Outside The Wall

Album: The Wall (1979)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This is the last song on Pink Floyd's epic concept album The Wall. The album deals with isolation - the emotional walls we build to protect ourselves - but "Outside The Wall" closes the album with the theme of redemption.

    Pink Floyd bass player Roger Waters, who wrote the song and developed the concept, explained to Rolling Stone, "We are redeemed when we tear our walls down and expose our weaknesses to our fellow man... sit around the fire and talk."
  • "Outside The Wall" is an acoustic song with none of the band members on the instruments. Session musicians played a mandolin, clarinet, and an accordion-like instrument called a concertina. There's also a children's choir, but it's not the same one from "Another Brick In The Wall (Part II)," the most famous song from the album.
  • The Wall centers on a character named Pink. This song is told in either his voice or the voice of his loved ones summarizing what he learned from the ordeal:

    Some stagger and fall, after all it's not easy
    Banging your heart against some mad bugger's wall
  • Pink Floyd took The Wall on the road with an elaborate stage show where a wall was built in front of the performers and then torn down. For "Outside The Wall," the band walked over the rubble to perform, getting much closer to the audience.

    On the tour, Waters played clarinet on this track, keyboard player Richard Wright played accordion, and drummer Nick Mason acoustic guitar.
  • The album makes a complete loop. "Outside The Wall" ends with a sentence that's abruptly cut off:

    Isn't this where...

    The first track, "In The Flesh?," completes the sentence:

    "...we came in?"

Comments: 23

  • Ron D from Wilkes-barre, PennsylvaniaThe Moody Blues did something similar on a few of their albums, most notably the intro of a gong fading into the orchestra, which is the gong fading out on 'Late Lament'
  • Alex from CaliforniaA long time ago (as a teenager) I listened to that final track "Outside The Wall". At the very end, yes, there is some mumbled spoken words. I had a reel-to-reel tape recorder, recorded it, and played it *backwards*. At the time it sounded to me more like the words "PERHAPS INNOCENT". Which made sense given it was after the "The Trial". I was thinking it means the kids were innocent.
  • Guccizbud from MontrealNot sure how old this is, but I actually did it—I attached the two together at the right point and equalized the volumes.

    But first let me say to the OP "Darthclinton" of Casper, Wyoming, to get a life. Maybe Satan speaks to YOU, but some of us aren't big enough dumbasses to either hear that or believe it. For example, I, for one, am only a *mild* dumbass. Get it Mild. Not *big*. Ha! Who's laughing now, eh ;->

    Here's the info you need if you want to try it yourself in whatever music editing program you use:


    Take "Outside the Wall" and make it your Audio Track 1, and set your start and end points at 0:01:39.950 and 0:01:42.450
    respectively . . . this is only a 2½ second segment of it, very near the end of this song.

    Take "In the Flesh" and make it your Audio Track 2, and set your start and end points at 0:00:01.200 and 0:00:03.700 respectively.
    This is also only a 2½ second segment, very near the beginning of the song this time. It is VITAL that you make this segment Audio
    Track 2, i.e. that it be on a different track than the "Outside the Wall" segment (as opposed to just adding it to the end of the
    "Outside the Wall" segment on the same track) . . . you still want to place it so that it begins immediately after the first segment
    ends, but just on a separate track, something like this:

    Audio Track 1: [xxxxxx 2.5 sec xxxxxx]
    Audio Track 2: [xxxxxx 2.5 sec xxxxxx]

    Do *not* add any kind of transition effect between the two segments . . . first segment should just suddenly end, second segment
    should just abprubtly begin.


    Volume adjustment: there is a HUGE difference in volume between the first segment and the second on the album, so you can't
    just leave it like that. Through experimentation I have found that the volume of the spoken words in the first segment is
    approximately fifty times (50×) louder than the volume of the spoken words in the second segment (yes really). So what you want
    to do is DECREASE the volume level indicator of TRACK 1 ONLY to the 2% mark (the norm is 100%). This will make that segment
    only 1/50th as loud, and this is about the original level of the second segment . . . so you want to leave the volume level indicator
    of the second segment to 100%, i.e. leave it as is. Now you know why I said it was important in step to put the two segments on
    different audio tracks . . . had you put them on the same track, you would not have been able to decrease ONLY the volume of the
    first segment.


