Would You Like to See Britannia Rule Again

Song In A Sentence:

Pink wars within himself as his insane, dictator rants culminate in shouts of indigenous cleansing, effectively turning him into the very sort of force that killed his father.

I n its position after "In the Flesh" and "Run Like Hell," the theatrical beginning for "Waiting for the Worms" offers more than than a slight serenity from the racial slurs and threats of Pink'southward latest incarnation. If anything, it shows that despite the potency of the Hitler-esque effigy that's causeless control over Pink'due south mind, in that location is still a slightly reasonable, somewhat cognizant self trapped beneath. There is a glimmer of the sometime Pink below the furious eyes of his fascist shell, perhaps the very self that his militant persona was threatening in the previous song.

Stepping abroad from the delusion of autocratic supremacy, Pink, at first in the multiple voices of his splintered personality, recounts his current state behind his cocky-created defenses. He bids "goodbye [to the] cruel world" once over again, though this fourth dimension his farewell is spoken more than out of the sorrowful realization over what he'south done rather than the egotistical need for self-isolation that ended the album's beginning one-half. He has discovered that his "perfect isolation" is far from ideal – non the tranquility solitude from the insanity of the world that he had imagined, only in reality a vicious war betwixt the opposing forces of his mind. Like so many troops throughout history whose lives are but chess pieces in the hands of military dictators, he is a lone soldier trapped backside his "bunker," not so much lamenting his state of affairs as he is accepting of it. He waits for the imminent death and decay (the dictatorial voice that continually interrupts his musings) that he knows must surely come rather than hoping for a fashion out. Yet despite the fact that Pink is doubtful of his fate and that his dictator persona resumes full control over his listen merely a few verses into the song, the very connected being of this underlying authentic cocky hints at the potential for alter and eventual rebellion over the worms of decay.

Just for the time beingness the fascist cocky resumes control over Pink'due south mind and the balance of the song. Just as "In the Flesh" socially paralleled the first stages of Hitler's rule with the labeling of "outsiders," and "Run Like Hell" represented the adjacent stride, recalling Kristallnacht and the removal of Jews into the ghettos, "Waiting for the Worms" symbolically depicts the final stages in the buildup to the Holocaust, a period in which over 6 millions Jews and minorities were slaughtered by the ruling Nazi party. In the course of 3 songs, Pink'south autocratic personality has moved from indigenous branding, to segregation, and finally to minority obliteration, shouting through a megaphone at his audition for nothing curt of ethnic cleansing every bit the baritone voices of his followers punctuate his every decree with the foreboding "waiting." Fascist Pink has progressed across the indigenous slurs and threats of the previous songs; he now promises the broad-spread destruction of those who stand in his mode, a promise that cements his transformation into the very despotic, oppressive force that killed his father and stained his life from nativity.

The Hitler / World War Two parallels are as abundant as they are blatant, from "the last solution," referencing Nazi Federal republic of germany'south systematic genocide of European Jews, to "turn[ing] on the showers and fir[ing] the ovens," alluding to the gas chambers and big ovens that respectively killed and incinerated the bodies of their victims. Other dictators and oppressive regimes are referenced throughout the song, likewise, such as the Blackshirts (besides known as camicie nere or squadristi), a collective proper noun for fascist paramilitary groups comprised of nationalist intellectuals and former soldiers which Benito Mussolini used betwixt the ii World Wars to intimdate and ofttimes murder his opponents. Pink'due south command to "put on a black shirt," coupled with the later ruminations well-nigh seeing "Britainnia rule once again" also call to mind the British Union of Fascists, a political party started in Corking United kingdom in 1932 by old Labour party government minister Sir Oswald Mosley. After visiting with Mussolini in 1931, Mosley adopted the Italian leader'southward fascist credo and borrowed heavily from the Blackshirts for his own BUF (British Union of Fascists). A number of BUF principles centered around isolating Britain from the remainder of the world in terms of trade, commerce and civilisation, a very wall-like theme that is all but apparent in Pink's ain nationalistic rants in "Waiting for the Worms."

