In the Flesh?
| "In the Flesh?" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Pink Floyd from the album The Wall | |
| Published | Pink Floyd Music Publishers Ltd |
| Released | 30 November 1979 (UK) 8 December 1979 (US) |
| Recorded | January – November 1979 |
| Genre | Hard rock, progressive rock |
| Length | 3:16 |
| Label |
Harvest (UK) Columbia (US) |
| Writer(s) | Roger Waters |
| Producer(s) | Bob Ezrin, David Gilmour, James Guthrie, Roger Waters |
"In the Flesh?" (working title, "The Show?") is a song by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released on their 1979 album, The Wall. The title is a reference to the band's 1977 In the Flesh Tour, during which Roger Waters, in frustration, spat at a fan attempting to climb the fence separating the band from the crowd.
Waters has said that the main chord sequence and melody was not initially part of The Wall, but was borrowed from The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking, which Waters wrote at the same time as The Wall, but recorded as a solo release.
The majority of the song is in the key of A Major and its time signature is 6/8. The arrangement is highly dynamic and dramatic. The first few seconds of the song are very quiet, and feature the melody of the song "Outside the Wall", which is the album's closing track. The recording begins abruptly in mid-song, and a man quietly speaks the phrase "... we came in?" At the end of the album, the recording of "Outside the Wall" cuts off abruptly, as the man says "Isn't this where..." This demonstrates a cyclical nature to the concept of the album, much in the way that The Dark Side of the Moon opens and closes with the sound of a heartbeat.
The quiet melody of "Outside the Wall" is interrupted in mid-phrase, as the main body of the song starts loudly, with a succession of power chords on organ and distorted guitars. A low-pitched melody begins, at a slow pace, with rapid snare drum fills. This lasts for over a minute before the singing starts, and the tone shifts to gentle keyboards and male doo-wop harmony in the background. Following the lyrics, the loud guitar melody returns. During this outro, Roger Waters shouts out stage directions, and a Stuka dive-bomber can be heard. The final sound in the track is that of a baby crying.
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Wikipedia