Pink Floyd- Wish You Were Here

Discussions about Pink Floyd and Solo Official Album CDs and DVDs.

Rate This Album

5 - Best
107
75%
4
28
20%
3
3
2%
2
2
1%
1- Worst
2
1%
 
Total votes: 142

KingQueenKnave
Embryo
Embryo
Posts: 15
Joined: Sat Jul 25, 2020 3:01 pm
Gender: Male

Re: Pink Floyd- Wish You Were Here

Post by KingQueenKnave »

My favourite Pink Floyd album and my favourite album of the 1970s for a number of reasons.

What's so unique and so spellbinding about Wish You Were Here is how specific and esoteric it is. Compared to the concept of The Dark Side of the Moon and the albums to follow, which concern greater issues with society and the world at large, Wish You Were Here's concept is integral to the band's personal and professional lives. It's a Pink Floyd album about Pink Floyd, specifically about what Pink Floyd were before they became massively successful. It's about what they miss, both the attitudes and the people who have since been lost. It's also, intentionally or not, an extension of the cultural commentary of The Dark Side of the Moon. Whilst that album posited that the sixties utopia was exactly that, Wish You Were Here was the realisation that the reality of the seventies was as disappointing as they had predicted.

From this dissatisfaction, however, came release. You really can tell that Wish You Were Here was the album Pink Floyd didn't want to make. Any interviews from the band after the fact can confirm this. However, it was the album they needed to make in order to come to terms with their situation, and to come to terms with Syd Barrett's absence and mental collapse. It's an incredibly sad yet incredibly rewarding album that might not be as grandiose as The Dark Side of the Moon or The Wall, but doesn't need to be. If anything, Pink Floyd didn't need to prove anything to anyone anymore. Wish You Were Here acts as their purest album, their most them album.
ZiggyZipgun
Hammer
Hammer
Posts: 1236
Joined: Mon May 05, 2008 3:04 pm

Re: Pink Floyd- Wish You Were Here

Post by ZiggyZipgun »

Hadrian wrote: Thu Nov 05, 2015 5:12 pmBy the way in his latest interviews Roger Waters talks about his new and yet untitled concept album, whose theme is "Why are we killing children?" (...it will be a promising lazy Sunday afternoon easy listen yet again, no doubt...).
I'd forgotten about this! I recently posted about how Roger had commented about his "upcoming album" on his website when it was launched in '99 to coincide with his first tour in 12 years. He did go into a lot of detail about this more recent idea, but I think he puts so much emphasis on having a concept that it makes it difficult to put an album together. After an 18-year dry spell, during which he talked about two or three different concept albums in the works, Is This the Life We Really Want? was very disappointing for me - it sounded like it was assembled by a team of fanboys using samples of classic Floyd albums. It did immediately follow divorce #4, so it may have been financially motivated/necessary. Either way, after only a few years it doesn't seem to be aging well - he had already stopped playing most of it live, and I don't think his postponed tour was going to feature much from it either.
Hadrian wrote: Thu Nov 05, 2015 5:12 pm He explains that he comes up with the overall concept first, then writes the lyrics, and then finally the music - turning lyrics into songs. At the same time, he is envisioning the stage show that will go with it. All of this is, of course, the concept album form at its apogee, but it is still a good illustration how different it is from 10 new songs we have slammed together for a release (the non-concept album).
Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall, Pros and Cons, maybe Radio KAOS (who would even know?) - those were definitely conceptualized beforehand, though "Breathe" pre-dated the concept. The concepts for Wish You Were Here and Animals didn't come along until half of each album had been completed, and then a couple more songs were specifically written in the studio to frame and fill out those concepts. Sgt Pepper is widely considered to be a concept album, but really only features two songs and a reprise to frame the rest of it, and in between, anything can happen - which is sort of the concept. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars was intended to be a concept on the scale of The Wall, but cocaine and ADHD kept it from ever being more than a handful of songs with only the vaguest of connections. Tommy is really where the narrative style that Roger continued to develop came from - The Who was one of the only famous bands that Pink Floyd were personal friends with, but I've never heard Roger or Pete talk about each other - neither give much credit to other songwriters, despite Roger claiming to be one of the top 5 to have come from England in the past 80 years (but couldn't think of anyone else he'd include in that group except John Lennon).
Kerry King
Hammer
Hammer
Posts: 537
Joined: Wed Dec 16, 2009 8:54 am

Re: Pink Floyd- Wish You Were Here

Post by Kerry King »

