Veteran rocker Roger Waters still building The Wall

Photos by Timothy Hiatt / Getty Images

Roger Waters performs The Wall on June 8, 2012 in Chicago.

By Robert Hood

“I don't need no arms around me, and I don’t need no drugs to calm me. I have seen the writing on the wall. Don't think I need anything at all.” ~ Roger Waters

Actors perform with Roger Waters in Chicago on Friday night.

It’s interesting how a different perspective changes the way you perceive something. Pink Floyd’s The Wall was released in the autumn of my freshman year in high school, and it became the background music of that time in my life. I’ll never forget hearing the opening bars of the title track and instantly understanding it was different, dare I say special. The music was angry, but it was also smart and focused in its look at isolation and abandonment. I connected with it because of its confrontational stance and painful message. Are we all angry when we’re young?

I recently heard Roger Waters perform The Wall. I still enjoy the music, but my reasons for appreciation have changed. The music still enables a little anger to bubble at the bottom of my soul, but a few decades will mellow a person. All that time has sanded down most of my angry edges. Seeing Waters perform The Wall now makes me want to shout the praises of a grizzled veteran who isn’t ready to set down his ax. It’s great to see Waters still out there building and tearing down the walls.