, their dynamic ten-minute interpretation of Paul Simon's "America". It originally appeared on the album The New Age of Atlantic (1972), a compilation with several acts from the roster of Atlantic Records. This song had been a staple of Yes gigs since the band's early days (a version featuring Kaye appeared on the Word Is Live box set). The Mellotron part on the end of the track was actually played by Bruford.

Some consider the next album, Close to the Edge, to be the high point of the whole progressive rock genre. Some fans of this era describe themselves as "Troopers", after the 3-part track "Starship Trooper" from The Yes Album.

Before the release of Close To The Edge, and at the height of the band's success, Bill Bruford announced that he was quitting to join King Crimson. He was replaced by former Plastic Ono Band drummer Alan White, a more conventional rock drummer and a distinct contrast to the jazz-influenced drumming of Bruford. White was brought into Yes several months before the September 1972 release of Close to the Edge. Their early touring with White was featured on their next release, the three-record live collection Yessongs, recorded on their US and UK tours in November-December 1972. The album included two earlier recordings with Bruford, notably the song "Perpetual Change" with an extended Bruford drum solo, as well as backing Chris Squire in his solo "The Fish", while White played drums on the rest of the tracks. White learned the tremendously ambitious repertoire in a matter of three days before embarking on the tour. (White, a friend of Anderson's and Offord's, had sat in with the band once during the weeks before Bruford's departure. After trying each other out for three months, Squire threatened to throw White out the window if he did not join.) White has lasted with the group for over thirty years, contributing great drumming, navigating ambitious time changes and shifts, and maintaining a reputation for having a collaborative and "down to earth attitude".

Yessongs was a hugely ambitious project and undoubtedly a major gamble for their label, Atlantic Records. It was one of the first rock triple-album sets, featuring live versions of all-original material from the previous three studio albums. Presented in one of the most lavish album packages to date, Roger Dean's artwork spread across a triple gatefold cover and continued the cosmic-organic design concepts of the two previous albums. The album was another bestseller and was recently voted among the top twenty live records of all time. A video of the tour, released under the same name, featured concert footage (with Howe garnering a large amount of the focus because his brother-in-law was the editor) intermixed with psychedelic visual effects.

Their next studio album, Tales from Topographic Oceans, marked a change in the band's fortunes, polarizing fans and critics alike. Although extended compositions were by now a Yes hallmark — the title track of Close To The Edge took up the entire first side of that album — the four roughly 20 minute tracks on the two-disc Topographic Oceans earned mixed reviews and left many feeling that the band was beginning to overreach itself. Coming after extensive touring, the album was later described by Jon Anderson as "the meeting point of high ideals and low energy." Rick Wakeman, in particular, was not pleased with the album, and to this day speaks ill of much of it. It is said that the mockumentary film, This Is Spinal Tap, was largely inspired by the album and its tour. On the other hand, many prog-rock fans consider it to be one of the greatest progressive albums of all time.

Increasing interpersonal tensions between Wakeman and the rest of the band, as well as Wakeman's own burgeoning solo career, led him to quit at the end of the Tales tour in 1974. (In 1976, Wakeman, Bruford and his King Crimson bandmate John Wetton formed a new trio called British Bulldog, but the project failed to get off the ground. Bruford and Wetton subsequently joined with guitarist Allan Holdsworth, and Roxy Music's wunderkind keyboardist/violinist Eddie Jobson, under the name UK.) Wakeman himself embarked on a long, productive solo career, in addition to his projects with his English Rock Ensemble, film scores, and collaborations with other artists.

Perpetual change
After auditioning Vangelis to replace Rick Wakeman, Yes settled on a replacement for Wakeman - Swiss keyboardist Patrick Moraz - for the album Relayer in 1974. Moraz was a distinctive electric-jazz musician in his own right. Again, the album featured a side-long track, "The Gates of Delirium", from which the "Soon" section was put out as a limited single release. Following an extended tour through 1975–1976, each member of the group released his own solo album. At the same time, the album Yesterdays was released, containing tracks from the first two albums, as well as "America" as the opening track.

Yes performing in concert in Oslo, 1977
The group commenced sessions for a new album. There is some confusion about the chain of events, but after a considerable amount of negotiation, Rick Wakeman rejoined the band on a "session musician" basis. The confusion comes from Moraz being on record as saying he feels he deserves credit for much of the music on the resulting album. Certainly Howe has also stated that the group "tried to remove as much of Patrick from the songs as possible", so it would appear that he did contribute to the initial sessions. Ultimately, Moraz ended up at the top of the ambiguous "thanks to..." list on the album sleeve. In any case, after hearing and being impressed by the new material Wakeman once again became a permanent band member. Moraz would go on to have additional success by joining The Moody Blues soon after his departure from Yes.

The resulting album, Going for the One, was the first not to feature Roger Dean artwork since The Yes Album, although it does display the Yes logo that Dean designed. Apart from the 15-minute track "Awaken", most of the album's songs were relatively short, including "Wonderous Stories", released as a single in the UK in 1977 and making the top ten. This album and the next, 1978's Tormato featuring the same lineup, were successful in spite of being released at the height of the punk rock era in Britain, during which Yes were often criticised by the music press as representing the most bloated excesses of early 1970s progressive rock. Ironically, Yes outlasted almost all the groups of that era as well.

The Tormato album is another that has sparked dissension among fans. The band members themselves have said that they were not sure of some of the material on the album. The album artwork would see large changes as well, with design firm Hipgnosis taking a turn once again with their combination of manipulated photography and graphical elements in lieu of the traditional Roger Dean approach. For many fans, this artwork did not properly capture the iconic "Yes" look, though it was arguably as much of a visual departure as that of the music. However, despite internal or external criticisms of this latest album, the band enjoyed successful tours in 1978 and 1979.

In October 1979, Yes convened in Paris with producer Roy Thomas Baker, fresh from his success producing the band The Cars. There are a number of statements by band members and rumours as to why the sessions did not produce a formal album. Howe, Squire, and White said later in 1980 that none of the three of them liked the music Anderson had offered the band, claiming it was too lightweight and lacking in a heaviness that the trio felt they were generating during their own time together. (Bootlegs of these sessions would suggest that Howe et al. were correct in their descriptions of Anderson's music, some of which appeared on his 1980 solo album Song of Seven.) In December, the sessions ended when White broke his foot. There is also strong speculation that Anderson and the remaining members of the band had a falling out over money issues and claims and counterclaims of members spending more than their fair share of their group monies. By May 1980, the situation reached a conclusion with Anderson departing Yes as no agreement could be reached over musical direction and financial remuneration. With Anderson leaving, Rick Wakeman followed suit, thinking that Yes could not continue without its primary voice.

