Conceived as a result of the frustration felt by Roger Waters about the isolating gap between artists at his level of fame and audience, and also his allegedly expectorating at an insistent fan in Montreal in 1977, The Wall would go on to become one of the iconic albums in the Pink Floyd canon, if not in rock music. Though often regarded as a prog rock classic, there’s very little in the way of prog on the album. Mainly it’s a collection of relatively simple tunes, albeit performed extremely well.
The Wall is the dictionary definition of a ‘concept album’. Put at its simplest, it’s the story of a rock star, Pink, someone experiencing ennui who eventually makes it to the top, only to see everything fall apart. He puts it all back together again but begins to crack up, ultimately becoming a fascist demagogue before finally facing retribution, with the themes highlighted, loneliness, alienation, despair, resonating with audiences across the world.
This is a three CD set, with disc three reimagining Animals and the first two discs doing the same with The Wall. Depending on your perspective, this is either an extraordinary or an audacious attempt at recreating two iconic albums from a band who, in the late 70s, were probably one of the three biggest concert draws in the world. The musicians involved are drawn from right the way across the genres, with contributions from superstar performers like Wakeman, Emerson, Anderson, Krieger, Howe, Cobham, plus other stellar musicians like Brown, Wetton, Bonnet et al, plus also non-musicians like Malcolm McDowell, who’s the narrator on ‘The Trial‘. James LaBrie and Jordan Rudess also appear as they have ‘form’, being part of the Dream Theater line-up which recorded Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety.
This is probably as true a reproduction of The Wall as you’re likely to find. What’s performed is mostly faithful to the original but with the occasional flourish, such as Ian Anderson‘s flute on ‘The Thin Ice‘ rather than Gilmour’s guitar. Given the nature of the musicians involved, it’s no surprise certain tracks are a little heavier or more rock oriented, such as ‘In The Flesh‘, with Gary Green, and ‘Young Lust‘, with Elliot Easton, which comes across like classic rock. Voice of rock though he is, Glenn Hughes is misplaced on this track. However, Billy Sherwood shone as a vocalist on tracks like ‘Bring The Boys Back Home‘. Whilst the playing was often note perfect, one thing not replicated was the ‘style’ of the originals. This version of ‘Another Brick in the Wall, pt2‘ would not have been a hit, as David Gilmour‘s iconic solo was replaced by Ronnie Montrose‘s hard rock style, giving the song an entirely different feel.
Tracks like ‘Another Brick in the Wall pt2‘, ‘Comfortably Numb‘, ‘Hey You‘ and ‘Run Like Hell‘ are standouts because they’re all radio friendly and capable of being heard outside the context of the album. They stand up as individual pieces, and are all faithfully reproduced here.
Animals features some of Roger Waters‘ most acerbic social observations, as he divides the world up into ‘Sheep’ (mindless followers), ‘Pigs’ (politicians, businessmen) and ‘Dogs’ (those who exercise control), and whilst the angst Waters injected into his vocals is absent, the message clearly comes across. This album is reimagined mostly in a prog rock manner, with both ‘Dogs‘ and ‘Pigs (Three Different Ones)‘ performed a touch heavier than the original, with a lot more guitar, though with the ‘touch’ which gave Gilmour his edge as a guitarist often absent. ‘Sheep‘ however, with epic vocals from the God of Hellfire himself, Arthur Brown, is the standout track, as different from the original as it’s possible to get. Floyd were never this heavy! In a way, it’s a pity the line up on this track, Brown, Wakeman, Akkerman, David J and Appice, didn’t record the entire Animals album.
Animals begins and ends with ‘Pigs On The Wing 1‘ and ‘Pigs On The Wing 2‘, though the opening acoustic ‘Pigs‘ track was reprised at the end rather than the actual closing album version. Was Jon Davison given the wrong lyric sheet?
Overall, whilst Animals still stands up as a Floyd classic, it’s difficult to say the same about The Wall as there are a few pieces of filler padding the album out, but nonetheless it wholly merits its place in rock’s high canon, and all the musicians involved in this project, close to forty, do a sterling job reimagining both albums for a new generation.
