Album: The Wall (1979)

Charted: 53

License This Song 

• Run, run, run, run
  Run, run, run, run
  Run, run, run, run
  Run, run, run, run
  
  You better make your face up with your favorite disguise
  With your button down lips and your roller blind eyes
  With your empty smile and your hungry heart
  Feel the bile rising from your guilty past
  With your nerves in tatters as the cockleshell shatters
  And the hammers batter down your door
  You better run
  
  Run, run, run, run
  Run, run, run, run
  Run, run, run, run
  Run, run, run, run
  
  You better run all day and run all night
  Keep your dirty feelings deep inside
  And if you're taking your girlfriend out tonight
  You'd better park the car well out of sight
  'Cause if they catch you in the back seat trying to pick her locks
  They're gonna send you back to mother in a cardboard box
  You better run Writer/s: David Jon Gilmour, George Roger Waters
  Publisher: Sentric Music
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 40

• Waters Is God from HellWaters rules, Gilmour drools.
• Joel from San FranciscoInteresting facts about this song and Waiting For The Worms. The neo-nazis at the concert/rally were real. Also it's brief but at one point the crowd flashes the nazi or Hitler salute. This is different from the crossed hammer gestures. The lyrics are dark and reference the holocaust. (Roger Waters has been accused of anti jewish rhetoric as well).
• Zero from Nowhere, NjThis song is in Drop-D tuning. For the chords in the song, David Gilmour would bar the bottom 3 strings with his thumb while keeping the top 3 strings open.
• Terry from Wickford, RiIn the context of The Wall storyline, the song is part of Pink's 'Concert Fantasy' sequence, where he has gone into his head and is imagining himself as a Hitler-esque dictator rallying the masses of stormtroopers at his disposal (the fans), when in the 'reality' of Pink's world, he is actually just performing one of the band's more popular 'disco' songs to get the crowd clapping along and screaming at them to 'enjoy themsleves'. The lyrics are about paranoia and how extreme Pink has become in his visions of himself...those bizarre visions informed and intertwined with the Nazi atrocities that are so part and parcel of his (and England's) past and an indirect cause of the death of his father, etc. The Concert sequence really starts with 'In the Flesh?' on Side One and most everything else is a flashback leading back to this point in the present. So 'In The Flesh', Waiting For The Worms' and this are all just part of 'the show' (which must,of course, go on) He finally cracks during the show, much as Roger did during the Montreal '77 show at the end of the In The Flesh tour, which leads eventually to "Stop" and then 'The Trial' and his catharsis.
• Mem from Melbourne, Australiathe studio version to the song compared to any live version is absolutly horrible. never do i listen to the studio version & i have to admit even echoes is better at pompei than the studio version.
• Brain from Seattle, Wathe wall is one of my favorite albums of all time
  is the song about hitlers rise to power
• Bosnian Idiot from Babilon, Bosnia And HerzegovinaIt's about how the feelings are "forbidden" in modern world and anybody who tries to express feelings becomes a victim of sarcasm.
• Eric from Bend, OrYeah, I noticed that at the beginning of the song, the crowd is chanting "Pink Floyd". And at the end, you can hear the crowd chanting "Pink Floyd" again, but it sounds like it transitions into them chanting "Jawohl"
• Dogma from Alexandria, LaArtist Gerald Scarf came up with the symbol of the two hammers crossed. When he was doing the animation for THE WALL he wanted to have an army of hammers marching but couldn't figure out how to make a hammer "march." He then realized that two hammers together gives the illusion of two legs, so he used that method in the animation and the "crossed hammer" symbol was born.
• Ziggy from Redding, CaActually, at the begginnig of the song, they are chanting "hammer" in their british accent. Of course, the hammer symbolism goes along with the whole wall album, and even the wall movie
• Brian from Fort Wayne, Indoes anybody notice that the crowd is chanting 'pink floyd' at the beginning of the song
• Musicmama from New York, NyI like the urgency that underlies the chimeric quality of the lyrics. In a similar way, the bass guitar gives a weight and gravity to the disco beat that makes this a song about running away (as opposed to running toward or for) and not for dancing. Brilliant!
• Darcy Cook from Coffs Harbour, AustraliaYer. This is a great song. The Band (fink Ployd) Did a cover of The entire wall Concert in Sydney together with the Sydney symphony.But with all the bricks, we had to make a promise that were to recyle them. About 60, 500 people came. But one distinct memory was that we were playing Run Like Hell and about two or three "Bricks" probably wasn't place properley and missed me by about two inches. Lucky. But we had a great time. And for comfortably numb, i had to go up on a cherry picker to the top of the wall and i tell you, the driver wasn't that crash hot either...
• Steveb from Spokane, WaThe hammers symbolize not only a swastika-type emblem but tools to construct the wall, as they are marching they embody conformity and how it is the easiest way out of suffering, by deliberately tossing your humanity away and playing the game you are casting away any reason for dissent. This is why Pink seems happiest in his fascist state, because as a power-hungry and ego-driven man, he is entirely delirious and able to block out the reality of sorrow in his life.
  