Drama
At Yes manager Brian Lane's suggestion, Squire invited the Buggles' duo of Geoffrey Downes (keyboards) and Trevor Horn (vocals) - who were coming off an international success with their New Wave album The Age of Plastic and the acclaimed single "Video Killed the Radio Star" - to help out on a new Yes album. Initially, the plan was that Downes and Horn would help write some new material - they already had a song called "We Can Fly From Here" which had been written with Yes in mind. To Downes and Horn's surprise, they were invited to join Yes as full-time members. They accepted the invitation and performed on the Drama album in 1980 (on which "We Can Fly From Here" was not included). Drama clearly displayed a heavier, harder sound than the material Yes recorded with Anderson in 1979, opening with the hard rock, lengthy track "Machine Messiah". While Drama was well received by many fans, and often regarded as one of the finest moments for the trio of Squire, Howe, and White, despite the Horn/Downes contribution, many other Yes followers missed Anderson's unique lyrics and vocal style. The album's artwork (the album was nicknamed "Panthers" by some fans after the black cats featured in the Roger Dean cover) raised eyebrows as the inside cover also displayed a bit of a horror-house style in photo and graphic design, an anomaly that perplexed some fans. The band undertook a North American tour in September 1980. The general consensus is that Horn performed the vocals for their new material on tour well (although he had no experience fronting a band that performed on the scale of Yes shows) but that he struggled on the classic Yes material as it was not in his range. When the band returned to England later in 1980, the English press heaped great criticism on Horn and Yes.

Meanwhile, Jon Anderson reunited with Vangelis Papathanassiou (who became best known for his film soundtracks including Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner) as Jon & Vangelis. Their collaboration worked well enough to produce three albums including the North American FM hit "Friends of Mr. Cairo" and the U.K. hits "I Hear You Now" and "I'll Find My Way Home".

Disbanded
After the Drama tour, Yes reconvened in England to decide the band’s next step. Ultimately, Trevor Horn left to pursue music production. Alan White and Chris Squire left Yes but continued working together, beginning sessions with former Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page. The band was to be called XYZ, short for "ex-Yes-and-Zeppelin," but nothing came of the sessions when ex-Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant failed to get interested. XYZ produced a few demo tracks, elements of which would appear in later Yes music (most notably "Mind Drive" from Keys to Ascension 2, and "Can You Imagine", from Magnification). Later in 1981, Squire and White released the Christmas single "Run With the Fox". Downes and Howe, who were left holding the bag of Yes as it were, opted not to continue Yes. Instead, they went on to form "supergroup" Asia with former King Crimson and UK bassist/vocalist John Wetton and Carl Palmer from Emerson, Lake & Palmer on drums.

Sursa: (http://www.lyricsfreak.com/y/yes/biography.html)

Yes biography - Part II

Reinventing Yes

In 1982, over a year after the breakup of Yes, Chris Squire and Alan White formed a new group, dubbed Cinema with guitarist Trevor Rabin (late of the band Rabbitt). Original Yes organist Tony Kaye was invited to participate as Squire felt that Kaye's textural approach to keyboards would suit the band. Formerly a solo artist with three albums to his credit, Trevor Rabin's writing contributions included the catchy riff-oriented "Owner of a Lonely Heart", but Rabin also played a role in the making of music to fit the MTV era while retaining certain aspects of Yes' original style - particularly the vocal harmonies. Originally, the lead vocals were shared between Rabin and Squire, but in early 1983, Chris Squire played Jon Anderson some of Cinema's music at a party in Los Angeles. Impressed with the band's new approach in songs like "Leave It," Anderson was invited by Squire to add his vocals to the new project and Anderson accepted the invitation, resulting in the "accidental" reformation of Yes. Many fans call this lineup "Yes West," because of the band's relocation to Los Angeles and the more American, radio-friendly sound that introduced Yes to a massive fan-base and a reinterest in their older material. Yes made many new and younger fans over the next years with the 90125 album.

To distinguish them from those who prefer the classic Yes (sometimes called "Troopers"), fans of this lineup were often called "Generators," taken from this lineup's second album, Big Generator. However, it should be noted that many Yes fans enjoy both periods of the group's music.

The band's first album since the reunion, 90125 was a radical departure from their earlier sound. It was more visceral, with then-modern electronic effects – attributable chiefly to producer (and former Yes vocalist) Trevor Horn. Yes' most commercially successful album by far, 90125 eventually sold over six million copies and secured a new lease on life for Yes, who toured over a year to support it. The song "Owner of a Lonely Heart" from this album was even a top hit on the R&B and disco charts (and sampled countless times since), and remains a defining song of 80's-era pop. The keyboardist appearing in the video for this song was Eddie Jobson since Tony Kaye temporarily left the band. Jobson has reported on his own website, when discussing why he appeared in the video, that he was first asked to replace Kaye and then to share keyboard duties with Kaye; Jobson declined and Kaye returned. Yes also scored significant hit singles with "Leave It" and "It Can Happen," also garnering a Grammy award for Best Rock Instrumental ("Cinema," a short, highly compressed and complex track recorded live in the studio), suggesting that the group had not totally abandoned their musicianship in favour of commercial success – as some fans allege. The popular album also spawned a concert video, directed by Steven Soderbergh, 9012Live, and a live album, 9012Live: The Solos, which included solo pieces from Anderson, Rabin, Squire and Kaye, plus a Squire/White piece.

In 1986, Yes began recording Big Generator. Unfortunately, interpersonal problems (chiefly between Rabin and Anderson) kept the album from timely completion, and ultimately Trevor Rabin took a hand in its final production. Although 1987's Big Generator did not fare as well as 90125, it still sold well over two million copies. Some Yes fans have considered Big Generator more faithful to the vintage Yes sound than its predecessor because of a concentrated effort to record longer songs such as "I'm Running" and "Shoot High, Aim Low" in addition to the more poppy tunes. Trevor Rabin's radio-friendly "Love Will Find a Way" charted moderately well, with the Beach Boys-inspired "Rhythm of Love" barely scraping the Top 40. The 1988 tour ended with a gig at Madison Square Garden as part of Atlantic Records's 40th anniversary celebrations, but left Yes members exhausted and frustrated with one another.

Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe
Jon Anderson grew tired of the musical direction of the "new" Yes line-up and wanted the band to return to its classic sound. Following the 1988 tour, Anderson, asserting that he would never stay in the band purely for the money, began working with former Yes members Rick Wakeman, Steve Howe, and Bill Bruford. Some in the group (particularly Bill Bruford) wanted to distance themselves from the "Yes" name. As it turned out, the former Yes members were contractually unable to use the name, as Squire, White, Kaye, Rabin (and, ironically, Anderson) held the rights, dating back to the 90125 contract. Subsequently, the new group called themselves Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe, or simply ABWH. The project included Tony Levin on bass, brought in by Bruford after the two had worked together in King Crimson. Appealing to old and new Yes fans, their eponymous 1989 album featured "Brother of Mine", a popular MTV video in its own right, and went gold in the United States. However, they did not all record together as in the early 70s and instead their parts were slotted into place on the album by Anderson. Howe has stated publicly that he was unhappy with the mix of his guitars on the album (a version of "Fist of Fire" with more of Howe's guitars left intact eventually appeared on the In a Word box set in 2001). It is also worth noting that according to Bruford, the four-way writing credit does not reflect the actual writing process and was instead an incentive to have the ex-Yes men take part in the recording sessions. After the album's release, legal battles (sparked by Atlantic Records) soon followed over the title of ABWH's tour, An Evening of Yes Music Plus, the live recording of which featured Bruford colleague Jeff Berlin in Levin's bassist spot, who was forced to sit out for two weeks because of illness. In addition, the live sessions were augmented by second keyboardist Julian Colbeck and guitarist Milton McDonald. The tour alternated between music from AWBH and vintage Yes classics, and each night opened with short solo stints from all four Yes members.

