Quote Originally Posted by ForeverAutumn
25 years ago today, The Wall was released. Happy Anniversary!

They were also inviting people to phone in and talk about their memories of hearing The Wall for the first time.

So, let's reminisce. I discovered drugs. I remember sitting in a friend's basement, more than a little high, and I was totally blown.
I was doing a course called Ideology and Morality that dealt with the issues and political ideologies that led up to, and through, the second world war, i.e., naziism, fascism, communism (all variants of socialism), etc. I remember reading Albert Speer's Inside The Third Reich, as well as books by Sartre, Wiesel, Bloch, Collingwood, Orwell, and about a dozen more. And there, around Christmas, came The Wall. Wow. Here was a piece of modern music that captured all of this stuff in an abstract way and was really deep, coming on the heels of all of this reading. From the first time I heard it, I have always considered The Wall as unique in that it is the only concept rock album that stands alone as a great work of Western literature.

As tired and sappy as a lot of The Wall has become after 25 years, it still stands alone in my mind as the pinacle of what artistic rock could be, and while a few have attempted to follow in The Wall's path, I can't think of any that have succeeded to the extent that The Wall did as a total package (music, lyrics, production, visuals).

A recent literate attempt, but no where near as successful as The Wall is the latest album Be from Pain of Salvation. Dream Theater is another that appears to have tried to follow. Unfortunately, most veer off into rediculous metaphysical bull**** about reincarnation or rebirth, so it's hard to take them seriously in the category of literature that pertains to, and says something profound about the human condition.

I am proud to say that I did my Pink Floyd drugs free.