| "Run Like Hell" | ||||
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| Single byPink Floyd | ||||
| from the albumThe Wall | ||||
| B-side | "Don't Leave Me Now" | |||
| Released | April 1980 | |||
| Recorded | April–November 1979 | |||
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"Run Like Hell" is a song by the English progressive rock bandPink Floyd, written byDavid Gilmour andRoger Waters. It appears on their eleventh studio albumThe Wall (1979) and was released as a single in 1980,[1][2] reaching #15 in the Canadian singles chart and #18 in Sweden but it only reached #53 in the U.S. A 12" single of "Run Like Hell," "Don't Leave Me Now" and "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" peaked at #57 on theDisco Top 100 chart in the U.S.[3] To date, it is the last original composition written by both Gilmour and Waters, the final of such under the Pink Floyd banner and the last song recorded by all four members of the 1970s-era Floyd lineup.
The song is written from the narrative point of view ofantihero Pink during a hallucination in which the alienated and bitter rock star becomes afascist dictator and turns a concert audience into an angry, violent mob.
In thefilm adaptation, Pink directs hisjackbooted thugs to attack the "riff-raff" mentioned in the previous song (In the Flesh Pt. 2), in which he ordered them to raid and destroy the homes ofqueers,Jews, and "coons" (a racial slur for black people). One scene depicts an interracial couple cuddling in the back seat of a car when a group ofneo-Nazis accost them, beating the boy andraping the girl while the narrator sings "You better run".
The Wall directorAlan Parker hired theTilbury Skins, askinhead gang fromEssex, for a scene in which Pink's "hammer guard" (in black, militaristic uniforms designed by the film's animator,Gerald Scarfe) smashes up aPakistani diner; Parker recalled how the action "always seemed to continue long after I had yelled out'Cut!'."[4]
The music was written byDavid Gilmour (one of three songs onThe Wall for which Gilmour is credited as a co-writer) with the lyrics byRoger Waters. Waters provides the vocals (except for Gilmour's multitracked harmonies singing"Run, run, run, run,"). The first version of the song had music written by Waters (which appears on theImmersion box set ofThe Wall) with the lyrics as on the album but Waters's music was scrapped in favour of Gilmour's music during the recording of the band demos (which also appear on theImmersion box set). The song features the only keyboard solo onThe Wall byRichard Wright (although on live performances, "Young Lust" and "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2" would also feature keyboard solos). After the last line of lyrics, a synthesizer solo is played over the verse sequence in place of vocals. Following the solo, the arrangement "empties out" and becomes sparse with the guitar only playing anostinato with rhythmic echoes and brief variations every other bar. Sound effects are used to create a sense of paranoia with the sound of cruel laughter, running footsteps, car tyres skidding and a loud scream. The original 7" single version andPink Floyd The Wall -- Special Radio Construction promotionalEP both contain a clean guitar intro, without the live crowd effects. The EP version also contains an extended, 32-beat intro and an extended 64-beat outro where David Gilmour's main guitar phrase repeats before the track ends.[5]
Gilmour said "Short and Sweet", from hiseponymous debut solo studio album, was similar to "Run Like Hell" with both songs using drop-D tuning andchords based around a D root.[6]
After the previous song, "In the Flesh", the crowd continues to chant, "Pink! Floyd! Pink! Floyd!" The guitarintro begins with the scratching of stringsdampened withleft-hand muting, before settling on an open D string dampened bypalm muting. As heard earlier on the album in "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 1", the muted D is treated with a specificdelay setting, providing three to four loud but gradually decaying repeats, onedotted-eighth note apart, with the result that simply playingquarter notes (at 116beats per minute) will produce a strictrhythm of oneeighth note followed by twosixteenth notes, with rhythmic echoes overlapping. Over thispedal tone of D, Gilmour plays descendingtriads inD major (mostly D, A, and G), down to theopen chord position (a quieter, secondoverdubbed guitar plays open chords only). Some of the guitar tracks are also treated with a heavyflanging effect.
The verses are inE minor, with pedal tones of the guitar's open E, B, and G strings (a full E minor triad) ringing out over a sequence ofpower chords, resulting in the chords E minor, Fmaj7sus2(♯11), Cmajor seventh, and Bsus4(add♭6). Providing contrast, another guitar, equally treated with delay, plays a low-pitched riff on the roots andminor sevenths of each chord, although the E♭ (minor seventh of F) and B♭ (minor seventh of C) do not match the sustaining open E and B strings an octave above.[7][8]
Aside from theadded tones in each chord, the basic verse sequence of E minor, F major, E minor, C major, and B major is reprised later in "The Trial", the conceptual climax ofThe Wall. However, David Gilmour is not credited as a co-writer of "The Trial", which is credited to Waters and producer Bob Ezrin.
Before the final riff ends the song, a piercing shriek by Roger Waters can be heard, not unlike one heard between "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" and "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2". At the conclusion of the song, the crowd begins chanting, "Hammer! Hammer!" as the sound of soldiers marching is heard before segueing into the next song, "Waiting for the Worms".
