Wish You Were HereStudio album
Recorded: January - July 1975
Released: 12 September 1975
Band lineupRoger Waters (bass)
David Gilmour (guitar)
Richard Wright (keyboards)
Nick Mason (drums)
Dick Parry (saxophone solo on "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" part V)
Roy Harper (lead vocal on "Have a Cigar")
All lyrics written by Roger Waters.
Side A1. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (parts I-V)
(Waters, Gilmour, Wright) (13:38)
2. Welcome To the Machine
(Waters) (7:30)
Side B1. Have a Cigar
(Waters) (5:24)
2. Wish You Were Here
(Waters, Gilmour) (5:17)
3. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (parts VI-IX)
(Waters, Gilmour, Wright) (12:29)
ReviewIn the wake of the enormous commercial success of
The Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd produced a second concept album with two concurrent and related themes. First, the album and the very long "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" which makes up more than half of its length are calls out to Syd, who was very put off by commercial success. Second, the remaining tracks explore the harsh realities of the music industry, and the fact that success has its pitfalls.
The music used to convey these themes is a lot darker than anything Pink Floyd did previously. We begin with the first half of Shine On You Crazy Diamond, a 14-minute track containing two verses about Syd Barrett's short but bright music career, sung by Roger, but otherwise instrumental. The instrumentation is much more structured than Floyd's previous jams, though; the track is clearly separated into alternating guitar solos from David and synth solos from Rick. David's solos are bluesy as usual, while Rick's are very simple and reflective. Finally, Dick Parry takes a sax solo after the vocals. It's good, but the solos get repetitive fast without band members being able to bounce ideas off each other like they used to.
Dick's solo fades out to end the opening track. It's a long, slow fade-out, and it actually gives the impression that the music is getting further away, not just quieter. This actually turns out to be a cross-fade into Welcome To the Machine, which opens with a steady, mechanical drone. Some clunking and whirring later, David begins singing about "the machine", a symbol of the music business churning young musicians into commercial products. It even goes so far as to say "it's alright, we told you what to dream", criticising popular media for reinforcing the idea that commercial success is something to strive for.
Side A ends with another slow synth solo from Rick, maintaining the aural presence of a machine throughout the 7-minute song, until finally a mechanical click stops the solo abruptly and the song ends with the faint sound of a crowd of people laughing. It's not one of my favourite Floyd songs, but it certainly conveys its message extremely well.
Have a Cigar is a slow, bluesy, almost sleazy number about a greedy record company executive who cares more for money and record sales than for the music itself, sung by Roy Harper. Like Welcome To the Machine, this song contains some fairly direct criticism of the music industry, ending with the sentiment "did we tell you the name of the game, boy? We call it riding the gravy train."
The segue from Have a Cigar into Wish You Were Here is one of my favourites. The guitar solo that closes Have a Cigar cuts to the sound of a radio, continuing to play Have a Cigar. Someone then tunes the radio through a few short sound bytes, including some which run with the general theme of the album, including a woman saying "now would you take this star nonsense?", before finally tuning into the Wish You Were Here guitar riff. The radio operator picks up a guitar and plays along, and so the next song starts.
Wish You Were Here rounds off the songs about the music industry, and this is a much more direct and personal commentary towards listeners rather than the industry itself. It challenges the listener: "Do you think you can tell Heaven from Hell? ... Did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?"; and at the same time seems to call out to Syd: "Running over the same old ground / What have we found? The same old fears / Wish you were here".
Wish You Were Here crossfades into the sound of wind blowing, ushering in the tour de force of the album, which begins with a simple, one-note bass line. The conclusion of Shine On You Crazy Diamond enters with one Rick and David solo apiece, before returning to the final verse for Syd, this time more directly alluding to his own disillusionment with commercial success ("pile on many more layers, and I'll be joining you there").
The concluding six minutes of the album are again instrumental, but I find these much more interesting than the opening solos. Part VIII is a funky jam, not quite as catchy as those you'll find on
Atom Heart Mother or
Meddle, but the closest thing you'll get to Pink Floyd rocking out post-
Dark Side, dominated by Rick's clavinet and synth parts. Part IX is a final send-off for Syd, written entirely by Rick, with his most beautiful Minimoog solo of the album.
This isn't one of my favourite Pink Floyd albums. It's good, and it's one of the last examples of Roger, David and Rick all working together, but it just feels like the band is going through the motions instead of doing anything particularly creative. I say dispense with the concept albums and bring back the extended instrumental jams.