Product Description

The breakthrough success of DARK SIDE OF THE MOON made WISHYOU WERE HERE a crucial follow-up in strictly commercial terms. Further pressure came from it being Pink Floyd's first recording for a new label, Columbia. Yet the demands on the band only provided Roger Waters with more fodder for his lyrics, which glanced at the band's roots as well as their new responsibilities.
The mechanised throb of a VCS3 synthesizer, fed through a repeat-echo unit, signals the opening bars of "Welcome To The Machine", a diatribe against an industry more concerned with money than creative music-making. "Have A Cigar" further establishes Waters' contempt by bringing in singer Roy Harper to play the role of a "faceless suit", who none-too-innocently asks, "Which one's Pink?" The remaining songs indirectly look back to the first casualty of PinkFloyd's growing fame, the group's founder, Syd Barrett.
The 20-minute-plus "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" has its roots in earlier pieces like "Atom Heart Mother Suite" and "Echoes". But rather than just another Floydian soundscape, its lyrics make it a paean to Barrett's genius and a requiem for his subsequent breakdown. The first five of the song's nine movements open the album with sax player Dick Parry wailing as effectively as he did on DARK SIDE. The final four sections, which close the album, form a reprise that starts with the sound of wind and David Gilmour's guitar screaming and crying. The band then settles into a laid-back jam that ends with Richard Wright's billowing synth delicately fading out.
The title track deals also with Barrett, as well as the tension the idealist Waters was feeling in battling the greedthat surrounded the band's success. The themes of disillusionment planted throughout WISH YOU WERE HERE would eventually sprout full-blown on THE WALL.

Track Listing

1. Shine On You Crazy Diamond
2. Welcome To The Machine
3. Have A Cigar
4. Wish You Were Here
5. Shine on you crazy diamond pt.2

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #503 in Music
• Released on: 1994-08-01
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered

Amazon.co.uk Review
Wish You Were Here is a song cycle dedicated to Pink Floyd's original frontman, Syd Barrett, who'd flamed out years before: two grimly funny songs about the evils of the music business ("By the way, which one's Pink?"), and two long, touching ones about the band's vanished friend. The real star of the show, though, is the production: sparkling, convoluted, designed to sound deeply oh-wow under the influence--and pretty great sober too, with David Gilmour getting lots of space for his most lyrical guitar playing ever. And, though the album is big and ambitious, even bombastic, it somehow dodges being pretentious--the Barrett tributes are honest and heartfelt, beneath all the grand gestures and stereophonic trickery. --Douglas Wolk

Customer Reviews

Wonderful From Start To Finish.
Following 'Dark Side Of The Moon' must have been difficult. So kudos to the Floyd for creating 'Wish You Were Here', for many their finest work. By their usual standards, this is remarkably gentle and can be easily appreciated by fans of all genres.

One of Pink Floyd's most famous songs, 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' is a loving tribute to the late, great Syd Barrett. A nine part composition split into two, It's a thing of beauty from start to finish made all the more poignant by the fact that Barrett himself, suddenly showed up at the studio whilst Floyd were recording that very song, prompting Richard Wright to proclaim it as "Karma, Fate, who knows?".

Things take a darker tone with 'Welcome To The Machine' and 'Have A Cigar', attacks on the hypocricy and greed of the music industry. With David Gilmour's blistering guitar work and tinny synthesizer beats, these tracks are more Rock orientated than the rest of the album.

But it's the title track 'Wish You Were Here' that seals the album's greatness. A simple, haunting, acoustic ballad that also, is based on Barrett. Rolling Stone voted it one of the top 500 songs ever made, and rightly so. This is affecting stuff from one of Rock Musics greats, and a fitting tribute to Syd Barrett, one of Rock music's great visionary minds.

Not as good as dark side..... BUT AMAZING!
A brill album. Shine on you crazy diamond is the best song ever made; it's musical feelings reach out to you and calm you down, while Welcome To The Machine fills you with energy. Brill.

Pink Floyd's Best Album
Outside of the Pink Floyd faithful, this album does not achieve the attention afforded to the 'Dark Side of the Moon' or even 'The Wall.' In a way, that's good because it makes you feel even better when you "discover" it for yourself. This is Pink Floyd doing what they do best, that is taking their time, enjoying the moment, and delivering sensational sound, beautiful music, and a serious message. Music fans interested in more than catchy pop choruses will find sublime balance and clarity in the music - certainly Gilmore's finest moments - something rarely achieved in popular music. In a similar way to the 'Dark Side of the Moon,' there is plenty of scope for the listener's imagination and interpretation.

The haunting "Welcome to the Machine" conveys a severe sense of foreboding and the inevitability of the mechanisation of human existence and the subsequent loss of peace and happiness. Yet, somehow the pointlessness and acceptness of this state, fuses and indeed transcends concepts such as positive and negative to achieve somekind of equilibrium towards the end of the song. The finale to the album, "Shine on You Crazy Diamond, Part 2" also concludes with a sense of some kind of balance or harmony being achieved by two opposing forces.

You could write incessantly about this album because it observes human life with the seriousness that it warrants and deals with subjects that resonate with everybody, even if they don't realise it. I've tried to review the album as a single entity rather than individual songs, afterall it's a concept album! Enjoy!