Waiting for the Worms

Song infobox
Name = Waiting for the Worms


Artist = Pink Floyd
Album = The Wall
Released = 30 November 1979 (US), 8 December 1979 (UK)
track_no = 10 of disc 2
Recorded = April-November, 1979
Genre = Art rock/Progressive rock
Length = 3:58
Writer = Waters
Label = Harvest Records (UK)
Columbia Records (US)/Capitol Records (US)
Producer = Bob Ezrin, David Gilmour and Roger Waters
prev = "Run Like Hell"
prev_no = 9 of disc 2
next = "Stop"
next_no = 11 of disc 2"Waiting for the Worms" is a song on the Pink Floyd album "The Wall". It is preceded by "Run Like Hell" and followed by "Stop". At this point in the album, Pink has lost all hope and has let bad ideas, the "worms", control his thoughts. In his hallucination, he is a fascist dictator who spreads hatred, with the promise that his followers would see "Britannia rule again" and "send our coloured cousins home again," and announces he is "waiting to turn on the showers and fire the ovens." The count-in is "Eins, zwei, drei, alle" - German for "one, two, three, all..." (Probably intended to rally the masses to flock to Pink's call). The song is very drastic but quiet to begin with, then at 1:21 a voice yelling from a megaphone starts providing a commentary-like speech, and it continues at 1:26 where the song starts to go into a very heavy section. For the rest of the song it switches back and forth from heavy to calm, the different voices coming in at different times, until the very end where the voice from the megaphone begins very desperate calls and the music grows louder, making the voice incomprehensible. In the film version, it goes to an animated sequence with marching hammers. Also, at some points of the song Another Brick in the Wall's riff can be heard.

ong Synopsis

While most of the "Fascist Rally" section of the song is incomprehensible, some words and phrases are distinctly audible. The lyrics of the first minute and twenty seconds of the song are clear and distinct, along with a few lines spoken during the latter part.

The opening of the song (0:03 - 0:34) sets the scene, describing Pink's final completion of the wall.

The second part of the song (0:34 - 1:20) elaborates on this central theme, proclaiming in a dreamy voice (broken by the Fascist leader's voice crying, "Waiting for the worms to come!" after each verse).

At this point, the lyrics become afflicted with the feedback of a megaphone, and some of the first line is lost. It is believed that the first line is "Will the Audience convene at one fifteen, outside Brixton town hall, where we will be-" The middle section begins, where the word "waiting" is chanted by Pink's surrogate band at the start of each line.

The dreamy voice from the middle of the song breaks in at 2:11, signalling the start of the penultimate section, which lasts until 2:53. Once again, the Fascist leader breaks in after each verse crying, "All you have to do is follow the worms!".

At this point, the ultimate section of the song begins. It is a dramatic guitar refrain of The Wall's "leitmotif", which repeats many times up until the climax of the song, where Pink shouts "Stop!" (This guitar refrain can also be found in the song "The Trial"), in the background as the Judge is announcing his verdict.) Towards the end of the song, starting around 3:12, the sound of a mob begins to come in. They are chanting a single word, which does not become intelligible until around 3:38, at which point it can clearly be heard as "Hammer!" Meanwhile, the Fascist leader is announcing his plans, which are largely indistinct, both because of the music and the feedback, and later because of the chanting crowd. However, there are references to "The queers and the coons and the Reds and the Jews" after the mention of the showers and ovens.

"The Worms will convene outside Brixton Town Hall. We'll be moving along at about 12 o'clock down Stockwell Road {?and then we'll cross at?} {Abbot's Road} {?which may harbor resistance?} twelve minutes to three we'll be moving along Lambeth Road towards Vauxhall Bridge. Now when we get to the other side of Vauxhall Bridge we're in Westminster {Borough } area. It's quite possible we may encounter some Jew boys and from now on {?we've got to be careful?} by the way we go. At eighteen after midday, {?we'll all be at Hyde Park! and there we'll continue?...}"

The last few sentences of the Fascist leader's speech are complete babble, not only drowned out by other sounds, but also screamed so angrily they could not be rightly understood even without interfering noises. His speech ends about six seconds before the end of the song, at which point the crescendo in the music and the voices of the mob builds up until the moment Pink yells the last word.

