Pink Floyd - The Wall - 1979

In late 1979 Pink Floyd released their most successful album since Dark Side of the Moon. Spanning two vinyl discs The Wall told the story of Pink, a celebrity recluse driven mad by fame and circumstance. The project was driven mostly by Roger Waters with production aided by Bob Ezrin. The album, in spite of its success, proved to be the beginning of the end of the band.

What if the record label, after hearing the finished album, demanded that the album be cut down to a single disc? Could it be done? I thought so and here are my results. For those that insist that this is unnecessary and/or believe the album should be expanded to three discs let's just say that with the release of the film they put out a two or three disc soundtrack version using new and rerecorded material to flesh out the story. If someone wants to do that album, go ahead. I don't think I could.

Side A
01 In The Flesh? 3:18
02 The Thin Ice 2:33
03 The Happiest Days Of Our Lives 1:33
04 Another Brick In The Wall 4:18
05 Mother 5:27
06 Goodbye Blue Sky 5:22
07 Young Lust 4:17

Side B
01 Hey You 4:49
02 Is There Anybody Out There? 2:17
03 Comfortably Numb 6:18
04 The Show Must Go On 1:36
05 In The Flesh 4:14
06 Run Like Hell 4:24
07 Stop Outside The Wall 2:13

Reality Notes

Do I need to repeat myself on how much I dislike double albums? There are only a few I enjoy from front to back. Either they are some self indulgent concept album that got out of control or a prime example of not being able to edit oneself, sometimes both. The Wall is one of these, at least for me. It didn't help that the album was released around the time I became completely disenchanted with and resistant to anything that was on the radio. If it was popular I wanted nothing to do with it. It took quite a while before I grew out of that phase.

That said, The wall does contain a few of my favorite Floyd songs with Comfortably Numb being among my all time favorites by any artist. This comp is a purely selfish attempt to rescue these songs but keep them in a context that is as close to the intent of the artists as I could manage and still maintain interest.

To accomplish this goal I loaded the entire album into my sequencer and slowly whittled away. In some cases I deleted whole tracks, in others I trimmed and combined to create new ones. I paid very close attention to transitions and in some cases rearranged or created completely new transitions using the material at hand. I did not introduce any outside material although I did go through the preproduction demos before dropping the idea. My intention was not to make an alternative Wall but a more concise one.

I'm not going to go into details of where I edited. There are too many to mention and when I started this project I did not think it would be shared and did not keep notes. Just download it and see if you can spot the edits. At just over 50 minutes, 25 minutes per side, it pushes vinyl constraints to their limits but I don't think I can trim it down anymore. It will fit comfortably on a CD, Just make sure you burn it with no gaps between tracks.

I did not create the cover this time. I found this one on a google search so I do not remember who made it. If the original creator wishes that it be removed I will gladly take it down and make one of my own but I do like this one a lot. So thanks to whoever it was that created it.

Source
The Wall [Experience Edition]