By: Pink Floyd Average Rating: Binding: Audio CD Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered Label: Capitol Number of Discs: 1 Release Date: April 25, 2000
Amazon.com Essential Recording: 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
Sounds like Syd Barrett pinched his taint one too many times. lf Syd asked Roger or Nick to pinch his taint, he'd probably still be alive. Shine on Syd...shine on.
HA! HA! HA! but the joke is really on you! Giving this album 1 star is actually being way too kind. It's best used as a whetstone to sharpen your cuttingknives before you give this crazy waste of space (OK I hear you think 'now, now, you hold it sonny, don't belittle our pacifier pinkyvoid!) the final blow. Run off into the woods and stay there and leave us kids alone.
Brian Heap (11 yrs old)
The Bright Side Of Pink Floyd: Another excellent album after "Dark Side Of The Moon" 'Wish You Were Here' could have been originally, the second LP on the "Dark Side Of The Moon". And it would have certainly reached the same fame & fortune, Pink Floyd reached with 'The Wall'.
It happened to me that, after listening to 'Dark Side...', I found I didn't feel satisfied until I immediately heard 'Wish You Were Here'. This is because both albums, at no doubt, are Pink Floyd (and British Psychedelic Rock) real masterpieces!!!
Very unlucky you, teenager guys and gals of the 2000s, for not having the chance of enjoy Out-Of-This-World bands like Pink Floyd... Anyway, you have the chance of getting these CDs right now, and enjoy them!
the outset of terrorism I am absolutely shocked to conclude that an album so vile and promoting terrorist acts can be named a classic. For starters the cover is clearly a suicideattack victim being torn to shreds by some strange mafia character.
The theme Shine on a crazy diamond is clearly a drug-related matter, either opium trade or pcp (remember on their previous album there was a song Any colour you like which dealt with sleeping pills and psycho-medication). Wish you were here deals with panic attacks, wishing a counsellor was here., Welcome to the machine- welcome to the druglaboratory. Have a cinder: druginduced plans to conquer the world.
and you people call this a classic????
Rufus (Richard) Thorne
A tad bit overrated, but it's still a classic. By 1975, Pink Floyd was no longer a cult act thanks to the huge success of Dark Side Of The Moon. The success seemed to be a little too late, unfortuantly, as the band felt that they were "creatively spent after making Dark Side." While this might be an argueable claim, I believe the band still had it in them to make some great records, and they at least made 2 and 1/2 great records before things got bad. It's a bit hard to rate this album due to the fact that I'm a bit biased towards Dark Side. Not that there is anything wrong with this album, not at all. It's just not one that I like to put on a lot. The concept of this album is a bit more straightforward than Dark Side, though that may or may not be a good thing. I really liked the surrealism that Dark Side had with it's story, this one is just too straightforward. Band signs to label, gets screwed by their label and distruibution, gets in a rut recording, and wishes their old leader was still sane and with them. Eh. It's alright. The music continues in the same vein that Dark Side had, with a few experimental Meddle-ish tunes to back it up too. Shine On's 1st part is achingly beautiful, but it seems to run on a few too many minutes over. And the keyboard tone on this track is a bit cheesy sounding. Come to think of it, the keyboard tones on this album are severely lacking compared to earlier masterpieces. Only does the keyboard shine during the intro to Shine On's second half (the main reason it remains my favorite track on the album.). All in all, though, it's just your average spacy Pink Floyd tune. There's your choir, there's your slow guitar solos, there's your fade-out using special effects to carry it to the next song. Can't forget the sax solo! Sorry guys, you did this better on the last album. Welcome To The Machine is a bit better, what with it's cold robotic feel and dark lyrics about being sucked into coporate greed. Have A Cigar is another classic, a funky blues number sung by Roy Harper with some excellent guitar solos. When is David not shining with a guitar solo? Wish You Were Here, the title track, is another famous tune with some sweet singing from David. It's a real timeless ditty with a general "lost" atmosphere. Wish You Were Here is not an unworthy album at all. In fact, it pretty much could've been Dark Side Pt. II, had they trimmed some of the excess minutes on Shine On. The band was definetly in a creative rut, and it would take one guy with a HUGE ego to change all that
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
