The Pink Floyd hit song David Gilmour will always regret: “The song is meant to be a rebellion”
Pink Floyd typically flirted with the abstract with their work, and as a result, their lyrics should not be wholly taken at face value.
Nevertheless, in spite of the way that Pink Floyd had fun by playing around with metaphors and more profound meanings hidden in their art, that didn’t stop power brokers from getting angry at one particularly song produced by the group.
While their work existed within the left field, they did regularly try to elicit a broader conversation about important societal matters. For example, ‘Us and Them’, which appeared on The Dark Side of the Moon, is an attack on the endless international war machine, and Money, from the same album, is a biting takedown of a materialistic world.
Considering the weighty topics that Pink Floyd were more than happy to tackle within their material, it seems somewhat bizarre that it was their song about the education system that caused the biggest fuss. The track in question is ‘Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)’, which features a children’s choir singing, “We don’t need no education, We don’t need no thought control, No dark sarcasm in the classroom, Teacher, leave them kids alone.”
Many misconstrued this playful chorus as a call to arms by Pink Floyd to demand the end of education for Britain’s children, ironically missing the double negative embedded within the framework of the chorus.
The song, which featured children from Islington Green School on backing vocals, proved controversial and irritated all the right people. According to Alun Renshaw, head of music at Islington Green School, Margaret Thatcher, who was Prime Minister at the time, “hated it.”
For Renshaw, it was an easy decision to get his students involved in the track, even if he didn’t seek the permission of the initially morified head teacher, saying, “I wanted to make music relevant to the kids – not just sitting around listening to Tchaikovsky. I thought the lyrics were great – ‘We don’t need no education, we don’t need no thought control’… I just thought it would be a wonderful experience for the kids.”
It was a bold move, which shows the power of the educational system, and the school’s headteacher was eventually won round by the song, admitting through gritted teeth, “On balance, it was part of a very rich musical education”.
Nevertheless, many people were angered by the lyrics in ‘Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)’. From a songwriting perspective, the song was a Roger Waters creation, and he has consistently defended the track, once saying, “You couldn’t find anybody in the world more pro-education than me. But the education I went through in boys’ grammar school in the ’50s was very controlling and demanded rebellion. The teachers were weak and, therefore, easy targets.”
Additionally, while ‘Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)’ was about the education system, it was also about much more than that. Whether you are living under a totalitarian regime or merely have a boss that you detest, this song is for you. “The song is meant to be a rebellion against errant government, against people who have power over you, who are wrong. Then it absolutely demanded that you rebel against that,” Waters added.
On the other hand, David Gilmour believes that, with the benefit of hindsight, it would have been wiser if they hadn’t elected to release it as a single.
Decades after Pink Floyd birthed ‘Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)’, Gilmour found himself on a BBC political programme in 2015 being asked about the “rather reactionary sentiment” of the song.
In response to the pointed question by host Andrew Marr, Gilmour chose against defending the song, and instead said, “Roger would say that it’s all in the context, and I suspect now, I’m not sure how good of an idea it was to put something out like that as a single.”
Gilmour continued: “We do need teachers, and Roger was talking about the type of teachers that were fairly common in schools in this country when we were growing up, but I think I wouldn’t put that out as a song right now.”
Although Gilmour would choose against releasing the provocative ‘Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)’ as a single in 2015, it has left a positive impact on the world. In 1980, it was adopted by South African students protesting against apartheid and used as a force for good to bring about necessary change.
