Pink Floyd Music:

Wish You Were Here Track Listing:
1. Shine on You Crazy Diamond, Pts. 1-5
2. Welcome to the Machine
3. Have a Cigar
4. Wish You Were Here
5. Shine on You Crazy Diamond, Pts. 6-9

Editorial 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

Wish You Were Here Reviews:
A drastic progression from the previous album, setting the stage for all PF songs to come
2009-11-25 - Pink Floyd's 1975 album WISH YOU WERE HERE marks a major transition for the band. PF had hitherto consistently remained in the rounds of psychadelia, and even 1973's DARK SIDE OF THE MOON has a spirit that is essentially late 1960s. With this album here, however, Pink Floyd displayed a colder production and a new use of synthesizers that was wholly of its decade, David Gilmour's guitar work settled into a groove that continued for all the Pink Floyd efforts to come, and this was to be the first of several albums whose theme was entirely cast by Roger Waters.

WISH YOU WERE HERE contains four songs, of which one, the ambitious 12-part suite "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" is split in two to bookend the album. "Welcome to the Machine" and "Have a Cigar" are criticisms of the music industry, the later having main vocals by Roy Harper, while "Wish You Were Here" is an elegy for a friend suffering from dementia. Though I loved the title track when I was in high school, but now that I've heard its main riff butchered by morons with a guitar on every youth hostel balcony in Europe, I just can't enjoy it much anymore.

Musically, the album is generally of very high quality. "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" has a variety and elegance well above the band's earlier suites. The use of synthesizers is beautiful, never sounding as cheesy as in the efforts of other groups during this decade. Lyrically, I've never been able to fully enjoy the two songs mocking the industry, because they fail to make clear whether Roger Waters felt he was victimized himself this way, or if the conniving of label executives was a recent development (a lot of people have claimed that the industry changed around 1969).

i mostly just wanted to comment about the crazy daimond song
2009-09-12 - don't know what more to say other than to say it . . . the crazy daimond songs reminds me of Johann Strauss's "The Blue Danube."(it's that famous 2001 music). If you've listened to both, I think you'll know what I mean!

Missing the full quadrophonic effect
2009-08-17 - As Dark Side of the Moon has long been considered one of the definitive stand out stereo recordings, often used by audiophiles to show off their systems, I was always under the impression that Wish You Were Here was intended to be the same for the short lived Quadrophonic recordings. I had thought this was Pink Floyd's only Quadrophonic recording. Pink Floyd On-line states that Atom Heart Mother, Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here were all Quadrophonic recordings. It would of course be easy to give this recording 5 stars, but since the original was intended to have a fuller presence with 4 channel sound, I can't give it 5. Especially since the technology of most systems people are using to play this recording (5.1 home theater receivers) have the capability to do so. Would it really be that hard for a recording engineer to remap the 4 channel original recording to a 5.1 (or just 4.1, leaving the center quiet and since the sub is omnidirectonal) channel recording. Release it as DVD audio. I suspect the audience for such landmark recordings could justify it. If it is true that Atom Heart Mother and Dark Side of the Moon were Quadrophonic recordings as well, then there are 2 more DVD audio remasters of Pink Floyd I'd like to hear.

One of the greatest albums of all time
2009-07-24 - I'm not a Pink Floyd fan. My room isn't lined with any of their posters, I don't know the names of the members, and I've never even listened to any of their songs outside of this album. Not even "Dark Side of the Moon." It's not that I dislike them, I've just never taken the time to listen to any of their other albums. After listening to this one however, I don't even think there's a reason to.

A friend actually loaned me this CD and just told me to listen to it. I did.

It was amazing.

This is without a doubt, without even the slightest shred of doubt in my mind, one of the single greatest collection of songs of all time. I mean, the record has only five songs but that's all it really needs. Each one is unique, heartfelt, nostalgic, and it just feels like the band took every ounce of heart and soul they had and crammed it into these five classic masterpieces of song.

I would pay a thousand dollars for this CD and still call it a discount.

Buy it now.

The First Album I Ever Bought
2009-07-11 - I remember it like it was just yesterday. We had recently moved into a new house and my brother had the entire basement to himself - and his rocking loud stereo system. I was 11 years old and hadn't yet really established what I liked the most in music, although I did have a few favorites: Elton John, Black Sabbath, John Denver. I'll never forget the amazing sound coming from the basement - I ran downstairs and asked my brother, "What's that?" The answer: Artist - Pink Floyd, Album - Wish You Were Here, Song - Welcome To The Machine.

Welcome To The Machine - it was like nothing I had ever heard before. The pure acoustic guitar sound, the synthesizers, the panning white noise percussion, the octave doubled voices, the found sounds - precursors of modern sampling - the production and arrangement was fantastic. I had found "my music". After listening to the rest of the album again and again I finally decided that I would try to earn the $5 necessary to go to Grey Matter Records and buy the album.

And what a cool it experience it was. The black shrink wrap. The stickers, the posters. They went all out and I was totally hooked. We wore the needle off the record player on this album.

To this day, the album holds up great. I still enjoy listening to every single song. I'm not one to say that old music is best - I think a lot of fantastic music is being created right now. But if you want a high quality blast from the past, you can hardly do better than this.