The Bread Van. Rio 7th May 2014

Forever reblogging this beautiful trip/analysis

HS1 // THE WALL : A MESS

I love love LOVE HS1. When it came out, I had absolutely no idea what it was about as a whole and that’s the best thing ever because then you basically spend a lifetime (nah) trying to make sense of it and it’s SO MUCH FUN. Here it is, a monster post text about how Harry is the biggest Pink Floyd fanboy ever and we kind of share that really.

Before I start here are some Pink Floyd parallels posts I really love, courtesy of @bluewinnerangel: here and here. The second one is mostly clownery on my part I apologize but it’s a warning of what’s to come in this long ass post.

... this won't make the cut to my professional portfolio.

THE WALL: WHAT IT’S ABOUT

DISCLAIMER just so we're clear, I don’t think this wall has anything to do with someone else’s walls. I think the inspiration and creative process behind both their albums are really different so what I'm saying about HS1 doesn't necessarily apply to Walls. But hey, as someone once said, a wall is a wall.

The Wall is a concept album by Pink Floyd with a narration: it tells us the story of Pink, a rockstar on the verge of a breakdown. He ends up building a metaphorical wall around him. Each brick represents a trauma (the passing of his father during the war, his upbringing, his school education, the Blitz, his love life). Pink isolates himself in a hotel room and the wall is absolute. From there it's a free fall into depression and madness before he makes his wall fall eventually.

Now let’s talk about HS1. We know the sound of some of it kind of reminds us of Pink Floyd, as pop tabloids said (they do love forcing down parallels as much as I do). We also know that with this album, Harry wanted to say things he couldn’t before, and it's all about him, his struggles. Sad stuff.

“I don’t want to hear my favorite artists talk about all the amazing shit they get to do. I want to hear, ‘How did you feel when you were alone in that hotel room, because you chose to be alone?'”

Harry really really likes the idea of being alone in a hotel room for this album.

What we also know is that the album was supposed to be named "Pink". Let’s take a look at the album cover real quick:

Harry is not facing us, he's naked and curled up on himself, surrounded by pink water.

My interpretation regarding this whole analysis: he doesn’t let us in by turning his back on us. Yet he’s still vulnerable and exposed because he’s naked. Pink water is not pure, it's a result of toxic waste. Therefore it could be the form his wall takes: Pink's wall is made of bricks/traumas, Harry's is made of toxic substances/traumas. Here an interesting interpretation by billboard that helped me.

Harry trapped underneath blood water on the SOTT cover:

Harry above water in SOTT's mv standing taller than it

SO this once named “Pink,, album cover could be his own take on Pink’s character. From the get go, he compares himself to the protagonist of The Wall.

HS1 begins and ends within 4 walls: Harry is waiting for someone to come out of their room in MMITH and ends up alone in a hotel room in FTDT. Another bedroom in Only Angel. A room (kitchen) in Two Ghosts. Walls are also mentioned in ESNY (Understand I’m talking to the walls). Regardless of the whole album progression, the setup barely changes, which makes me think that while Fine Line tells us a linear narrative, HS1 is more of a reflection on past traumas with no resolution in the end. Swimming in a fish bowl, a glass half empty. Contrary to Pink who gets to make his wall fall at the end of the album, Harry’s walls are still up. His first album is just the beginning of his solo career, of his story.

For this post I'll focus on some parallels that strike me as LOUD, whether it’s a specific theme, lyric or imagery.

MOTHERHOOD AND WAR

It’s SOTT appreciation time. What did Harry say about it ? It’s inspired by a mother dying after giving birth and basically warning her child about life in the span of 5 minutes. It’s also about various political and social issues, as he said once, vaguely answering a very pointed question in the midst of post 2016 political climate.

There is also a nice death imagery going on with the angelic choirs, the idea of seeing things from above, the bullets, the escapism. I don’t think it’s literally about a mother dying after childbirth. But I don’t think the mother explanation should be dismissed as just 'Harry talking out of his ass to get himself out of a delicate situation'.

I find a lot of interesting parallels with Pink Floyd’s song Mother. It’s about Pink remembering his overprotective mother, who projected on him her own fears and traumas and contributed to the building of his wall.

Just stop your crying it’s a sign of the time, SOTT

Hush now baby, baby, don’t you cry, Mother

… to point out the obvious. But it doesn’t stop here, there is also a lot of war talk going on:

Why are we always stuck and running from the bullets ?

Mother do you think they’ll drop the bomb ? / Mother, will they put me in the firing line ?

Of course the nature of the war differs from one song to another. Mother’s about WW2 and SOTT, well, oppression of some sort? me thinks closeting. Still in both cases the speaker feels trapped and is asking why. They’re seeking answers because the cruelty they suffer from is undeserved. Pink was a child caught in the war and Harry was a child caught in the money machine. Both are at the beginning of a long, tiring, dehumanizing journey. And a protective mother figure warns them about it.

