Pink Floyd karaoke - Another Brick In The Wall Parts 1-3 (w/video background)

(This karaoke track also includes The Happiest Days Of Our Lives) "Another Brick in the Wall" is a three-part composition on Pink Floyd's 1979 album The Wall, written by the bassist, Roger Waters. "Part 2", a protest song against corporal punishment and rigid and abusive schooling, features a children's choir. At the suggestion of the producer, Bob Ezrin, Pink Floyd added elements of disco. "Part 2" was Pink Floyd's first UK single since "Point Me at the Sky" (1968). It sold more than four million copies worldwide and topped singles charts in 14 countries, including the UK and the US. It was nominated for a Grammy Award and was ranked number 384 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". The three parts of "Another Brick in the Wall" appear on Pink Floyd's 1979 rock opera album The Wall. They are essentially one verse each, although Part 2 sees its own verse sung twice: once by Floyd members, and the second time by the guest choir along with Waters and Gilmour. During "Part 1", the protagonist, Pink, begins building a metaphorical wall around himself following the death of his father. In "Part 2", traumas involving his overprotective mother and abusive schoolteachers become bricks in the wall. Following a violent breakdown in "Part 3", Pink dismisses everyone he knows as "just bricks in the wall." Bassist Roger Waters wrote "Part 2" as a protest against rigid schooling, particularly boarding schools. "Another Brick in the Wall" appears in the film based on the album. In the "Part 2" sequence, children enter a school and march in unison through a meat grinder, becoming "putty-faced" clones, before rioting and burning down the school. At the suggestion of the producer Bob Ezrin, Pink Floyd added elements of disco, which was popular at the time. According to the guitarist, David Gilmour: [Ezrin] said to me, "Go to a couple of clubs and listen to what's happening with disco music," so I forced myself out and listened to loud, four-to-the-bar bass drums and stuff and thought, Gawd, awful! Then we went back and tried to turn one of the parts into one of those so it would be catchy. Gilmour recorded his guitar solo using a 1955 Gibson Les Paul Gold Top guitar with P-90 pickups. The American session guitarist Lee Ritenour said in a 2024 interview that Ezrin had him record some ideas for the solo, as Pink Floyd could not decide how to end it. Though his parts were not used, he said he detected his influence in the last bars of Gilmour's solo. Despite his reservations about the disco element, Gilmour felt the final song sounded like Pink Floyd. When Ezrin heard the song with a disco beat, he was convinced it could become a hit, but felt it needed to be longer, with two verses and two choruses. The band resisted, saying they did not release singles; Waters told him: "Go ahead and waste your time doing silly stuff." While the band members were away, Ezrin edited the takes into an extended version. He also had the engineer Nick Griffiths record children singing the verse at Islington Green School, close to Pink Floyd's studio. Griffiths was instructed to record only two or three children. Inspired by a Todd Rundgren album featuring an audience in each stereo channel, he suggested recording a school choir. The school allotted only 40 minutes for the recording. The children's choir in the recording featured 23 students, who practied for about a week to prepare. According to Ezrin, when he played the children's vocals to Waters, "There was a total softening of his face, and you just knew that he knew it was going to be an important record." Waters said: "It was great—exactly the thing I expected from a collaborator." "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" sold over 4 million copies worldwide. Cash Box described it as a "catchy but foreboding selection, with its ominously steady drum work and angry lyrics." Critic Mike Cormack said "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" was a "magnificent achievement: its catchy rhythm undercutting the darkness of the song’s theme, the irony of its chorus belying the acidulous disdain of the lyric, Waters’ quality as a wordsmith on display with the excellent phrase ‘dark sarcasm’, and the simplicity of its structure giving it a tight focus." The song won Waters the 1983 British Academy Award for Best Original Song for its appearance in the Wall film. It appeared at number 384 on Rolling Stone's 2010 list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". If you're feeling generous or appreciative, you can send virtual tips here (tips hasten the creation of songs that YOU want): For U.S. folks: PayPal: @karaokepdx Venmo: @karaokepdx Cash App: $KaraokeAddictionPDX For non-U.S. folks: Ko-fi: http://www.ko-fi.com/imperfektkaraoke Patreon (for PRIORITY ACCESS): https://www.patreon.com/c/ImperfektKaraoke if you're ever in Portland, Oregon and you want to sing songs at my karaoke shows, find them here: http://www.karaokeaddiction.com