An incident where bass player Roger Waters “spat” on a fan inspired a song for The Wall.
According to the Pink Floyd songwriter, an interaction with a fan at a live show inspired a song and a “vicious” character featured on the double album. The album, which is believed to have stripped back “three albums” worth of songs, saw many changes made to its tracklist right up until the last few weeks before release. Waters, in an interview given after the release of the album, broke down each track and suggested a “good riot” wanted by one attendee had angered him. That anger turned into an incident where Waters “spat at him,” which, while “nasty,” did inspire one of The Wall’s most recognisable songs.
Waters confirmed: “Montreal 1977, Olympic Stadium, 80,000 people, the last gig of the 1977 tour, I, personally, became so upset during the show that I spat at some guy in the front row.
“He was shouting and screaming and having a wonderful time and they were pushing against the barrier and what he wanted was a good riot, and what I wanted was to do a good rock and roll show and I got so upset in the end that I spat at him, which is a very nasty thing to do to anybody. Anyway, the idea is that these kinds of fascist feelings develop from isolation.”
The bassist added the song it influenced was In the Flesh, but also confirmed Run Like Hell had nothing to do with the incident, despite some believing it could be linked. Waters added: “This is him having a go at the audience, all the minorities in the audience. So the obnoxiousness of In the Flesh and it is meant to be obnoxious, this is the end result of that much isolation and decay.
“Run Like Hell is meant to be him just doing another tune in the show. So that’s like just a song, part of the performance, yeah…still in his drug-crazed state.”
It comes as Waters also confirmed an alternate track had been in place of Empty Spaces, which was added after a reshuffle of songs. Waters confirmed to KMET Radio: “We realised as we were mastering the thing that side two was just too long and we had to get rid of something. And Empty Spaces and another cut that used to be on there, called What Shall We Do Now?, are the same tune.
“So Empty Spaces was a reiteration, musically, of that tune towards that end of the side, and so we just axed What Shall We Do Now?, but we’ve left the lyrics on the back because they help tell the story.”
Empty Spaces not only informs the story told on The Wall but features a hidden message from Waters, who refers to “Old Pink” and the “funny farm” in a recording heard if you play the album backwards.
