Thursday, February 9, 2012

THE WALL



Just grabbed a late breakfast with K (percussionist of old) down at the local cafe. And at the next table ...


Next week we'll be going back a few decades, and why not, updated and arena sized I know. The crowd may be as interesting as the show. The Wall is still one of the greatest rock albums, if not the, ever. On vinyl, still played, still has an impact.

"The loss of a father is the central prop on which [The Wall] stands. As the years go by, children lose their fathers again and again, for nothing. You see it now with all these fathers, good men and true, who lost their lives and limbs in Iraq for no reason at all. I've done Bring The Boys Back Home in my encore on recent tours. It feels more relevant and poignant to be singing that song now than it did in 1979."

7 comments:

Scott said...

I love your liminalness! I watched the Open last week, the Rod should be an interesting venue indeed. Should be an incredible show. Celebrating the potential of world peace to the tunes of Pink Floyd!

wanderer said...

H - in Sydney it is at the Arena (one of the venues built for the olympics; not sure of the sponsor name this year) which nonetheless is as good as it gets for these mega-shows.

Scott said...

OK, I just looked at the calender,not really knowing the geographical situation. Anyway,I'm very psyched for you.

Susan Scheid said...

Now you will find out about the largest gap in my cultural education. OK, with a little search (& and confirming query to the edu-mate--who has just sung a bit of The Wall to me, ironically, "we don't need no education," this from a head of school), I do know who Pink Floyd is and did at one time listen to some of their records, including (I'm pretty sure) The Wall. This is actually the kind of thing about me that led a friend who, even at 75, remains au courant on all manner of rock music, to say, "You just don't like music."

I will echo herringbone: I love your liminalness. Enjoy the concert!

wanderer said...

Susan maybe one day we will go to the dark side of the moon together. Meanwhile I'll take Herringbone and yourself with me in spirit to The Wall, which falls into the show genre likely to be either serious disappointment or one of those nights for the rocking chair on the verandah in years to come, croaking out ... I remember seeing ...

Susan Scheid said...

You never know. And now I MUST share this with you: I decided "spur of the moment" to go see the Live HD Götterdämmerung (understand, to show the perfect insanity of this, I've not been to a Wagner opera nor had I before this ever tried an HD performance). So, I call Ticketmaster, and they're hawking tickets for a performance at Yankee Stadium. What do you suppose? Roger Waters!

PS: Götterdämmerung in HD was spectacular! And, what do you know, when you're not stuffed in the cheap seats in the stratosphere, you find out that some of these singers can even ACT!

wanderer said...

Susan I was being a little bit naughty oblique - Dark Side of the Moon is PInk Floyd's biggest album. And Mr Waters is doing the round-the-globe thing with The Wall, and Yankee Stadium will more than sell out, despite the outrageous prices.

I'm thrilled you liked the HD. I've been following the whole LePage Ring saga on the bloggosphere, and in fact even considered a trip to New York in May for the full cycle (there was a hint of a seat available) We'll see the Gotterdammerung March 3 here and you have stirred up anticipation hormones no end. Good thing.

Now I MUST tell you something, breaking news (I think we are the only ones here) but as a bit of a Wagner nutter, I'm over-the-moon about getting tickets to Bayreuth this year. Holy Grail here we come. Bucket list one less.