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| “ | So ya, thought ya, might like to go to the show. To feel the warm thrill of confusion that space cadet glow. I've got some bad news for you, sunshine. Pink isn't well, he stayed back at the hotel. And they sent us along as a surrogate band. We're gonna find out where you fans really stand! Are there any queers in the theater tonight? Get them up against the wall. ('Gainst! The! Wall!) Now there's one in the spotlight, he don't look right to me, get him up against the wall. ('Gainst! The!) And that one looks Jewish! And that one's a COON! Who let all this riff-raff into the room? There's one smoking a joint! AND ANOTHER WITH SPOTS! If I had my way, I'd have all of you SHOT! | „ |
| ~ Pink's speech at a Neo-Nazi rally ("In the Flesh"). |
Pink is the main protagonist of Pink Floyd's 1979 concept album The Wall and its 1982 musical drama film adaptation of the same name. He is a depressed musician who has isolated himself within a "wall" inside his head, due to the suffering brought about from the many traumatic events in his life, such as the death of his father in World War II, the abuse he suffered in school at the hands of strict teachers like The Schoolmaster, and his wife cheating on him. These tragedies cause him to lose his mind, eventually beginning to see himself as a fascist dictator.
In the album, he was voiced by Roger Waters, while in the film, he was portrayed by Bob Geldof.
Biography[]
At the beginning of the film, Pink appears motionless and expressionless, while remembering his father, who was killed defending the Anzio bridgehead during World War II, in Pink's infancy, leaving Pink's mother to raise him alone, which has a heavy affect on Pink's childhood. Pink then imagines a crowd of fans entering one of his concerts, before then receiving them in a Neo-Nazi alter ego.
A young Pink later discovers a scroll from "kind old King George" and other relics from his father's military service and death. An animation depicts the war, showing how the all of the death and carnage of the war was ultimately pointless. Pink places a bullet on the track of an oncoming train, and imagines the transportation of Jews in that train.
At school, he is caught writing poems in class and humiliated by the teacher who reads his poem in front of the whole class. Pink imagines an oppressive school system in which children fall into a meat grinder. The children then rise in rebellion and destroy the school, carrying the Teacher away to an unknown fate. As an adult now, Pink remembers his overprotective mother, and when he got married. After a phone call, Pink discovers that his wife is cheating on him, and another animation shows that every traumatic experience he has had is represented as a "brick" in the metaphorical wall he constructs around himself to distance him from society.
Pink then turns to a willing groupie, whom he brings back to his hotel room only to trash it in a fit of violence, terrifying the groupie out of the room. Depressed, he thinks about his wife, and feels trapped in his room, hallucinating his wife as a giant praying mantis/scorpion monster as well as a flower attempting to eat him. He then destroys his last possessions, and remembers every "brick" of his wall. His wall is shown as finally being complete.
Now inside his wall, he does not leave his hotel room. He begins to lose his mind to metaphorical "worms". He shaves all his body hair and, and watches The Dam Busters on television. A flashback shows young Pink searching through trenches of the war, eventually finding himself as an adult. Young Pink escapes in terror, and appears in a station, with the people demanding that the soldiers return home. Returning to the present, Pink's manager finds him in his hotel room, drugged and unresponsive. A paramedic injects him to enable him to perform.
In this state, Pink fantasizes that he is a dictator and his concert is a neo-Nazi rally. His followers proceed to attack ethnic minorities. He then holds a rally in suburban London, symbolizing his descent into craziness. The scene is intercut with images of animated marching hammers that goose-step across ruins. Pink then stops hallucinating and screams, begging for everything to stop.
In a climactic animated sequence, Pink, depicted as a small, almost inanimate ragdoll, supposedly on trial for "showing feelings of an almost human nature". The Schoolmaster, and Pink's wife and mother arrive as witnesses, each to mock and criticize Pink: The Schoolmaster (in the form of a puppet controlled by his abusive wife) and Pink's wife (as the mantis/scorpion and later as a woman) ask to torment him, while his mother (as an airplane, a gigantic vagina, herself, and the wall itself) asks to take him home. The Judge, an anthropomorthic pair of buttocks, genitalia, and legs, gives the order to "tear down the wall". Following a prolonged silence, the wall is smashed and destroyed.
The film ends as several children are seen cleaning up a pile of debris, with a freeze-frame on one of the children removing the contents of a Molotov cocktail.
Personality[]
In his childhood, Pink was a very quiet kid who rarely ever talked, and he wanted to join the army to become like his father. He also seemed to enjoy making poems. His perversion seemed to start at an early age, as seen when he was peeking at a girl (who would become his ex wife in the future) undressing herself while he was writing, but his mother came before he got to see her exposed breasts.