Though written from a WWII slant, "Waiting for the Worms" is even so wide enough to address the recurring decay of the human condition throughout history as a consequence of personal and social isolation. While borrowing lyrical imagery from specific regimes, it is not a song specifically about Hitler and Nazi Germany, nor is it solely about Mussolini or Mosely or whatever ane dictator. Rather, it is about all of these and more. Information technology is a conglomeration of corrupted leaders and fascist ideas, a song that ceases to exist well-nigh 1 person, leader or idea and becomes the universal force of oppression that has plagued the egotistical minds of men since the get-go of human history. It is the deceptive impetus of extreme nationalism by which one believes his nation is supreme over others ("would you like to see Britannia rule again?") or that a grouping can and should be segregated and annihilated because their ethnicity or beliefs differ from the ruling majority ("would you like to see our colored cousins abode again?"). It is the hammer-similar bulldoze of creation by which nations rise and men are made famous but equally much as it is the worm-similar force of decay past which those aforementioned countries and men fall and are fabricated infamous.

Ultimately, it'due south this very force of oppression every bit well every bit the endurance of his true persona that snaps Pinkish back to reality. Roger Waters says in his 1979 interview that equally the drugs in Pink's arrangement habiliment off, "he keeps flipping backwards and frontward from his real, or his original persona if you like, which is a reasonably kind of humane person, into this waiting-for-the-worms-to-come persona, which…is set up to beat anybody or anything that gets in the way." Like the disuse of his own morality, the song devolves into a cacophany of shouted slurs and threats, with crowd chants of "hammer" growing in volume and ferocity. The feelings of oppression, isolation, hatred, and every other negative feeling associated with the wall culminate in a swirling, chaotic blend, augmented past the heavily distorted reappearance of the guitar riff used and contorted into various forms throughout the anthology. From both "In the Flesh" versions, the "Another Brick in the Wall" triptych, the guitar solo in "the Thin Ice" and the bridge of "Hey Yous," the musical theme that symbolizes all the negative facets of Pink'south wall – the oppression, repression, self-isolation and decay that has stripped away his individuality and turned him into the very sort of monster he in one case abhorred. Here, the riff is made well-nigh unbearable past the roiling chant of the crowd and Pink'south own shouted threats, grown so distorted that they become senseless noise. However just as the frenzy reaches its climax, it is abruptly eclipsed past old Pink's terminal cry for freedom as he screams "Stop!" a singular command of activeness from the depths of his self-made prison. Old Pink has had enough and is finally ready for change.

Though much of the song is cut from the movie, the sequence for "Waiting for the Worms" does a brilliant job at visually depicting the foreboding, oppressive tone of the album's track. The song begins with Pink's theatrical farewell to the "cruel world," set over images of the fascist followers conveying the crossed hammer banners and constructing a stage in the center of a street. The rest of old Pink's musings are excised and the song proceeds every bit his dictator self takes the platform with a black megaphone through which he announces his edicts. No longer content to proselytize to his own captive audition, Pinkish takes to the streets in a seemingly impromptu rally meant to bring his message of fear and isolation to every doorstep in Briatin. For many, the sequence owes much to Oswald Mosley's Oct 1936 planned march of his BUF blackshirts through London'southward E End, which had a big Jewish population at the time. The march was somewhen abandoned after a heavy police presence and an estimated 300,000 anti-fascist protestors turned out to block the BUF'due south route in what has come to exist known as the Battle of Cable Street. Pink, on the other hand, finds lilliputian resistence as residents of the street are quick to lock themselves behind their doors and windows. The rest of the abridged song cycles through various rioting shots, the animation sequence from "What Shall Nosotros Do Now?" in which a fascist fellow member bashes in the head of another human being, and the famous animated sequence of the army of hammers marching synchronously with the oversupply'south "hammer" chant. Buried beneath the chaos, all the same, are a few shots that, similar the appearance of old Pink'south rational vocalization at the showtime and ending of the vocal, bear witness that the protagonist'south true self is notwithstanding extant and capable of redemption. As Pink sings of his entrapment at the commencement of the song, there is a brief shot of a grouping of concert fans trampling a Pink doll underfoot, followed by an image of that very same doll huddled confronting a grate. The symbolism of the scene is ominous, depicting how those who are often in the public eye are oftentimes thrashed past those they entertain. In this case, in trying to live upwards to the godlike standards placed upon him by his followers, Pink has lost his individuality – his soul – and has go nothing more than than a faceless doll. Yet at the same time, the very inclusion of this image is a welcome sight for the viewer, who has been absorbed past the unrelenting images of Fascist Pink's dominion over the past 2 songs. If nothing else, these shots are a reminder that at that place is another, more rational Pinkish below the surface of this Nazi-like incarnation, one who continues to appear throughout the song's otherwise frightful visuals in brief glimpses, silently screaming for release. Similar the anthology, this rational self finally finds his voice at the climax of the vocal, screaming "Cease" above the roaring crowd, the marching hammers, and the detest-filled cries of his soon-to-be dethroned dictator self.