Basically in both songs we have a voice who asks a dreadful question and a voice immediately attempting to soothe them somehow.

Why are we always stuck and running from the bullets ? > Just stop your crying.

Mother, will they put me in the firing line ? > Hush now baby, baby, don’t you cry.

Once again, I don’t think Harry is having a conversation with his mother the way Pink does. But I do suspect the use of motherhood as opposed to the violence and uncertainty regarding the future. He’s using a motherly tone as a way to cope, a made up inner voice to reassure himself. While Pink associates motherhood to trauma, Harry associates it to comfort. It tells him to Go forth and conquer.

Quick additions to the SOTT parallels with The Thin Ice, another song about Pink in relation to his mother:

We never learn, we’ve been here before, SOTT

Dragging behind you the silent reproach of a million tear-stained eyes, The Thin Ice

This voice of the reason reminds them they're carrying history somehow, a legacy. The weight of it adds on the pressure. This war isn’t only about them, it’s about a lot of people and it’s been going on for a long time.

And another addition regarding the war imagery in SOTT with Goodbye Blue Sky (Pink remembering growing up during the Blitz).

Why are we always stuck and running from the bullets ? / Breaking through the atmosphere and things are pretty good from here, SOTT

Did you ever wonder why we had to run for shelter when the promise of a brave new world unfurled beneath a clear blue sky ?, Goodbye Blue Sky

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST a parallel between SOTT and Stop (where Pink the rockstar is exhausted and begs for his misery to end).

Welcome to the final show, hope you’re wearing your best clothes, SOTT

I want to go home, take off this uniform and leave the show, Stop

ISOLATION

As mentionned before, HS1 starts with MMITH: Harry waiting outside someone’s bedroom and almost begging for that someone to come out. More precisely, H just left the bedroom: he used to share that space with that person, but now there’s a wall between them.

In The Wall’s storyline, Pink completely cuts his ties with the outside world and locks himself in a hotel room: his wall is complete. From there, he wonders if he actually made the right choice isolating himself in Hey you.

Yeah, tons of MMITH and Hey you parallels ahead:

Meet me in the hallway, I just left your bedroom, give me some morphine

Hey you, out there beyond the wall, breaking bottles in the hall, can you help me ?

Is there any more to do ? Just let me know I’ll be at the door/on the floor

Would you touch me ? / Would you help me to carry the stone ? / Can you help me ?

I walked the streets all day

Hey you, out there on the road

Hoping you’ll come around

Don’t tell me there’s no hope at all

Maybe we’ll work it out

Together we stand, divided we fall

Is this not... A dialogue ? MMITH’s speaker is outside the room, staying around just in case the person inside needs them. They’re desperate to prove their unconditional support. Hey you’s speaker is inside the room, trapped behind the wall, and questions whether or not the person waiting for them outside would actually be ready to assume the responsabilities that come with helping them with the load.

Which leads us to the end of HS1, FTDT. Now, Harry’s alone, inside his hotel room as well. After a succession of songs expressing frustration, anger, despair, jealousy, which are as many bricks, he built up his own wall, just like Pink. He distances himself from the "you" in MMITH even more. Now they’re in the same situation:

Played with myself where were you ? / Even my phone misses your call, by the way

Hey you, out there on your own, sitting naked by the phone, would you touch me ?

Still going strong with the hopeless dialogue.

Right after Hey you comes the song Nobody Home, where Pink, fully isolated, gets more and more depressed and can only list the material possessions he bought with that rockstar money. More parallels can be made with FTDT:

Maybe one you’ll call me and tell me that you’re sorry too, FTDT

Ooh, babe when I pick up the phone there’s still nobody home, Nobody Home

AND REAL QUICK I’M SO ANNOYING SORRY THIS IS NOT EVEN HS1 BUT we can all agree that FTDT and Falling have a similar start right ? Alone in his bed, drunk and very sad. Allegedly Harry is at his lowest. Ok. This from Nobody Home…

All down the front of my favourite satin shirt / I’ve got a grand piano to prop up my mortal remains

… looks a bit like this ? Though it’s not satin hm.

… And of course he’s in a richly decorated room where he drowns in his sorrow again and again. This room is like a trap he can't escape.

ANYWAY what's interesting is: if Harry identifies to Pink so much throughout this album, to the point where he theoretically almost named the album after him, why is Harry the one beyond the wall in MMITH? Is there someone else who shares similar life experience, traumas, emotional bagage and who could also relate to Pink to some extent ? Someone so similar they could be the ''you'' in the ''we'' of SOTT ? The one Harry wants to get away from here with? Them against the rest of the world ? SOMEONE WHO’S QUITE FAMILIAR WITH A WALL METAPHOR ?

