Pink Floyd The Wall [2014 Remixed and Re-imagined] A Fan Project

Dear Fans of Pink Floyd--

Here is my remix of Pink Floyd The Wall. It mainly uses the 2011 remastered version, demos from the Immersion Box Set, the Alan Parker film version, various tribute CDs, and clips and samples from You-Tube. This was a 2-year project I kept going back to after seeing Roger Waters perform The Wall on his most recent tour.

Here is what I consider to be an ultimate version, a personal version I want to share with other Floyd fans. Before I go any further, this is made by fans for fans. You should NOT sell this or profit from it. It’s music for the love of music and Roger’s brilliance. As we all know, The Wall is a sweeping work of art, and I wanted to create something for fans that represented one fan’s vision of this historic album, re-imagined.

Where to start…

There are newly added preludes, interludes, and codas, use of demo mixes from the Wall sessions, and new sound effects and narrative devices.

Acts 1 and 2
Many of The Wall demos were incorporated throughout the first act, partial versions mixed and layered with the standard studio release. Going through The Wall demos, I found more snippets to use in Acts I and 2. I recreated the opening Roger uses in his recent tour. “Prisoner’s Lament” makes use of the famous Spartacus speech, edited with new effects from Wall demos and material used in the film by Alan Parker.

“The Thin Ice” is a nice mix. It takes parts from 2 or 3 versions. I’ve always loved the lyric in the demo, “pay attention at school / absorb all the rules / take a job and a wife.” That simplistic ticket to the supposed promise land is daunting, Roger almost programmatic and hopeless in the way he sings it.

Other highlights incorporate newscasts centering on the lyrical themes in the first act but in a modern setting: No Child Left Behind, 9/11, the madness of the 24-hr news cycle here in America, loss, and child abuse, among others. You’ll hear these worked into the television broadcasts and background effects.

I took samples from a DVD transfer of The Wall movie—some partial versions. “Mother” for example starts beautifully with a music box. These notes transition into the studio version. “Goodbye Blue Sky” has an interlude afterwards, taken from The Wall demos and remixed with some other special surprises.

I was able to do a hybrid version of “Empty Spaces” by incorporating live footage from 1980, giving it that extension referred to as “What Shall We Do Now?”

“The Last Few Bricks” was taken from the 1980 performance. And I created “Yet Another Brick” from the Wall Demos.

“When The Tigers Broke Free” felt fresh on this mix. I always liked how the film version of The Wall used it. Here, I remixed it with an infamous speech from Churchill. It seemed fitting to open Act 2.

You’ll also find Sarah Palin. What else would make you smash a TV set, I kept thinking.

Acts 3 and 4

The second act is very internal. I've always interpreted Act 3 of The Wall as a complete descent into personal seclusion and madness. This brought forth the idea of orchestration, which I personally think is the best sonic example of sadness and disillusionment.

The narrative opens in the moments where Pink transcends behind the wall, or perhaps inside the wall, after “Goodbye Cruel World.” We open with a crowded bar scene. Pink sits down to play “Hey You” on a piano in the corner. And no one cares. No one listens. They just keep talking.

(The piano sample is taken from Jordan Rudess [Dream Theater]. Jordan posted a You-Tube clip of himself playing this piano version after seeing Roger Waters in concert. I thought it would serve as the perfect prequel to the madness that becomes Act 3.)

From a narrative perspective, and with a little editing, Pink is frustrated, slams the piano (sorry Jordan) and storms out of the bar into the cold, where outside he follows the path deep inside, behind the wall. When the original “Hey You” concludes, we find Pink playing a piano in his apartment, where most of Act 3 takes place. And now, unlike the bar scene, he plays it perfectly—alone and on the edge of total madness. He doesn’t need anyone else.

There is much orchestration throughout Act 3. This was no easy task, but I felt it gave the music more dramatic, internal appeal for my interpretation. “Hey You” and “Comfortably Numb” have full orchestration in sections. To me, there’s nothing like hearing Gilmour shred that solo with violins soaring behind him. And Pink inside that hotel room finishes it off with a nice piano outro.

Much of the orchestration was taken from the Symphonic Tribute to Floyd, and then remixed and tracked lightly behind certain areas of the actual songs to give them more symphonic life. I won’t get into the varying tempos and pitches. It was a headache.

I’ve always considered “Nobody Home” to be the centerpiece of Act 3, so I added a prologue and coda from the same symphonic tribute. It’s a bit of a sad, manic waltz.

And of course there is Vera Lynn, the song and the woman. Her presence is here in this version of Act 3, in the main interlude before “Vera” takes shape. Pink, in his hotel, plays an old record, remembering how his father never came home from the Second World War.

I’ve always considered Act 4 of The Wall as the performance; Pink’s “surrogate band plays to find out where you fans really stand.” This venture incorporates live performances from 1980 mixed with some of Roger’s ideas from the modern performance. In this most recent tour, when Roger Waters picked up a machine gun and simulated a fury of gunfire into the audience, it was the most realistic and terrorizing thing I’d ever encountered at a rock concert. I just kept thinking…can you even imagine? And the crowd loved it. For this recreation, as if it actually happened, some are panicked (which you’ll hear) and others praise him. I placed this at the end of “In The Flesh” into “Run Like Hell”, as Roger taunts the crowd, “Enjoy Yourself! Have a good time!” Then firing off another round.

More sonic elements include some speeches from Hitler, Eisenhower, various Islamic extremist groups—all the things that would make you “Run Like Hell”. And explosions—I liked adding them at the end of the 1980 performance to give that jolt felt on the Pulse performance years later. And basically to create an arsenal of weapons used on the crowd.

Other than the intro, I didn’t fuss with “The Trial.” There’s so much happening in it to begin with. But I wanted Pink in his jail cell reflecting a tad longer, as rain pours down on the roof. Those are actual gates from Alcatraz. I thought it was a nice touch.

“Outside the Wall” is taken from the film version. It’s a perfect version, in my opinion, and thematically makes a stronger outro.

I wish I could tell you everything, but then again, you should just listen.

So, enjoy yourself, and crank it loud. This is my re-imagined version of Pink Floyd’s The Wall.