  And very unfortunately, this symbol was reused by some white supremacist group in the south, though I don't recall which one.
• Achory from Warner Robins, Gaam i the only purpose who noticed the similarity between this song and "In the Flesh?": Y"ou better make your face up in Your favorite disguise." and "you better claw your way through this disguise"? also, since some people are confused about the meaning behind hammer, it was a logo consisting of two red hammers crossed in a circle that was white on top and red on bottom. it was sort of fascist pink's equivelant to the nazi swastika
• Bryan from New York, Nythe version on 'Is There Anybody Out There' is truly awesome (listening to it now) mainly because it's longer, and Rick Wright (keyboardist) does much more on it. Also, Waters insults the audience in the begining. Amazing alternate vocals in it. Roger has such a weird voice, just listen to the sounds he makes during the live version.
• Danny from Des Moines, IaI'm surprised that no one has pointed out the similarity between this song and the introduction song to Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. If you have both at hand, you should definitely check it out. I'm proud to say I noticed this myself without wikipedia. I do love wikipedia, though.
• Kyle from Slatington, PaMy favorite version of this song is the live version off the Is There Anybody Out There? version. Mainly because of Waters's intro.
• Mark from Ann Arbor, Mothis song makes me laugh so hard when im high, course so do all pink floyd songs
• Joey from Hw, United Stateschris, i agree that it has great lyrics, and rught should be well. and can some1 tell me who sings? Gilmour?
• Ashley Jade from Cleveland, GaOn the studio album "The Wall", Roger does the vocals but on Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980-1981 the vocals are shared between Roger and David Gilmour
• Bomber Of Bucklup En from Austin/houston, TxI think it's worth watching. I saw it trippin' too. I looked at it from an artistic point of view. It is art. DJ Z Trip mixed this song on one of his cd's live at a show.
• Elysia from Hamilton, New ZealandNathan you're not weird, I'm a huge fan of Pink Floyd, they are my favourite band of all time - but I also found the movie disturbing. It's really deep and you would have to be non human to not get a slightly disturbed feeling off what it's about. I watched The Wall tripping and nearly went crazy - I swear, it's that much deeper if you watch it on acid. Still an awesome album, but haunting as a drop of hell.
  Whoever this Kittie band is should get a clue, even if I was the greatest musician in the world - I wouldn't consider myself worthy of covering a Floyd song, why these people even attempt it is beyond me!
• Don from San Antonio, TxIt may be a disco beat, but the way they play it is utterly crushing. If you've never heard it before you know it's no dancing song instantly. Somehow those sadness-sounding chourus-effect drenched guitar chords cut thru that oppressive beat magnificently.
• Ash from Charleston, WvActually, the vocals on this song were shared on Pink Floyd's Delicate Sound of Thunder tour. They were sung alternately between Gilmour and bassist Guy Pratt.
• Tom from Milton, Madoes anyone know what the hammers represent
• Dee from Indianapolis, InWell, as always, never say never, since Waters and Gilmore were recently together for Live Eight on stage in England. You never know, maybe this will lead to bigger and better things for one of the worlds greastest must influential bands. I saw them in concert back in 93' and this was the last encore song they played. It was so amazing, even without waters there. I hope to one day again witness this group in all its musical talent and mystery.
• Ashley from Moncton, CanadaHow come there are so many covers I've never heard about? It makes me angry, yet intrigued at the same time. But mostly angry.
• Rob from Bristol, EnglandInsofar as the satire of the Nazis portrayed in The Wall goes, Run Like Hell is Waters' skit on Josef Goebbles statement in 1938. Following the events of Kristallnacht/Krystallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass), in which thousands of Jewish shops and so forth were smashed up (a mock-up of which is played out during the corresponding sequence in the film), Hitler made a public announcement along the lines of, "they said we could never have our Germany...and here we are; with a German press, a German people, and a German way of life..."; Gobbles (his propaganda minister) then violently barked (to any Jews listening, presumably): "You are not like us! You can never be like us! If you think you can, you'd better run!"
• Masha from Amsterdam, NetherlandsNathan, you're weird. It rocks.
• Nathan from Memphis, Tnthe wall movie is very disturbing
• Charles from Peabody, Ma-- Nazi skinheads DID infact re-use the hammer symbol. During the 1970s, a group known as the Hammerskins showed up on the map, born out of inspiration from The Wall. They are now known as the most violent Neo Nazi organization in the world, and have chapters in over ten different countries.
• Pink from Hazlet, NjIn the movie, as Lee said, they used real skin heads to play the skin heads in the movie. There was a rumour that the skin heads got a bit too carried away and began actually hurting the other actors. It just goes to show what the actions of others, positive or negative, can do to over-stimulate one's emotions.
• Liam from Campbell River, CanadaKittie's cover just ruins the song.
• Alex from Nunya, CaIf you watch the movie, during the song titled "Stop", you can hear the master of ceremonies, one of the characters of their live shows. He says something to the extent of "I think the bands about ready to play now". This proves he imagined it all
• Deepphreeze from Irvine, CaPink didn't join the skinheads, he was imagining the entire thing during his fantasy of being a new-age fascist leader. "Pink Hitler" never joined in on the violence.
• Kelly from Los Angeles, Caone of their best
• Flavio from Miami, Flfemale band kittie did a cover of this song(its not worth downloading trust me)
• Chris from Wellington, New Zealandhas one of the best lyrics " if you're taking you're girlfriend out tonight you better park your car right outta sight coz if they catch you in the back seat trying to pick her locks they're gonna send you back to mother in a cardboard box, you better run"
  love it!
• Lee from Durham, Ncin the wall movie, while playing this song, they used real skin heads to run around causing a masacre. Waters was afraid that people wouldnt under stand his satire humor and take the whole facsist part of the wall serious and a tribute to fascism. he also feared that the hammer symbol would be re-used by racists and cults