Film Version

We see a cartoon portion with some teenagers (the same ones from In the Flesh?) run over a ragdoll version of Pink. He then shouts through a megaphone while his followers march through the street. After we see the fascist crowd, the screaming head and a fascist breaking a man's skull from What Shall We Do Now?, a dog biting meat off a hook then consumed by a larger one (from the Animals tour), and the famous goose-stepping hammer sequence, we see Pink yell "Stop", longer than in the album and the concerts, more tormented than frustrated.

Hammer references

There are many hammer references in this segmentFact|date=June 2008, which join in with the story arc of hammers. The flags that The Worms fly have crossed hammers on them, they all wear hammer armbands, and there is the famous hammer sequence, as said in the previous paragraph.

Concerts

Usually in the concerts of "The Wall", a member of Pink Floyd, often Waters, would wear dictator uniform. Gilmour would provide the high pitched "Ooooh, you cannot reach me now, Ooooooh!" The song would build up until the lights all went off, to prepare to show the "Pink puppet" that 'sung' Stop.

Animation

The full, uncut animation shown at the concert begins with a cartoon image of a hill. on top of the hill are indistinct objects, moving. Suddenly, as the guitar leitmotif plays briefly, the sky goes dark grey, a symbolism of evil. The scene scrolls down to reveal London being enveloped in darkness as "Sitting in bunker..." and the rest of that verse is sung. Then, an abandoned trike, left by a scared child possibly, is shown, as "In perfect isolation..." and the rest of "that" verse is sung. An abandoned playground, again left by scared children maybe, is shown as the final verse is sung. Then, we are shown a viaduct, where something is goosestepping. At long last it is revealed to us: The objects on the hill, what possibly scared the children, what was under the viaduct...the famous marching hammers. As the fascist dictator becomes more and more desperate, louder and angrier, there is a fast camera pan in to the hammers, which could be Pink's hallucination slowly bumping to a halt, and as the camera pans faster and faster, suddenly there is a loud abrupt instrumental sound, which is quickly replaced by a piano. The animation stops, as the audience is taken into "Stop".

Personnel

*Roger Waters - VCS3 [Fitch, Vernon and Mahon, Richard, "Comfortably Numb - A History of The Wall 1978-1981", 2006, p. 89] , lead and backing vocals [Fitch and Mahon, p. 108] , megaphone screaming [Fitch and Mahon, p. 108]
*Nick Mason - drums [Fitch and Mahon, p. 108]
*Richard Wright - organ [Fitch and Mahon, p. 108]
*David Gilmour - backing vocals on intro [Fitch and Mahon, p. 108] , lead vocals [Fitch and Mahon, p. 108] , laughter [Fitch and Mahon, p. 108] , guitars [Fitch and Mahon, p. 108] , bass guitar [Fitch and Mahon, p. 108] . Prophet-5 synthesizer [Fitch and Mahon, p. 108]
*Bob Ezrin - piano [Fitch and Mahon, p. 108] , backing vocals on intro [Fitch and Mahon, p. 108]
*Joe Chemay - backing vocals [Fitch and Mahon, p. 108]
*Stan Farber - backing vocals [Fitch and Mahon, p. 108]
*Jim Haas - backing vocals [Fitch and Mahon, p. 108]
*Bruce Johnston - backing vocals [Fitch and Mahon, p. 108]
*John Joyce - backing vocals [Fitch and Mahon, p. 108]
*Toni Tennille - backing vocals [Fitch and Mahon, p. 108]

References

* Fitch, Vernon. The Pink Floyd Encyclopedia (3rd edition), 2005. ISBN 1-894959-24-8
* Waiting for Worms - The Wall Lyrics - Pink Floyd Lyrics ( [http://www.pink-floyd-lyrics.com/html/waiting-for-worms-wall-lyrics.html] )
* Wall Interview - Jim Ladd [Waiting For The Worms] ( [http://www.pink-floyd.org/artint/119.htm] )