Bring The Boys Back Home

Album: The Wall (1979)
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Songfacts®:

  • "Bring The Boys Back Home" runs just 1:27 on Pink Floyd's classic album The Wall, but according to Roger Waters, who wrote the song, it's a core song on the album. The title refers to a slogan calling for an end of war so soldiers can return home to their families. In the storyline of The Wall, the lead character, Pink, loses his father in World War II, which also happened to Waters.

    In December 2009, he explained to Mojo: "The loss of a father is the central prop upon which the whole thing stands. As the tears go by, children lose their fathers again and again, for nothing. You see it now with all of these fathers, good men and true, who lost their lives and limbs in Iraq for no reason at all."
  • An orchestral song with lots of sound effects, "Bring The Boys Back Home" is a challenge to reproduce live, especially indoors. When Pink Floyd toured for The Wall, it was a massive production with a giant wall erected in front of the audience, but no orchestra - Waters sang to a backing track. When he staged The Wall in Berlin in 1990, he went bigger, enlisting a German orchestra to play along with the Red Army Choir. The words "Bring The Boys Back Home" appeared in giant letters on the wall during the performance.
  • This appeared as a B-side of the single, "When The Tigers Break Free."

Comments: 2

  • John "shinfo" from Lubbock, TexasI do believe that this is the point in the film that is the turning point for which the boys personality truly takes shape and he goes a bit mad.
  • Zero from Nowhere, NjWow! No one commented yet! A short song but a vital point in the story where Pink realizes his father isn't coming back, goes numb and then snaps. I think. I could be wrong.
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