Pink Floyd's 'The Wall' exhibit

Pink Floyd's The Wall

Photo: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images

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Pink Floyd's 'The Wall': For The Record

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Find out how Roger Waters' critique of "education" journeyed from imaginative concept to the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame
Philip Merrill
GRAMMYs
Nov 23, 2017 - 8:15 am

"Teacher, leave them kids alone! All in all it's just another brick in the wall. All in all you're just another brick in the wall."

Although Pink Floyd's GRAMMY win at the 37th Annual GRAMMY Awards came without Roger Waters in the lineup, they all shared in The Wall's 2008 induction to the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame.

For The Record: Pink Floyd's 'The Wall'

Originally released on Nov. 30, 1979, the epic double album was nominated for Album Of The Year and Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal at the 23rd Annual GRAMMY Awards, and was subsequently adapted into the 1982 film Pink Floyd: The Wall. Waters went on to also be nominated individually for the 2014 documentary Roger Waters: The Wall at the 58th GRAMMY Awards.

The high-concept appeal of Waters' imagination did not impress record executives initially, but over time it's caught on in a big way. The Wall has been certified 23-times platinum by the RIAA, trailing only the Eagles' Their Greatest Hits 1971–1975 and Michael Jackson's Thriller.

The single "Another Brick In The Wall (Part II)" from The Wall became iconic in itself, partly thanks to obnoxious schoolmaster lines such as, "If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding! How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?" Many of the song's frills were added by Bob Ezrin, making itself a self-contained drama within the album's wider scope.

The main character Pink in The Wall was partially autobiographical for Waters but also partly based on former Pink Floyd bandmate Syd Barrett, who had originally named the band. The two friends struggled with similar psychological and substance-abuse issues, but Barrett's prevented him from being able to continue writing and performing. Waters was under immense pressure to step up and deliver creativity that could fill Barrett's big boots.

The result was The Wall.

The Making Of Pink Floyd's The Wall

George Ezra

George Ezra

Photo: Mark Metcailfe/Getty Images

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Top 10 Vinyl Bestsellers Of 2018 Reflect British Tastes

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With the UK's own David Bowie, Oasis, Pink Floyd, Queen, and Amy Winehouse coming in strong, find out who else made the list
Philip Merrill
GRAMMYs
Jan 4, 2019 - 6:01 pm

The Official Charts Company announced 2018's vinyl album bestsellers on Jan. 4, and the results offer a quick trip to British taste — as David Bowie, Pink Floyd, Queen, and Amy Winehouse give the feeling that London is calling, Oasis' (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? gives a shout out to Manchester and Arctic Monkeys top the list at No. 1.

For The Record: Amy Winehouse's 'Back To Black'

Many of the albums on the list present a tour of past peaks for the artists. Amy Winehouse's Back To Black won Best Pop Vocal Album at the 50th GRAMMY Awards. David Bowie and Queen both make the list based on recent greatest hits compilations.

Nirvana's 'Nevermind': For The Record

But not all of the top vinyl albums of 2018 came from England. The Seattle alternative sound of Nirvana made the list too, alongside British-American hybrid Fleetwood Mac. Nirvana's Nevermind brought the band its first nomination at the 34th GRAMMY Awards for Best Alternative Music Album. Fleetwood Mac's Rumours won Album Of The Year at the 20th GRAMMY Awards.

Newcomer George Ezra made a strong appearance on the list, with Staying At Tamara's punching in at No. 6.

Pink Floyd's The Dark Side Of The Moon has surrounded and shaped so many life experiences that it is sentimental to see it still in the UK top 10 for 2018.

61st GRAMMY Awards nominees making the Official Charts Company's 2018 bestsellers list include the aforementioned Arctic Monkey's Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino and the soundtrack to The Greatest Showman, including songs composed by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.

With vinyl sales at a 25-year high, what's spinning on your turntable?

Ed Sheeran, Mariah Carey & More Broke Big Music Records In 2018

Carlos Santana

Carlos Santana

Photo: Kevin Winter/WireImage

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Santana, 'Abraxas': For The Record

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Revisit the album that proved rock music's emerging ability to experiment could integrate diverse traditions and intoxicate young audiences
Philip Merrill
GRAMMYs
Sep 28, 2018 - 5:42 pm

After their success at the summer rock festival Woodstock in Aug. 1969 and the contemporary release of their debut self-titled album, guitarist Carlos Santana and his band Santana put out their follow-up, Abraxas, in Sept. 1970. His lead guitar and the album's eclectic combination of rock, Latin rhythms and experimental creativity captured the spirit of the times, filled with a sense of potential new experiences.

For The Record: Santana's 'Abraxas'

By Oct. 1970, Abraxas reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200. On the Hot 100 in early 1971, its single "Black Magic Woman" peaked at No. 4, and "Oye Como Va" reached No. 13 a few months later — reinterpreting the Tito Puente cha-cha as rock and helping to prove the flourishing genre's ability to bring new relevance to compositions from other musical traditions.

A San Francisco Bay local, Carlos Santana got his break from Fillmore promoter Bill Graham. An origin myth Santana doesn't remember the same way has Graham discovering the youngster after he snuck into the venue's office. "I was a kid right out of high school and nobody else was putting on shows like Bill did then," he remembered, explaining why he was always around.

As locals, they could fill in for missing bands on the schedule in a flash. Graham wrote in his autobiography, "To this day, Santana is still the only band ever to headline the Fillmore without having made a record."

Thanks to their excellence and reflecting the cultural moment, happenstance became legend. The band's second album was added to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry in 2016. Shortly before the close of the millennium, Abraxas was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame, in 1999 — the year Carlos Santana's album Supernatural was released, taking him to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for the third time, from a career-total of four times so far. At the 42nd GRAMMY Awards, he won in eight categories, including Album Of The Year and Best Rock Album.

