Tag Archives: the wall

#987: Pink Floyd – One of My Turns

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Within the story of The Wall, ‘One of My Turns’ comes at a point where the main character, Pink, finds out that his wife has been cheating on him while he, a rich musician, has been up to no good on the road himself. Despite his own wrongdoing, he obviously wasn’t prepared for the tables to be turned. He brings a groupie back to his apartment, sits down blankly staring at the television, and suddenly explodes in a fit of rage throwing his possessions around the room. Without properly delving into the whole concept, you’d only be able to sort of gauge what’s going on because of the sound effects that occur during the song. Thankfully, though, there’s a film where everything’s depicted in the frantic and frightening manner you would think a director would take if that situation happened in real life.

So this track is pretty much split into two sections. The calm before the storm, and the sudden explosion. Richard Wright’s synthesizer adds one note after the other to create this uneasy tension while we hear the groupie marvel at the size of Pink’s apartment and the amount of things he has. After she asks Pink if he’s feeling okay, FYI he isn’t, is when Roger Waters finally enters the frame to sing the first verse. Singing all calm-like alongside Wright’s synthesizer, he essentially describes Pink’s emptiness and overbearing depression with a short series of similes and heart-wrenching statements. Among them he warns the listener that he can feel “one of [his] turns coming on”. Not too soon after he says that, that turn arrives and the rest of the song is a hard-rock number with the guitars and drums entering the mix.

Just like many other songs on The Wall, Roger Waters makes it his mission to sound as unhinged as he possibly can, straining his voice to the peak of its limitations during this section of the track. Those are some high notes he’s reaching, but he pulls them off even though it’s like his voice could break there and then during the take. I personally have always got a kick of how he sings “Would you like something to eat?” There’s something a cartoon-ish about it. After a brief solo, the groupie runs out of the apartment, leaving Pink to scream into the night, which segues right into the next song on the album. If you want to listen to someone fall apart and lose it entirely, these are two songs which may pique your interest.

#939: Pink Floyd – Nobody Home

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All rock fans know The Wall. The album about the fictional rockstar who, after going through a life of traumatic events, builds a metaphorical wall around him to close him off from the outside world, before then being dosed with “medication” that results in a Nazi leader hallucination. If that doesn’t ring any bells, it’s also the album with the “Leave us kids alone” song on there. There you go, should be much more familiar to you now.

‘Nobody Home’ was one of the last songs written for the double album. The story goes that bassist Roger Waters was arguing with the rest of his bandmates about songwriting contributions. Surprise, surprise, am I right? Someone said if he was so good why didn’t he write something. And that’s what he did. He went home, wrote this track, came into the studio a couple days and showed everybody what he’d done. The rest of the band were impressed, and so it came to be the third track on the album’s second half. In terms of the album’s story, the track captures the Pink character in his comatose state, staring blankly at the television in a trashed hotel room, who then proceeds to list the useless things he possesses that keep him going that little bit. What he doesn’t have though, which probably matters the most, is the love of his wife who doesn’t pick up the phone when he tries to call home. The song ends abruptly after the start of what would be another verse, possibly because Pink loses consciousness again, before transitioning into the album’s next track ‘Vera’.

In my eyes, the track is one of the finest on The Wall. The double record goes off the wall at the majority of times, pardon the pun, it could probably turn some people off. But there’s something so graceful about this track. Sure, the narrator’s not in the greatest of places. But that grand piano and glorious orchestra aid in bringing a majestic-like quality to the production. Waters’ vocal delivery is top-notch. Doesn’t really go above anything than a murmur until the “Oooh, babe!” moment which is chill-inducing. And I have some appreciation for those other little musical/production choices. Like that panning heartbeat-like synthesizer during the intro, or the fact that Waters’ vocal echoes on itself to create its own rhythm. A lot of strong moments just in this one song. Could listen to it all the time.

#629: Pink Floyd – In the Flesh

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There are two “In the Flesh”(es) on The Wall, a concept album by Pink Floyd that some of you who are reading may know inside out, may have heard something about it somewhere, or have no idea about. The first one, ‘In the Flesh?’, is right at the beginning of the album. It introduces the story’s main character. It sets the scene. The second one, with no question mark at the end, comes near the end where the main character is hallucinating and believes he’s a massive fascist dictator at a concert. You need to listen to it to properly understand. Or just read its Wikipedia page.

The two songs have the exact same guitar introduction. Though the straight ‘In the Flesh’ is lengthened out by a glorious vocal choir (featuring Beach Boy Bruce Johnston) that eventually segues into the first verse. What I’ve always liked about this version of ‘In the Flesh’ are the drums. Those pack a punch with each hit. Very militaristic in style. I’ve always enjoyed the long drawn out big-rock ending too. It was during this time that the band’s bassist Roger Waters was very much taking over everything the group did and if the other members didn’t like it they could leave. This did actually happen during the making of the record. When he’s singing about getting ‘queers up against the wall’ and shooting people who smoke pot and have spots, I can imagine him singing it with no hesitation. You see, all of this sounds bad out of context. You really have to hear the whole package. He doesn’t obviously believe in any of it in real life. It is just a plot point in a story, don’t worry about it too much.