WISH YOU WERE HERE

The star of a 100 lists of Best of all time albums....is WYWH with no doubt regarded by more than only Pink floyd fans as Floys best album. Personally I always prefered Animals as that album...but I cannot deny that WYWH is on par with that one. Not particulary progressive rock, but certainly dreamy spacerock that in that time was called Psychedelic Rock. No matter how you call it, it deserves a place in this list, thats for sure.

I think its one of the few albums from which only the recording is already surrounded by legends. The sudden apperance of Syd Barrett in the studio till the legendary shooting of the album cover (one of Storm Thorgensens best effords). I actually know anyone who travelled to California to find the the lakes that are shown of the cover of this album.

The album is by far the most keyboard oriented album Pink Floyd has made...this is resulting in often very long and spreaded out keyboardparts and therefor I think it can be said that Rick Wright is perhaps the real star of this album.....already right from the beginning they let you have no mestake about that (although by now Gilmour's opening solo is perhaps much more famous) and is the tone for the rest of the album set.

The album basically is beginning with the same song as its ended with...only they cut that song into 2 pieces and added 3 other songs in between that.....Most of the time Shine on is getting the most praise and is often called as one of PF's best songs ever......I cannot deny with that...although I also would like to ask attention for the underdog 'Welcome To The Machine' which is in my eyes the best song of the album....especially the keys on this songs moves in spheres that PF never entered again after this album....unfortunatly I must say. The remaing 2 songs are one straight on and very nice rock song and one liove favorite that now is regarded as one of the most favorable songs to play live that PF ever created and added to every setlist of solo and PF tours (except during the The Wall tour).

For me the album comes on as too soft..and very mellow quite often....particulary due the towering influence of Shine on at the beginning (The way Shine On opens is perhaps the most perfect opening for a live concert) and the end....t lets you dream away to another world....a world of myths and dreams. How different this is during the live performances. WYWH was played in parts already during the tour before the official release of the album, just as pieces that were eventually ending up on Animals, but was not played in its entirety during the Animals Tour 2 years after its release.....PF usually played Animals first then and after that the whole of WYWH..And then usually a few encores, on time more than other times. Particularry the live version of Shine On II was much much better due the extremely extended soloing of David Gilmour. This made Shine On II sometimes clock far over 22 minutes.......(They are captured on several bootlegs of this tour) and over and over it was Gilmour who was on fire during this..........Floyd at the top of its peak....if you ask me.

With the 2002 In The Flesh Tour in Europe, Roger Waters decide to drop What God Wants and The Powers That Be and added Shine On II. This resulted into playing almost the entire WYWH album. (The only song that was missing was Have a Cigar) It was a beautifull rendition of the album even while Shine On II was shorter as on the album, and definatly not as long as during the Animals Tour.....but the effort was apreciated......

Wish You Were with that ends up to be another towering of inspiration. Listen for example to the song The Walls Of Babylon of Pendragon on The Window Of Life or the fact that Transatlantic added Shine On I to the bonus collection of A Bridge Across Forever or played the song completely during their last tour as a final encore from time to time) Beautifull lyrics, dreamcatching and extremely moving and dreamy melodies......it grew out as an album for all time.....