    Now export the finished MP3. It will be 5 seconds long, and the FIRST HALF will have come from the END of the LAST SONG on the
    album, and the LAST HALF will have come from the BEGINNING of the FIRST SONG on the album, and the volume will have been
    adjusted in such a way that the whole 5 seconds is roughly at the same volume level.


    This all looks like more work than it really is, but that's only because I took the time to write it all out. If you have a decent piece of software it really all gets done in just a few minutes.

    When you listen to the finished product you'll hear "Isn't this where . . . we came in" and you'll also notice that the music itself ALSO continues from the same point, i.e. loops around, with only the same brief ". . ." mini-pause as in the spoken "Isn't this where . . . we came in" . . . I actually chose the starting and end points of each segment in such a way as to leave in that brief ". . ." pause, as opposed to trying to make it sound like a single song, because I felt that tiny bit of hesitation better shows how the album "loops in on itself".
  • Darthclinton from Casper, WyHere's a little bit that I've not seen posted anywhere else. Listen carefully to the song at the end. Right as he music ends there sounds like a male voice speaking very rapidly. I first heard this on cassette in 1985 and it made my blood run cold. It is still on the 2011 remastered edition. What the voice says is, "Satan has spoken." Listen for yourself. With modern computer programs, you can even slow it down a little if you need to. Not good.
  • Holly from Brighton, United KingdomJason - when I play it I hear 'Isn't this where', and that's what I've always seen it referred to as everywhere other than this. Try listening really closely next time you play the song and you should hear the extra syllable ;)
  • Jason from Raleigh, NcThis may seem trite, but does anyone know for sure whether the bookending spoken line is, "ISN'T this where..." or, "IS this where...?"

    I only ask because I feel it could change the tone of the conclusion.

    If it's "isn't", then it seems the artist/Pink/Roger/whomever is aware of the perpetual cycle and is therefore cognizant of its endless, unbreakable nature. He is fully aware, yet does nothing to otherwise attempt escape. To me, this makes the whole saga even more depressing and rather hopeless.

    On the other hand, if it's "is", it gives more of a hopeful tone. I think of it as him saying, "Oh, right, I remember this. This is where everything started going wrong for me. Well, this time things will be different..." Whether or not they are, we will never know.

    Thoughts?
  • Kyle from Normal, IlSomething about this song that I think is really cool is that Roger refuses to discuss its meaning. Back in 1980 when he did a big radio interview promoting 'The Wall', he gave a detailed explanation of every song EXCEPT this one. He said it should be self-explanatory. And then, just earlier this year, while he was doing ANOTHER radio interview to promote his current 'The Wall Live' tour, he still refused to elaborate on this song's meaning. I think that's the mark of a true artist. He produces something incredibly powerful to thousands of people, but it's powerful for a different reason in all the cases, because there's no 'set-in-stone' definition. I personally love this song, and it's probably my favorite on the whole album. It really is self-explanatory.
  • Nathan from Willow Spring, NcChloe, watch the wall!
  • Molly from Boston, MaTo Chloe did you know there is an Australian tribute band called The Anderson Council. Plus that is awesome that the album is a cycle! Has anybody noticed that DSoTM is kinda like a cycle, it starts and ends with a heart beating.
  • Lincoln from Belvidere, IlChloe,
    Pink is the main character from the movies name.

