BLATHER REVIEW

The Wall, pt 7 (Side Four)

So, the Worms are all hunkered down at stage right while Doctor, Wife and Mother are guiding Pink up the ramp at down-left onto the platform. Pink is resisting more and more violently, scared to death of getting on the platform and doing "the show".

At this point 7 to 10 new characters begin to walk on the stage. They are a diverse group; black, white, male, female, and dressed in various outfits (a policeman, fireman, librarian, whatever). Kind of like the Village People, only different. The point is that they represent everyone - a wide slice of society.

As the intro to "In The Flesh" pounds away, Pink is resisting, but gradually realizes that there's no getting out of this. He, still wearing the wall-vest, btw, reaches behind the desk and pulls out an army helmet. Steeling himself, he methodically puts the helmet on his head. His expression changes; he now looks menacing, wild-eyed and grinning.
The Worms see this, get up, run onto the platform and stand firmly, proudly beside him -- two on each side -- with their feet apart and their fists on their waists.

As for the Village People (I'll just call them that..), they may be standing or sitting or squatting, depending on how it works -- ie, how high the platform is.
Or maybe they could be hunched over with their hands on their knees like outfielders waiting for a batter to hit the ball.

Pink, looking over the heads of the Village People and out into the audience, begins to sing:

So ya, thought ya, might like to...
go to the show!
To feel the warm thrill of confusion
that space cadet glow

Beginning to pace just a little bit, the Worms will join in the singing:

Pink:I've got some bad news for you, sunshine
Pink isn't well, he stayed back at the hotel,
and he
Pink & Worms: Sent us! Along!
as a Surro-Gate! Band!
We're gonna find out where you fans really stand!!

Pink: Are there any queers in the theater tonight?
Get 'em up against the wall

The Worms hop from the platform and approach the Village People shouting "'GAINST! THE! WALL!" as they push some of them away from center-stage, outward toward the sides of the wall.
They do more of the same, and the Village People resist somewhat, but are mainly just confused and surprised.

...and there's one in the spotlight,
he don't look right to me,
get him up against the wall.
And that one looks Jewish, that one's a coon!
Who let all this riff-raff into the room?!
There's one smoking a joint!
And another with spots?!
If I had my way I'd have all o'ya shot!

On the album, the music of "In The Flesh" continues for a while longer. But, I'd like to change it so that, with the word "SHOT!", the near-staccato guitar and thundering drumbeat of "Run Like Hell" would immediately begin.
The 15-18 people on stage will start moving vigorously as Pink steps down from the platform and moves toward centerstage; the Village People, Doctor, Wife and Mother will try to get near Pink, but the Worms will stop them using "wall-paddles".

The wall-paddles are like hand-held "Stop" signs that you might see crossing guards carrying -- they're bricks-on-a-stick.
The Worms will stand between the would-be intruders and stand like military traffic guards; holding the wall-paddles at arms length while planting themselves with military bearing with their other arm folded behind their backs. When a Worm has successfully stopped one intruder, another will approach and she'll run to block his path in the same way.

The "Run, run, run, run.." background voices will be sung by both the Worms and the Village People alternately.
Meanwhile Pink makes his way up-stage and sings to the audience as well as the folks on stage. He's pacing back and forth, they're trying to "reach" him.

You better make your face up in your favorite disquise!
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 when the cockleshell shatters
and the hammers batter down the door!
you better run like hell!

Pink throws his hands up and thrusts them at the audience as if saying "BAH!", and heads downstage toward the platform while the cast is singing "Run, run, run, run..." and the Village People are trying to get near him. They're mouthing shouting words, throwing their arms out in frustration, pounding their fingers into their chests as if asking "It's me! Don't you remember me?!"

Pink turns around, realizing he has more to say, and frustrangrily (TM) makes his way up-stage again to address the audience.

You better run all day, you better all night!
and keep your dirty feelings deep inside!
and if you take your girlfriend out tonight
you 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!!

I think the intensity of the mood can carry the scene. I was thinking of splashing some images of something-or-other on the wall, but I've decided that the lyric and stage action should do it.
One big reason (and the reason I quoted the entire lyric) is that not many people know the lyric to "Run Like Hell".
If you ask a Pink Floyd fan if they know all the words to "Mother", or "Good-bye Blue Sky", or "One Of My Turns" they'll say yes. But if you ask 'em to recite the words to "Run Like Hell" they'll turn their head, stare into space, acessing...accessing, and look at you dumbfoundedly shaking their head.