"Union" and reunion
Meanwhile Yes were working on their follow-up to Big Generator. The band had been shopping around for a new singer. Ex-Supertramp vocalist Roger Hodgson had rejected the post. Hodgson enjoyed working with the group but thought it unwise to attempt to pass off the music as Yes. The band had been working with songwriter Billy Sherwood of World Trade. Arista, ABWH's new label, encouraged ABWH to seek outside songwriters, and Trevor Rabin ultimately sent a demo. Predictably, Arista sensed the commercial possibility of a Yes re-union. This would lead to the end of Yes having new albums released by Atlantic Records after more than 20 years of their initial recording contract. Throughout early 1991, phone calls were made, lawyers soothed, and agreements were struck, with Yes West joining ABWH for the Union album. Each group did its own songs, with Jon Anderson singing on all tracks. Chris Squire sang background vocals on a few of the ABWH tracks (with Tony Levin doing all the bass on those songs). A world tour united all eight members on one stage in a short-lived "Mega-Yes" line-up of Anderson, Squire, Howe, Rabin, Kaye, Wakeman, Bruford, and White. The album was clearly a somewhat forced combination of the music from the two line-ups, since none of the songs on Union featured all eight members at once; two-thirds were actually ABWH compositions, while Trevor Rabin and Chris Squire contributed four songs (including a Billy Sherwood collaboration). Nearly the entire band have publicly stated their disliking for the finished product because of producer Jonathan Elias's secret involvement of session musicians after the initial sessions. (Bruford has disowned the album entirely, and Wakeman was reportedly unable to recognise any of his keyboard work in the final edit, and amusingly threw his copy of the album out of his limousine. He has gone on record as referring to the entire venture as "Onion" because it makes him cry when he thinks about it.) However producer Jonathan Elias later stated publicly in an interview that Jon Anderson as the associate producer knew of the session musicians and even initiated their contributions, because of the hostility between some of the band members at the time (notably between Anderson and Howe and Wakeman) and none of the work getting done.

The Union tour itself featured tracks spanning the band's entire career, and it was one of the highest grossing concert tours of 1991 and 1992. The album itself fared well, with approximately 1.5 million sold worldwide.

The '90s
When the tour was over in 1992, Bill Bruford and Steve Howe recorded an album of Yes instrumental music reinterpreted by an orchestra for RCA Victor, which featured Jon Anderson's vocals on two of the songs. Entitled Symphonic Music of Yes, the album offered new presentations of Yes songs. String arrangements were done by David Palmer, and the record was produced by Alan Parsons. After the release of this album, Bill Bruford chose not to remain involved in future Yes possibilities. Jon Anderson began writing with both Howe and Rabin separately but eventually the former was not asked to be on the next album by the record label (Victory Music), which had approached Rabin with a proposal to produce an album solely with the 90125 lineup, to which Rabin initially countered by requesting Wakeman be included. By 1993, Wakeman's refusal to leave his long-serving management meant he also could not play on the new album, which by then was well into production (Rabin and Wakeman have both expressed regret that they never played together on a Yes album - excepting the patchwork of Union - although Rabin did guest on Wakeman's Return to the Centre of the Earth album in 1999).

Yes were back to their popular 1980s lineup of Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Trevor Rabin, Tony Kaye, and Alan White. In 1994, Yes released Talk on Victory Music, one of the group's poorest selling releases. Neither the record label nor US radio stations provided much promotion for "The Calling", perhaps their strongest single since "Owner of a Lonely Heart." (David Letterman heard the song while driving and immediately sought to find the "new band" and have them appear on the Late Show, which they did on June 20, 1994, just days into their Talk tour, performing "Walls" from Talk). Some of the fruits of the band's work with Roger Hodgson also appears on the album. On the 1994 tour, guitarist/vocalist Billy Sherwood, who co-authored Union's "The More We Live" with Squire, joined as a sixth member. The Talk tour featured an innovative sound system via which fans at a concert could listen on their portable FM radios turned to a specific frequency to hear greater dynamic range and stereo effects during the concerts. By the end of 1994, Tony Kaye, Trevor Rabin, and Billy Sherwood left, with Rabin going on to become a highly successful film score composer and Kaye retiring (he subsequently came back out of retirement, providing Hammond organ on several tracks on the Sherwood-produced Return to the Dark Side of the Moon in 2006 and then working on further projects with Sherwood).

The band reformed the 1970s lineup of Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Alan White, Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman for a three-night live performance in the California town of San Luis Obispo in 1996. As the band formed a brief contract with CMC International Records, the resulting live recordings were released, together with new music, on the Keys to Ascension albums. Keys to Ascension 2, in particular, featured 48 minutes of new music. The band was disappointed that the new material was not released as a single studio album, which had the working title of 'Know.' The new studio cuts from those two albums were later reissued on a single CD called Keystudio. Wakeman left the group yet again before the release of Keys to Ascension 2 after a Yes tour was planned without his input, and because of his frustration over the decision to bury the Keystudio studio tracks on redundant live albums.

Yes live performance June 1998.
Billy Sherwood immediately rejoined Yes on keyboards and guitar. Open Your Eyes was released in 1997 and used some material originally intended for a project by Squire-Sherwood that was subsequently called Conspiracy. The band would release this and future releases on the Beyond Music label to ensure they have more of a say in packaging and titling the albums. Only the title track and one other, "New State of Mind", received any radio airplay. The tour that followed featured only a few pieces from the new album, and mostly concentrated on the revival of early Yes material such as "Siberian Khatru". The return of Steve Howe to the touring Yes, along with a heavier emphasis on 1970s-era Yes music, was considered an exciting development by many fans. The tour also featured keyboards from Russian keyboard player Igor Khoroshev, who had played on a few of the Open Your Eyes tracks. Khoroshev continued to work with the band for the following album The Ladder. This would be the last album that record producer Bruce Fairbairn would work on before an untimely death.

Many fans were reminded of the band's 1970s sound, largely because of Khoroshev's keyboards. His work was classically-oriented and also included sampling large sections of music by British techno group The Prodigy. Sherwood's live role was limited to backup vocals and backup guitar, with a few notable spotlight moments for guitar solos in Rabin-era songs. Howe refused to duplicate Rabin's solos, citing that his style would not fit those solos. The 1999 tour resulted in a live DVD of the performance at the Las Vegas House of Blues. "Homeworld (The Ladder)", a track from The Ladder, was written for Relic Entertainment's Homeworld real-time strategy computer game and was used as the credits and outro theme. It is interesting to note that the band have stated that they wrote the song not because they were requested by the game's developers, but because they liked several aspects of the game itself.

Turn of the Century
Sherwood, finding Yes's internal politics uncomfortable, left the band before the 2000 Masterworks tour, which featured a revival of the Moraz-period extended piece "The Gates of Delirium" (from the album Relayer). Khoroshev was fired from the band after the tour amidst a cloud of controversy over his backstage conduct including a sexual assault charge, just before the recording of the 2001 orchestral release Magnification. The band was not only backed by a 60-piece orchestra, but specific parts and arrangements were written by notable film composer Larry Groupé and performed by the orchestra, sounding as if the orchestra was a permanent band member. On tour, however, the band hired keyboardist Tom Brislin to augment the orchestra since the orchestra alone could not faithfully reproduce some of the classic Yes keyboard material.

Fans who felt they were short-changed in 1996 were delighted as Rick Wakeman announced his return to the group on April 20, 2002, and a world tour for Yes followed, including a return to Australia after more than 30 years. The lineup enjoyed a somewhat revitalised presence in the public consciousness, especially during the celebration of their 35th anniversary in 2004. Reacting to an online survey of popular Yes songs to play, the band added "South Side of the Sky" to the touring set list, a surprise given that it was rarely played before, even on the original Fragile tour.

