Roger Waters says he “resolved” an emotional issue he had with The Wall track, Another Brick in The Wall Pt. 1, ahead of an anniversary tour.
The veteran songwriter confirmed the song was about the loss of his father, an emotional burden that formed the core of Pink Floyd‘s 1979 hit album. Waters would go on record during an interview in 2010 about the album on the meaning of the song and how he reconciled his thoughts on his father with the anniversary tour. Speaking to Jim Ladd during a radio special on The Wall, Waters was asked whether he had “resolved” the issue he had with Another Brick in The Wall Pt. 1. Ladd asked: “I’m curious to know, in as gentle a way as I can say it, when you do Another Brick In The Wall Part 1, do you still think about your dad? Is that an issue that’s been resolved in your mind?”
Waters replied: “Yeah, it’s an issue that’s been resolved in my mind. Though, I confess, I’m in my 60s now, I tear up less often than I did when I was a kid, or a teenager, or in my 20s.
“Nevertheless, I experience the loss of my father more in terms of empathetic reactions that I have to other people who are experiencing the same thing that I did when I was a little kid in the same way. So I think that my father stays with me in my reaction to the senseless loss that is engendered by the wars that we’re not quite sure really what they’re for.
“I mean, I hear that song almost every day now because we’re working on visuals for the show right now. So when I hear that song, I don’t actually think about me at all, or my father, I think about what’s going on now.”
Despite the hang-ups Waters had to deal with when making The Wall, he was certain it was going to be a hit album. He told Word Magazine in May 2008: “Funnily enough, The Wall has sold a lot more than The Dark Side of the Moon in America now. I think it goes Thriller, The Eagles, The Wall, then The Dark Side of the Moon. But it always sounded like a very popular record.
“I remember when we finished it off, thinking it would be a huge hit. I honestly don’t know why. I just did. It had a lot of class, but it was also deeply appealing. And of course, Money was seriously embraced by the AM radio; the cash register thing struck a chord.
“And radio was a big factor then. Which is why they were always bribing them with cocaine and cash! But I like to think there’s a political dimension of honesty about the whole record that gives it a flavour of truth. That’s also a contributing factor to its longevity. People understand immediately when they hear it that there’s nothing contrived about it.”