WAR AND KIDS

Another big part of The Wall is the famoso Another Brick In The Wall part 2. The song protests against the abusive school system that works like an industry : it formates people and rips one's individuality off... turning them into a copy of a copy of a copy...

“Hey, teachers! Leave them kids alone!”

“If you don't eat your meat you can't have any pudding...”

“All in all you're just another brick in the wall”

mh why is that blackboard there, what's on it?

…Maybe ?? I can't see very well so it's convenient but.. maybe?

AND I KNOW this is not about Louis but those melted smooth faced masks which all look the same also remind me a lil bit of the concept of the masks in Walls' mv..? a tiny tiny lil bit? coacoac anyone?

… and this is just a white brick wall and I suppose white brick walls are very common but it’s still there so I’ll take it.

In Another Brick In the Wall part 2, the kids are kept under control by the teachers with pudding as a carrot and stick approach (If you don’t eat your meat, you can’t have any pudding). In the film adaptation of The Wall, Pink dreams of the kids rioting and burning down the school. In Kiwi’s MV, there are no teachers or any adult (except H, who also self inserts as a kid). All the children are gathered in a school gymnasium around a gigantic pile of cakes.

So Kiwi the MV could be Harry’s sequel of ABITW p2: the kids successfully got rid of figures of authority and seized the cakes/pudding which were once used as a weapon against them. The MV feels like a dream sequence because it’s so random, therefore it could be Harry’s fantasy just like the kids rioting were Pink’s fantasy.

What's also interesting is that the persons who make their bread on the speaker's behalf (the woman in Kiwi and the teachers in The Wall) both have a sad love life at home:

When she's alone she goes home to a cactus, Kiwi

When they got home at night, their [...] wives would thrash them, The Happiest Days of our Lives

... Whereas ''home'' is basically Harry's only safe place, his constant, where he always go back to when he feels lost. This love Harry has no matter what makes him superior to them in that regard. "Them" is that external factor that is trying to take his love, his strenght away: the ones that are going to find him soon in Stockholm Syndrome, that made his lover walk away in Happily, that try to force him into submitting by telling him that nothing's ever easy, that the end is near. It's a powerplay between them and Harry, a war.

TO MAKE IT SHORT-ISH, what strikes me is that between the HCU (Harry Cinematic Universe lol) and The Wall, there is this common idea of a war that starts very early in life and results in absolute self-isolation. War corrupts kids, war makes money, war makes the world go round. Pink/Harry were exposed to it very young, had trouble understanding it and accepting it, and had to protect themselves with this metaphorical wall which eventually alienated them from everything.

It would also not be the first time Harry associates with the concept of being involved in a war of some sort: see the tattoo "won’t stop ‘till we surrender’’…

… or even a war involving kids: see the tattoo "I can’t change" inspired by Make It Stop of Rise Against. Bang, bang from the closet walls…

I don't really know how to conclude this properly so tchuss

I will believe it more than ever now

Hi dear Gina! Have you seen this? https://twitter.com/porquetendencia/status/1418681956670246918?s=21

Basically the journalist says that by contract they're not allowed to say it but Louis and Harry are together, that everybody knows but they can't talk about it and that "Always you" is for Harry. This was on TV during news about the Olympic games.

That is so… weird. Everyone knows. Excuse my shitty screen recording. My download was being weird

“Getting over it doesn’t mean forgetting it. It just means reducing the pain to a tolerable level, a level that doesn’t destroy you.”

— Kevin Brooks

Post first concert depression hits hard.

I want to hug louis so bad rn. Manifesting to attend a meet and greet soon.

Pretty louis. 🥹

Louis onstage in São Paulo (x) - 28/05/22

You know what, if larry isn’t real, I Wanna ask louis why he got the dagger tattoo that is perfectly complementary with Harry’s rose. its so ?? and its not like were making things up that its a matching one. He deadass got one and hets are like ok but L got an E tattoo which points to elk and i’m like uhm u serious it can also stand for edward so 👀

I dig the Edward theory, anon! 

The dagger tattoo is perhaps the most significant of them all. Not because he got it, after a year, but because of the timing that he got it. November 2014 was one hell of a fucking ride. Looking at all the facts, it was one loud scream for freedom and a big fuck you to everyone keeping them in the closet. It was as loud as he could get. And it was necessary. 

A quick recap of the preceding events:

2012: Louis and Harry start getting complimentary tattoos - mostly nautical - here a (non exhaustive i think) overview

Source: 78.media.tumblr.com

September 2013: Harry gets the rose, fans start speculating that Louis might get a dagger, but they get the anatomical heart and arrow. No dagger for a year.

