In 1979, Pink Floyd released The wall. Over 25 years later, an all-star line up has assembled to pay tribute to this work, produced by Billy Sherwood (Yes, Conspiracy). Jeb Wright (Classic Rock Revisited, September 2005):
"Imagine a Pink Floyd tribute album featuring Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Rick Wakeman, Alan White and Billy Sherwood of Yes, Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, Tommy Shaw of Styx, Adrian Belew, The Doors Robby Krieger, Glenn Hughes, ELP’s Keith Emerson, The Tubes Fee Waybill, Ronnie Montrose, Deep Purple’s Steve Morse, Asia’s Geoff Downes, John Wetton, Elliot Easton of Cars fame and Steve Lukather of Toto. Imagine the tribute is not a ‘best of’ type event but instead a tribute to one of the most complex and intense albums to ever be made: The wall. Lastly, imagine the album actually containing songs from the movie that were not on the original album release. What a cool idea eh? Well, Billy Sherwood had the idea and he made it a reality! The result is the best tribute album ever made. In fact, this is the tribute album that all others should aspire to.
The hero of this release is Billy Sherwood. The man sounds a lot like Floyd’s Roger Waters and he has done his homework. From the background sounds to Waters patented nasal tones, Sherwood hits a home run. He also did a great job of putting the right songs with the right people. In the end, we learn what truly creative musicians Waters and David Gilmour are. Floyd has always had a unique sound but one does not realize just how unique they are until you listen to others try to recreate their sound and feel. No one will ever do a job as good as this. Against the wall does not try to mimic the original but it does a superb job in keeping the intent and vision alive while providing fireworks of new creativity."
Steve Lukather in 2005 (musicstreetjournal.com): "Billy Sherwood is an old friend of mine. He's the guy that produced the record. He used to play with Yes. He just called the guys that he digs. I've worked with Roger Waters and David Gilmour over the years. I'm a huge Pink Floyd fan. I thought it would be great. He really did an amazing job putting that record together. It was a serious labor of love for him. Apparently Roger and Dave really dug it. That's pretty cool. They just said "we want you to sing on this one and play a solo on this one." I'm a fan of the record. As a matter of fact, dig this, in 1978; I was in France doing two records for Elton. The same studio, Super Bear Studios in Nice, France, up in the hills, Pink Floyd had just finished cutting tracks for The wall there. So I was around it.
I was in and out of there in a half hour; the vocals (Hey you) and solo (Another brick in the wall, pt.3). I didn't even have time to get my ass warm. Billy did the arrangements. I'm obviously very familiar with the music so it really wasn't a big stretch for me to go in there and do it really quickly. Labor of love, like I said. When you write music like that, it's really easy to play because the songs are already so good that you can't really f**k 'em up. You have to try really hard. But then again, a classic record like The wall, there will be people who will scrutinize and "what are you doing, trying to remake Sgt. Pepper's?" It was done out of respect; respectfully done by all the artists involved. They are all A-level guys. Mostly guys from the era that would have really dug the record. I saw The wall shows. I was there in 7th row center at the sports arena. I had my jaw drop. Still one of the best shows I've seen in my whole life."