This revitalisation showed itself during a show in New York's Madison Square Garden. Near the end of the song "And You and I" where Howe finishes his pedal steel part, before the last few acoustic notes, the band was overwhelmed with thunderous applause. It lasted so long that by the time it subsided, the roadies had already removed Howe's guitar - Wakeman then had to play the last bit with Anderson singing.

In later legs of the tour, the band performed some songs in acoustic style towards the later part of the tour, after doing a live-via-satellite concert as part of the Yesspeak documentary premiere.

On November 11, 2004, for one night only, Trevor Rabin, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Alan White, and Geoff Downes performed "Cinema", and "Owner of a Lonely Heart" at the Prince's Trust concert at Wembley Arena, which was a tribute to former Yes vocalist/producer Trevor Horn. It remains somewhat unclear why Anderson did not perform that night, although since Horn was being honoured that night (the other acts that played that night were all produced by Horn), there may have been a desire to emphasise Horn's role rather than Anderson's. One report said that Anderson needed time to rest, under doctors' orders, and that Wakeman declined to join in because of Anderson's absence. Whatever the exact reason, fans of the 90125 era were delighted to see Rabin perform with the group for the first time in ten years, and, as on the Union tour, the audience was treated to guitar solos by both Rabin and Howe.

Since 2004, Yes has been on hiatus. In lieu of releasing new albums, they formed deals with Image Entertainment and other video firms to release past concert performances, music videos, and interviews on DVD. Howe, Squire, Wakeman and White had all expressed an interest in recording and touring, but Anderson had been firmly opposed because of personal health concerns. Thus, band members have pursued varied solo projects. White has formed a new group, White, featuring Downes. Their debut album, also called White, was released on April 18, 2006. In 2004, Squire joined a reformed version of The Syn, one of his pre-Yes groups from the 1960s.

Plans for a joint tour by White, The Syn, and Steve Howe, which would have included the Yes members (with singer Kevin Currie from White) performing songs from Drama, were canceled. White joined the band for a tour in 2006. On May 16, 2006, Squire announced that he had left The Syn. On the same day, the original members of Asia, including Howe and Downes, announced that they would be reuniting for a 25th anniversary tour, which commenced in September. Anderson and Wakeman toured together in October 2006, and the set list for most shows featured Yes material along with songs from both their solo careers, and at least one ABWH song. In 2006, Sherwood, Kaye and White — along with guitarist Jimmy Haun — formed Circa, a supergroup formally announced in March 2007. On July 30, 2007, the band self-released on Internet their debut album, Circa 2007. Their debut live performance was held on August 23, 2007, at The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, at which time the band performed its entire debut album followed by an hour-long medley of Yes songs.

Anderson has also composed some new music with Trevor Rabin. How this music will reach the public has yet to be seen.

In the first half of 2008, Anderson toured North America, Howe toured with Asia, and White toured with Circa.

Close to the Edge and Back Tour (cancelled)
In honour of the band's 40th Anniversary, Yes had announced a 2008 world tour, entitled Close to the Edge and Back. However, the tour was cancelled on June 4 due to Anderson's health problems. Per the press release, "Yes frontman and founding member Jon Anderson was admitted to the hospital last month after suffering a severe asthma attack. He has now been diagnosed with acute respiratory failure and was told by doctors this weekend that he needs to rest and not work for a period of at least six months or suffer further health complications. Upon receiving this news the band has determined that their tour plans need to be put on hold." The tour had been planned to feature Anderson, Squire, Howe, and White, and to also include Oliver Wakeman sitting in on keyboards, in lieu of his father, Rick (who bowed out on the advice of his doctors).

Anderson said the band was preparing four new "lengthy, multi-movement compositions" for the tour which are "very, very different," however, after the weak sales of 2001's Magnification, Anderson has said that "putting together an album really isn't logical anymore" and no announcement has been made as to a release of recordings of this new material in any form.

In the Present Tour and beyond
On stage in Columbus, Ohio.
A separate, North American tour entitled "In The Present" began on November 4, 2008 in Ontario, Canada, featuring Howe, Squire & White, along with Oliver Wakeman on keyboards, and Canadian Benoît David on vocals. David was singing in progressive rock band Mystery and in a Yes tribute band called Close to the Edge. The shows were billed as "Howe, Squire and White of Yes," although many reports and outlets simply referred to the band as "Yes". The tour saw the return of material from the Drama album ("Tempus Fugit" and "Machine Messiah"), "Astral Traveler" from the Time and a word album (not played live since 1971), as well as one new Chris Squire composition, "Aliens (Are Only Us From the Future)".

In the official press release, Squire stated, "This isn't an attempt to replace Jon Anderson, because as we all know, that would be impossible. With Benoît, we are bringing in a talented singer so that we can go out and honour the music of Yes for the fans who have waited for the past four years to see us perform." Squire also stated to the Associated Press that he is hopeful Anderson will be well enough to do shows in 2009. Initially, Anderson stated on his website that he was "disappointed" and "disrespected" by the move and lack of contact the other members have had with him since his illness. Later, this announcement was removed from his website, and Squire has since said that the tour has Anderson's "blessings".

On February 9, 2009, Squire was rushed to a hospital with an unspecified "medical emergency" that required a operation on his leg on February 11, 2009. He required at least a month to recuperate, which resulted in the postponement of the remainder of the scheduled "In the Present" shows, mostly in the Western USA. After this incident, Howe returned to work with Asia.

Squire, Rabin, and White re-united at a benefit reception on 18 April 2009 in Snoqualmie, Washington, playing the music of John Lennon.

The tour resumed in the summer of 2009, with the same "In the Present" band, now simply billed as "Yes". This tour featured Asia as an opening act, with Steve Howe playing with both bands. The 24-date schedule began in Indio, California on June 26, and ended in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on August 2. Meanwhile, Jon Anderson is doing a European solo tour.

Yes announced a European tour scheduled in fall and winter 2009 (from Olomouc, Czech Republic on October 29 up to Gothenburg, Sweden on December 12).

Squire announced plans for a new album after their European tour wrapped up.

Sursa: (http://www.lyricsfreak.com/y/yes/biography.html)

Pink Floyd - Is there anybody in there?

