The Thin Ice

Album: The Wall (1979)
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Songfacts®:

  • "The Thin Ice" is the second track on Pink Floyd's magnum opus The Wall, a concept album centered around a rock star named Pink who teeters on the edge of madness. The song portrays the moment when Pink is born. His parents welcome him into the world but offer a warning, telling him the ice may break under his feet - not exactly a lullaby.

    It's a harbinger of things to come, as throughout the rest of the album Pink's storyline swings through glory and madness, finally coming to rest at the last track, "Outside The Wall," which offers redemption.
  • The first time we hear David Gilmour's voice on The Wall is on this track, where he sings the opening part that begins, "Momma loves her baby, and daddy loves you too." Pink Floyd founder Roger Waters comes in with the line, "If you should go skating on the thin ice of modern life..."

    Waters came up with the concept for the album and wrote most of the songs on his own. His main creative collaborator on the project was producer Bob Ezrin, who helped tie the whole concept together and had the idea for the singing children on "Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)."
  • The songs on The Wall flow together seamlessly. "The Thin Ice" segues right into "Another Brick In The Wall (Part 1)," where we find out that Pink's dad died in World War II.

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