Leave them kids alone....
Some MS members much younger than me have written nice heart warming reviews on the music and songs of Pink Floyd. Do read them.
So why do I pick up on a dated album like THE WALL?
Because I lived it!
In the late Nineteen Sixties and Nineteen Seventies, the world of music was turned INSIDE OUT, by the happenings during the VIETNAM WAR. Ivy League Universities like Berkely and many more saw students rioting against US Govt policies. It was the Young Generation out there that came out in the streets against President Lyndon Johnson and America’s war in Vietnam. You see it was the youth who were drafted to fight out there and returned home by the thousands in BODY BAGS. The youth in US Campuses rebelled with such force that eventually the Govt of the USA had to quit Vietnam. By then...an entire generation of sensitive American youth were devastated and lost forever.
This magnificient era saw the birth of new Rock Bands who rebelled against the system. An entire generation of youth quit Universities, took to GRASS and DRUGS and MUSIC in a big way. The great musicians of that era took to drugs themselves while writing some super anti war music. Joan Beaz, Jimmy Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Santana, and many more wrote great songs and some genius musicians of that time ODed themselves (OD = Overdosed with drugs) to death.. Hippie type of living became big time. THE GREATEST, Cassuis Clay become Mohammed Ali. All because of the War In Vietnam.
Thousands headed for the beaches of Goa. Yes., the Hippie movement eventually led to Goa tourism becoming big time. I went to Goa at that time, Anjuna beach, did grass (Grass, heavens be praised!) with them brilliant hippies, learned to play the guitar, but returned to the saner world. I had nutting to do wid no Viet Cong! Like Ali.
The greatest anti war Rock Concert of all times, WOODSTOCK, was attended by hundreds of thousands young people doing grass and drugs in the open, while one band after another performed on stage for a week! Many musicians broke their drums, guitars everything after playing their songs. I saw WOODSTOCK on the big screen and believe me, man was I shaken up! Never before and never after has such a Rock Concert ever been held.
Without Vietnam and drugs, there would have been no Jimmy Hendrix , Pink Floyd, Santana , Joan Beaz. or Jim Morrison. (Come on baby light my fire).
The Vietnam war destroyed an entire generation of youth and many hundreds of thousands succumbed to drugs, brilliant minds, brilliant kids.
(Do I hear....softly....IRAQ? Doubtful....can’t happen like Vietnam.)
Against this back drop, Pink Floyd sang the THE WALL and stormed the music world at that time.
WE DON’T NEED NO EDUCATION WE DONT NEED NO THOUGHT CONTROL
LOTS OF HAZARDS IN THE CLASS ROOM
TEACHERS LEAVE THEM KIDS ALONE.
HEY TEACHERS LEAVE THEM KIDS ALONE.
ALL IN ALL YOU ARE JUST A.......ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL
Does this ring a bell now? This song is still relevant today in many ways.
Do listen to WALL I/II/III.
Hey folks don’t do drugs, alcohol or cigs. That was another time another place. The world is a lot different now.
Mariner2.