Young Lust

"Young Lust" is about the sometimes grotesque lifestyle of rock stars and their love lives (or lack thereof). It's part of the concept album The Wall, which follows a troubled rock star named Pink. In the song, Pink's libido has full control; he shows up in a city and immediately seeks out a "dirty girl" for a good time. The song is in some ways a satire of the sex and rock n' roll clichés so common in '70s rock. Pink Floyd found more cerebral subject matter for their songs.

Along with "Run Like Hell" and "Comfortably Numb," this is one of three songs on The Wall where Pink Floyd guitarist Dave Gilmour shares a writing credit with Roger Waters, who came up with the concept for the album and delivered the demo the band worked from. Gilmour also sings the lead vocal. The band wasn't getting along very well by this time. Following their 1977 album Animals, they took some time off before getting back together in 1978. Gilmour made a solo album during this time, while Rogers made The Wall. This put him in control of the project but he need help from his bandmates to flesh out his vision. How much help they offered is a source of contention: Gilmour and the other two members - drummer Nick Mason and keyboard player Richard Wright - claim they made significant contributions to the music. Waters made his case in a 1999 Mojo oral history: "This was not a cooperative. It was in no sense a democratic process. If somebody had a good idea I would accept it and maybe use it, in the same sense that if someone writes and directs a movie he will often listen to what the actors have to say. It sounds to me a bit like Animal Farm, the pigs fight about who was more equal than others."

At the end of the song we hear a phone call connected by an operator. It's a collect call from America to England "for Mrs. Floyd from Mr. Floyd." Instead of Mrs. Floyd, a man answers and hangs up. They try again and again the man answers, leaving the operator to break the bad news to Mr. Floyd: "It's a man answering." The phone call represents Pink's attempt to contact his wife, only to find her having an affair of her own. The call was real. James Guthrie, an engineer on the album, was working in Los Angeles and placed the call to his friend in London. He recorded it, so that's a real American operator, not an actress. It's a rare case of a prank call making it onto an album, something more associated with the Beastie Boys.