More Songfacts:

Learning To FlyPink Floyd

David Gilmour really was "Learning To Fly" when he co-wrote the Pink Floyd song - the aviation jargon came from his lessons.

Jack & DianeJohn Mellencamp

Jack & Diane started off as an interracial couple; Mellencamp took race references out of the song at the request of his record company.

Mrs. RobinsonSimon & Garfunkel

The Simon & Garfunkel song "Mrs. Robinson" was originally called "Mrs. Roosevelt," most likely after First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The title was changed when it was considered for use in the film The Graduate, where Anne Bancroft's character is Mrs. Robinson.

Big LoveFleetwood Mac

"Big Love" is a showcase song for Lindsey Buckingham and the first single from Fleetwood Mac's 1987 album Tango In The Night, but he left the group soon after the album was released and the band didn't perform it live until he returned 10 years later.

Lips Are MovinMeghan Trainor

Meghan Trainor wrote "Lips Are Movin" in just eight minutes with her writing partner Kevin Kadish. Inspiration for the song was frustration with Trainor's record label.

Give Me Everything (Tonight)Pitbull

Pitbull's line "I got it locked up like Lindsay Lohan" in his 2011 song "Give Me Everything (Tonight)" didn't go over well with Lohan, who sued him for defamation. Around this time, she was in a downward spiral and often getting arrested. Her case was thrown out, but she did get her life back together.

Editor's Picks

Tom Keifer of CinderellaSongwriter Interviews

Tom talks about the evolution of Cinderella's songs through their first three albums, and how he writes as a solo artist.

Johnette Napolitano of Concrete BlondeSongwriter Interviews

The singer/bassist for Concrete Blonde talks about how her songs come from clairvoyance, and takes us through the making of their hit "Joey."

Lace the Music: How LSD Changed Popular MusicSong Writing

Starting in Virginia City, Nevada and rippling out to the Haight-Ashbury, LSD reshaped popular music.

The Truth Is Out There: A History of Alien SongsSong Writing

The trail runs from flying saucer songs in the '50s, through Bowie, blink-182 and Katy Perry.

Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear: Teddy Bears and Teddy Boys in SongsSong Writing

Elvis, Little Richard and Cheryl Cole have all sung about Teddy Bears, but there is also a terrifying Teddy song from 1932 and a touching trucker Teddy tune from 1976.

Loreena McKennittSongwriter Interviews

The Celtic music maker Loreena McKennitt on finding musical inspiration, the "New Age" label, and working on the movie Tinker Bell.