Wish You Were Here Wish You Were Here

Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Rick Wright

Columbia, 1975

Released as the long-delayed follow-up to Dark Side of the Moon, this album amounts to a farewell to psychedelia, a memorial to a lost dream. The ghost hanging over Wish You Were Here is Syd Barrett, the Floyd founder who disappeared a few years earlier into acid-induced madness. "Shine On You Crazy Diamond," the sprawling epic that covers two-thirds of the album, is specifically dedicated to him, while the remaining songs cast a cynical eye at music-biz machinery ("By the way, which one's Pink?"). And the album's central theme - the loss of Barrett's mad creative spirit and the birth of a bigger, scarier music industry - hasn't gotten any less relevant.

It is something of an experience to sit back and just listen to this album in a non hurried state. Waters and co. really formed a masterpiece here. The themes of disillusionment planted throughout Wish You Were Here would eventually sprout full-blown on The Wall.

 

WishShine on You Crazy Diamond I-V

Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
You were caught on the crossfire of childhood and stardom,
blown on the steel breeze.
Come on you target for faraway laughter,
come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!
You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Threatened by shadows at night, and exposed in the light.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Well you wore out your welcome with random precision,
rode on the steel breeze.
Come on you raver, you seer of visions,
come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine!


Wish You Were HereWelcome to the Machine

Welcome my son, welcome to the machine.
Where have you been? It's alright we know where you've been.
You've been in the pipeline, filling in time,
provided with toys and Scouting for Boys.
You bought a guitar to punish your ma,
And you didn't like school, and you know you're nobody's fool,
So welcome to the machine.
Welcome my son, welcome to the machine.
What did you dream? It's alright we told you what to dream.
You dreamed of a big star, he played a mean guitar,
He always ate in the Steak Bar. He loved to drive in his Jaguar.
So welcome to the machine.


Have a Cigar

Come in here, dear boy, have a cigar. You're gonna go far, 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?
And did we tell you the name of the game, boy
we call it Riding the Gravy Train.
We're just knocked out.
We heard about the sell out.
You gotta get an album out,
You owe it to the people. We're so happy we can hardly count.
Everybody else is just green, have you seen the chart?
It's a helluva start, it could be made into a monster
if we all pull together as a team.
And did we tell you the name of the game, boy
we call it Riding the Gravy Train.



The singleWish You Were Here

So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell,
blue skies from pain.
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?
And did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?
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 you found? The same old fears.
Wish you were here.

 

Shine on You Crazy Diamond VI-IX

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,
sail on the steel breeze.
Come on you boy child, you winner and loser, come on you miner for truth and delusion, and shine

                                                                                                                                "We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year"

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