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Band: Pink Floyd
Album: Wish You Were Here
Released on September 15, 1975
Track Listing:
1.SHINE ON YOU CRAZY DIAMOND
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V
2.WELCOME TO THE MACHINE
3.HAVE A CIGAR
4.WISH YOU WERE HERE
5.SHINE ON YOU CRAZY DIAMOND
Part VI
Part VII
Part VIII
Part IX
All lyrics by Roger Waters
Produced By Pink Floyd
Without Pink Floyd we would not have the European sci-fi multitudes (Hawkwind, Can, Amon Duul II and all their little friends) to kick around. They were the first to explore the upper reaches of the chemical heavens, and their commercial and artistic superiority, if ever it was in doubt, was brutally confirmed by Dark Side of the Moon. That 1973 album has now sold over 6,000,000 units worldwide -- 3,000,000 in the U.S. alone. Advance orders for their followup (two years in the making) topped 900,000, one of the largest advance figures in Columbia's history.
Talk has it that the waiting period was prolonged by the band's own paranoia. To release anything would commit them to a competition with their own past that they could not hope to win.
If so, their fears have been realized.
By their own admission, Pink Floyd will never bring home any blue ribbons for their instrumental abilities. Their mastery of their tools peaks at competence. The illusion of complexity that caused their drooling legions to make wild claims of high-art accomplishment was actually nothing more that the skillful manipulation of elements so simple -- the basic three chords everyone else uses -- that any collection of bar hacks could grind out a note-for-note reproduction without difficulty.
Even thought it was Dark Side of the Moon that stayed on the charts for over 100 dog years, and The Wall that gobbled up all the attention, most hardcore followers of the Floyd consider this album to be the band's truly finest hour, and rightfully so. It is here that the contributions of Mssrs. Waters, Gilmore, and Wright blend together in the most harmonious manner, while reflecting upon the band's past ghosts, namely that of founding member Syd Barrett. In comparing all the Floyd albums saturated with Waters' depressing visions, Wish You Were Here is the one that rings most sincere and least overblown to me. No maniacal screaming or 'loony' laughter, no 'he leadeth me to the slaughterhouse' readings on vocoder, no "The Trial." The message is despairing, but clear, direct, and not self-aggrandizing or self-pitying.
Every song on here, whether taken together or apart, is a staple of classic rock radio, whether you like that fact or not. My favorite is "Welcome to the Machine," one of the most incredible works the band ever accomplished from a construction standpoint. Never has a rock song sounded so hollow and effectively zombie-like to me, with Gilmour's octave-separated wail caught like a fly in a spider's web of musique concrete. "Have a Cigar" contains some of Waters' best lyrics and features an unexpected guest vocal from cult artist Roy Harper. Harper turns in a magnificent performance, perfectly capturing the portrait of the Gordon Gecko'd record exec and orgasmically cooing: "Everybody else is just greeeen, have you seen the charts?" and "We're so happy, we can hardly count."
I could comment on the anthemic title track and the album's epic "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" as well, but instead I'll keep this reasonably short, figuring most everybody who's a prog rock fan has probably heard this album already. If you haven't, shame on you. This is a magnum opus of rock music in general, not just the prog rock genre; the sort of album that gets made only when the planets are in a certain conjunction.
UK CHART POSITION #1 . . . US CHART POSITION #1
DAVID GILMOUR -- Guitar Vocals VCS3
NICK MASON -- Drums percussions Tape effects
ROGER WATERS -- Bass guitar Vocals VCS3
RICK WRIGHT -- Keyboards Organ Piano VCS3 Vovals
Roy Harper -- vocals (3)
Dick Parry -- saxophone
Brian Humphries -- engineer
Bernie Caulder and Phil Taylor -- thanks
Hipgnosis -- sleeve design and photography
MultiQuote
. I'm Not Sure About The Other 2 But I Thought The Whole Album Was A Tribute To Syd.