Now as a rock star, he was extremely depressed and mentally ill. Never showing interest in being with his wife or going outside, the only things he did were watching TV and smoking, all of this stemming from the many traumas he experienced throughout his life. Due to those traumas, he wants to be completely isolated from the world, hence why he built the "wall". Pink can also lose his temper, shown when he invited a groupie to his hotel room, only to trash the room in a fit of rage. His truly despicable acts took place while hallucinating about being a fascist dictator, sending his fans out to destroy a restaurant and rape a woman. He also showed himself to be completely bigoted towards minorities. After his hallucinations ended however, he began to grow remorse towards the chaos he had caused and his racist personality.
Quotes[]
Album[]
| “ | So, ya thought ya might like to go to the show? To feel the warm thrill of confusion, that space cadet glow. Tell me, is something eluding you, sunshine? Is this not what you expected to see? If you wanna find out what's behind these cold eyes you'll just have to claw your way through this disguise. Lights! Roll the sound effects! Action! Drop it on 'em! DROP IT ON 'EM! | „ |
| ~ Pink in In The Flesh? |
| “ | Daddy's flown across the ocean, leaving just a memory. A snapshot in the family album. Daddy, what else did you leave for me? Daddy, what d'ya leave behind for me? All in all, it was just a brick in the wall. All in all, it was all just bricks in the wall. | „ |
| ~ Pink in Another Brick In The Wall Part 1. |
| “ | When we grew up and went to school, there were certain teachers who would hurt the children in any way they could. By pouring their derision upon anything we did and exposing every weakness however carefully hidden by the kids. But in the town, it was well known when they got home at night, their fat and psychopathic wives would thrash them within inches of their lives. | „ |
| ~ Pink explaining the school and The Schoolmaster in The Happiest Days Of Our Lives. |
| “ | We don't need no education. We don't need no thought control. No dark sarcasm in the classroom. Teacher leave them kids alone. Hey! Teacher! Leave them kids alone! All in all it's just another brick in the wall. All in all you're just another brick in the wall. | „ |
| ~ Pink's famous lyrics in Another Brick In The Wall Part 2. |
| “ | 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? Ooooo. Mother, should I build the wall? Mother, should I run for president? Mother, should I trust the government? Mother, will they put me in the firing line? Oooooh aaah. Is it just a waste of time? (Mother sings) 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? Ooooh aaah. Mother, will she break my heart? (Mother sings) Mother, did it need to be so high? | „ |
| ~ Pink about his mother in Mother. |
| “ | Look, mommy. There's an airplane up in the sky! | „ |
| ~ Young Pink in Goodbye Blue Sky. |
| “ | What shall we use to fill the empty spaces where we used to talk? How should I fill the final places? How should I complete the wall? | „ |
| ~ Pink in Empty Spaces. |
| “ | I am just a new boy, a stranger in this town. Where are all the good times? Who's gonna show this stranger around? Ooooh, I need a dirty woman. Ooooh, I need a dirty girl. Will some woman in this desert land make me feel like a real man? Take this rock and roll refugee, Oooh, baby set me free. Ooooh, I need a dirty woman. Ooooh, I need a dirty girl. | „ |
| ~ Pink in Young Lust. |
| “ | Day after day love turns gray, like the skin on a dying man. And night after night we pretend it's all right. But I have grown older, and you have grown colder, and nothing is very much fun any more. And I can feel one of my turns coming on. I feel cold as a razor blade, Tight as a tourniquet, dry as a funeral drum. Run to the bedroom, in the suitcase on the left you'll find my favorite axe. Don't look so frightened, this is just a passing phase, one of my bad days. Would you like to watch TV? Or get between the sheets? Or contemplate the silent freeway? Would you like something to eat? Would you like to learn to fly? Would ya? Would you like to see me try? Would you like to call the cops? Do you think it's time I stopped? Why are you running away? | „ |
| ~ Pink trashing his hotel room while with a groupie in One Of My Turns. |
| “ | Ooooh babe, don't leave me now. Don't say it's the end of the road. Remember the flowers I sent. I need you, babe to put through the shredder In front of my friends. Ooooh babe, don't leave me now. How could you go? When you know how I need you to beat to a pulp on a Saturday night. Ooooh babe, don't leave me now. How can you treat me this way? Running away. Ooooh babe. Why are you running away? Ooooh babe. | „ |
| ~ Pink losing his wife in Don't Leave Me Now. |
| “ | I don't need no arms around me. And I don't need no drugs to calm me. I have seen the writing on the wall. Don't think I need anything at all. No! Don't think I'll need anything at all. All in all it was all just bricks in the wall. All in all you were all just bricks in the wall. | „ |
