10 Rock Albums That Were A Nightmare To Make
3. The Wall - Pink Floyd
Every single album Pink Floyd released after Dark Side of the Moon was meant to take them one step forward. Moving out of the shadow of Syd Barrett, the band started to find their inspiration in calling out the jaded parts of society, whether that be lashing out at the music industry on spots of Wish You Were Here or eventually calling out politicians on Animals, each of which had complex undercurrents to every song. Roger Waters had a vision for something bigger though, and creating the Wall was the lengthy process that cost the band it's life.
Working with producer Bob Ezrin for almost a year putting every piece of the puzzle together, the story behind the Wall was a lot closer to home than most people realized, telling the tale of Pink as the disillusioned rock star who puts barriers around himself. Roger's vision didn't leave much room for the rest of the band to contribute, with David Gilmour only contributing a handful of songs like Comfortably Numb into the mix, with both Nick Mason and Richard Wright being cast to the sidelines.
The atmosphere in the studio ended up getting so tense that Richard had to be fired during production because he wasn't gelling with the rest of the band, only to be rehired and completing the rest of the album as a session musician. Roger definitely turned his vision into a reality across this entire record, but you have to wonder how far is too far when you start calling out your own bandmates.