Pink Floyd were founded in 1965 by Syd Barrett (guitar, lead vocals), Nick Mason (drums), Roger Waters (bass guitar, vocals), and Richard Wright (keyboards, vocals). Under Barrett's leadership, they released two charting singles and the successful debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967). Guitarist and vocalist David Gilmour joined in December 1967; Barrett left in April 1968 due to deteriorating mental health. Waters became the primary lyricist and thematic leader, devising the concepts behind the band's peak success with the albums The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977) and The Wall (1979). The musical film based on The Wall, Pink Floyd – The Wall (1982), won two BAFTA Awards. Pink Floyd also composed several film scores.
Following personal tensions, Wright left Pink Floyd in 1979, followed by Waters in 1985. Gilmour and Mason continued as Pink Floyd, rejoined later by Wright. They produced two more albums—A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987) and The Division Bell (1994)—and toured in support of both before entering a long hiatus. In 2005, all but Barrett reunited for a one-off performance at the global awareness event Live 8. Barrett died in 2006, and Wright in 2008. The last Pink Floyd studio album, The Endless River (2014), was based on unreleased material from the Division Bell recording sessions. In 2022, Gilmour and Mason reformed Pink Floyd to release the song "Hey, Hey, Rise Up!" in protest of the Russo-Ukrainian War.
By 2013, Pink Floyd had sold more than 250 million records worldwide, making them one of the best-selling music artists of all time. The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and these albums and Wish You Were Here are among the best-selling albums of all time. Four Pink Floyd albums topped the US Billboard 200, and five topped the UK Album Chart. Pink Floyd's hit singles include "See Emily Play" (1967), "Money" (1973), "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2" (1979), "Not Now John" (1983), "On the Turning Away" (1987) and "High Hopes" (1994). They were inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. In 2008, Pink Floyd were awarded the Polar Music Prize in Sweden for their contribution to modern music.
Full Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_Floyd
Studio albums
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967)
A Saucerful of Secrets (1968)
More (1969)
Ummagumma (1969)
Atom Heart Mother (1970)
Meddle (1971)
Obscured by Clouds (1972)
The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
Wish You Were Here (1975)
Animals (1977)
The Wall (1979)
The Final Cut (1983)
A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987)
The Division Bell (1994)
The Endless River (2014)
Backs To The Wall
Pink Floyd Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Shall we drive a more powerful car?
Shall we work well through the night?
Shall we get into fights
Leave the lights on
Drop bombs, in the east
Contract diseases
Bury treasures, store up
In the east, contract diseases
Bury treasures, store up
Lights on, drop bombs
In the east, contract diseases
Bury treasure, store up leisure
And never relax at all
With our backs to the wall
With our backs to the wall
With our backs to the wall
With our backs to the wall
With our backs to the wall
With our backs to the wall
With our backs to the wall
With our backs to the wall
With our backs to the wall
In Pink Floyd's song Backs To The Wall, the lyrics describe a group of individuals asking themselves if they should continue down a path of excessive materialism and violence. The lines "Shall we buy a new guitar?" and "Shall we drive a more powerful car?" suggest a desire for material possessions and status symbols. The following lines "Shall we work well through the night?" and "Shall we get into fights?" suggest a willingness to work hard and engage in violence to achieve their goals.
The repetition of "Lights on, drop bombs" and "In the east, contract diseases" suggests a reference to war and military aggression. The line "Bury treasures, store up leisure" suggests that these individuals are also interested in accumulating wealth and comfort for themselves.
The repeated phrase "With our backs to the wall" suggests that these individuals feel trapped or threatened in some way, and that their actions are a result of this sense of vulnerability. The overall message of the song seems to be a criticism of the pursuit of material wealth and the harmful consequences of violence and war.
Line by Line Meaning
Shall we buy a new guitar?
Should we indulge in material possessions to distract us from our problems?
Shall we drive a more powerful car?
Should we seek more power and control in our lives as a way of coping?
Shall we work well through the night?
Should we exhaust ourselves with work to avoid confronting our challenges?
Shall we get into fights?
Should we resort to violence to release our pent-up aggression?