| ~ Pink in Another Brick In The Wall Part 3. |
| “ | Goodbye cruel world, I'm leaving you today. Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye. Goodbye, all you people, there's nothing you can say to make me change my mind. Goodbye. | „ |
| ~ Pink about to fully isolate himself in Goodbye Cruel World. |
| “ | Hey you, out there in the cold, getting lonely, getting old, can you feel me? Hey you, standing in the aisles, with itchy feet and fading smiles, can you feel me? Hey you, don't help them to bury the light. Don't give in without a fight. Hey you, out there on your own, sitting naked by the phone, would you touch me? Hey you, with you ear against the wall, waiting for someone to call out, would you touch me? Hey you, would you help me to carry the stone? Open your heart, I'm coming home. Hey you, out there on the road always doing what you're told, can you help me? Hey you, out there beyond the wall, breaking bottles in the hall, can you help me? Hey you, don't tell me there's no hope at all. Together we stand, divided we fall. | „ |
| ~ Pink in Hey You. |
| “ | Is there anybody out there? Is there anybody out there? Is there anybody out there? Is there anybody out there? | „ |
| ~ Pink in Is There Anybody Out There? |
| “ | I've got a little black book with my poems in. Got a bag with a toothbrush and a comb in. When I'm a good dog, they sometimes throw me a bone in. I got elastic bands keeping my shoes on. Got those swollen hand blues. I've got thirteen channels of shit on the T.V. to choose from. I've got electric light. And I've got second sight. I've got amazing powers of observation. And that is how I know when I try to get through on the telephone to you there will be nobody home. I've got the obligatory Hendrix perm. And the inevitable pinhole burns all down the front of my favorite satin shirt. I've got nicotine stains on my fingers. I've got a silver spoon on a chain. I've got a grand piano to prop up my mortal remains. I've got wild staring eyes. And I've got a strong urge to fly. But I've got nowhere to fly to. Ooooh, Babe. When I pick up the phone there's still nobody home. I've got a pair of Gohills boots and I've got fading roots. | „ |
| ~ Pink in Nobody Home. |
| “ | Does anybody here remember Vera Lynn? Remember how she said that we would meet again some sunny day? Vera! Vera! What has become of you? Does anybody else in here feel the way I do? | „ |
| ~ Pink talking about the late Vera Lynn in Vera. |
| “ | There is no pain you are receding. A distant ship smoke on the horizon. You are only coming through in waves. Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying. When I was a child I had a fever. My hands felt just like two balloons. Now I've got that feeling once again. I can't explain, you would not understand, this is not how I am. I have become comfortably numb. I have become comfortably numb. There is no pain you are receding. A distant ship, smoke on the horizon. You are only coming through in waves. Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying. When I was a child I caught a fleeting glimpse. Out of the corner of my eye. I turned to look but it was gone. I cannot put my finger on it now. The child is grown. The dream is gone. I have become comfortably numb. | „ |
| ~ Pink in Comfortably Numb. |
| “ | (Ooooh, Ma, Oooh Pa) Must the show go on? (Ooooh, Pa, Take me home) (Ooooh, Ma, Let me go) There must be some mistake I didn't mean to let them take away my soul am I too old, is it too late? (Ooooh, Ma, Ooooh Pa) Where has the feeling gone? (Ooooh, Ma, Ooooh Pa) Will I remember the song? The show must go on. | „ |
| ~ Pink in The Show Must Go On. |
| “ | Are there any queers in the theater tonight? Get them up against the wall! (choir: Against the wall!) There's one in the spotlight, he don't look right to me, get him up against the wall! (choir: Against the wall!) That one looks Jewish! And that one's a coon! Who let all of this riff-raff into the room?! There's one smoking a joint! And another with spots! If I had my way, I'd have all of you shot! | „ |
| ~ Pink to his fans in In The Flesh. |
| “ | You better make your face up in your favorite disguise. With your button down lips and your roller blind eyes. With your empty smile and your hungry heart. Feel the bile rising from your guilty past. With your nerves in tatters as the cockle shell shatters and the hammers batter down the door! You better run! You better run all day and run all night. And keep your dirty feelings deep inside. And if you're taking your girlfriend out tonight you better park the car well out of sight. Cause if they catch you in the back seat trying to pick her locks, They're gonna send you back to mother in a cardboard box! You better run! | „ |
| ~ Pink showing his crueler side by threatening violence and chaos to people in Run Like Hell. |
