Pink Floyd | Hey You
Pink Floyd’s “Hey You” - the desperate plea from behind The Wall that Roger Waters wrote about his failing marriage and isolation as rock stardom crumbled around him in 1979.
Story Behind “Hey You”
The Marriage That Built The Wall
Roger Waters was at a breaking point. The year was 1978, and Pink Floyd’s co-founder found himself isolated despite being surrounded by millions of fans. His first marriage was collapsing, and his wife had just called him on the road to tell him she’d fallen in love with someone else. Waters was adrift, emotionally devastated, and all the fame and fortune meant nothing in that moment. Out of that pain, he began conceptualizing The Wall—a double album rock opera that would explore the psychological barriers we build around ourselves.
But The Wall wasn’t just about isolation. It was also about connection. Waters explained his intention to Mojo magazine: “It’s about the break-up of my first marriage, all that misery and pain and being out on the road when the woman declares over the phone that she’s fallen in love with somebody else.” He continued, describing how the song also represented “an attempt to make connections with other people, to say that maybe if we act in consort, some of the bad feelings will go away. In community, there is comfort.”
“Hey You” became the moment where Pink—the album’s protagonist and a thinly veiled version of Waters himself—realizes his mistake too late. He’s built his wall so carefully, brick by brick, that now he’s completely trapped on the other side. The song marks a desperate turning point in the narrative, where the alienated rock star finally tries to reach back out to the world he’s rejected, only to discover that reconnection is impossible.
A Song That Almost Didn’t Make It
When Waters first presented The Wall concept to the band in 1978, “Hey You” was already part of his vision. The song appeared on his original 90-minute demo titled Bricks in the Wall—the raw material that would become the album the band chose over Waters’ planned solo project The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking. However, the track didn’t stay in one place throughout the production process. Originally, it was sequenced much later in the album narrative, right before “Trial by Puppet.” But as the album took shape, the placement changed dramatically. By the time The Wall was being mastered in late 1979, “Hey You” had been repositioned to open the second half of the double album—a crucial narrative shift that transformed the song’s meaning.
The repositioning happened so late in the process that the inner sleeves had already been printed with the original track listing. This created confusion among early purchasers of the album, many of whom noticed the song was listed after “Comfortably Numb” on the sleeve but actually appeared earlier in the running order. It wasn’t until the 1997 CD remaster that this discrepancy was finally corrected across all official releases.
“Hey You” Recording and Production Details
The Unconventional Acoustic Architecture
The production of “Hey You” began at an unconventional approach: David Gilmour’s guitar wasn’t strung in the traditional way. Gilmour used an altered tuning on a twelve-string acoustic guitar—similar to Nashville tuning, but with a crucial modification. The low E string was replaced with a high E string tuned two full octaves higher than normal. The A, D, and G strings were also tuned an octave higher than standard. This technique, which Gilmour and session musician Lee Ritenour had pioneered for “Comfortably Numb” on the same album, created a shimmering, ethereal quality that made the delicate arpeggios seem to float in space.
When a fretless bass entered the composition, something unusual happened: David Gilmour played it, not bassist Roger Waters. When asked about this in a 1992 interview, Gilmour replied with characteristic directness: “Roger playing fretless bass? Please!” This decision placed the melodic weight of the low end in Gilmour’s hands, unifying the guitar and bass voices under one instrumentalist’s interpretation. The fretless bass glides beneath the acoustic guitar, creating the sense of something liquid and unstable—perfectly embodying Pink’s emotional state as he realizes he’s trapped within his own construction.
The Band’s Response and Late-Night Decisions
The recording sessions took place between April and November 1979 at multiple studios, with the primary work happening at Superbear in the French Alps. Producer Bob Ezrin, who was brought in to shape the album’s theatrical ambitions, worked alongside the band in what were often contentious sessions. The band was coming apart during production. Waters had been the driving force behind the album’s concept, and tensions with guitarist David Gilmour and keyboardist Richard Wright ran high about creative direction and songwriting credit.
“Hey You” remained relatively unchanged from the original demo, which suggests that when the band recorded it in late 1978 for the first recording sessions, they recognized they’d already captured something essential. The song didn’t require the same level of reworking and debate that plagued other tracks on the album. This relative stability made “Hey You” one of the more cohesive tracks on The Wall, despite the creative friction surrounding other songs.
