"In The Flesh?" is the first song on Pink Floyd's classic album The Wall, the brianchild of their bass player, Roger Waters. It introduces Pink, the main character of the story, who invites us to one of his concerts - turns out he's a rock star. Over the next 25 tracks, we learn much more about Pink (and by extension, Waters), including his triumphs and traumas.
The title doesn't appear in the lyrics. It's a reference to Pink Floyd's 1977 Animals In The Flesh tour, which inspired the concept of The Wall. The band were playing huge stadiums to rowdy fans, and Roger Waters felt a severe disconnect. At the last show, which took place at Olympic Stadium in Montreal, he spit at a fan who got too close. This led to a great deal of soul searching, and over the next year or so he wrote most of the songs that would form the album.
The songs on the album flow seamlessly from one to another, so "In The Flesh?" segues right into the next song, "The Thin Ice." The last song on the album, "Outside The Wall," ends with a man saying "Isn't this where..." and then getting abruptly cut off. Very faintly at the start of "In the Flesh?" we hear the rest of the line: "...we came in?" In this way, the album makes a complete loop, a manifestation of Roger Waters' fascination with cycles.
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