| “ | Eins, zwei, drei, alle! (German: One, two, three, all!) Ooooh, you cannot reach me now. Ooooh, no matter how you try. Goodbye, cruel world, it's over walk on by. Sitting in a bunker here behind my wall. Waiting for the worms to come. In perfect isolation here behind my wall. Waiting for the worms to come. (Pink on a megaphone: We're waiting to succeed and going to convene outside Brixton Town Hall where we're going to be) Waiting to cut out the deadwood. Waiting to clean up the city. Waiting to follow the worms. Waiting to put on a black shirt. Waiting to weed out the weaklings. Waiting to smash in their windows and kick in their doors. Waiting for the final solution to strengthen the strain. Waiting to follow the worms. Waiting to turn on the showers and fire the ovens. Waiting for the queers and the coons and the reds and the Jews. Waiting to follow the worms. Would you like to see Britannia rule again, my friend? All you have to do is follow the worms. Would you like to send our colored cousins home again, my friend? All you need to do is follow the worms. | „ |
| ~ Pink going insane as a dictator in Waiting For The Worms. |
| “ | Stop! I wanna go home. Take off this uniform and leave the show. But I'm waiting in this cell, because I have to know. Have I been guilty all this time? | „ |
| ~ Pink asking the chaos to stop in Waiting For The Worms, also him probably showing remorse. |
| “ | Crazy... toys in the attic I am crazy, truly gone fishing. They must have taken my marbles away! | „ |
| ~ Pink admitting his insanity in The Trial. |
Film[]
| “ | It was just before dawn one miserable morning in black Forty-Four. When the forward commander was told to sit tight when he asked that his men be withdrawn. And the Generals gave thanks as the other ranks held back the enemy tanks for a while. And the Anzio bridgehead was held for the price of a few hundred ordinary lives. | „ |
| ~ Pink about The Battle of Anzio which his father lost his life in When The Tigers Broke Free. |
| “ | And kind old King George sent Mother a note when he heard that Father was gone. It was, I recall, in the form of a scroll, with gold leaf and all. And I found it one day in a drawer of old photographs, hidden away. And my eyes still grow damp to remember his Majesty signed with his own rubber stamp. It was dark all around, there was frost in the ground when the Tigers broke free. And no one survived from the Royal Fusiliers Company C. They were all left behind, most of them dead, the rest of them dying. And that's how the High Command took my daddy from me. | „ |
| ~ Pink talking about his father's death in When The Tigers Broke Free. |
| “ | What shall we use to fill the empty spaces, where waves of hunger roar? Shall we set out across the sea of faces in search of more and more applause? Shall we buy a new guitar? Shall we drive a more powerful car? Shall we work straight through the night? Shall we get into fights? Leave the lights on? Drop bombs? Do tours of the east? Contract diseases? Bury bones? Break up homes? Send flowers by phone? Take to drink? Go to shrinks? Give up meat? Rarely sleep? Keep people as pets? Train dogs? Race rats? Fill the attic with cash? Bury treasure? Store up leisure? But never relax at all with our backs to the wall! | „ |
| ~ Pink in Empty Spaces and What Shall We Do Now? |
| “ | NEXT TIME, F*CKERS! | „ |
| ~ Pink after throwing a TV through a window. |
| “ | STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPPPP!!! | „ |
| ~ Pink's last lines before the trial. |
Trivia[]
- Pink is an amalgamation of Roger Waters and original Pink Floyd front man Syd Barrett, with Syd's drug induced descent into madness, and Pink's childhood being inspired by Roger Waters's own childhood.
- When filming the "One Of Your Turns" scene when Pink destroys the hotel room, Bob Geldof cut his hand when grabbing broken glass. The wound can be seen in the film.
- Bob Geldof found it extremely difficult to record the scene when his character Pink shaves his body and cuts himself multiple times because of his fear of blood.
- Pink's dictatorship was caused by a drug-induced state meant to help him perform a concert, however, though he seemed to perform fine, he imagined himself as a neo-Nazi dictator, and his concert as a rally, and he begins to make fascist comments and speeches. This possibly shows his true thoughts, being an irony that he became the very thing that killed his father, however this could be disproven as when the drugs wear off he tells the band to stop, and then puts himself through a mental court trial, possibly showing regret for his actions.
- The poem written by Pink and read out by the Schoolmaster in front of Pink's class is in fact a verse from Money, a song from one of Pink Floyd's previous albums, The Dark Side of the Moon.
- A common misconception is that during the final moments of ‘The Trial’ Pink raped a woman in one of his flashbacks.
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 Villains
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Pink | The Schoolmaster | The Judge | ||