Înainte de a începe efectiv această cronică, trebuie să recunosc că eram inconştient de potenţialul estetic, distructiv sau revoluţionar al muzicii celor de la Pink Floyd. Îi consideram nişte precursori apolinici ai gothic-ului transcendental, concept cu sferă largă, în care încap Dead Can Dance, Tiamat sau The 69 Eyes. Nimic mai greşit. "Pink Floyd The Wall" (1978) este un film inimaginabil, în care acordul dintre muzică şi suportul vizual ajunge, uneori, la perfecţiune. Este un punct de referinţă, care face inteligibile proiectele lui Stone (The Doors - 1991) sau ale lui Steve Ericsson (Lyckantropen - 2002), opus relativ necunoscut, care se foloseşte de aceeaşi tehnică. În filmul lui Alan Parker avem o halucinantă moştenire culturală, o adevărată enciclopedie a sufletului, în care încap Vian, Foucault, Brecht, Keoruac, Philip K. Dick şi mulţi alţii. Cum poate aţi ghicit deja, filmul foloseşte paradigma anilor '68, care poate fi caracterizată pe scurt prin: dezordine socială, libertate sexuală, televiziune "globalistă", marxism şi psihanaliză. La fel ca alte două filme-cult ale acestei generaţii, "Clockwork Orange" (1971) şi "Apocalypse Now" (1979), opera cinematografică a lui Parker explorează şi exploatează tematica inconştientului, cu o asemenea prospeţime şi acuitate, încât demersul din "The Wall" devine punct de referinţă. Nişte observaţii tehnice sunt totuşi de menţionat, doar câteva din zecile care s-ar putea face. Momentul hentai din post-modernul "Kill Bill vol.1", în care o scenă din "realitate" este continuată printr-un desen animat, îşi are originea în această peliculă. Procedeu atât de actual, cumulat de Fincher/Palahniuk prin "life is a copy of a copy...", metonimie atotputernică şi nimicitoare a ceea ce înseamnă lumea/viaţa/virtualitatea contemporană. Faţa de plastilină a personajelor, o mască ce le amputează imaginea exterioară este preluată de Parker din "Pădurea de fragi"(1957) a lui Bergman. Şi aici, impresia generală este de fiinţă golemizată, supusă unei pierderi ireversibile a identităţii. Bineînţeles că un asemenea film face ca videoclipul celor de la Pearl Jam, "Do The Evolution" să pară plagiat. Iar acum, o influenţă de fond. Sistematica anti-individualistă şi percepţia asupra poeziei ca "pierdere de vreme" (scena în care personajul principal al filmului este umilit pentru că citeşte la ore o carte de versuri) aminteşte de reflecţia asupra poeziei din "Dead Poets Society" (1989).

"The Wall" este un film psihologic, dacă înţelegem prin psihologie un demers lărgit, atot-cuprinzător, predominantă fiind pentru ea acea călătorie a sufletului, care apare în picturile medievale flamande. Metoda cea mai potrivită este tocmai onirismul bestial (the bad trip), metaforele morţii, nebuniei şi ale sexualităţii, fiind pilonii discursivi pe care este construit filmul. Din punct de vedere strict psihanalitic, figura mamei devoratoare este cea constitutiv-distructivă, piesa "Mother" fiind una referenţială:

Mama's gonna check out all your girlfriends for you.
Mama won't let anyone dirty get through.
Mama's gonna wait up until you get in.
Mama will always find out where you've been.
Mama's gonna keep baby healthy and clean....

Nebunia personajului principal (un star rock numit Pink) este inserată în trama organică a "Zidului" tocmai pentru a cunoaşte şi a învăţa mai multe din dezintegrarea şi fărâmiţarea progresivă a psyche-ului. Iar moartea irumpe în scenariu prin punerea în scenă a războiului (şi aici pesimismul social al unor Brecht sau Böll sunt evidente) sau prin intercondiţionarea ei cu sexualitatea (scena în care două flori fac sex şi una dintre ele se transformă într-un dragon nimicitor, dizolvând-o şi aneantizând-o pe cealaltă). Sunt convins că din punct de vedere iniţiatic şi simbologic, filmul are mai multe conotaţii; dar această reducţie psihologică are avantajul de a se situa în directa descendenţă a generaţiei '68.

Alan Parker a gândit foarte bine acest film; la fel ca şi albumul conceptual "The Wall", pelicula foloseşte contrapunctul. Practic, aşa se îmbină până la o perfecţiune perversă pasajele agresive cu cele meditative sau melancolice. Cu alte cuvinte, filmul nu agresează printr-o violentare banalizată prin repetare, scenele care îţi taie respiraţia fiind secondate de reprise-uri nostalgice, care conturează personajele şi nuanţează mai bine.

O scenă-cheie a filmului este cea introdusă de piesa "Comfortably Numb". Personajul principal este scos de sub incidenţa penală, ca să fac o altă trimitere anti-psihiatrică, cu alte cuvinte este internat în ospiciu. Din punct de vedere filozofic, acest lucru echivalează cu o regresiune în minorat; din punct de vedere imagistic, internarea este asimilată cu o punere în mormânt, la fel de splendidă precum cea clasică. Regresia vine ca o continuarea a scenei în care starul rock îşi rade sprâncenele şi părul de pe piept şi devastează toată casa. Poematic este şi momentul când aruncă televizorul de pe geam (tv-ul este un drog mediu, după cum demonstrează filmul, angajând o receptivitate şi o pasivitate ieşite din comun), tăindu-se adânc în cioburile de la geam (din punct de vedere imagistic, momentul este iar o reuşită). Astfel, prin toate aceste determinative, "Comfortably Numb" vine ca o metaforă a nebuniei estetice:

When I was a child I had a fever
My hands felt just like two balloons.
Now I've got that feeling once again
I can't explain you would not understand
This is not how I am.
I have become comfortably numb.

Bineînţeles, anestezia totală (şi confortabilă) este programul acestei metafore halucinogene. De fapt, multe din personajele filmului par anesteziate: mama apare într-o scenă redusă la anestezia macabră a somnului (ea doarme, în planul oniric, lângă un cadavru), profesorul refulat are un comportament de marionetă, chiar şi şobolanul -pe care copilul şi-l doreşte ca animal de casă- este catatonic. Impresia schizofrenă a acestei lumi de vată, fără conştiinţă, raţiune sau identitate este un alt simptom al golemizării globale, care se reflectă asupra personajului central. Cu adevărat, doar stranietatea sau alteritatea radicală sunt conceptele pe care i le mai putem aplica.

Ca să închei, acest film merită văzut nu doar pentru calitatea sa psihedelică, ce combină muzica cu imagistica, poezia cu meditaţia filozofică. El este mai mult decât atât: un produs cultural, care avertizează asupra deprecierii relaţiilor interumane, asupra eşecului oricărei pedagogii (we don't need no education), bazate pe violenţa programatică şi asupra totalitarismelor, care păstrează o mezalianţă pregnantă cu aureola religioasă. (Sursa)

