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"Wish You Were Here": is my favourite Pink Floyd album.
The story is famous: Syd Barrett, who founded Pink Floyd with Roger Waters, and who wrote their early material, became increasingly erratic, appearing on stage stoned, playing the same chord over and over etc, until one day the band decided to go on without him.
Some years later "Wish you were Here" was released, including such tracks as "Shine on you Crazy Diamond". It was clearly a dedication to Barrett, who had suffered a breakdown, but wasn't it also 'too little too late'?
Another dimension to the story is that Roger Waters had a monumental ego and it seems - in retrospect - that he always wanted to take over the band - in fact, he and Dave Gilmore got entangled in a bitter dispute ten or more years later over this exact issue. So maybe this album is tinged by the guilt of excessive ambition or maybe it represents a Hail Mary by Waters for the treacherous act of sacrificing his friend in the interest of fame and success.....
"Welcome to the Machine" seems like it might have been written yesterday. It's such a pertinent track to the dilemma of living today and so resonant for those who despair over the society we have created for our children.
I bought this record - the desirable Japanese pressing - for 300 yen on a Sunday in a small 2nd hand shop on Route 6 - which is the highway that connects Ibaraki to Tokyo. A friend drove me there; we bought some other trinkets at the same time. It was October or November and you could smell the aroma from the oil heaters that were commonly used to provide warmth at that time of year in Japan; the smoke from these heaters permeated the evening air as we drove home.
Edits: 07/16/17Follow Ups:
I love that album. If it wasn't for "Dark Side Of The Moon", it would definitely be Floyd's best LP.
Certainly references dehumanization, alienation, etc., but (along with "Have a Cigar") is SPECIFICALLY about the band's experience with the avarice and cluelessness of the record industry. Sort of a bite-the-hand-that-feeds-you song.
At least "Wish" and "Shine On" were fairly kind and compassionate songs -- about the last of those Waters ever wrote before his bitter, cynical side took over.
Live @ Pompeii video was good back in the day!!
nt
The whole problem with the world is that the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
-Bertrand Russell
The Syd Barrett story is indeed a strange one. After wywh their albums became less and less interesting to me.
All that said, back in the day, this music seemed about as psychedelic as rock music can get. Consider some titanic giant, up above Earth in outer space, taking long slow steps while covering miles and miles with each footfall.
The lyrics speak of the mental debilitation of their former band mate. The lyrics speak of a psychotic break. For me it takes some of the fun out of listening to the album. The music soars while the lyrics take us into the mind of a patient in an asylum -- strapped into a steel framed hospital bed.
-Steve
Yes, it is a strange story.
The openness of the lyrics in this album don't bother me.
I think we need to accept the idea that mental illness is a reality and that great artists often tread a narrow path between greatness and the abyss below; or that they can burn out unexpectedly and become a shell of their former selves.
There are countless examples.
Best regards,
records do that "memory lane" thing for me all the time...
I saw this on a documentary about PF. Don't remember which band member told this story of Syd coming into the studio while they were recording "WYWH" No one recognized him. From an article
Syd Barrett's tortured spirit was already hovering over Pink Floyd's ninth studio album, even before he unexpectedly crashed the sessions for Wish You Were Here on June 5, 1975.
Both the emotive title track and shimmering, psychedelic epic "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" were inspired by Barrett, the band's former frontman, with chief writer Roger Waters meditating on themes of isolation and inward escape. So, when the long-absent musician - portly, with distant gaze, shaved head and eyebrows - randomly arrived during a mixing session for "Diamond," the coincidence reduced the band to a mixture of shock and depression.
It's not as if Barrett, Floyd's co-founder and the driving creative force behind their debut LP, 1967's The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, left the band on good terms. His mental instability, erratic stage behavior and addiction to LSD made him a liability, and guitarist-singer David Gilmour was brought in as a replacement.
Barrett made minimal contributions to 1968's A Saucerful of Secrets, but his warped mysticism ultimately vanished: He released two studio albums - 1970's The Madcap Laughs and Barrett, both co-produced by Gilmour and featuring Waters and keyboardist Richard Wright, respectively - but Barrett rarely worked after that point, eventually retreating from the spotlight.
His fortunes seemed to be changing in 1974, when Barrett made some formative - though ultimately fruitless - recordings at Abbey Road. When he crashed the same studio during Pink Floyd's session less than a year later, however, he was bloated and mentally foggy - a sad shell of the psychedelic visionary whose warped vision guided the band to early stardom.
Pink Floyd were confused by his presence, assuming he had to be a crew member. But when Gilmour eventually identified their former bandmate, Waters broke down in tears. That June day also happened to be Gilmour's wedding day, so Barrett wandered into the guitarist's wedding reception at EMI. He left without telling anyone, disappearing as strangely as he'd arrived. The experience had a profound impact on the band, particularly Waters, who even incorporated a lyrical reference to the early Barrett-penned single "See Emily Play" on Wish You Were Here.
"I'm very sad about Syd, [though] I wasn't for years," Waters said in 1975. "For years, I suppose he was a threat because of all that bollocks written about him and us. Of course, he was very important and the band would never have f—ing started without him, because he was writing all the material. It couldn't have happened without him, but on the other hand, it couldn't have gone on with him. He may or may not be important in rock 'n' roll anthology terms, but he's certainly not nearly as important as people say in terms of Pink Floyd. So, I think I was threatened by him."
Gilmour, who co-wrote the music to both the title track and "Shine On," has trouble separating these classic songs from his memories of the former Floyd icon. "Although 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' is specifically about Syd and 'Wish You Were Here' has a broader remit," Gilmour said in the 2012 documentary Pink Floyd: The Story of Wish You Were Here, "I can't sing it without thinking about Syd."
Read More: The Day Syd Barrett Visited Pink Floyd During the 'Wish You Were Here' Sessions | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/syd-barrett-wish-you-were-here-sessions/?trackback=tsmclip
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You paid HOW MUCH for that electrical receptacle?!!! Are YOU nuts?
Very interesting read; thank you!
And I'm not even a PF fan!
Always a nice pic accompanying your posts too.
"Once this was all Black Plasma and Imagination" -Michael McClure
Thanks!
Know the story well growing up in the 70's. DSOTM, "Wish you were here" and "Animals" were my favorite, once they went to The wall - so did I...
After I saw the movie, The Wall made more sense to me.
Dave
Echoes showed a lot of what PF were capable of doing yet I still like to go all the way back to the early work of ummagumma, Relics, well you know the discography. When Dark Side came out I was done with PF did enjoy them live in there early years that was for sure. Nice show
Careful with that ax Eugene
Kindablue
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