“Dude, this is a hit!”: Progressive Rock Legend Made a Special Announcement with a new Christmas No. 1’s magical combo.
The least festive Christmas number one ever was published on this day (30 November) in 1979.
No sleigh bells. No mention of the infant Jesus, mistletoe, presents, reindeer, or Santa.
Rather, this Yuletide smash was a disco-beatd protest song against authority. A song from a rock-opera concept album about celebrity and loneliness, battle and death, and paranoia and treachery.
A children’s choir did perform this song, but they weren’t chanting “I wish it could be Christmas every day!” “We don’t need no education!” they sneered. We don’t require mental restraint!
The Christmas hit song “Another Brick In The Wall Part 2” by Pink Floyd was completely devoid of any joyous spirit. Additionally, it included one of David Gilmour’s most creative and amazing guitar solos.
Roger Waters, Floyd’s lead vocalist and bassist, was heavily involved at this point in his career. In addition to coming up with the idea for the concept album The Wall, Waters composed all of the songs on it alone, with the exception of three that he co-authored with Gilmour and one that he co-wrote with producer Bob Ezrin.
Waters praised Ezrin’s contribution to making Another Brick In The Wall Part 2 a single, though, if The Wall was his baby. “It was fantastic,” Waters remarked. “Just what you would expect from a partner.”
Ezrin proposed that they give a disco beat a try. He stated, “I had just finished a session in New York, and the next studio had Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards [from Chic].” When I heard this drum beat, I thought, “Wow, that would go really well with rock ‘n’ roll!” That beat continued to play in my brain when I started listening to Another Brick when I arrived in England a few months later.
Floyd and especially the guitarist had never heard disco music before. “It was Bob’s idea to do disco music, not mine,” Gilmour remarked. “Go to a couple of clubs and check out what disco music is doing,” he said. Gawd, terrible, I thought as I pushed myself outside and listened to loud, four-to-the-bar bass drums and other noises. In order to make it catchy, we then went back and attempted to transform one of the pieces into one of those.
Floyd hadn’t released an album in the UK since 1968’s Point Me At The Sky, and Ezrin claimed that when he was working on Another Brick In The Wall Part 2, he encountered opposition.
“When Roger wrote the song, it was only one verse and one chorus long, so the most important thing I did for it was to insist it be longer,” Ezrin recalls. “Man, this is a hit!” I said as we experimented with the disco beat. But it won’t play because it’s just minute twenty. Two choruses and two verses are required. “Well, you’re not bloody getting them,” they replied. F**k you, we don’t do singles. I said, “Okay, fine,” and they departed. Additionally, we were able to duplicate the first verse and chorus, insert one of the drum fills in between, and lengthen the chorus due of our two machine setups while they were away.
