Pink Floyd Lyrics, Themes & Meanings: Another Brick in the Wall part 2 (Wall film)

Another Brick in the Wall part 2 3:16
(written by Roger Waters)

Lyrics:
We don't need no education
We don't need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teacher, leave them kids alone
Hey, teacher! Leave them kids alone!
All in all it's just another brick in the wall
Teacher:
Wrong! Do it again!
All in all you're just another brick in the wall
We don't need no education
Teacher:
If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding!
We don't need no thought control
Teacher:
How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teacher:
You! Yes, you laddie!
Poems, everybody! The laddie reckons himself a poet!
Teachers leave those kids alone
Hey, teacher! Leave those kids alone
All in all you're just another brick in the wall (2x)
We don't need no education
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teacher:
Here! 'An acre is the area of a rectangle whose length is one furlong and whose width is one chain.'

This is a remixed version of the album track, including a partial extra chorus during the guitar solo.

This is a powerful indictment of the form of education prevalent in Britain in the 1950's (and still today, in some places), showing children being processed in a giant factory to fit a certain mold; marching precisely around a rat race like automatons, and shouted at for the slightest mistake; thrown into a meat grinder which crushes them into the 'proper' shape. The song ends with scenes of the students revolting and burning their school (and perhaps even their teachers), shot at Becton gasworks (which the special FX department nearly razed to the ground), and the entire vignette turns out to be a fantasy in the mind of Pink, and we return to his dull classroom at the end.

Alan Parker: "The result [of the finale of the song] is one of the scarier moments in the film, and one which we hope people won't misinterpret. We were keen that the whole message should be viewed as a murky surreal daydream in young Pink's mind, as he is bullied by the teacher for writing poetry." [Dallas 128]

Bob Geldof: "Every kid has thoughts of how delicious it would be to burn down school — just as adults dream of burning down their offices." [Dallas 128]

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