Like the baby-turned-murderer in the animated sequence for “What Shall We Do Now?”, in the presence of the wall, Pink’s closest moments of apology and endearment are perverted into brutal images of pain and abuse. Each time he proclaims “I need you” – a statement teeming with vulnerability and implicating at least some level of dependence – he quickly backtracks and lets his revenge fantasies take over the moment, reasserting his dominance and self-reliance with his imagined threats of physical violence. And while there is some inclination that Pink possibly realizes the personal connections he needs to make in order to begin the ascent from his depression, his guarded self gets the best of him every time he comes close to opening himself up too much. In Pink’s mind, he’s the one whose made all the effort, sending his wife flowers, telling her how much he needs her – claims that are made all the more farcical following on the heels of songs about his sexual promiscuity and personal disconnection from nearly everyone in his life. Pink is telling her not to leave him, asking her not to “say it’s the end of the road,” asking her “how could you go” and “ow can you treat me this way?” before accusing her of “running away.” As we’ve seen countless times throughout his wall building, Pink fashions himself the hapless victim of yet another brick, shifting the responsibility of his actions onto others. The very title of the song with its implied subject, “ Don’t Leave Me Now,” shifts the action (and thus, the blame for the relationship’s dissolution) onto the wife.

There’s an irony in the tension of Pink’s teetering emotional state, namely in his obliviousness to his own accountability for the strained relationship which he now laments. Rather, it seems they are meant to reflect Pink’s mental state as he puts the final touches to his wall, painting a portrait of a man at his breaking point licking his wounds, so to speak, by fantasizing revenge for being cuckolded and left alone in what he sees a cruel world. Though the listener is invited to draw her or his own conclusions, it’s doubtful that the beatings Pink sings of are real. For many, the question then arises as to whether Pink is actually physically abusive to his wife? Are these random beatings that he sings about true? In his interview with Roger Waters, interviewer Tommy Vance aptly (and alliteratively) described Pink as wallowing in the “depths…of deprived depravity” at this point in the album, a mental state one should keep in mind before interpreting the lyrics a bit too literally. Even the threats of the previous “One of My Turns” had a certain playful, dark humor about them that is missing, or more appropriately, has morphed into something more disturbing in this song. Distressed at the thought of his wife’s infidelity, Pink gives voice to the warring emotions within, in one instant begging his wife to not “say it’s the end of the road”, then seconds later threatening to “beat to a pulp on a Saturday night.” It’s something of a shock for the audience to hear the largely submissive Pink not only conjure up brutal images of physical abuse but also relish in the thought of meting them on his wife. The atmosphere is a heavy one, emphasized by the sound of slow, labored breathing layered on top of the track. On’t Leave Me Now” acts as a depressive counterpoint to the manic outburst of “One of My Turns.” The sluggish rhythm of the piano and the reverb-laden synthesizers sonically create the empty spaces stretching in all directions behind Pink’s self-created wall.

Song In A Sentence: Pink mentally lashes out at his adulterous wife, alternating between threatening her and begging her to come back to him.

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