Leave the lights on
Stay alert and on guard, even in the darkness
Drop bombs, in the east
Engage in destructive behavior, possibly referring to wartime aggression
Contract diseases
Invite trouble and disease into our lives
Bury treasures, store up
Hoard wealth and possessions instead of investing in relationships and experiences
Lights on, drop bombs
Reinforcing the idea to stay alert and engaged in destructive behavior
In the east, contract diseases
Destruction and disease can come from many directions, including from within ourselves
Bury treasures, store up
Reminding the listener to continue focusing on material possessions over meaningful connections
Lights on, drop bombs
Again emphasizing the theme of staying vigilant and aggressive
In the east, contract diseases
Reinforcing the idea that danger can come from any direction
Bury treasure, store up leisure
Continue seeking material wealth and luxury at the expense of personal growth and fulfillment
And never relax at all
Avoiding confronting the root causes of our problems and continuing to rely on material distractions
With our backs to the wall
Feeling trapped and forced to rely on destructive coping mechanisms
With our backs to the wall
Continuing to feel trapped and hopeless
With our backs to the wall
Feeling like there are no good options or ways out of our problems
With our backs to the wall
Continuing to struggle and suffer
With our backs to the wall
Feeling cornered and defeated
With our backs to the wall
Repeatedly emphasizing the feeling of being trapped and hopeless
With our backs to the wall
Continuing to experience the negative consequences of avoiding our problems
With our backs to the wall
Highlighting the all-consuming and inescapable nature of our challenges
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: ROGER WATERS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Remi Martin
@All4Kirde i Saw this movie when i was 4 Years old..
now i'm 18...
This movie Can broke a child ...
This movie is a masterpiece ...i forgot to tell i am french so i understand english a lot😹👍What shall we use
To fill the empty
Spaces
Where waves of hunger roar?
Shall we set out across this sea of faces
In search of more and more applause?
[Breakdown] 2:07
( Imagine the mind..of the child at this moment..)
[Verse 2]
Shall we buy a new guitar?
Shall we drive a more powerful car?
Shall we work straight through the night?
Shall we get into fights?
Leave the lights on?
Drop bombs?
Do tours of the East?
Contract diseases?
Bury bones?
Break up homes?
Send flowers by phone?
Take to drink?
Go to shrinks?
Give up meat?
Rarely sleep?
Keep people as pets?
Train dogs?
Race rats?
Fill the attic with cash?
Bury treasure
Store up leisure
But never relax at all?
With our backs to the wall
Où rugissent les vagues de la faim?
Devons-nous partir au-
delà de la mer de visages À la recherche de plus en plus d'applaudissements?
Devons-nous acheter une nouvelle guitare?
Allons-nous conduire une voiture plus puissante?
Devons-nous travailler toute la nuit?
Devons-nous nous battre?
Laisse les lumières allumées?
Lancer des bombes?
Faire des tours de l'est?
maladies contractuelles?
Enterrer des os?
Casser des maisons?
Envoyer des fleurs par téléphone?
Se mettre à boire?
Aller à rétrécit?
Renoncer à la viande?
Rarement dormir?
Garder les gens comme animaux de compagnie?
Chiens de train?
Des rats de race?
Remplir le grenier avec de l'argent?
Bury treasure?
Store up leisure?
But never relax at all
With our backs to the wall.
Edward Phillips
One of the biggest travesties ever is that this didn't make the album.
Victor Rad
+HEYitzED It did make it into every single concert where the album was played though. That's the band's tour in '80-'81, the Berlin concert in 1990 and Roger's 2010-2013 tour.
Gahteo!
+HEYitzED It's not that it "didn't make the album" ... it's that the album came out in 79 and the movie in 82 (which had certain musical rearrangements)
Jeremy Salkeld
+HEYitzED To an extent, this song wasn't quite thematically fitting on the album, as it's a criticism of consumerism, but would follow on from the lasting effects of WWII on the UK.
alpha java
1st time I watched the movie I noticed that was a different version of this song which I prefer this version. Best rock movie ever made... Waters said in an a recent interview that he would consider a Broadway production of the album if they could get it together, they've bee noodling with it the last few years... that would be awesome....
Anthony Cristante
+HEYitzED The Live album released in November has it which is cool. The album that has this is a collection of shows from a bunch of "Roger Waters: The Wall" performances.
Whit Dent
I'll be honest, Seeing two flowers engage in carnal relations before battling each other to the death made me feel emotions that I had buried in the deepest darkest depths of my subconscious.
Ravioli_ Cleetus
Whit Dent honesty same XD
qweren
yeah yeah this is bs
Javi solis
It basically about a man n woman loving each other being intimate then just going to war with one another but woman win like always lol