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Pink Floyd - The Story of Wish You Were Here CD (album) cover

THE STORY OF WISH YOU WERE HERE

Pink Floyd

 

Psychedelic/Space Rock

3.97 | 97 ratings

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Matti
Prog Reviewer
4 stars I ought to be reviewing dozens of Finnish artists but for change I'll throw the second (!) review for this documentary DVD that I viewed two days ago. Originally I saw it on TV about a year ago where it was broadcast as a part of the series "Classic Album" - which it actually isn't, but is made in the same formula. As Finnforest said, unlike numerous DVD's about Floyd, this is an official Pink Floyd documentary featuring interviews of the (past and present) band members and other collaborators, such as animator Gerald Scarfe, album designer Storm Thorgeson and solo artist Roy Harper, the vocalist of 'Have a Cigar'.

Naturally David Gilmour and Roger Waters - in turns, not together, just as one might guess too - are the ones most present in the film. Especially Waters has deep thoughts about the band's internal and individual feelings at the time, which were very depressed. With the enormous success of The Dark Side of the Moon they were stars under big pressures. The shaping of the next album began with the famous four chords of Gilmour's guitar that start 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond', Floyd's dedication to their original leadman Syd Barrett. The Barrett tragedy is indeed heavily dealt here, and I have to agree with Finnforest that the way it's represented is not glorious.

When seeing this for the first time I was very delighted and surprised by the animations of Scarfe. I hadn't known that the collaboration with him started much earlier than with the film Pink Floyd The Wall. Such powerful imagery; the man of sand, the sea of blood, the strange closing metallic formation, etc. Even more notable gratitude must be addressed to Storm's innovative cover design and other photography related to the album, on the theme of absence. Those memories are very interesting, for example the stuntman set on fire nearly lost his face to flames...

I can imagine how Roy Harper feels when in every gig he gives there's someone shouting 'Have a Cigar'! And that Waters was never very happy with his contribution, especially as everybody thought it was him anyway (so did I, as ateenager). Also the two soul artistes who had already been involved on Floyd concerts before singing background vocals on WYWH, are given the chance to say how it was working with the band.

Concert material is surprisingly almost absent on this DVD. Anyway the hour-long main film is a pleasure for any Pink Floyd digger, with its little faults. The 25-minute extra feature is not as good. Both Waters and Gilmour throw their one-man performances of 'Wish You Were Here' - a bit boring repetition - , and Waters deepens further his thoughts. It would have been a great extra to have some image gallery too (I mean mainly works of Thorgeson/Hipgnosis and Scarfe). But yes, this is easily worth four stars.

Matti | 4/5 |

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