Pink Floyd – “Wish You Were Here”
Tracks:
- Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Parts 1-5
- Welcome to the Machine
- Have a Cigar
- Wish You Were Here
- Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Parts 6-9
Like most people my age, we were introduced to Pink Floyd via their great single “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2″ back in 1979. But my REAL introduction to Pink Floyd came from my best friend Jeff. Of course I had heard part of “The Wall” and “Dark Side of the Moon”, but my listening was limited. Jeff made me sit down and listen to the albums while he recorded them for me. Eventually through the years, though I like many of them, “Wish You Were Here” became my favorite.
(From left): Richard Wright (keyboards), Roger Waters (bass, vocals), Nick Mason (drums), David Gilmour (guitars, vocals).
There are a few reasons why I like WYWH over Floyd’s other albums, and probably the biggest is the arrangement and “layout” of the songs. I like how the albums begins and ends with the same song. “Shine On” is not redundant, though it does have reoccurring themes. At least to my ears. At times, some of their longer compositions were redundant. “Shine On” has a very ambient feel at times, especially the beginning. And there is some great guitar work from Gilmour.
“Welcome to the Machine” is one of my favorite songs, not just favorite Floyd song. It is one of the heaviest and darkest songs in rock, especially for the time it was released (1975) and yet there is no electric guitar. What helps the dark sound is the use of tympani instead of a traditional drum kit. The title track is a rock classic. The lyrics are great, even if a bit indecipherable. It is one that I can’t help singing along to all the time.
Gilmour, Waters, Mason, and Wright earlier this summer after performing at Live 8.
One of the biggest themes to the album is absence. “Shine On” is about Pink Floyd’s founder and former guitarist Syd Barrett who was too “fried” to continue a professional career after way too much acid in the band’s early days. It speaks of his absence of mind. “Have a Cigar” speaks of absence in a different way. One is that no member of the band sings on it. It is about a record exec who signs the band (“By the way, which one’s Pink?”) and to truly portray this they had Roy Harper sing the lyrics.
It is a great album to just sit back and chill out to.
November 23rd, 2005 at 5:50 am
I took a year out of college ten years ago, and during that time, I lived with an Italian colleague who used to have this album on ALL the time. I even got to the point where I knew the words. Even Paul learned the words when he came to visit!
November 23rd, 2005 at 5:52 am
BTW, I meant the Brick in the Wall Album, not this one.