Blogging The Wall: “Goodbye Blue Sky”

Tags

1967 Oak Lawn tornado, Al Filreis, Battle of Britain, communal memory, criticism, Edward R. Murrow, Kelly Writers House, Luftwaffe, music, Pink Floyd, Roger Waters, The Wall, World War II

Did you see the frightened ones?
Did you hear the falling bombs?
Did you ever wonder why we had to run for shelter
When the promise of a brave new world
Unfurled beneath the clear blue sky?
Did you see the frightened ones?
Did you hear the falling bombs?
The flames are all long gone
But the pain lingers on

Goodbye blue sky
Goodbye blue sky
Goodbye
Goodbye

The song begins with the drone of an airplane in the distance, followed by young Harry Waters saying “Look Mummy- there’s an airplane up in the sky!” We then hear a nylon-string guitar enter with an eighth note D-major pattern (D-F#-D-G-F#-D-F#) repeated, leading into an A minor chord with a scalar melody that transitions the introduction into the verses.

Lyrically, each verse is a series of three questions, each asking about memories of the Battle of Britain. There’s no formal rhyme structure, though examples of thyme are present (wonder/shelter, world/unfurled, pain/flames). Rhythmically, each line is a series of trochees- three each for the first two lines, then a longer series for the final question.

The song deals with with the memory of the Battle of Britain, the air attacks by the Luftwaffe in July-October 1940, meant to achieve air superiority over Britain in anticipation of invasion. The Luftwaffe failed, and the invasion never happened. Here in the United States Edward R. Murrow’s rooftop reports from London provided memorably frightening accounts of the fighting:

Among their tactics the Luftwaffe used terror bombing, dropping bombs on population centers. (It’s said that John Lennon was born under a German air raid).

The song doesn’t make clear who is asking the questions and who is being asked, though it’s conceivable that Pink could be either. It seems more likely to me that it is Pink asking the question, breaking the fourth wall and directly asking the audience. Clearly being a young child facing the Blitz would be a terrifying experience and would contribute to a sensed need for a wall of protection.

It should be noted, however, that Waters, being born in 1943, couldn’t have a living memory of the Blitz. It is possible he has tapped into a communal memory, hearing stories from those around him. (I have memories of a killer tornado that struck my hometown in 1967, even though I was not yet born. I have seen so many pictures and heard so many stories it’s as if I was there.)

Blogging The Wall: “Mother”

Tags

Al Filreis, music, Pink Floyd, The Wall

Waters:

Mother, do you think they’ll drop the Bomb?
Mother, do you think they’ll like this song?
Mother, do you think they’ll try to break my balls?
Mother, should I build a wall?
Mother, should I run for president?
Mother, should I trust the government?
Mother, will they put me in the firing line?
Is it just a waste of time?

Gilmour:
Hush now baby, baby don’t you cry
Mama’s gonna make all of your nightmares come true
Mama’s gonna put all of her fears into you
Mama’s gonna keep you right here under her wing
She won’t let you fly but she might let you sing
Mama will keep baby cozy and warm
Ooooh, babe 
Of course Mama’s gonna help build the wall

Waters:

Mother, do you think she’s good enough for me?
Mother, do you think she’s dangerous to me?
Mother, will she tear your little boy apart?
Mother, will she break my heart?

Gilmour:

Hush now baby, baby don’t you cry

Mama’s gonna check out all your girlfriends for you
Mama won’t let anyone dirty get through
Mama’s gonna wait up until you get in
Mama will always find out where you’ve been
Mamma’s gonna keep baby healthy and clean
Ooooh babe 
You’ll always be baby to me

Waters:
Mother, did it need to be so high?

 

The song verses use a simple folk structure. It begins with Roger Waters singing accompanied by a single acoustic guitar, with the following standard chord structure: I-IV-I-IV-V-IV-I. Gradually other instruments are added in a pyramid fashion.

The chorus uses a simular structure, but is sung by David Gilmour, whose softer, gentler timbre (compared with Waters) helps create the illusion of a young Pink and his mother interacting.

I’ve mentioned before that I see the story being told in retrospect by a highly unstable, unreliable narrator. Pink seems to externalize his problems, pointing fingers wherever he can. This childlike behavior is to be expected from an emotionally regressed character. In that light, while Pink shows his mother as stiflingly overprotective, we don’t really know what she was like. He portrays her as being unwilling to let him grow or mature (using the metaphor of birds- “she won’t let you fly, but she might let you sing.” Pink is emotionally dependent on her, wanting her to protect him from annihilation (“Mother, do you think they’ll drop the Bomb?”) and good old Freudian castration anxiety (“Mother, do you think they’ll try to break my balls?”) As Pink portrays her, she is only too willing to foster his dependency on her, which only adds to his inability to relate to others (i.e. another brick in the Wall).

The song ends with an aborted third verse, with one line showing young Pink still has ambivalence about his impending isolation: “Mother, did it need ti be so high?”