The Happiest Days of Our Lives

Song infobox
Name = The Happiest Days of Our Lives


Artist = Pink Floyd
Album = The Wall
Released = 30 November 1979 (US), 8 December 1979 (UK)
track_no = 4 of disc 1
Recorded = April-November, 1979
Genre = Art rock/Progressive rock
Length = 1:46
Producer = Bob Ezrin, David Gilmour and Roger Waters
Writer = Waters
Label = Harvest Records (UK)
Columbia Records (US)/Capitol Records (US)
prev = "Another Brick in the Wall, Part I"
prev_no = 3 of disc 1
next = "Another Brick in the Wall, Part II"
next_no = 5 of disc 1
Misc =Extra tracklisting
Album =
Type = Compilation album
prev_track = "See Emily Play"
prev_no = 2
this_track = "The Happiest Days of Our Lives"
track_no = 3
next_track = "Another Brick in the Wall, Part II"
next_no = 4 "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" is a song by the British progressive rock band Pink Floyd. It was released on "The Wall" album in 1979.

Composition

The song is approximately 1 minute, 52 seconds in length, beginning with 24 seconds of a helicopter approaching followed by shouting from the schoolmaster. When Kate Bush tried to add a similar helicopter to the fadeout of her single "Experiment IV", her recording engineers were unable to duplicate the overwhelming sound, so she asked Roger Waters for the original tape, and he obliged as long as it was mentioned in the credits. After that the sound effects abruptly cut out for the lyrical portion. Throughout the most of the song, the lead instrument is the bass guitar with an added delay effect and during the bridge to "Another Brick in the Wall, Part II", there are intense drums and backing vocals. Due to the smooth transition from this song to Another Brick In The Wall Pt. II, many people think this song "is part" of Another Brick.

On the album, "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" segues into "Another Brick in the Wall, Part II" with a loud, high-pitched scream by Roger Waters (this sound is later reprised on Run Like Hell). Because of this segue, many radio stations play one right after the other.

In the film based on the album, the sound at the beginning of the song is depicted as coming from a train entering a large tunnel, rather than a helicopter heard on the album. According to Gerald Scarfe, there was supposed to be a puppet of the teacher at the end of the tunnel in the film. Alan Parker made shots of it, but it didn't work out, so they used the actor who played the teacher to do the scene instead. Before the cut in the middle for the Schoolmaster to mock Pink, somewhat quiet hysterical laughter is heard, extremely similar to the Schoolmaster's voice.

Plot

As with the other songs on "The Wall", "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" tells a portion of the story of "Pink", the album's protagonist. Pink is sent to a school run by strict and often violent teachers who pour derision on anything the pupils do.

Film version

Pink and his two friends go down to a railroad track to lay bullets on the rails and watch them explode as the passing train runs over and ignites the ammunition. Pink, putting himself up against the tunnel wall, sees that the train cars are packed with faceless people, and sees his teacher at the other end of the tunnel, yelling at Pink and ordering him to stand still. In the next scene, which takes place in Pink's school, the teacher discovers Pink writing a poem, which contains lyrics from "Money" from "The Dark Side of the Moon", and, as punishment, ridicules Pink by reading his poem out loud to the entire class and slaps his hand with a ruler. The scene after shows the teacher in his own home, being forced to eat a piece of hard meat during dinner at his wife's silent command. To relieve himself of this frustration, the teacher spanks a child with a belt the next day. In the film it seems the Schoolmaster is not so vicious as in the album, but Pink views him in a negative way.

Personnel

*David Gilmour - guitars [Fitch, Vernon and Mahon, Richard, "Comfortably Numb - A History of The Wall 1978-1981" (2006)]
*Nick Mason - floor tom, snare and kick drum [Ibid, p.74]
*Roger Waters - bass with delay [Ibid, p.74] , lead vocals [Ibid, p.74] , backing vocals [Ibid, p.74]
*James Guthrie - hi-hat and choke cymbal [Ibid, p.74]

References

* Fitch, Vernon. The Pink Floyd Encyclopedia (3rd edition), 2005. ISBN 1-894959-24-8

Notes

ee also

*Another Brick in the Wall
*The Wall