Pink Floyd Lyrics, Themes & Meanings: Mother

Mother 5:32
(written by Roger Waters)

Lyrics:
Mother, do you think they'll drop the bomb?
Mother, do you think they'll like this song?
Mother, do you think they'll try to break my balls?
Oh, Mother, should I build the wall?

Mother, should I run for President?
Mother, should I trust the government?
Mother, will they put me in the firing line?
Oh, is it just a waste of time?

Hush, my baby, baby, don't you cry
Mama's gonna make all of your nightmares come true
Mama's gonna put all of her fears into you
Mama's gonna keep you right here under her wing
She won't let you fly, but she might let you sing
Mama's gonna keep baby cozy and warm
Oh, babe (3x), of course Mama's gonna help build the wall

Mother, do you think she's good enough
For me?
Mother, do you think she's dangerous
To me?
Mother, will she tear your little boy apart?
Oh, Mother, will she break my heart?

Hush, my baby, baby, don't you cry
Mama's gonna check out all your girlfriends for you
Mama won't let anyone dirty get through
Mama's going wait up until you get in
Mama will always find out where you've been
Mama's gonna to keep baby healthy and clean
Oh, baby, oh, babe (2x), you'll always be baby to me

Mother, did it need to be so high?

The next brick in Pink's wall is that of a mother who tries to compensate for the absence of the father by smothering her child with love and protectiveness. This is a portion of the narrative which is not strictly based on the author's own experience, but rather more general observations.

Roger: "If you can level one accusation at mothers it is that they tend to protect their children too much. Too much and for too long. That's all. This isn't a portrait of my mother, although some of the, you know, one or two of the things in there apply to her as well as to I'm sure lots of other people's mothers. Funnily enough, lots of people recognize that and in fact, a woman that I know the other day who'd heard the album, called me up and said she'd liked it. And she said that listening to that track made her feel very guilty and she's got herself three kids, and I wouldn't have said she was particularly over-protective towards her children. I was interested, you know, she's a woman, of well, my age, and I was interested that it had got through to her. I was glad it had..."

Here is a good place to note some of the visual events which accompanied the previous songs in the live concert of The Wall. After the dramatic plane crash onto the stage at the end of In the Flesh?, the progression of songs, each detailing the bricks in the character's wall, were accompanied by a small crane lifting actual sets of white cardboard bricks into place at the conclusion of each song, more firmly illustrating the theme. Roadies continually placed individual bricks throughout.

A number of critics at the time complained that the imagery involved was too heavy-handed, and had a tendency to bash the audience over the head with its lack of subtlety. However, the obviousness of the imagery was probably entirely purposeful, due to the fact that both Roger and the band had in the past encountered wide-spread misinterpretation of the lyrics, even when they were intentionally written to be clear and simple [see quotes under Dark Side of the Moon].

TRACK LISTING
Disc One