Song: Mother/
Artist: Pink Floyd/
Writers: Roger Waters/
Album: The Wall/
Release: 30 November, 1979/
The problem with reviewing these kinds of tracks is that, in a narrative, there are going to be multiple parts that aren’t going to make sense in context, which is usually delivered at the beginning of the story. On the Wall, “In the Flesh?” starts the story going and “The Thin Ice and Another Brick in the Wall Parts 1 & 2” continue building onto the narrative. Mother is the first track on the album that I really feel that the overall story really took off.
Mother is a song written by longtime band-mate and now leader Roger Waters, and written for The Wall album. This song continues where the narrative kicks off from Another Brick Part 2, where our protagonist, Pink, adds another metaphorical “piece” to his “wall,” further isolating himself. In both “Another Brick” parts, the bricks included a father who died during WWII and the rigid education system. Here, this brick is his overprotective mother. It’s all over the lyrics, written brilliantly in Waters’ own biting and up-front tone.
The song is composed in G Major, with the chorus being a plagal cadence in C Major, with very unusual time signatures that include 5/8 and 9/8, which is typical in the progressive rock genre. Regular drummer Nick Mason found these time signatures hard to learn, so drumming duties for the Studio Version was given to Jeff Porcaro, who was a very sought after session musician who had worked with many notable musicians including Paul McCartney, Dire Straits, and Steely Dan. Porcaro does a good job with the drumming overall, but I feel that when the track was played live during their Wall Tour [1980-81], Nick Mason’s drumming returned a bit of the emotional flair that would have benefited the song.
The verses are in 4/4, also known as common time, which allows for some convenience regarding syncing Roger’s acoustic guitar playing, as well as his vocals, to the drums playing at uncommon time. Here, Roger is playing the son, who is overcautious with his own life and has so many of these hard-hitting questions regarding what he wants and about his possible future.
Gilmour’s verses, set at 12/8 time, represents the mother, who promises to protect his son from pretty much everything “dirty.” These lyrics, more than at any other point of the song, more than perfectly represents the over-protectiveness of the mother character, even to the point of not letting him go off on his own until he became an adult. And even then, the mother still keeps tabs on her own son Pink. In an interview with MOJO magazine, Roger Waters elaborates on a specific aspect of this theme:
“The idea that we can be controlled by our parents’ views on things like sex. The single mother of boys, particularly, can make sex harder than it needs to be.”
The song finally ends with a sub-dominant C Major, creating an “unsatisfied” feeling to its ending, nicely indicating that the problems are far from over. In fact, within the song’s context and what’s to follow, the problems are just starting to pile up.
“Mother” is a really nice track. It takes full advantage of the story laid out thus far and goes even further with it. Musically it is also a treat. It is available on “The Wall” album, and was actually considered for the compilation album “Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd.” [9/10]
-Patrick J. Miller, music reviewer [2015.10.27]
Notes
1) Pink Floyd: The Wall (1980 Pink Floyd Music Publishers Ltd., London, England, SBN 0-7119-1031-6 [USA ISBN 0-8256-1076-1]) [Chords/time signatures]
2) Vintage Pink Floyd Interview, Classic Rock magazine. [http://classicrock.teamrock.com/news/vintage-pink-floyd-interview-part-1/][Jeff Porcaro replacing Nick Mason for this track]
3) “Mother by Pink Floyd”. Songfacts,com [http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=3400] [MOJO December 2009 Issue Interview blip]
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