Anyway, the song goes into it's final fits as the Worms finally successfully reduce the Village People to resigning themselves to stand back as the glorious strains of "Waiting For The Worms" takes over.
Pink is squatting at center-stage wringing his hands with wide-eyed satisfaction.
The Worms stand firmly around him in a semi-circle. One to his right, one to his left, one each at forward left and right. Victoriously with wall-paddles in one hand, high the air, the other hand on their waists, feet planted and looking out proudly, the Worms announce:

Worms: You'll never reach me now!
V.P. Ooo-oooo!
Worms: No matter how you try!
Good-bye cruel world, it's over,
walk on by....!

Pink: Sitting in a bunker
Pink & Worms: here behind my wall!
Wife (stepping forward and pointing, warningly and accusingly at Pink as he grins maniacally): Waiting for the Worms to come!
Worms: Worms. To. Come(?)!

Did you see that coming? heheh.
At this moment there's a drum beat; puh-puh-puh-PUM! puh-puh-puh-PUM! puhpuh p'puhpuh-puh-PUM!
That'll be the beat of the Village People's stomping feet as they close in on the protective Worms, testing their strength. The Worms will lean backward, fighting the intrusion as Pink, squatting, bows his head and pushes his hands outward, fighting the incoming, pressing world. Just before the final PUM!, Pink pushes his hands up and out; the Worms jump forward in victory, holding their wall-paddles high; and the rest of the cast fall backward and land on their asses.
Pink has just successfully, for now, preserved his space and gleefully continues calmly.

Pink:Perfect isolation
Pink & Worms:here behind my wall!
Pink:waiting for the worms t'come
Worms Worms. To. Come!

This time the drumbeat is of the Worms inching outward, and the Village People retreating, as Pink stands up and makes his way forward.

Here's where I want to make a major change in the lyrics. Here is the rest of Roger Waters' lyric to this song:

Waiting, for the final solution to strengthen the strain
Waiting to follow the Worms
Waiting to turn on the showers and fire the ovens
Waiting for queens and the coons and the reds and the Jews
Waiting to follow the worms

Would,
would you like to see Britannia rule again,
my friend?
All you have to do is follow the Worms!
Would,
would you like send our colored cousins home again,
my friend?
All you have to do is follow the worms!

I want to keep some of it, maybe even all of it. But I definately want to extend it. Waters focuses on a lot of racial and "lifestyle" issues. But, to my mind, Pink is rejecting anyone and everyone and so this passage deserves to be embellished to show that he's shutting out everyone. Not just those with superficial differences, but those with any differences - no matter how trivial. In fact: the more trivial the better because it'll showcase just how pathological his defensiveness is.
The lyric might go:

Waiting - for the beaurocrats and autocrats to turn on their whores
Waiting - for the soccer moms and football widows!
waiting to follow the Worms
Waiting - for under-ripe bananas and left-handed cable guys from Muncie, Indiana!
waiting to follow the Worms
Waiting - for the Nerds and the Brains and the Freaks and the Jocks!
Waiting - for the fat kids.. and even the tough kids with chicken pox...!
Waiting....

Now that everyone's included, the music presses on while Pink retreats to deep center-stage. The Worms and Village People stalk the stage with concern, but more and more neither seems to have an upper-hand

As the music drones on we'll notice voice-overs. "How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?!", "Hey, are you feelin' okay?", and many others. We'll hear GWB saying "Freedom will be defended", some quotes from Churchill..... But the final voice-over will be the Preacher's words that were heard in the very beginning:

"...that the only way to avoid the pain of loss is reject the joy of love. And, hopefully, none of us would ever choose that.

With the music pulsating around him, Pink looks around as if he'd heard something that reminded him of something he'd forgotten.
He stands up and looks around. Village People will extend their arms and he'll take them only to be seperated by the Worms as Pink looks less and less convinced that they should've been seperated.

Pink's internal trauma comes to a head as the thundering music builds to a loud HALT.
He waves his head for a brief second and then angrily shouts:

WAIT A MINUTE!!!!

He looks around. Approaches various members of the Village People, struggling to recognize them and what he's done to them.
He counts his fingers as if trying to reconstruct the timeline that's led to this moment, and finally slinks to down-stage-right to walk up the ramp that leads to the desk.

After a solemn moment, taking careful stock of the cast, he slowly removes his helmet and reaches below the desk and pulls on a Judge's robe and presents a giant gavel. The curiously subdued strains of "The Trial" begin as Pink takes a seat behind the desk.

See ya in a little while for the finale!

Posted by Tuning Spork at August 29, 2004 07:54 PM