Progarchives, the progressive rock ultimate discography
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here CD (album) cover

WISH YOU WERE HERE

Pink Floyd

 

Psychedelic/Space Rock

4.64 | 4551 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

octopus-4
Special Collaborator
RIO/Avant/Zeuhl,Neo & Post/Math Teams
5 stars I've seen David Gilmour saying in an intervies that he was playing an A7- chord when he played by mistake the most famous 4-notes sequence after the opening of Beethoven 5th symphony.

During a session of the studio rehearsals of Dark Side they saw a fat man with no hair looking at them from out of the studio glass window at Abbey Road. Only after he left they realised that he was Syd Barrett. This is the episode at the base of Wish You Were Here.

The rest is well known by everybody, also the non-proggers, so I will write just few more lines.

Shine on You Crazy Diamond was intended as a single track that was split in two because of its length. The first recorded version that I have found on a rarities boxset had rumours of rain, winds and thuinders in the background for all the about 30 minutes of the suite. Regardless this noise that's not too disturbing, having the opportunity to listen to the whole suite in one shot enhances the experience. It occupies more than half of the album and is with no doubts a five-stars track.

"Welcome to the Machine" is one of the most politically influenced songs of Roger Waters. He took something from Chaplin's Modern Times, the rest comes from his socialist origins. Add a touch of musical genius in the composition and the effort of the whole band.

"Have A Cigar" with its rock opening is an invective against the star system, something that has surely contributed in making Syd's disturbs more severe. It can be a bit irritating but it was not unusual for them at that time being asked "Who of you is Pink?"

Even with the mute singing at the end of the song and the incredibly famous acoustic guitar intro (5-notes this time) this song is for me the weakest moment of the album. I suspect that's so famous because it's very easy to play with one or two acoustic guitars, and in a period when no more people was owning a "stereo" at home, this fact contributed to make it very famous. Not a bad song, of course, but not so concrete as the rest.

An album on which a song like Wish you were here is the weakest moment can't be rated less than the maximum. From here starts the 3rd period of Pink Floyd's music, as I think lthat Dark Side is the closure of the second. The story says that it was when the "Spaces between friends" started to be too wide to be filled. Just a couple of albums more and the story of broken relationships will lead Pink Floyd to a temporary end.

A milestone for this reason, too.

octopus-4 | 5/5 |

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).

Forum user
Forum password

Share this PINK FLOYD review

Social review comments () BETA







Review related links

Copyright Prog Archives, All rights reserved. | Legal Notice | Privacy Policy | Advertise | RSS + syndications

Other sites in the MAC network: JazzMusicArchives.com — jazz music reviews and archives | MetalMusicArchives.com — metal music reviews and archives

Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.