One Of My Turns

Although we've always had glimpses of Pink's darker side before this point in the album, "One of My Turns" gives us our first extensive view of the present turmoil teeming beneath the surface of Pink's detached persona while simultaneously shifting the tone of the album. Up until now, the album is arguably dominated by young Pink's naïvete as he grows (or at least tries to grow) into the life handed to him at birth. Even the cynically didactic tones of "In the Flesh?" and "the Thin Ice" are counterbalanced by a certain paternal, instructional quality. Beneath the gravity of the previous songs lurked a sense of exploring, of seeking self and searching for one's place in the world no matter how misguided that search might be. While songs like "What Shall We Do Now?" and "Young Lust" portray Pink as exploring the physical pleasures of life, they portray searches nonetheless that insinuate the desire to grow. Even the carnality of "Young Lust" is embedded within a certain sexual innocence, a feeling of sensual discovery and exploration. As we shall see, though, "One of My Turns" is the brick wall, so to speak, against which the naïve explorations of self and the world crash.
Following the young groupie's quasi-theatrical ramblings concerning Pink's hotel room, Pink lapses into a trance-like state of personal reflection sparked by the recognition of his wife's infidelity as well as his inability to connect with the young girl he's brought to his hotel. While the song's later lyrics are seemingly addressed to the terrified fan, it is usually believed that Pink is mentally addressing his wife in the song's calm first half. In his 1979 interview with Roger Waters, interviewer T. Vance described Pink at this stage of the album as a man who has "got everything but nothing;" he's got the celebrity status that most people can only dream of, adoring fans, expensive possessions, every worldly object that he could desire. However he takes for granted what should be the most important thing in his life, a personal connection with his wife, the importance of which he only realizes once that love has been taken away. Yet even then he is blind to his own accountability in driving his wife to infidelity, instead turning his ire on what he sees as the fickleness of love and life. Just as he sees everything in his life, Pink views the very connection that could have been his salvation as another personal betrayal, a relationship that decays and ultimately causes mental distress which in turn contributes another brick to the wall. For Pink, this decay is unavoidable: comparing the degeneration of love to the decomposition of a "dying man" and other natural processes (growing "older" and "colder") dispels any personal blame that Pink might have felt. In his mind, everything in this world will decay and at length cause more harm than good. These ideas of degeneration are further implanted with the abundance of imagery concerning death and violence; the grayness of love like a dying man's skin; aging and becoming more inert, more unfeeling; comparing his feelings to a "razor blade," a "tourniquet," and a "funeral drum." These last three similes possibly act as allusions as well; the "razor blade" could very well insinuate Pink's later turns to violence not only in the song but also during his Hitler-esque phase (and quite possibly alludes to his near-suicide in the song "the Final Cut"); the "tourniquet" suggests Pink's current drug use as well as later injections ("Comfortably Numb") that cause him to undergo another metamorphosis; finally, the mentioning of the "funeral drum" foreshadows his metaphorical death as he retreats completely behind his wall. Perfectly mirroring the transitory moment before Pink's eruption, the tourniquet and funeral drum also carry with them the notions of being stretched almost to the breaking point. A tourniquet is drawn tight around a limb in order to hinder briefly the flow of blood through an artery (possibly symbolizing the cessation of Pink's feelings and emotions) while the head of a drum must be drawn tight in order for sound to resonate throughout the hollow body (symbolizing Pink's shallow persona). In both instances, the imagery of being stretched so tightly prepares the audience for what must surely come soon: the breaking point.

Because of his own shallowness (which Pink does not recognize) and the shallowness of the groupie (which he denunciates hypocritically), Pink's emotional breakdown bursts into musical life after a stretching crescendo. In an instant, he turns on the terrified groupie because she represents the very superficial life that he had invested so much in but that he simultaneously denies. Upon entering his hotel room, the groupie is overcome by the room's size, the amount of guitars he has lying around, concerning herself with his possessions rather than with connecting with Pink on a personal level. Yet it is Pink who brought the girl back to his room most likely with the intention of having sex with her; it is Pink who bought all the guitars and expensive possessions; it is Pink who invested his faith in the superficiality of the world, in the list of things from "What Shall We Do Now?" However it is also Pink who cannot resolve or possibly comprehend the duality of his own character, his desire for love and a personal connection yet also his desire for life's material and sensual pleasures. But rather than take the blame and attempt to explicate his own persona, Pink blames his wife in the first half of the song for his inability to connect through love. Likewise, he blames the groupie in the song's second half for his inability to completely satiate himself with the excesses of celebrity. In both cases, he's really attacking himself and his own inadequacies and his own beliefs without truly knowing it.
Once the dam has been broken the roiling undercurrent of emotion gushes out. Yet the lyrics suggest that this isn't the first time Pink's emotions have erupted, nor is it the last for it is "just a passing phase," insinuating that it's happened before (see the interpretation of the guitar solo in "Mother" for another of Pink's "turns"). From here, Pink cynically addresses the groupie in a sarcastic response of sorts to her earlier questions, this time asking her if she'd like to "watch TV, or get between the sheets, or contemplate the silent freeways," covering a range of possibilities that could be used to pass the time and feign a personal connection. The lyrics are fairly self-explanatory though must be taken with a grain of salt. Does Pink really have an ax in his suitcase? Does he really think he can fly? It must be remembered that these things are sung in a specific context and so are most likely reflections of Pink's instability and the emotions that come with that mental state. What better way to show Pink's violent outburst and mental deterioration than to have him calling for his "favorite ax," a statement that's both unsettling and darkly humorous in its very absurdity. During the song, Pink is almost completely out of his mind and so it becomes increasingly difficult to separate narrative fact from fantasy, to separate the telling of a chronological narrative from the poetic use of images and phrases to suggest emotional states of mind. It is also interesting to note that in rock terminology, an "ax" is a slang word for a guitar, creating more ambiguity in Pink's lyrical ravings. However you personally interpret the lyrics, whether literal or darkly humorous, there is little doubt that Pink's relationship with the groupie ends just as all of his relationships seemingly end, at least in his mind: Pink is left alone, alienated once more from the world, a situation that lends itself to two different renderings of the song's last line. By one theory, Pink is being heartfelt when he shouts "why are you running away," hinting at both his obliviousness as well as the inherent need to realize why every relationship in his life ends with one outcome. Another view purports that the line is utterly sarcastic with Pink deriding the departing groupie, cognizant of his perpetual alienation and not surprised that yet another attempt at personal connection has failed.
There is little that needs to be said in terms of movie analysis considering that the film basically follows the narrative of the song's lyrics with the camera jostling through the scene as Pink destroys his hotel room while the unprepared groupie hides in whatever nook or cranny she can find. Steve Jasper wrote in and revealed that the television is playing an old WWII movie called "The Dambusters." Jasper writes, "The Dambusters' is essentially a biopic of Barnes Wallis, the bloke who designed the bouncing bomb. This was dropped by bombers onto German reservoirs where it bounced along the surface of the water and then slowly sank to the bottom of the dam wall where it would explode, breaching the dam and flooding the valley, causing all the factories to flood as well and thus halt the German steel production necessary for the war effort. In the Wall film, 'Dambusters' is on one of the channels on the telly all the way through the sequence with the TV in it. It's a war film all about blowing up walls." Quite fitting for "The Wall" though its inclusion at this part in the movie is more ironic than reflective being that Pink is still concerned with building rather than destroying his own wall. Also note that Pink destroys the TV first before erupting into the other rooms, possibly hinting at his subconscious repression of anything that grows too painful, that reminds him of his bruised past such as, in this incident, the death of his father. "The Dambusters'" inclusion is made further ironic in that, if anything, Pink's latest "turn" probably coupled with or sparked by the remembrance of his father in WWII acts as a catalyst for his inner wall's culmination. If anything, his "turn" causes him to regress behind his wall and continue building at an alarming rate. In what might be yet another act of symbolic repression, Pink ends the song in the film by throwing the television out of the window and screaming, "take that, fuckers," the very intonation of which hints at his fractured world view in which he envisions all of society against him. After all, every relationship he tries to produce eventually ends with him being ostracized, or so it seems through the clouded, unseeing eyes of our unbalanced protagonist.

http://www.thewallanalysis.com/turns.html

What Shall We Do Now?

Although "What Shall We Do Now?" was originally recorded at the same time as the rest of "the Wall" it was replaced on the album with "Empty Spaces" because according to Waters' 1979 interview "it's quite long, and this side was too long, and there was too much of it." Thankfully he liked the song a great deal and reinstated it in the movie immediately following "Mother." Even though "What Shall We Do Now?" is in all actuality an extended version of "Empty Spaces," it differs from "Spaces" in that it really expands on the theme of transition and examines the various ways to fill the missing gaps in the wall. Since I've already discussed the song's music in "Empty Spaces" (relatively the same in "What Shall We Do Now?"), I'll go straight into the lyrics.

