The Happiest Days of Our Lives

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“The Happiest Days of Our Lives”
Song by Pink Floyd
Album The Wall
Released 30 November 1979 (US), 8 December 1979 (UK)
Recorded April-November, 1979
Genre Art rock/Progressive rock
Length 1:46
Label Harvest Records (UK)
Columbia Records (US)/Capitol Records (US)
Writer Waters
Producer Bob Ezrin, David Gilmour and Roger Waters
The Wall track listing
Another in the Wall, Part I
(3 of disc 1)		 “The Happiest Days of Our Lives”
(4 of disc 1)		 Another Brick in the Wall, Part II
(5 of disc 1)
Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd track listing
"See Emily Play"
(2)		 "The Happiest Days of Our Lives"
(3)		 "Another Brick in the Wall, Part II"
(4)

"The Happiest Days of Our Lives" is a song by the British progressive rock band Pink Floyd. It was released on The Wall album in 1979.

Contents

[edit] Composition

The song is approximately 1 minute, 52 seconds in length, beginning with 24 seconds of a helicopter approaching followed by shouting from the schoolmaster. When Kate Bush tried to add a similar helicopter to the fadeout of her single "Experiment IV", her recording engineers were unable to duplicate the overwhelming sound, so she asked Roger Waters for the original tape, and he obliged as long as it was mentioned in the credits. After that the sound effects abruptly cut out for the lyrical portion. Throughout the most of the song, the lead instrument is the bass guitar with an added delay effect and during the bridge to "Another Brick in the Wall, Part II", there are intense drums and backing vocals.

On the album, "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" segues into "Another Brick in the Wall, Part II" with a loud, high-pitched scream by Roger Waters (this sound is later reprised on Run Like Hell). Because of this segue, many radio stations play one right after the other.

In the film based on the album, the sound at the beginning of the song is depicted as coming from a train entering a large tunnel, rather than a helicopter heard on the album. According to Gerald Scarfe, there was supposed to be a puppet of the teacher at the end of the tunnel in the film. Alan Parker made shots of it, but it didn't work out, so they used the actor who played the teacher to do the scene instead.

[edit] Plot

As with the other songs on The Wall, "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" tells a portion of the story of "Pink", the album's protagonist. Pink is sent to a school run by overly strict and often violent teachers who want to mold their students into the "right" shape for society.

[edit] Film version

Pink and his two friends go down to a railroad track to lay bullets on the rails and watch them explode as the passing train runs over and ignites the ammunition. Pink, putting himself up against the tunnel wall, sees that the train cars are packed with faceless people, and sees his teacher at the other end of the tunnel, yelling at Pink and ordering him to stand still. In the next scene, which takes place in Pink's school, the teacher discovers Pink writing a poem, which contains lyrics from "Money" from The Dark Side of the Moon, and, as punishment, ridicules Pink by reading his poem out loud to the entire class and slaps his hand with a ruler. The scene after shows the teacher in his own home, being forced to eat a piece of hard meat during dinner at his wife's silent command. To relieve himself of this frustration, the teacher spanks a child with a belt the next day.

[edit] Personnel

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Fitch, Vernon and Mahon, Richard, Comfortably Numb - A History of The Wall 1978-1981 (2006)
  2. ^ Ibid, p.74
  3. ^ Ibid, p.74
  4. ^ Ibid, p.74
  5. ^ Ibid, p.74
  6. ^ Ibid, p.74

[edit] See also