"I kickoff heard The Wall while I was in the U.S. Navy in 1979. My friends and I discussed information technology incessantly, and we came upwards with some of the same ideas you've expressed hither. But but in the by few years have I peradventure caught on to something else. This beginning came when I saw a retrospective of the Sex Pistols and the whole punk movement of the mid to belatedly 1970's. I call back Johnny Rotten saying how much he and his cohorts hated Pink Floyd. They said that Floyd represented everything they hated most modern music, stadium stone, etc. They wore anti-Floyd t-shirts. The punk move in Britain was large and violent. At that place were riots between punks and blacks in Brixton (recalled by the voiceover making slight mention of 'Brixton town hall' in the text). I call back that Waters saw the punks as neo-fascists, espousing some of the same ignorant hatreds that Pinkish's father died fighting against in WWII. The references in 'The Evidence Must Go on' and 'Waiting for the Worms' are conspicuously related to fascism, and I call back that the group saw it raising its ugly head again in the sometimes breathless just threatening letters of many punks. So Pink'due south persona about the end of the album is a slam confronting this move and the evil that lies inside it." - Paul A. McNaney

"I was merely looking at your analysis for 'Waiting for the Worms' and when I was reading about the many Nazi-esque references, some other jumped out at me. At the end of the vocal, when Gilmour sings, 'Would you like to run across Britannia dominion again, my friend?', he sings it in a stunningly cute voice found nowhere else on the album. Then comes Waters with his more sinister, less disguised voice singing, 'All you have to practise is follow the worms.' This is followed past another repitition of dazzler and sinister suggestions, which is how the Nazis attracted followers. Past baiting them with sugariness words (restore the Motherland to a respected position, finish poverty, etc.), and once they were hooked, unleashing the full force of their evil and hatred upon them (kill the Jews, gays, gypsies, etc.), they managed to attract about of Germany to their cause." - Michael Graham

"The whole vocal seems to exist presented with similar musical instrumentals from by songs in the album. The song opens with a similar musical arroyo as to that of 'The Testify Must Go along,' and recalls 'Bye Barbarous World' in its lyrics. Perhaps to correspond Pink'southward realisation that now that his neo-nazi party has been assembled and has already killed/harmed some of the 'queers and the coons and the reds and the jews,' he tin can't plough back and that the evidence (refering to his facist political party) must continue their programme. The lyrics to this also seem to refer to this fact. The whole sequence with Pinkish and his nazi party singing may also exist refering back to 'Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2' with the school choir singing. Symbolising the similarity between the school children rioting and called-for their teachers, similar to how Pink and his clan are rioting and planning to burn those of other minorities. As sparse as the connection may be, it still sheds a valid comparing. A lilliputian further into the vocal, there is a guitar solo heard. The guitar solo is really very similar to that used mid-way in 'Hey You,' which as well seems to infringe some parts of the 1 put forwards in 'The Sparse Ice' and parts of that in 'Comfortably Numb,' besides as (in places) becoming a similar, more ambitious, version of the riff from 'Some other Brick In The Wall, Part i.' Concerning the (possible) references to these by songs could exist to represent Pink looking dorsum at his nearly contempo actions in the motion-picture show. The song ends with Pink yelling 'Cease!' at the top of his vocalism, mayhap showing his desire to accept these flashbacks stop. He'south looking back at his recent madness (symbolised with the guitar solo), and he's non liking information technology one bit. The hammers marching, accompanied by said guitar solo and images of Pink yelling are a very powerful image, in my stance." - Liam Elcoat

pittsanks1988.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.thewallanalysis.com/waiting-for-the-worms/