What is Pink Floyd's "Wall"?

Question

What actually is the wall they are singing about?

Answer 1

The storyline portrays the fictional life of an anti-hero named Pink, who is hammered and beaten down by society from the earliest days of his life: having lost his father (killed in Anzio during World War II, as was Roger Waters' own), smothered by his over-protective mother, and oppressed at school by tyrannical, abusive teachers who tried to mould him and the other pupils into the "right" shape for society (hence the recurring image of the meat grinder). Pink withdraws into his own fantasy world, building an imaginary wall, an allegory for being emotionally distant to protect himself from the rest of the world. Every bad experience in his life is "another brick in the wall". After heavily contemplating how to fill in the last few empty spaces in the wall, Pink puts off its construction for a while. He becomes a rock star and gets married (although not to Vera Lynn, as some may think — she was an entertainer in the Second World War, the track "Vera" is ironic of the fact that Roger Waters and his father never did "meet again" after the war as Vera Lynn's original song stated), only to be cheated on by his wife due to his distance and coldness, as well as the life as a rock star. After this he resumes and eventually finishes building the wall.

Pink slowly goes insane behind his freshly completed wall. He is lost on the inside, but is forced to surface by his demanding lifestyle, and I.V. drug use distributed by his crew to "keep him going through the show". Hallucinating, Pink believes that he is a fascist dictator, and his concerts are like Neo-Nazi rallies where he sets his men on fans he considers unworthy, only to have his conscience rebel at this and put himself on trial, his inner judge ordering him to tear down his wall in order to open himself to the outside world. At this point the album's end runs into its beginning with the closing words "Isn't this where..."; the first song on the album, "In the Flesh?", begins with the words "...we came in?" hinting at the cyclical nature of Waters' theme.

Answer 2

ITs an album as well as a movie. Story about a guy who grew up over protected by his mom because his father dided at war. You must see the movie and if you havent already heard the album. get that too

Answer 3

psychological barriers we put up to protect ourselves from being hurt emotionally. teh record is a composite abotu syd barrett and roger waters dealing with his fathers death in ww2 and society in general