As Waters said in an interview, "this level of the story is extremely simplistic." Don't get me wrong, the fact that it might be simplistic does not make it simple by any means. If anything, "What Shall We Do Now?" contributes to the multiple themes of "the Wall" while adding a few of its own. But as a song in itself, the lyrics are fairly and caustically straightforward. Put simply, it is a list of things that people use to fill "the waves of hunger," that void in their lives and the missing gaps in their walls. Arguably, people are trained by society to "search for more and more applause" in a "sea of faces," or in other words, they are trained to become someone else so as to be socially acceptable, thereby garnering more acceptance (social "applause"). It's the reason why corporate stores such as the Gap are successful; we are told that in order to fit in, we must adjust to the social norm even if that norm seems to deviate from the status quo. For an example of this, look at the success and profitability of punk music (a genre notoriously known for going against the grain of society) in the early 90's sparked by radio-friendly bands like Green Day. In our ever-growing materialistic society, you must become someone else before you are someone; you must wear a fashionable brand of clothes, drive a stylish car, keep trendy friends, eat at chic restaurants. Namely, you must adapt yourself to the latest social trends in order to become your social self. Accordingly, these things start to become social fetishes. We become obsessed with the latest trends, defining ourselves by what we see in the media, what is marketed towards us, and what our peers are doing. In the most ironic social twist, individuality is supposedly achieved by conformity to commercialized social norms. We fill our lives and define ourselves with designer jeans and fancy cars; with how much money is in our bank accounts and how many sexual partners we've had; with what we eat and where we sleep. This is the very core of the attack in "What Shall We Do Now?" a polemic against the foundation of the world's increasing capitalistic society. It's an attack against conformity, the loss of individuality, and mostly against the idea that these material things will complete our lives and make us truly happy.

Yet all of the things listed in the song aren't necessarily evil. Many people feel that vegetarianism is the healthiest way to eat and sending flowers by phone is certainly a far cry from the evils of Hitler and his Nazi regime. Why are such things attacked, then? As Roger Waters perfectly states in his 1979 interview, it's about being "obsessed with the idea of being a vegetarian...adopting somebody else's criteria for yourself without considering them from a position of really being yourself." These things are not inherently evil; rather, it's the obsession with these things, with defining one's self by someone else's standards, that is the moral decay of modern society. "More, more more!" becomes the global motto with every passing day and with the accumulation of it all, walls are being erected higher and more impenetrable. While the song veers away a bit from the actual story line of "the Wall," Pink's applicability to the materialistic obsession perfectly reflects the walls of many people across the globe. As Pink's fame and fortune increase, he further buries himself behind a wall of possessions, becoming more detached from the rest of the world as a result of his personal accumulation. As one conforms to the current trends, true and personal communication becomes more and more difficult. After all, how can one communicate individually if one defines himself or herself as a collection of commercialized goods? But as the wall of possessions grows, so too does the obsession to obtain more until finally one is the beast of his fetish, living each day at the will of his delusion. Even after we are consumed, we live "with our backs to the wall," insinuating that rather than looking for a way out from our self-imposed isolation (which would require us to face the wall), we ignore the growing ramparts and continually search for the next trend in the hopes of being accepted, of getting "more and more applause."

The movie sequence for "What Shall We Do Now?" is arguably the most beautiful and haunting animation of the film. The screaming face image, the sexualized flowers, the wall of possessions, all spring from Gerald Scarfe's brilliant interpretation of the song and, at least in my opinion, fully captures the essence of Waters' social sermon. The sheer artistry of the animation in the beginning of the song with the male and female flowers flowing and morphing into lovers before attacking each other is almost beyond words. Despite its beauty, many people might have a problem with the apparent misogyny of the introductory piece. The male and female flowers sensually dance around each other before performing intercourse, morphing into free-flowing humanistic figures before changing into monstrous beings with the male attacking the female. However the female changes back into a flower and releases all of her glory, shining brightly before viciously snapping up the male in her lips and flying off as some sort of bestial dragon. It could be easy for one to view this sequence as a misogynist attack against dominant females, revealing them to be nothing more than man-hating beasts. However, I think such a reading is grossly inaccurate in that it is viewing the sequence out of context. It must be remembered that this is Pink's story and that, for the most part, the viewer has been viewing the movie from Pink's point of view. This animation sequence is no different. Not only was Pink raised by a dominant, overprotective mother, he has just found out that his wife is cheating on him. Therefore it shouldn't be a surprise that Pink would feel a great amount of aggression towards women. He selfishly feels that he has been abused by them and is continually the victim of their beastly appetites for male emasculation (although we have seen quite the opposite in "Mother" in which Pink drives his wife to infidelity by his own lack of emotion and communication). Furthermore, it was a woman (Mother) who caused Pink (at least in his mind) to become mentally isolated and distrust women. Because we view it all through Pink's eyes, we are getting a very skewed view of relationships between men in women.

As if spawned by this latest personal injury of infidelity, a wall of materialistic desires bursts onto the screen in the form of high-rise buildings, televisions, radios, Harley Davidson motorcycles, Mercedes, Cadillacs, and BMWs. A "sea of faces" greets the wall of possessions (forming a wall of conformity with their faces), each one a clone of his or her neighbor similar to the masks worn by the schoolchildren in "Brick in the wall 2." The wall plunges onward, breaking the peace of the countryside with the screams of the "the people caught up in the wall" (Scarfe, DVD). Everything the wall passes is corrupted. Gerald Scarfe states in the DVD commentary that "in the shadow of the wall, flowers turn into barbed wire; men turn into monsters." As the wall passes, an innocent infant grows into a beast and then into a man in uniform (the Nazi-esque uniform of Pink's fascist regime later in the movie) who bludgeons another man to death, the innocent's blood splashing onto the wall. As a result of the lack of communication fostered by the barriers between people, the wall begets social decay, personal degradation, and violence. Religion is destroyed as the wall continues its course straight through a church and "a new god is set up" as the pieces reform into a casino-like neon building that spews mass-produced neon bricks (Scarfe, DVD).

The next sequence running through a list of Pink's personal bricks is another example of Scarfe's amazing artistry. The Pink doll screams and morphs into a curvaceous female shape (the sexual promiscuity of "Young Lust" as well as the feminine "betrayal" in "Mother"). The woman changes into large, feminine dollops of ice cream suggesting the sensual excesses of Pink's lifestyle. The ice cream then reverts back to the female shape, next morphing into a submachine gun (foreshadowing Pink's violent outbursts later in the film) before changing into a syringe and needle (drugs), a guitar (his musical fame), and finally rounds out the list of personal bricks by turning into a black BMW (expensive possessions). The song ends with an ambiguous sequence depicting a red fist rising from the ground and turning into a hammer. After seeing how the wall perverts everything in its path, one might view the fist rising from the ground as another perversion of nature similar to the flowers turning into barbed wire. In the presence of the wall, even the earth rises up and forms itself into an implement of creation (the wall is created) and destruction (personal individuality is destroyed). A much more optimistic reading of this scene might see the fist rising from the ground as a good omen rather than one of social and personal decay. By this reading, nature will ultimately reclaim the earth from the tyranny of humanity's reign. Just as grass eventually grows through the asphalt of a parking lot or just as the weather erodes and destroys even the largest of mankind's creations, so to will nature rise up and destroy the personal and social walls of humankind. Though the fist is red (conjuring thoughts of bloody strife), it turns into a powerful tool of reform.