    -Lincoln, Belvidere IL
  • Chloe from Tucson, AzSome people are referring to "Pink" as though he were a person in the band. The lead singer and writer of most of the songs was named Roger Waters. The name Pink Floyd was a collaboration of two blues musicians, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council
  • Bob from Olympia, Wathe album does end with "isnt this where" and start with "we came in", and the music does repeat from the end to the beginning. this is roger water's theme of repetition, which im sure all of you know is constant throughout the album. Just think how many times throughout you hear "the wall" guitar lick, most famous for being sung with the words "we dont need no education" on "another brick in the wall, pt 2"
  • Tyler from Petaluma, CaWhile Outside the Wall is a nice song, I do think they should of ended the album on a higher note then a song you can barely hear. Something in the style of "Shine On" like a rock song from Pink's band or something. But other than that, I like this song, I always picture Pink reccovering from an acid trip, just singing this song with his back agianst a wall imagining the worms from the trial singing in unison with him.
  • Ashley from Moncton, CanadaMitchell from Redding, I think you're onto something. Perhaps the "door there in the wall" represents a phase in life where you question if there is a way to leave your current hell behind and step into a new place where things can improve. The end and beginning of the wall may represent this; the album ends where it begins, but then repeats, leaving this little inacessible loophole in between. So does life. Life is a cycle which we cannot escape. We start and end with nonexistence, and in between there is a loophole, but we never are able to make it through, we keep going over the same things that eventually destroy us.
  • Nathaniel from Pittsburgh, PaWOW!! i never noticed that it ran a cycle. i think that is amazing there must have been a door in the wall!!!!!!
  • Mitchell from Redding, CaThe end of this song also sounds exactly like the beginning of the album.
  • Mitchell from Redding, CaDid anyone else besides Ashley from Moncton notice that in the very beginning of "In the Flesh?" it says "we came in", and at the very end of "Outside the wall" it says "isn't this where?"? In the lyrics of one of the songs (I can't remeber) it talks about the possibility of a door of the wall. Is this a connection?
  • Ralph from Newton, MaInteresting Bill. I always assumed they were just all going to pen themselves in with their own walls. I never gave any thought to the hope of the bottle being emptied. Bravo to your analysis.
  • Yuya from Kyoto, Japan"Banging your heart against some mad buggers' wall" is a classic line
  • Bill from Erie, PaWhat a great song to end the album with. The tale of dread, horror and wickedness ends with the wall that caused it all to be torn down, and although there is some possibility of the cycle repeating, it also shows hope for the future. The scene in the movie shows children dumping the gas out of Molotov cocktails, and building things with the pieces of the wall, creating instead of destroying.
  • Aylin from Montreal, CanadaThat is AWESOME. The album runs full circle.
  • Ashley from Moncton, CanadaI just listened to what it says- "Isn't this where" and In The Flesh? says- "...where we came in?"
  • Ashley from Moncton, CanadaThe album's starting and ending point are the same. The voice you hear at the very end of the song continues to the very beginning of In The Flesh?. Put the two songs on a playlist on your computer and you'll hear the voice at the end continue to In The Flesh?.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Alice Cooper

Alice CooperFact or Fiction

How well do you know this shock-rock harbinger who's been publicly executed hundreds of times?

90210 to Buffy to Glee: How Songs Transformed TV

90210 to Buffy to Glee: How Songs Transformed TVSong Writing

Shows like Dawson's Creek, Grey's Anatomy and Buffy the Vampire Slayer changed the way songs were heard on TV, and produced some hits in the process.

Van Dyke Parks

Van Dyke ParksSongwriter Interviews

U2, Carly Simon, Joanna Newsom, Brian Wilson and Fiona Apple have all gone to Van Dyke Parks to make their songs exceptional.

Michael Glabicki of Rusted Root

Michael Glabicki of Rusted RootSongwriter Interviews

Michael tells the story of "Send Me On My Way," and explains why some of the words in the song don't have a literal meaning.

Dave Alvin - "4th Of July"

Dave Alvin - "4th Of July"They're Playing My Song

When Dave recorded the first version of the song with his group the Blasters, producer Nick Lowe gave him some life-changing advice.

In The Cards

In The CardsSong Writing

Songwriters have used cards and card games to make sense of heartache, togetherness, and even Gonorrhea.