Bring the Boys Back Home

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"Bring the Boys Back Home"

Song by Pink Floyd
from the album The Wall
Released	30 November 1979 (US), 8 December 1979 (UK)
Recorded	April-November, 1979
Genre	Art rock/Progressive rock
Length	1:21
Label	Harvest Records (UK) Columbia Records (US)/Capitol Records (US)
Writer(s)	Waters
Producer(s)	Bob Ezrin, David Gilmour and Roger Waters
The Wall track listing
Vera (4 of disc 2)	"Bring the Boys Back Home" (5 of disc 2)	Comfortably Numb (6 of disc 2)

"Bring The Boys Back Home" is a song on the Pink Floyd album, The Wall. The song appeared as a b-side on the single, "When the Tigers Broke Free". "Bring the Boys Back Home" is about when the young boy Pink goes looking for his father when everyone comes home from the war, only to find out he did not make it. The people around him are happy and carefree singing "Bring the Boys Back Home". At the end of the song, the orchestra fades out with memories of events that drove Pink to mental isolation: the teacher from "Another Brick in the Wall," the operator from " Young Lust," and the groupie from the beginning of "One of My Turns." Pink's manager yelling, "Time to go!" (to play a concert) and manic laughter are also mixed into the closing seconds. The last vocal line is from "Is There Anybody Out There?." The track ends in silence before "Comfortably Numb" starts, suggesting that Pink has passed out.

According to Roger Waters, the song contains the main, unifying theme of the album- that is, unity. At this point in the album, Pink begins to realise that only unification can save the world, and ultimately himself. Although he realises the solution to his mounting problems, he is unable to set it in motion, and succumbs to his detereoriating mental health, collapsing in the hotel room--which is the cause for the the Doctor's presence in the "Comfortably Numb".

On the album, Waters sings the lyrics while it is sung by a large chorus in the film. The film version is also considerably longer and is only shorter than the single version.