The final scene after the music is over merely reemphasizes (almost needlessly) what has just been said in the song. The hammer is used as a tool of destruction to smash a display window through which looters pilfer a range of consumer products. The fact that these items (televisions, radios, vacuum cleaners) are luxuries rather than necessities simply stresses the idea that the capitalistic wall leads to crime and violence. Society has taught us that we are nothing without personal possessions and so those who are unable to afford them are willing to steal in order to be socially acceptable. Interestingly, as the crooks are hustled into the police wagon, two old women steal out of the broken display window, insinuating that commercialism turns everyone into a criminal, even the most unsuspecting. No one is safe nor truly innocent in a society in which a baby grows into a violent monster and elderly women pilfer merchandise behind the backs of policemen.

http://www.thewallanalysis.com/donow.html

Empty Spaces

Coming on the heels of "Goodbye Blue Sky" on the album, "Empty Spaces" acts as a transition between the young-adult Pink setting out into the world on his own (at least in terms of the album's placement of "Goodbye Blue Sky") and his entry into full-blown adulthood in "Young Lust."

In terms of the album's placement of "Empty Spaces," it's difficult to pinpoint just who is being spoken to. Had this version of the song made it in the movie directly after "Mother," one would automatically assume that Pink is talking to his adulterous wife, asking how he should fill the void that their marriage has now become. Yet by this reading, Pink's inquiry concerning the empty spaces "where we used to talk" is more ironical than truly sincere for Pink is depicted as being highly uncommunicative in the preceding scenes of the movie. If anything, this shows how blind to the truth Pink really is. Believing that their marriage was healthy before this latest incident, Pink places all the blame of his wife's infidelity on his wife, blind to the fact that his callous behavior was the major cause behind her finding a new lover, someone who would actually listen to her and love her. In this light, the last two questions concerning the remaining gaps in the wall are almost rhetorical, readily answering themselves: Pink will fill the "final places" and "complete the wall" with his wife's infidelity.

However, the song's position on the album might lead one to believe that he is addressing his mother. Having ventured out from his mother's protective wing, Pink is finally experiencing the real world and discovers it to be more desolate and unfriendly than he was expecting. By this reading, he is asking his mother how he should fill the void of her protection, of her companionship. Oddly enough, he finds a temporary filler in the sexual frenzy of "Young Lust," adding yet another Freudian spin to Pink's relationship with his mother and the influence she's had on his sexuality. If he really is addressing his mother (at least in his mind) then the last two questions act almost as a continuation of his earlier inquiry when he asks his mother if he "should build a wall," as if he's saying, "Okay, my wall is built. I'm almost completely shut off from the rest of the world. Now, how shall I finish it?" With as much damage as Mother has done to Pink's persona, he should have no problem at all filling in the remaining gaps.

Remembering that Pink acts as an Everyman of sorts, one whose life journey reflects the walls and lives of nearly all of humanity, yields a third interpretation of the lyrics. The "we" becomes more of a generalized first person pronoun rather than referencing anyone or anything specifically. In other words, Pink is speaking for the human race when he says "we," for everyone has a metaphorical wall similar to his (although most people's walls aren't as high).

As if reflecting this transitional theme, the song's music is a bit chaotic in my opinion. "Empty Spaces" picks up on the main musical riff from "In the Flesh?" but makes it far more unstable, most notably with the high vibrato of the synthesizers and the jumbled music and mumbling in the intro. However, there's more to the strange, backward sounding mumbling than sheer atmosphere. Click here to play the musical intro in reverse. Yup, a secret message in which Roger Waters says the following: "Congratulations. You have just discovered the secret message. Send your answer to Old Pink in care of the Funny Farm, Chalfont..." At this point, a second person says: "Roger, Carolyne is on the phone." Leave it to Waters to throw the listener on another loop (or maybe cycle). I know, I know. It's almost too much to try and interpret what is obviously Waters' attempt at humor. But I think there's a bit more to the backwards message than just a good laugh. Firstly and as previously mentioned, "Empty Spaces" (on the album) is chronologically set before Pink's adulthood in "Young Lust" and after his adolescence in "Mother," making him roughly 18 - 20, give or take a few years on both sides. While we could quibble as to his exact age, what's most important is that the song does NOT take place in the true present time (during the concert, after Pink has finished his wall). Yet judging by clues such as "Old Pink in care of the Funny Farm", the hidden message is most likely from the present time for it's only after Pink finishes his wall that he truly becomes "crazy, over the rainbow." Therefore, what is presented here is a sort of foreshadowing from the present, if such a thing is possible. In the middle of telling his story, Pink indirectly inserts his present state. Interestingly, it's this transition that is one of the most critical in Pink's development. As an adult, he could easily cope with the injustices he has been dealt by life and thereby alleviate his repressed emotions. As we see, though, (or have already seen in the movie), Pink refuses to take responsibility for what has happened to him and so he signs his own metaphorical death sentence when he continues to build his wall at an increasing pace. Thus, the transition is emphasized by the hidden foreshadowing alluding to Pink's current mental state caused by his irresponsibility at the "Empty Spaces" point in his life. In other words, it's as if Pink is saying, "I am here now (in the "Funny Farm"...the metaphorical insane asylum in my head) because of what happened then (in "Empty Spaces."

Secondly, the song delves into self-reflexivity when the second voice comes in telling Roger that "Carolyne [Roger Waters' wife] is on the phone." The mentioning of Waters' real wife reminds the audience that this story is NOT real, that it is merely art. Such self-reflexivity is a major characteristic of modernist and postmodernist literature in which the authors intentionally draw the reader out of the story to remind them (among other motives) that what they are reading is art and should be read on more levels than just the narrative plane. One of the most classic examples of this can be found in James Joyce's Ulysses in which the character Molly Bloom seemingly addresses the author directly when she exclaims something to the effect of, "Oh Jamesy. Won't you take me out of this poo." Since there is no "James" or "Jamsey" in the story, most readers are inclined to believe that Molly is addressing Joyce himself, comically asking why he has written her into such a situation. As you can imagine, the effect is jolting. At first the reader is inclined to ask how a character would know that she is just a character in novel? Well, mainly because she IS just a character and so she says exactly what she is written to say. This forces the reader to step back from the narrative and realize that there is more than story going on here; there is the sheer artistry of the author as well as the multiple levels he or she has instilled in the piece of art. The hidden message in "Empty Spaces" has the very same effect, forcing the listener away from the narrative for a moment and reminding him or her that this is just a piece of art, not a slice of life. However, the fact that the second voice calls him Roger while Roger is speaking in the guise of "Pink" reminds the audience that, in a way, this IS real. Roger IS Pink because he has infused his own persona and much of his life into his character. So while the self-reflexive message draws the listener out of the story, the blurring of reality and fiction validates the actuality of the story. The backward message simultaneously shows that while Pink's specific story is fictional, his metaphorical journey and the wall he creates are universally real.

One last tidbit of information: Water has been quoted as saying that if it had not been for his wife Carolyne and her insistence on communication, he would have ended up as insane as Pink. As we see in the movie, Pink drives his wife away as a result of a lack of communication. But according to Waters, no matter how stubborn he got or how hard he tried to push his wife away, Carolyn would force him to open up to her and talk. So perhaps the backward message is above all a personal "thank you" from Roger to Carolyne. After all, Waters / Old Pink is interrupted from continuing with his "secret message" by Carolyne who is on the phone and wanting to talk (communicate) with Roger.

http://www.thewallanalysis.com/emptyspaces.html