The movie version of the song is considerably shorter than the album version. The second guitar refrain between the first and second verses was taken out, with the verse's last line, "You better run", leading directly to Gilmour's harmonized chant ("Run, run, run, run"), which now echoed back and forth between the left and right channels. Also, Richard Wright's synth solo was superimposed over the second verse, and the long instrumental break between the end of the synth solo and Waters' scream was removed.
Billboard felt that the lyrics were not as "biting" as Pink Floyd's previous single "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2," but stated that "it's the driving, dance-oriented, percussion-filled rhythm which makes the song come alive."[9] In 2017, they ranked the song number two on their list of the 50 greatest Pink Floyd songs.[10]Cashbox said that "David Gilmour’s hard bitten guitar and Roger Water's incessant bass beat set the perfect instrumental mood for the lyrical paranoia."[11]Record World said that "a barrage of guitar/keyboard waves pound the dance-oriented rock" in this example of "brilliance fromThe Wall."[12]Ultimate Classic Rock critic Michael Gallucci rated it as the 7th best Roger Waters song with Pink Floyd, calling it "a paranoid and drug-fueled riff on the dangers of stardom and its parallels with fascism."[13]
During the previous song, "In the Flesh", agiant inflatable pig was released, which Waters refers to in a speech between both songs. The speech given varied slightly at each concert and therefore can be used to identify which show a recording came from. OnIs There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980–81, the speech is a mix of the 15 June 1981 and 17 June 1981 speeches. It was sometimes introduced by Waters as "Run Like Fuck" and Waters and Gilmour sang alternating lines, while the vocal quartet of Stan Farber,Jim Haas, Joe Chemay, and John Joyce sang the choral part.
During the song, the "surrogate band" (also referred to, inNick Mason's book, as the "shadow band") are onstage with the Pink Floyd members and their quartet of singers. Both Andy Bown and Roger Waters play bass on this song. Bown plays the bass exactly as it was recorded—four quarter notes per bar, playing onlyroots, using the lowest possible root indrop D tuning. Waters, meanwhile, plays variations at key moments, playswhole notes while singing, and, during the "emptied out" section on D following the synth solo, Waters sometimes improvised high-pitched riffs above Bown's low D.[14]
Following Waters' departure from Pink Floyd, the song became a regular number in the band's concerts, usually ending the show and going over nine minutes long. During theirA Momentary Lapse of Reason Tour, the band recorded live renditions of the song. One live version was used as the B-side to "On the Turning Away", while it was the closing track on the live albumDelicate Sound of Thunder (1988), recorded during the tour. Gilmour generally played an extended guitar introduction, sharing vocals with touring bassistGuy Pratt, with Pratt singing Waters' lines. Inthe Division Bell Tour, Pratt sometimes sang the name of the city where they were playing instead of the word "mother" in the line "...they're going to send you back to mother in a cardboard box..." – in theEarls Court concerts that closed the tour, he sings "London", as chronicled on thePulse video and album. According to Phil Taylor, David Gilmour played "Run Like Hell" on aFender Telecaster guitar tuned to a drop-D on the tour.[15]
In Roger Waters'The Wall concert inBerlin in 1990, he made no speech and sang all the lines alone. He did not play the bass guitar for this live version.
For Waters'The Wall Live concert series (2010–2013), the song wastransposed onewhole step down, from D to C.[16] This is commonly done in live performances when a singer has difficulty reaching the highest notes in the song's original key.[citation needed] During the intro, Waters clapped to the beat and in some cases shouted, exhorting the audience to clap along and "have a good time, enjoy yourselves". Again, he did not play bass guitar, instead gesturing with a propsubmachine gun at various points, a performance he repeated duringThis Is Not a Drill (2022–2023).
In addition to performing the song with Pink Floyd, Gilmour has performed it on his 1984 solo tour in support of hisAbout Face album. In Waters' absence, Gilmour would trade lines with bass guitarist Mickey Feat. He also performed the song solo at the Colombian Volcano benefit concert in 1986, trading lines with house-band keyboardistJohn "Rabbit" Bundrick (who later played on Waters' solo album,Amused to Death) and again during his 2015–2016Rattle That Lock Tour, trading lines withGuy Pratt as documented on the 2016Live at Pompeii album and film,[17] which was also released as the third single to promote the release. Gilmour didn't play the song on hisnext tour supporting his albumLuck and Strange in 2024, stating; "I love Run Like Hell. [...] But all that ‘You’d better run, run, run'. I now find that all rather, I don’t know... a bit terrifying and violent."[18]
Pink Floyd
with:
Personnel per Fitch and Mahon.[19]
Hired-gun guitaristLee Ritenour was also brought in "to beef up the sound" by producerBob Ezrin.[20]
| Chart (1980) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Canada Top Singles (RPM)[21] | 15 |
| West Germany (GfK)[22] | 46 |
| New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[23] | 30 |
| Sweden (Sverigetopplistan)[24] | 18 |
| USBillboard Hot 100[25] | 53 |
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