The Worms and the Wall Theme
Throughout the song, listeners hear the return of the three-note “Bricks” theme that appears in various forms across “Another Brick in the Wall.” This motif, played both melodically and as the rhythmic foundation, serves as a sonic anchor to the album’s central metaphor. But in “Hey You,” the Bricks theme functions differently—it becomes a trap, a reminder of the wall’s immovable presence. The drums eventually kick in with unexpected intensity, transforming the song from a delicate cry for help into a howl of desperation. This production choice marked the first mention of the “worms” in the album’s lyrical narrative—creatures that would become a recurring symbol of decay and psychological deterioration throughout the album’s second half.
Notes About “Hey You” by Pink Floyd
Release Date: November 30, 1979 (album), June 1980 (as B-side single)
Duration: 4:42
Genre: Progressive Rock / Art Rock / Rock Opera
Album: The Wall (11th studio album, track 14/opening of side 3)
Songwriter: Roger Waters
Producers: Bob Ezrin, David Gilmour, Roger Waters
Label: Harvest Records (UK), Columbia Records (US)
Chart Performance: Charted in UK/Europe as B-side to “Comfortably Numb”; certified Silver by BPI; 285 million+ Spotify streams
Notable Usage: Excluded from Pink Floyd – The Wall film (1982); appears on 25th Anniversary Edition DVD as “Reel 13” workprint in black and white
Pink Floyd “Hey You” Era Band Details
Album Details
Album: The Wall
Release Date: November 30, 1979
Label: Harvest Records (UK), Columbia Records (US)
Producers: Bob Ezrin, David Gilmour, Roger Waters
Recording Timeline: April–November 1979
Recording Locations: Superbear Studios (French Alps), Miravel, Britannia Row (London), CBS 30th Street (New York), Producers Workshop (Los Angeles)
Recording Approach: Hybrid analog/digital with multiple revisions and late-stage rearrangements
Album Concept: Rock opera exploring isolation, alienation, and the psychological barriers we build around ourselves
Commercial Reception: Double album format; over 23 million copies sold worldwide; one of best-selling albums of all time
Band Members/Personnel
Roger Waters - Bass guitar, lead vocals (verses, bridge), songwriting, producer
David Gilmour - Acoustic guitar (12-string, alternate tuning), fretless bass, electric guitar, pedal steel, lead and harmony vocals (first and second verse), producer
Nick Mason - Drums
Richard Wright - Keyboards (organ, electric piano, synthesizer)
Bob Ezrin - Producer, additional keyboards, engineering direction
James Guthrie - Sound effects (drill), engineering
Album Production Notes
Second Pink Floyd album with substantial creative input from producer Bob Ezrin
Band fractured during recording; Waters forced keyboardist Rick Wright out, reduced to salaried musician status
Song placement changed late in production after inner sleeves already printed, causing track listing confusion on early releases
Original demo from 1978 concept remained relatively unchanged through final recording
Recorded in late 1978 during first recording sessions, suggesting early completion and stability of arrangement
“Hey You” was one of two tracks excluded from the 1982 film adaptation (along with “The Show Must Go On”)
Album spent 15 weeks at #1 on US charts; certified double platinum by RIAA (May 2023)
Interesting Facts About “Hey You”
The Film Footage That Almost Existed
Director Alan Parker shot an elaborate sequence for “Hey You” that appeared in early versions of Pink Floyd – The Wall (1982). Labeled “Reel 13,” the sequence featured actor Bob Geldof (playing Pink) attempting to claw his way out from behind his newly completed wall. The footage showed concert-goers with blank, vacant expressions—the very people Pink was desperately trying to reach through the barrier. Parker filmed this material during the five Wall concerts at Earl’s Court in June 1981, specifically for the movie.
But the sequence never made it into the theatrical release. Parker later explained in his commentary on the original laserdisc that while “Hey You” was “brilliant,” the footage became too repetitive—approximately eighty percent of it ended up incorporated into other montage sequences throughout the film. The remainder didn’t justify its placement as a standalone sequence. Alan Parker’s decision to cut “Hey You” from the film remains one of its most debated editorial choices among fans. The rough black-and-white workprint was eventually restored and included as a bonus feature on the 25th Anniversary Edition DVD release, allowing fans to finally see what Parker had envisioned.
