

I continued my association with Pink Floyd by collaborating on The Wall. A leaf tumbled through the sky and slowly turned into a naked man who, still tumbling, smashed through the sky as though it were made of glass. The blood turned to groping hands which prayed to the metal monoliths. A metal monster that stomped across the landscape for the song, 'Welcome to the Machine', a sea of blood that appeared over the horizon, raced towards us and engulfed two shining, circular metal towers. I drew a man who walked slowly towards the camera, stopped and was eroded, like sand, by the blowing wind. The first animations I made for Wish You Were Here were projected onto a circular screen at the back of the stage, behind the band. I ended up with a studio of about forty animators whom I tried to wean away from the Disney system in which most are trained. I didn’t take up the offer for some time – it seemed like a lot of work and I feared it might stop the flow of my other work (it did!).
#Pink floyd the wall album art series
Two members of Pink Floyd (Roger and Nick) saw this film when it was shown on the BBC and asked me to make an animated film for their next series of live concerts, based on their LP Wish You Were Here. I worked, ate and slept that project for six weeks, drawing every cliché I knew about America straight onto 70mm film - from Coca Cola to John Wayne. This still meant an immense amount of work, drawing every second of a twenty minute film. The 'De Joux' system cut that number to only six or eight by mixing photographically between every drawing and producing the illusion of extra movement.

#Pink floyd the wall album art full
In full Disney-type animation there are twelve drawings to one second of film. We used a new animation system called the ‘De Joux’ system. “In 1973, the BBC sent me to Los Angeles to work on a twenty minute animated film about all things American – a psychedelic stream-of-consciousness work featuring Mickey Mouse, Black Power, Playboy Magazine, the Statue of Liberty, Nixon and John Wayne. In the words of the illustrator, Gerald Scarfe (interviewed July 2007, with additional quotes and info provided by Julie Davies and the nice folks at ) – To horrify people with a drawing of the waste of war I must make a horrific drawing of war, and when I come to draw people, their bodies become vehicles for their emotions – greed, lust, cruelty.” Considering The Wall’s subject material, the story behind the making of today’s Cover Story image is particularly compelling…. Scarfe as illustrator was inspired, as he creates “drawings that are often a cry against that which I detest, and in showing my dislike I have to draw the dislikeable. cartoonist and illustrator Gerald Scarfe, who then also designed the giant puppets of the 'Mother', 'Wife' and 'Teacher', as well as the animations that were projected around the theater and onto the Wall constructed during the public performances of the opera. Whatever the motivation, the record required 8 months in the South of France to complete.Īll Pink Floyd records since their 1967 release The Piper at the Gates of Dawn had featured cover designs/packaging by Storm Thorgerson and Hipgnosis. Near the end of the tour, an angry Waters spat in the face of an audience member who was trying to jump up onto the stage with the band. It was after this record that founding keyboardist Richard Wright departed, to return as a paid player when the band performed The Wall on tour, finally re-uniting as a full member in 1987.Īccording to the legend, songwriter/lyricist Roger Waters was inspired to begin writing The Wall while on tour in 1977 promoting their Animals record. It was voted #87 of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” in the 2003 survey published by Rolling Stone Magazine. (topping at #3 in the U.K.) and included the #1 hit single “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)”, along with the hits “Hey You”, “Run Like Hell”, and the epic “Comfortably Numb”. and on Harvest Records in the UK), is the best-selling multi-disc recording of all time, having sold well over 30 million packages since its 1979 release. Pink Floyd’s “rock opera” The Wall (released on Columbia Records in the U.S. Subject – "Hammers" from The Wall – a 1979 recording by Pink Floyd, released on Columbia Records and featuring illustrations by Gerald Scarfe.
