Stupendous analysis from net of this song: "Mother" is a song in which young Pink expresses his concerns to his overprotective mother. The music-box sound in the movie, makes the song sound more childlike and innocent, which goes great when juxtaposed with the mother's cynical voice. The song opens up with Pink's concerns of war, rooted with his father's death. He then wonders if "they", (meaning society, his peers, the world) will like his song or try to break him down. Now he asks his mother if he should build a wall...his mother's haunting answer can be found later. Pink questions whether he should run for president when he is older, but this does not literally mean president to me. It is there to show that Pink has dreams and hopes.
In the album version, Pink asks "
Is it just a waste of time?" with "it" referring to life.
At this point, Pink's mother begins to sing. In her verses, we learn that she is EXTREMELY overprotective of her child, but she has good reason to be. She has lost her husband to war and she doesn't want her "baby blue" to be injured. She is almost portrayed as being psychotic to me, "
Mama's gonna make all of your nightmares come true, Mama's gonna put all of her fears into you." Unwittingly, Pink's mother is forcing all of her fears and beliefs onto her son while thinking she is helping him by protecting him from the world.
This also shows a psychological theory known as Behaviorism. A person learns to fear by observing others. In this case, Pink becomes fragile and despondent mainly as a result of observing his mother this way. This also supports the Psychodynamic theory (Sigmund Freud). The mother is using an ego-defense mechanism (projection) to protect herself from the pain. Unwittingly, she is projecting these fears onto her son. It can also be argued that she is using the defense of overcompensation, she is trying to cover her weaknesses by being extremely protective and maternal to Pink.
Here, we get the answer to the question Pink asked his mother earlier...The answer is "
Of course Mama's gonna help build a wall." She helps build the wall by encouraging him to build, trying to keep him far away from reality. Also, she helps build it unknowingly because she is one of the bricks in Pink's life.
In his second verse, Pink is older than in the first verse. Here, he is either dating or possibly married. His questions concern the girl he is with; he asks his mother whether his girlfriend(wife?) is good enough for him, whether she is dangerous to him, whether she will dominate him, or will she break his heart. In her second verse, Mother answers Pink's concerns, "
Mama's gonna check out all your girlfriends for you", and that she won't letting anyone "dirty" get to him, that she will always wait up for him at night, and that she will find out where he has been. Her next line shows that no matter what, Pink will always be "Baby Blue" to her; in her eyes he will always remain a child, needing the attention and care and protection that a child needs. "You'll always be baby to me."
Pink's last line is a bit of a mystery: "
Mother did it need to be so high?". If "it" represents life, as it did earlier when Pink said "Is it just a waste of time?" then this line might be a question as to why life had to be so distorted, so drugged up. Another interpretation of the last line is that the "it" is referring to Pink's ever-expanding wall. As Raven stated: "It was almost finished by the time he left home (i.e. his mother) and he says 'Mother, I know I needed a wall, but did it have to be so high that I can't get back out if I need to?'"
Personally, I agree with Raven's interpretation. At the end of "Mother" there is a phone conversation. Pink, touring in America, tries to contact his wife in England, but little does he know that his wife has hooked up with another guy. When the operator calls Pink's house, the other man answers and when learning Pink is trying to get in touch with his wife, he hangs up. The operator tries again but the man hangs up again. Now, Pink realizes that there is another man in his wife's life. This realization is the basis for "
Empty Spaces". An interesting tid-bit is that this phone conversation really happened.
Roger Waters was the United States (touring, I believe) and called England in the middle of a concert. The person he was calling was in on the whole "joke", however the operator thought this was a real phone call and therefore tried her best to patch Waters through to his "wife".