The Stage Performance That Trapped the Audience in Sympathy
During The Wall tour in 1980 and 1981, “Hey You” held special significance. The song opened the “second act” of the elaborate live production, and at that moment, a 35-foot-high wall of white bricks was erected at the front of the stage during intermission. When “Hey You” began, the audience could hear the band playing, but they couldn’t see them. The musicians were completely hidden behind the barrier. Spotlights roamed across the auditorium, and the crowd experienced the song from Pink’s perspective—calling out to an unseen world, separated by an insurmountable barrier. This was theatrical genius: the audience didn’t merely listen to a song about isolation; they experienced a physical version of it. Later in the show, the wall would be ceremonially destroyed, and the band would finally emerge. But during “Hey You,” audiences were truly trapped behind the wall alongside Pink.
The Fretless Bass That Broke Convention
David Gilmour playing fretless bass on “Hey You” represented more than a technical choice. By the time of The Wall recording sessions, tensions between Waters and Gilmour had intensified to the point where they were barely collaborating on instrumental decisions. Waters had written the song and controlled its direction as part of his rock opera vision. By having Gilmour handle the fretless bass work—an instrument that required particular sensitivity and intuition—the production inadvertently unified the song’s emotional weight under one musician’s interpretation. Gilmour’s response when asked why Waters wasn’t playing bass revealed the strain in their relationship: a curt dismissal. Years later, during the 1987-1989 reunion period and beyond, Gilmour and the other band members would gain full ownership of material from The Wall, while Waters retained solo rights to “Hey You” and other tracks he’d primarily created.
The Song That Lives in The Wall’s Second Half
“Hey You” became the gateway to the album’s second act—a moment where the narrative shifted from brick-by-brick construction to desperate attempts at escape. The song’s placement opening side 3 of the double album was crucial: it reintroduced all the album’s central themes (isolation, hope, desperation, the worms as metaphorical decay) while launching the second half’s darker trajectory toward Pink’s complete psychological breakdown. Some fans and music historians have argued that the song makes more narrative sense positioned between “Comfortably Numb” and “The Show Must Go On,” where Pink would be at the venue about to perform under the influence of tranquilizers. But in its released placement, “Hey You” functions as a perfect overture for act two—a moment of realization that sets up everything that follows.
Common Questions
Q: What is “Hey You” by Pink Floyd about? A: The song depicts Pink, the album’s protagonist, realizing too late that he’s isolated himself behind his own psychological wall and desperately trying to reconnect with the outside world. Roger Waters wrote the song during his first marriage’s collapse, transforming his personal pain into a universal cry for human connection across the barriers we build around ourselves.
Q: Who sings on “Hey You” by Pink Floyd? A: Both David Gilmour and Roger Waters sing on “Hey You.” Gilmour performs the first and second verses with a calm, pleading vocal, while Waters enters for the bridge and final verse with an increasingly desperate, haunting delivery that conveys Pink’s growing realization that escape is impossible.
Q: Why was “Hey You” removed from the Pink Floyd film? A: Director Alan Parker filmed an elaborate sequence for “Hey You” during the 1981 Wall concerts, but cut it from the theatrical release because approximately eighty percent of the footage became repetitive montage material used elsewhere in the film. The remainder didn’t justify standalone inclusion. A rough black-and-white workprint of the deleted scene appeared on the 25th Anniversary Edition DVD.
Q: What tuning does David Gilmour use on the acoustic guitar in “Hey You”? A: Gilmour used an alternate tuning similar to Nashville tuning, but with the low E string replaced by a high E string tuned two full octaves higher than normal, and the A, D, and G strings tuned an octave higher. This creates the shimmering, ethereal quality that makes the arpeggios seem to float in empty space, representing Pink’s psychological isolation.
Q: How many times did Pink Floyd perform “Hey You” live during The Wall tour? A: Pink Floyd’s elaborate Wall tour of 1980-1981 played only four venues (Nassau Coliseum, Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, Earl’s Court, and Westfalenhallen), with just 31 total shows across all locations. During each performance, “Hey You” opened the second act, with “Hey You” performed with the band hidden behind the 35-foot wall structure—a unique live presentation that trapped the audience in the song’s thematic isolation.