"Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2" by Pink Floyd, Monday, June 7, 2021
A fan of the funk/disco band Chic, producer Bob Ezrin convinced Pink Floyd to include a disco beat backing what would become their only number 1 hit in their career. Ezrin also convinced the band to release the song as a radio single, something the band had been against on previous albums as they wanted their songs to be understood in the context of their greater work. The band had been a psychedelic pop act in the '60s and had done radio, but they felt their artistic concepts were too big for the casual listeners. Classic Rock radio remembers a Floyd that never was, playing tracks from Dark Side of the Moon until The Wall, but perhaps without the commercial success of "Another Brick in the Wall," radio would have forgotten the band.
TEACHERS LEAVE THEM KIDS ALONE. Recorded with school children singing "We don't need no education" and despised by British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, "Another Brick" is the ultimate protest song of school children everywhere. If we take this song at face value, schools are concentration camps and teachers are the Nazis in charge. The ultimate revolt would be against education, children returning the human race into a feral state, as human infrastructure would deteriorate because no one would know how to operate anything. I'm sure the kid who pretended to be sick today and wished all schools would burn down hasn't taken that thought to its logical conclusion. This, of course, isn't want the song is about. Drawing on lead singer Roger Waters' experience in a Dickensian U.K. school, he argues that this hostile environment caused trauma and years of mental health issues, laying bricks in the wall that separated him from other people. Waters explained in Mojo: "You couldn't find anybody in the world more pro-education than me. But the education I went through in boys' grammar school in the '50s was very controlling and demanded rebellion. The teachers were weak and therefore easy targets. The song is meant to be a rebellion against errant government, against people who have power over you, who are wrong. Then it absolutely demanded that you rebel against that."
IF YOU DON'T EAT YOUR MEAT, YOU CAN'T HAVE ANY PUDDING. It's funny, though, contrary to Margret Thatcher, this song didn't destroy education. Academia is still alive and well, and it's just as hard as ever to get into a good school. Americans are so racked with university debt as it's been told to us that you have to go to college to make any money in the modern world. Since Roger Waters' grammar school days, there have been lots of reforms to education, and school systems has leaped forward with better, research based practices to improve learning and support students. Education will never be perfect. Greedy politicians always think they know better how to educate the nation's kids. Timmy's parents will always believe that he's a perfect angel. People will always think that it's a babysitter's job and that anyone can do it. When I hear "Another Brick," I think about what I've learned as a teacher. How I've learned to cause less trauma to my students as they grow up. But I also think about how much more we as teachers and as a society need to do for children. We can't erase what's happened in Mr. McChoakumchild's classroom, but we can hear the stories and decide to make the change.
Scene from The Wall film:
Official Music Video:
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