1979 Pink Floyd: Another Brick In The Wall Part Two

Straddling the decades like the colossus the band was, the last number one of the seventies would also be the first number one of the eighties. And an unexpected one at that - with the punk wars a not too distant memory, few could have predicted that arch proggers Pink Floyd would release a chart bound single twelve years after their last, let alone one that would take the coveted Christmas Number One slot. But they did, and they did.

A taster for their eagerly awaited new album, 'Another Brick In The Wall' both alone and in context mined the seam of rampant misanthropy that Roger Waters uncovered on the band's previous 'Animals' album, a record which in it's own way was as anti-establishment and anti-status quo as anything The Clash managed to snarl. Which isn't bad going for such a deceptively simple schoolyard singalong; a clipped guitar rhythm walks through the song like Nile Rodgers in a leg brace to carry the recurring 'All in all it's just another brick in the wall' refrain, a line that would only become relevant in the context of the album as a whole and of Waters' central thesis that alienation breeds an extreme fascistic outlook and a tendency to look for scapegoats to pin your own ills on (well this is still prog after all).

But never mind the this bollocks, what schoolkid didn't take great delight in the play school anarchism of "We don't need no education, we don't need no thought control. No dark sarcasm in the classroom, teachers leave them kids alone". Howls of outrage duly followed - just Google the phrase to see how the controversy has resonated over the years, and in an age where the once 'no-go area' of 'Anarchy In The UK' gets played on daytime radio as a 'Golden Oldie', there's still something uncomfortable about this that gets the right people's backs up. And that's why, ultimately, I find there is something wonderfully subversive about having schoolchildren singing 'We don't need no education' in the number one spot at Christmas (it's Waters' own genius to include the 'ill educated' double negative in their saying it). Gilmour's fluid as water guitar solo in the outro is a joy too.