How I Wish…
I guess I’m having a maudlin moment today. It’s well-earned, if you ask me. It just so happens we had a little sadness enter our lives yesterday, at the same time I’ve been listening to a lot of Pink Floyd and David Gilmour.
Today’s song of the day is “Wish You Were Here.” Most of the song doesn’t apply to how I’m feeling today, but there are lines here and there that do and the feeling of the song certainly seems to fit. I’m not usually one for sap, but I’m feeling sappy today and I guess I feel like sharing just a touch of it. Besides, I don’t think anything I would write today wouldn’t be imbued with what’s going on inside so why not put a bow around it and make the theme work?
We’ve been talking about Pink Floyd albums and what we like about them, what we don’t. So, let’s take Wish You Were Here out for a spin. In the Is There Anybody Out There? live set released from the band’s tour for The Wall, Gilmour says this is favorite Pink Floyd album. Both as Pink Floyd and as a solo artist, he has often played “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” and “Wish You Were Here.”
I did something fun on my iPod with Wish You Were Here. On the vinyl LP and CD, “Shine On” is split into two different tracks at the beginning and end of the album (Parts I-V at the beginning, VI through IX at the end). This was likely done because of the space constraints of vinyl, but I don’t know that for sure. I was able to join all nine parts of the song into one monster track. It’s cool to listen to it that way.
In addition to “Shine,” we also have the lovely “Wish You Were Here.” By now, even casual Floyd fans know the story behind this song, that it was written as something of a living eulogy to Floyd founder Syd Barrett. The sorrow and regret of that song are palpable, making it one of the high points of the Floyd discography.
Then we have two other famous tracks, “Welcome To The Machine” and “Have a Cigar.” It’s rare to have an album where every song is a band classic, but it’s tough to argue that’s not the case here. “Machine” and “Cigar” don’t hit me quite the same way as “Shine” and “Wish,” but they weren’t intended to.
So… let’s hear from you. What do you think of Wish You Were Here? Are there moments that stand out for you? Are there parts you could do without? Let’s chat it up.
Filed under: Tags: David Gilmour, Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here
Obviously, it’s best as a “whole album” experience, but I still generally take the first half of “Shine On” and “Wish You Were Here” when I only have so much time. I keep coming back to “Shine” thinking that it might just be one of my very favorite guitar songs - the whole opening is just so amazing. And the newer versions Dave’s been doing where he really strips that section down, playing it almost totally clean really kills me.
“Have a Cigar” is really the only one on the album that I can take or leave. It’s just kind of an “eh” song - it’s not bad, but the joke wears thin and doesn’t suit the weight of the rest of the album. I used to not care much for “Machine” either but have developed a strange love for that lately. Weird ass song.
It is great as an entire piece, one of the best examples of “album as whole” I can think of.
I love the “Shine” guitar work, although there’s another Gilmour moment I recently discovered that we’ll discuss in the coming days.
“Cigar” is a little too “insider” for me. Okay, I get it. Life sucks for a socialist on a major corporate label. I’m not being fair. Musically, it’s good but not as strong as some of the other musical ideas on the record.
“Machine” and “Cigar” are such odd pairings with “Shine” and “Wish.” The latter are such heartfelt, warm songs while the other two are cold and cynical. Balance? Maybe. I’m not sure, though. Somehow it all works most of the time when I listen to it, but I am not sure that these songs belong together even though they pull it off…
I’m all over the map with that, aren’t I? I love Wish You Were Here but it’s mostly on the strength of “Shine” and “Wish.”
WYWH is one of the few albums that I never skip a track, except maybe the first low toned minute or so of ‘Shine’ because I want to get to that excellent guitar work.
I will defend ‘Cigar’ though, as it provides a nice change of pace between ‘Machine’ and ‘Wish’ to keep the album moving, and segue between M & W. Believe it or not, ‘Cigar’ was actually the reason I bought this album in the first place.
In listening again, I forgot how much synth and effects are in this album, and how much of a sublime influence it’s had on me with my own humble creations.
Now I suppose the eternal question is whether WYWH is a better album than DSOTM… but I’ll leave that to you to ask.
“I am not sure that these songs belong together”
I think they absolutely belong together because they are different aspects of where the band, especially Roger who wrote all the lyrics, then found themselves: victims of their own success.
You can tell from their earlier work they just wanted to do be able to continue doing their own thing, but they stuck such a deep chord with DSOTM it became both a blessing and a curse. The success had to be isolating as they found them selves dealing with the machine of the music industry who had mostly ignored them previously.
No doubt part of the reason they missed Syd was because he was unable to share in the great success of DSOTM. He wasn’t around during “Meddle” but they didn’t write songs about him then.
They also belong together because they all fit a theme: absence. “Cigar” represents an absence of conscience. I read a very interesting thing about the album just recently, which I have no idea where it is now, that talked about Storm Thorgerson’s artwork tying into the album, and he had to take into consideration the overall theme of absence that is present in each song. Thorgerson’s part was fascinating (I guess it’s from a book of 100 best album covers of all time) - his artwork is always amazing, but there was so much more thought put into this than I’d ever realized. The postcard and robot hand-shakes represent empty gestures, the diver is missing a splash, the swimmer in the sand represents an absence of awareness, the “empty suit” represents a lack of humanity (and probably relates directly to “Have a Cigar,” the veil represents a lost loved one (as they are seen at funerals - I think this one is red simply for artistic purposes) and “behind the veil” (and you REALLY have to strain to see this) is a naked woman. The infamous cover is easier to figure out - two businessmen, one of which is going to get burned in the deal, but this doesn’t really reflect the absence theme - it seems to speak directly to “Cigar” again.) Weird how that song is one of the lesser elements of the album, yet seems to form the stronger visual ties.
There are two books out of Storm’s artwork - one entirely dedicated to Pink Floyd and another of his other artwork. I checked them out at Borders one night and they’re pretty damned cool. I’m going to have to get the Floyd one, I’m sure.