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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Wish You Were Here is a song cycle dedicated to Pink Floyd's original frontman, Syd Barrett, who'd flamed out years before: two grimly funny songs about the evils of the music business ("By the way, which one's Pink?"), and two long, touching ones about the band's vanished friend. The real star of the show, though, is the production: sparkling, convoluted, designed to sound deeply oh-wow under the influence--and pretty great sober too, with David Gilmour getting lots of space for his most lyrical guitar playing ever. And, though the album is big and ambitious, even bombastic, it somehow dodges being pretentious--the Barrett tributes are honest and heartfelt, beneath all the grand gestures and stereophonic trickery. --Douglas Wolk
CD Description
The breakthrough success of DARK SIDE OF THE MOON made WISHYOU WERE HERE a crucial follow-up in strictly commercial terms. Further pressure came from it being Pink Floyd's first recording for a new label, Columbia. Yet the demands on the band only provided Roger Waters with more fodder for his lyrics, which glanced at the band's roots as well as their new responsibilities.
The mechanised throb of a VCS3 synthesizer, fed through a repeat-echo unit, signals the opening bars of "Welcome To The Machine", a diatribe against an industry more concerned with money than creative music-making. "Have A Cigar" further establishes Waters' contempt by bringing in singer Roy Harper to play the role of a "faceless suit", who none-too-innocently asks, "Which one's Pink?" The remaining songs indirectly look back to the first casualty of PinkFloyd's growing fame, the group's founder, Syd Barrett.
The 20-minute-plus "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" has its roots in earlier pieces like "Atom Heart Mother Suite" and "Echoes". But rather than just another Floydian soundscape, its lyrics make it a paean to Barrett's genius and a requiem for his subsequent breakdown. The first five of the song's nine movements open the album with sax player Dick Parry wailing as effectively as he did on DARK SIDE. The final four sections, which close the album, form a reprise that starts with the sound of wind and David Gilmour's guitar screaming and crying. The band then settles into a laid-back jam that ends with Richard Wright's billowing synth delicately fading out.
The title track deals also with Barrett, as well as the tension the idealist Waters was feeling in battling the greedthat surrounded the band's success. The themes of disillusionment planted throughout WISH YOU WERE HERE would eventually sprout full-blown on THE WALL.
The mechanised throb of a VCS3 synthesizer, fed through a repeat-echo unit, signals the opening bars of "Welcome To The Machine", a diatribe against an industry more concerned with money than creative music-making. "Have A Cigar" further establishes Waters' contempt by bringing in singer Roy Harper to play the role of a "faceless suit", who none-too-innocently asks, "Which one's Pink?" The remaining songs indirectly look back to the first casualty of PinkFloyd's growing fame, the group's founder, Syd Barrett.
The 20-minute-plus "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" has its roots in earlier pieces like "Atom Heart Mother Suite" and "Echoes". But rather than just another Floydian soundscape, its lyrics make it a paean to Barrett's genius and a requiem for his subsequent breakdown. The first five of the song's nine movements open the album with sax player Dick Parry wailing as effectively as he did on DARK SIDE. The final four sections, which close the album, form a reprise that starts with the sound of wind and David Gilmour's guitar screaming and crying. The band then settles into a laid-back jam that ends with Richard Wright's billowing synth delicately fading out.
The title track deals also with Barrett, as well as the tension the idealist Waters was feeling in battling the greedthat surrounded the band's success. The themes of disillusionment planted throughout WISH YOU WERE HERE would eventually sprout full-blown on THE WALL.
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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?
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80% buy the item featured on this page: Wish You Were Here £5.98 |
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6% buy Dark Side of the Moon - 30th Anniversary Edition £5.98 |
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5% buy Echoes (The Best of Pink Floyd) £8.98 |
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4% buy The Dark Side of the Moon £5.98 |
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