Young Lust (song)

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"Young Lust"

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/Hard rock
Length	3:30
Label	Harvest Records (UK) Columbia Records (US)/Capitol Records (US)
Writer(s)	Waters/Gilmour
Producer(s)	Bob Ezrin, David Gilmour and Roger Waters
The Wall track listing
Empty Spaces (8 of disc 1)	"Young Lust" (9 of disc 1)	One of My Turns (10 of disc 1)

Young Lust is a song by the British progressive rock band Pink Floyd. It was released on The Wall album in 1979.

1 Composition
2 Trivia
3 Film version
4 Personnel

[edit] Composition

The song was actually originally an instrumental track but this was later changed during production. It is approximately 3 minutes, 30 seconds in length. The lead vocals in the song are sung entirely by David Gilmour, but Roger Waters sings background vocals during the choruses. The song has a distinctive, raw hard rock sound that stands out among Pink Floyd's body of work.

It follows "Empty Spaces" on the album, with the previous song flowing into "Young Lust." For this reason, they are generally played together on the radio (and sometimes incorrectly referred to as just "Young Lust").

As with the other songs on The Wall, "Young Lust" tells a portion of the story of Pink, the album's protagonist. Pink has become a rock star, and is always away from home as a result of his demanding lifestyle. As a result, he begins inviting groupies into his room between concerts, having not seen his wife in months.

The end of the song is part of a dialogue between Pink and a telephone operator; it is at this point he realizes that his wife has been having an affair for some time, and his mental breakdown accelerates.

[edit] Trivia

The dialogue with the operator was the result of arrangement Waters made with a friend in Britain during the recording of the album in Los Angeles. He knew that the operator actually had to believe he'd caught his wife having an affair, and so didn't inform the operator she was being recorded.
At a prearranged time, he made a collect call posing as "Mr. Floyd" for "Mrs. Floyd," to his (male) friend in Britain. The friend said "Hello?" and hung up. The first operator Waters used to place the call missed the significance of what had apparently transpired; the second is the one heard on the album.
The tones heard during the operator's second dialing are CCITT "blue box" tones. Most of the tones were edited out, but the remaining tones on most Wall albums are: KP 0 4 4 1 8 3 1 ST. [1]
A live version hit #15 on the US Mainstream Rock Tracks in 2000.