….

30 October 2014: Apple CEO Tim Cook comes out as gay at which occasion the rainbow apple logo is revived by the papers. Interestingly the “not that important” and “don’t knock it til you try it” interviews are taped that same day. The fandom is still blissfully unaware though. 

3 November: The  “not that important” interview comes out - in short, asked which traits they find important in a girl, Liam says “female”, and Harry replies “not that important”. 

4 November: Harry’s statement is all over the papers and speculations become loud, everyone is asking: did he just come out as bisexual? Harry instagrams an armchair captioning “seated”. Might as well have said “where is the popcorn?”

5 November: Rainbow Direction launches the rainbow heart badges to show support to Harry’s “coming out” of sorts and create safe spaces for fans to discuss LGBTQ+issues - 22.000 people download them to their profiles that week - rainbow hearts are everywhere.

Later that same day, the live FOUR hangout is announced for Sunday Nov 9th and fans can send in their questions.

7 November: Louis shows up at the X factor rehearsal wearing a rainbow apple shirt. Considering context of the past week’s events, a LOT of people see that as support to Harry, and Tim Cook

9 November: The Independent’s Jenn Selby ’s article is published saying “Louis Tomlinson supports gay Apple CEO Tim Cook - days after Harry Styles’ comments on gender and sexuality” also referring to the fandom’s support for Harry with the rainbow hearts. This is how it’s featured on the front page:

That evening the FOUR hangout is broadcast and it’s the most akward interview ever. Rather than coming from fans, several of the questions seem to be set up to give Louis and Harry the opportunity to deny their rumoured sexuality/relationship . Except they don’t. (if you’re brave, watch 12 cringy long minutes from 8 to 20). Also, it’s November and it’s cold, but they are in their T shirts, matching tattoos out, and Louis keeps adjusting his boatneck “It is what it is”.  Also Liam asks “Have you read the article in the Independent?” Louis “No, is it good?” Liam “Yeah" 

10 November: We get papshots of Louis at the lawyer’s near Harry’s public house and he’s looking cheerful and therefore so are we, but that doesn’t last long. Late that afternoon shady agenda anons start imbuing the fandom with “it’s just the vintage apple logo” but we’re not having it. That evening, @Louis_Tomlinson tweets Jen Selby the same shit, but worse,it gets personal, it’s homophobic, it’s vicious and I’m not in a mood to recap or link it, may it disappear from the face of the earth. Interestingly a few minutes later followed by the more vague “Ridiculous I even have to tweet that shit” - some people think this is real Louis shading 1DHQ - we’ll never know - but I like to think so. 

11 November: Louis’ tweets to Selby get noticed and suddenly the story about that Independent article and @LT’s homophobic reaction is all over the place. Harry captions the following pic on his IG with “funny money”

???: Lottie :( on Twitter

14 November: Harry instagrams twice, one picture of a cracked wall saying “lovely view”, and another “no such green” which we think links to the funny money. 

15 November: The interview in which Harry says to Niall - “Don’t knock it til you try it” about sex with a man (also filmed 30 Oct) is aired. TMHFN/Rainbow Direction ask for an apology.

17 November: on Elounor’s anniversary, this appears on Jay’s Instagram

It’s is deleted minutes later and her twitter says it was a hack. 

Also, interestingly, Lottie tweets “no point in sorry when the damage is already done. some things can’t be forgiven”  

It’s a hectic few days, as while they are in Orlando, Zayn doesn’t show up for a gig, Harry serenades Louis, oh and news comes out that our beloved security guy/tour manager Paul quits. Supposedly something to do with Zayn. November 2014 was so wild on all levels. 

23 November: At the AMA’s Harry serenades Louis *again* and he also sits next to Louis’ parents. 

26 November: we see that Louis got the long anticipated dagger tattoo, a quote (given a chance), and a  second smiley xx) this time on his wrist

And in case we missed it, next shoot, he’s pointing right at it: 

I call that LOUD, LOUD, and LOUD. 

They were trying to break out of the closet in November 2014. Their family were trying to help them break them out of the closet in November 2014. Everyone wanted to help them break out of the closet in November 2014. 1DHQ pushed back. And Louis responded in the only way he could. I don’t see how you could interpret all of this any differently. 

the devil in my brain, whispering my name

Toxic louies.

WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?! Srsly? If you want to watch the full show without cut and with a much higher quality then buy a goddamn ticket and watch him live!

Tweety birdie loueh

I don't know why this is hurting me so much but.

Positive content is what im craving for! Yaaaa!

I honestly think that the reason that twitter and tik tok think that tumblr is dead is that it does not have an algorythym that spoon feeds you content in the same way, there's no fyp and there's no news feed in the same way and people come here not realising they actually have to follow creators to see content.