The Trial

The Trial 5:13
     (written by Waters, Ezrin)

Lyrics:

Prosecutor:
Good morning, Worm, your Honour
The Crown will plainly show
The prisoner who now stands before you
Was caught red-handed showing feelings
Showing feelings of an almost human nature
This will not do

Judge:
Call the schoolmaster!

Schoolmaster:
I always said he'd come to no good
In the end, your Honour
If they'd let me have my way
I could've flayed 'im into shape
But my hands were chained
The bleeding hearts and artists
* Let 'im get away with laughter
Let me hammer him today

Pink:
Crazy
Toys in the attic, I am crazy
Truly gone fishing
They must have taken my marbles away
Crazy
Toys in the attic, he is crazy

Wife:
You little shit, you're in it now
I hope they throw away the key
You should have talked to me more often then you did
But no!
You had to go your own way
Have you broken any homes up lately?
Just five minutes, Worm, your Honour
Him and me alone

Mother:
Babe!
Come to mother, baby
Let me hold you in my arms
M'lud, I never wanted him to get in any trouble
Why'd he ever have to leave me
Worm, your Honour, let me take him home

Pink:
Crazy
Over the rainbow, I am crazy
Bars in the window
There must have been a door there in the wall
When I came in
Crazy
Over the rainbow, he is crazy

Judge:
The evidence before the court is incontrovertible
There's no need for the jury to retire
In all my years of judging
I have never heard before
Of someone more deserving
* The full penalty of law
The way you made them suffer
Your exquisite wife and mother
Fills me with an urge to defecate!

Spectator:
Go, Judge! Shit on 'im!

Judge:
Since, my friend, you have revealed your deepest fear
I sentence you to be exposed before your peers
Tear down the wall!

Crowd:
Tear down the wall (14x)

The finale of the whole epic, rock theater on a grand scale. Realizing that he can't go on like this, Pink retreats totally within himself for a self-trial, the purpose of which is to exorcise his inner demons and determine his final fate.

Roger Waters: "The judge is part of him just as much as all the other characters and things he remembers... they're all in his mind, they're all memories, anyway, at the end of it all, when his judgment on himself is to de-isolate himself, which in fact is a very good thing."

Pink's decision is that he cannot survive behind his wall, and he must open up again, regardless of the risk. It is a sentence in that it is very difficult and frightening 'to be exposed before your peers,' but it is also a moment of liberation in that the constricting, corrupting confines of his wall have been destroyed, and he is finally free. This ending calls vividly to mind those words of Arthur Miller, "we are only what we always were, but naked now."

This ending was devised in concert with Bob Ezrin. Roger explains his original ending: "[Originally] the plan was just to build the wall and leave it. But that was too tough... too 'fuck you.'" [Schaffner 226]

TRACK LISTING
Disc One
In the Flesh?
Thin Ice, The
Another Brick in the Wall part 1
Happiest Days of Our Lives, The
Another Brick in the Wall part 2
Mother
Goodbye Blue Sky
Empty Spaces
Young Lust
One of My Turns
Don't Leave Me Now
Another Brick in the Wall part 3
Goodbye Cruel World
Disc Two
Hey You
Is There Anybody Out There?
Nobody Home
Vera
Bring the Boys Back Home
Comfortably Numb
Show Must Go On, The
In the Flesh
Run Like Hell
Waiting for the Worms
Stop
Trial, The
Outside the Wall