Prog Rock Saturday: Wish You Were Here

Pink Floyd - "Wish You Were Here" (1975) - Columbia Records

Hello Friends,

We got a bonafide classic on the turntable tonight as well as an answer to the question, how does Pink Floyd follow-up a masterpiece like 1973's Dark Side of the Moon?  The answer, of course, is with another masterpiece!   

Wish You Were Here is a tribute to Floyd founding member, Syd Barrett, who went cuckoo-bananas years earlier due to a combination of mental illness and massive amounts of psychedelic drugs! (Just say no, kids!)  At times poignant and at times incredibly cynical, the album is also songwriter Roger Waters' commentary of the state of the music industry and the band coming to terms with their new found fame. Dark Side of the Moon propelled Floyd from "weird British art rock band" to one of the biggest bands in the world.  Wish You Were Here is the sound of a band collectively coming to grips with themselves by taking one long last look at the past while keeping an eye on an uncertain future.

And speaking of futuristic-nostalgia (is that a term?), the album is bookended by the astonishing "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", a nine-part epic that builds from ghostly keyboards, to some incredibly bluesy David Gilmour guitar solos, to the famous four-note guitar theme that is still sad and spooky after all these years, to Waters' lyrics about his old friend, Syd:

"Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun... / Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky..."

Legend has it that originally "Crazy Diamond" was supposed to occupy an entire side of the record ala "Echoes".  We think it was an incredibly wise decision to break it up into two parts to serve as the record's Overture and Denouement.

The three songs providing the meat in this proggy sandwich ain't half bad either.

Side One's futuristic-sounding "Welcome to the Machine" is the band's "fuck you" to the music industry which supplants any personal or artistic vision with very impersonal and calculating motives.  "What did you dream?  Its alright we told you what to dream!"

This idea is continued on the flip side opener, "Have a Cigar" about the fat cats and greedy big wigs that basically run the music industry.  The idea behind the lyric, "And by the way, which one's Pink?" would later evolve into the protagonist for the band's 1979 double album, The Wall.  Lead vocal duties on "Cigar" are performed by English folk artist, Roy Harper.  (Hats off!)

As "Have A Cigar" ends we hear a tinny AM radio dial tuning around the stations.  Nowadays this little effect probably doesn't hold much water, but it must have been a real mind-blower back in '75 when people heard this for the first time!  While the background guitar continues, an acoustic guitar in the foreground takes over with another great Gilmour solo. The solo concludes, chords are strum and Gilmour sings their most famous ballad, "Wish You Were Here".  Talent-wise Floyd weren't as virtuosic as some of their proggy contemporaries, like Yes or King Crimson, but they were unmatched geniuses in the studio with the ability to arrange and layer their songs in such a way where lyrics about madness, alienation, paranoia & loss are perfectly complemented by their musical arrangements.

Listening to Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here on vinyl we're reminded of why vinyl is so great!  The clicks, the pops & hisses of the record add to the overall feel of the record. Its nostalgic and dark.  Flawed, yet preserved.  Its almost 40 years later and the album still resonates.

Shine on, kids!

RATING: 5 targets for faraway laughter out of 5