Mother (Wall film)

Mother 6:42
     (written by Roger Waters)

Lyrics:
(See Mother from the Wall album. The lyrics are identical, except verse two, line four:)
Oh, Mother, am I really dying?
(Verse three, line one:)
Hush, now baby, baby, don't you cry
(Spoken words come between verses three and four:)
Pink's Wife:  Hello? Hello? Is there anybody in there? Do you remember me? I'm the one from the registry office.
(Verse four, line six:)
Oh, Ma! Mother, will she break my heart?
(Verse five, line one:)
Hush, now baby, baby, don't you cry
(Verse five, line seven:)
Oh, babe (x3), you'll always be baby to me

Lead vocals: Roger Waters (1st, 2nd, 4th verses and last line), David Gilmour (3rd and 5th verses)

This was totally re-recorded for the film. The acoustic strumming which began the album track is here replaced with a subtle but effective heartbeat and quiet bells. Gentle regimental drumming comes in at the end of the first verse, and is followed by orchestral instrumentation and very quiet acoustic guitar. Electric guitar comes in at the end of the third verse. The result is a quite different, and very beautiful, take on the original.

The scenes shown with this song are those of Pink's relations with the women in his life, drawing Freudian parallels between Pink's attitude towards his mother and to other women. We see Pink as a peeping tom, dancing with an older girl at a rather pathetic community function, getting married, and with his wife at home in the early stages of his present catatonic phase. The 'registry office' mentioned by Pink's Wife in the song is where one goes to obtain a certificate of marriage in Britain (so obviously, the dialogue is sarcastic). Another significant scene in this song is when we see Pink suffering from the illness which is referred to in the lyrics of Comfortably Numb.

Towards the end of the song, we catch up with the present and see Pink's Wife, disappointed by the increasing distance between them, become friendly and eventually sleeping with the leader of a local nuclear disarmament organization (a purposeful irony, perhaps, as Roger Waters was the leader of just such an organization in his youth). This is a smooth lead-in to the next song, which begins with the phone call back home in which Pink discovers what his wife has been up to.

Timing includes pause for brief dialogue.

TRACK LISTING
Overture/Prelude
When the Tigers Broke Free Part 1
In the Flesh?
Thin Ice, The
Another Brick in the Wall part 1
When the Tigers Broke Free Part 2
Goodbye Blue Sky
Happiest Days of Our Lives, The
Another Brick in the Wall part 2
Mother
What Shall We Do Now?
Young Lust
One of My Turns
Don't Leave Me Now
Another Brick in the Wall part 3
Goodbye Cruel World
Is There Anybody Out There?
Nobody Home
Vera
Bring the Boys Back Home
Comfortably Numb
In the Flesh
Run Like Hell
Waiting for the Worms
Stop
Trial, The
Outside the Wall