Wish You Were Here

Coming after their acknowledged masterpiece, Dark Side Of The Moon, Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here is, I think, an underrated album. I was surprised to read that it did not initially get good reviews. I took a listen to it last night, in the dark, and got chills.

There are only five tracks on the record, and two of them are parts of the same song. That is "Shine On You Crazy Diamond," which was a tribute to Pink Floyd's founder, Syd Barrett, who had left the group due to drug abuse and madness. Taken together, the song is over twenty-five minutes long, with an eight-minute intro and a six-minute outro. Pink Floyd never did anything quickly.

But it is such a great piece of music. After some electronic noodling comes four notes plucked on a guitar, and they slice through the mind like a knife. Eventually the drums join in, and all the other instruments, and finally the lyric:

"Remember when you were young
And you shone like the sun?
Shine on you crazy diamond"

Part one ends with a sax solo, and then transitions into "Welcome To The Machine," which begins with the sound of a door opening. While 1975, when the record was released, was not a turning point in technology, it does seem to prefigure the computer age. The music is mostly sound effects, kind of an early example of techno, and while I don't care for that kind of music generally in their hands it has the effect of a mule kick, almost Orwellian in its eeriness.

Side two (of the old vinyl format) began with one of the most scathing songs about the music business ever recorded, "Have A Cigar." It is sung (by Roy Harper) from the point of view of a record company executive, with all the insincerity and smarm:

"Come in here dear boy have a cigar
You're gonna go far, you're gonna fly high
You're never gonna die
You're gonna make it if you try
They're gonna love you
Well I've always had a deep respect
And I mean that most sincerely
The band is just fantastic
That is really what I think
Oh by the way, which one's Pink?"

Next up is the title track, which may also be about Barrett (all of the lyrics were written by Roger Waters). It is certainly about the detachment from a person, or perhaps from society:

"How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls
Swimming in a fish bowl,
Year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found?
The same old fears.
Wish you were here."

I find the song incredibly moving, whatever it's about.

Finally, the album ends with the second part of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond," with more about Barrett's rise and fall, and Waters suggesting he may not be far from joining him:

"Nobody knows where you are, how near or how far
Shine on you crazy diamond
Pile on many more layers and I'll be joining you there
Shine on you crazy diamond
And we'll bask in the shadow of yesterday's triumph
And sail on the steel breeze
Come on you boy-child, you winner and loser
Come on you miner for truth and delusion, and shine"

There was a question on Facebook on what the bleakest song ever written is, and a friend of mine posted to the effect of "I'm not sure, but it's by Pink Floyd." And true, they did not play the pop game. After Waters took over and David Gilmour replaced Bareett, there was nothing funny about their music. There were no standard love songs. It is indeed a bleak world view. But somehow I find optimism in "Shine On You Crazy Diamond." Barrett is now dead, and never really recovered, but perhaps what Waters is saying is that his spirit did, or just his musical legacy.

So, if you are a baby boomer like me, I'm sure you have a copy of this album somewhere. Dig it out, turn out the lights, and just coast away. It does a mind good.