Marvin Gaye 'Let's Get It On' | For The Record

GRAMMYs

Sex Pistols

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Sex Pistols 'Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols' | For The Record

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Credited with kicking off the punk phenomenon in the U.K., this GRAMMY Hall Of Fame album ignited controversy and censorship
Philip Merrill
GRAMMYs
Aug 23, 2018 - 5:09 pm

In the year 1977, the Sex Pistols' album Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols arrived world-wide, surrounded by violence, controversy and censorship in the United Kingdom. The lineup of drummer Paul Cook, guitarist Steve Jones, frontman Johnny Rotten, and replacement bass player Sid Vicious ushered in the era of British Punk with an amateurish and confrontational sound and attitude. In the end, the LP influenced nearly everything done subsequently in rock and is hailed as one of the genre's greatest albums of all time.

Sex Pistols 'Never Mind …' | For The Record

"God Save The Queen" was the first single that preceded release of the album. The title provides the first four words of the song, followed by the lyric "the fascist regime." For many offended Brits, the song was all downhill from there.  As the band continued work on their album that year — recording "Holidays In The Sun" on June 18 — they adjourned that night to a pub and got beat up badly enough to make the newspapers. Like the lyrics to that lead single, the action became even more intense thereafter.

The album's producer, Chris Thomas, has since shaped many rockers' sounds, winning one of his GRAMMYs at the 48th GRAMMY Awards when U2's How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb took Album Of The Year. His detailed overdubs on Never Mind The Bollocks…, punching in and out patiently with Cook and Jones, produced a furious and exuberant finished work superficially at odds with the craft invested in its creation. Meanwhile the band's other hit singles produced punk's signature controversy. As a result the only label that would have them was Virgin Records. Richard Branson hand-picked the tracklist.

Looking back, it seems only fitting that the Sex Pistols' gusto got them in trouble. "Banned In Britain" is one of rock history's quaint phrases in the U.S., but every major retailer in England was prevented from selling the album. Since it debuted at No. 1 in the U.K., this was a boon for independent outlets. A Virgin Records outlet was raided and its manager arrested for displaying the album's text-only graphic-art cover in his window. While "Never mind the bollocks" is a phrase that makes the word mean "nonsense," the potentially obscene implications of the word brought the band before the British bar, while news headlines made the most of the sensational controversy.

At Nottingham Magistrates' Court, the use of the word "bollocks" was considered objectionable but not illegally "obscene." For example, major newspapers had included the LP's title in their coverage but the papers were not put on trial. The hearing's chairman described the now-classic album as "vulgar exploitation of the worst instincts of human nature for the purchases of commercial profits." He said the not guilty verdict was delivered "reluctantly." Rock was f***ing transformed.

In a 2016 Pitchfork interview, John Lydon (a.k.a. Johnny Rotten) made headlines again for "forgiving" Nirvana for reflecting the Sex Pistols' sound. But the Sex Pistols' musically riveting flare and defiance had the heavy influence of greatness on what hundreds if not thousands of other musicians chose to do with their art.

In 2015 Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols was inducted into the Recording Academy's GRAMMY Hall Of Fame. It was both the Sex Pistols' debut as well as the only studio album they recorded, ever.

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Alabama Shakes

Alabama Shakes

Photo: Larry Busacca/Getty Images

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Alabama Shakes' 'Sound & Color': For The Record

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Wilder than before, the band's fusion of country and soul with immersive rock on their 2015 album defined a sound all their own
Philip Merrill
GRAMMYs
Jun 21, 2018 - 10:43 am

Alabama Shakes' 2012 debut Boys & Girls was such a wild success, no one expected the band would get even wilder on 2015's Sound & Color. But the band took their music way out, exploring a spacious, country-soul rock sound that would be more completely their own if it didn't seem so timeless.

For The Record: Alabama Shakes' 'Sound & Color'

"We're just a normal group of people who believe in writing and making something, and honestly, it was truly from a point of having fun," lead singer/guitarist Brittany Howard told our oral history of the album. "It wasn't to get famous or anything like that. We wanted to play gigs, that was our goal, but we didn't have anywhere to gig."

Bassist Zac Cockrell, guitarist Heath Fogg and drummer Steve Johnson write together with Howard, and the band shared in their Best Rock Song win, at the 58th GRAMMY Awards for "Don't Wanna Fight," as songwriters, in addition to winning Best Rock Performance. Sound & Color also won Best Alternative Music Album that year.

Alabama Shakes' 2012 debut brought them 55th GRAMMY Awards nominations for Best New Artist and Best Rock Performance for the song "Hold On." As a single, it remains their biggest hit so far, having reached No. 93 on Billboard's Hot 100. The following year the band was nominated for Best Rock Performance again, for "Always Alright" from the soundtrack to Silver Linings Playbook. A truly admired band, their album sales suggest Alabama Shakes falls better into the category of classics-makers than hit-makers. Their debut reached No. 6 on the Billboard 200 in 2013 and Sound & Color reached No. 1 in 2015.

Although Alabama Shakes hasn't released an album since Sound & Color, their performance of "Joe (Live From Austin City Limits)" drew another Best Rock Performance nomination at the 59th GRAMMY Awards. Earlier this year at the 60th GRAMMY Awards, Alabama Shakes' performance of "Killer Diller Blues" won Best American Roots Performance, the band's fourth win. The song was originally recorded by Minnie Lawlers, and as for other artists participating in the Jack White and Bernard MacMahon 2017 project American Epic: The Sessions, all final recordings were made on an antique 1925 Western Electric direct-to-disc system. How's that for a historic recording?

Catching Up On Music News Powered By The Recording Academy Just Got Easier. Have A Google Home Device? "Talk To GRAMMYs"