Young Lust (song)


"Young Lust" is a song by Pink Floyd. It appeared on The Wall album in 1979.

Composition

"Young Lust" is a blues-inflected hard rock number in E minor, approximately three minutes, 25 seconds in length. Lead vocals are sung by David Gilmour, with background vocals from Roger Waters during the chorus. The lyrics are about a "rock-and-roll refugee" seeking casual sex to relieve the tedium of touring. It's one of few Pink Floyd songs in which Gilmour plays bass guitar in the original studio version and one of three songs Gilmour co-wrote for The Wall. On the album, the preceding song, "Empty Spaces," ends with an abrupt transition into "Young Lust."
An extended 7" single version was released in Italy, South Africa and Rhodesia. It was 3:58 in length and included a 12-bar instrumental intro with a simple 16-beat drum rhythm that leads into an 8-bar guitar intro. The final 32-bar outro is unobscured by the phone call that is on the album version.

Plot

The Wall tells the story of Pink, an embittered and alienated rock star. At this point in the album's narrative, Pink has achieved wealth and fame, and is usually away from home, due to the demands of his career as a touring performer. He is having casual sex with groupies to relieve the tedium of the road, and is living a separate life from his wife.
The end of the song is a segment of dialogue between Pink and a telephone operator, as Pink twice attempts to place a transatlantic collect call to his wife. A man answers, and when the operator asks if he will accept the charges, the man simply hangs up. This is how Pink learns that his wife is cheating on him. With this betrayal, his mental breakdown accelerates.
The dialogue with the operator was the result of an arrangement co-producer James Guthrie made with a neighbour in London, Chris Fitzmorris, while the album was being recorded in Los Angeles. He wanted realism, for the operator to actually believe they had caught his wife having an affair, and so didn't inform her she was being recorded. The operator heard in the recording is the second operator they tried the routine with, after the first operator's reaction was deemed unsatisfactory.

Film version

In the film, the scene with the attempted phone call, in which Pink learns his wife is cheating on him, occurs at the very beginning of the song "What Shall We Do Now", which is the extended version of "Empty Spaces", before the "Young Lust" song rather than at the end of the "Young Lust" song. The implications of the song are therefore slightly different. On the album, he is already unfaithful to his wife while on tour, making him a hypocrite when he is appalled at her own unfaithfulness. In the film, he is only seen with a groupie after he learns of his wife's affair, which shows the character in a more sympathetic light.
In the film, several groupies seduce security guards and roadies to get backstage passes, where one of them ends up going with Pink to his room.

Personnel

with:
Personnel per Vernon Fitch and Richard Mahon.
Original phone call made by USA-FM

Cover versions