ZiggyZipgun wrote: Mon Jul 27, 2020 11:59 am I've never heard Roger or Pete talk about each other
https://cosmicmagazine.com.au/news/read ... d-in-1966/
User avatar
Yucateco
Supreme Judge!
Supreme Judge!
Posts: 3152
Joined: Sun Aug 10, 2003 11:23 am
Gender: Male
Location: Munich, Germany

Re: Pink Floyd- Wish You Were Here

Post by Yucateco »

ZiggyZipgun wrote: Mon Jul 27, 2020 11:59 am Either way, after only a few years it doesn't seem to be aging well - he had already stopped playing most of it live, and I don't think his postponed tour was going to feature much from it either.
errr really?
ZiggyZipgun
Hammer
Hammer
Posts: 1236
Joined: Mon May 05, 2008 3:04 pm

Re: Pink Floyd- Wish You Were Here

Post by ZiggyZipgun »

He was down to 4 songs from the new album (out of 12, in a set of 22 songs). A couple friends of mine who saw him on the Us+Them tour were surprised by that. When I saw Gilmour in 2016, he played 8 from the new album (out of 10, in a set of...22 songs). Then again, the About Face tour usually only featured 2 Pink Floyd songs, with a third one sometimes added as an encore. It's nitpicking, I know - it's just kind of comical after all of Roger's very public bitching about the latter-day Floyd performing old songs in stadiums, when that's sort of his thing now.
User avatar
Yucateco
Supreme Judge!
Supreme Judge!
Posts: 3152
Joined: Sun Aug 10, 2003 11:23 am
Gender: Male
Location: Munich, Germany

Re: Pink Floyd- Wish You Were Here

Post by Yucateco »

ZiggyZipgun wrote: Thu Jul 30, 2020 11:34 am He was down to 4 songs from the new album (out of 12, in a set of 22 songs). A couple friends of mine who saw him on the Us+Them tour were surprised by that. When I saw Gilmour in 2016, he played 8 from the new album (out of 10, in a set of...22 songs). Then again, the About Face tour usually only featured 2 Pink Floyd songs, with a third one sometimes added as an encore. It's nitpicking, I know - it's just kind of comical after all of Roger's very public bitching about the latter-day Floyd performing old songs in stadiums, when that's sort of his thing now.
He actually added more as the tour went on: He played the same songs (When we were young, Deja Vu, The Last Refugee, Picture That and Smell the Roses) on every concert in 2017 & 2018... only on the 2018 leg he started to add Broken Bones or Wait for Her/Ocean´s Apart/Part of me died to the setlist. So on a lucky night you could get up to 8 songs from the new album. He even added some theatrical stuff to Smell the Roses near the end of the tour.

In the end only The most beautiful Girl, Is this the Life & Bird in Gale remained without a live performance. Which is a shame especially for the last two as they would sound tremendous live.

But I completely agree that he should have played more solo stuff. Let´s hope for the It´s not a Drill tour (if it will ever happen) as we know that The Powers that Be was rehearsed for that tour.
ZiggyZipgun
Hammer
Hammer
Posts: 1236
Joined: Mon May 05, 2008 3:04 pm

Re: Pink Floyd- Wish You Were Here

Post by ZiggyZipgun »

I can't complain either way - I saw him in 1999, and in 2010 for The Wall, and I can't be bothered to go again. I've also seen Gilmour twice, Mason twice, and the Australian/Brit Floyd twice. I would/will travel great distances to see Gilmour or Mason again, but Roger just sounds like he's the frontman for a tribute band, and the personnel changes following The Wall have added a pretentious hipster vibe. If he can't sing certain songs without destroying his voice for the rest of the show, I'd much rather he skip the song or let the people that sing everything else handle it, rather than lip-sync. When I heard the original studio vocal track hitting the high notes on "Every Stranger's Eyes" back in '99, a part of me died.
User avatar
Master_Chief
Blade
Blade
Posts: 102
Joined: Sun Jan 09, 2011 7:39 pm

Re: Pink Floyd- Wish You Were Here

Post by Master_Chief »

Yucateco wrote: Thu Jul 30, 2020 12:27 pm Let´s hope for the It´s not a Drill tour (if it will ever happen) as we know that The Powers that Be was rehearsed for that tour.
I’ve always been hoping he’d one day dust off several songs from Radio KAOS. I think I’ve already stated somewhere here that The Powers That Be would be ideal with his backing vocalists. But surely Me Or Him and The Tide Is Turning would also work, especially with his vocal range now.
ZiggyZipgun
Hammer
Hammer
Posts: 1236
Joined: Mon May 05, 2008 3:04 pm

Re: Pink Floyd- Wish You Were Here

Post by ZiggyZipgun »

Master_Chief wrote: Thu Jul 30, 2020 7:59 pm
ZiggyZipgun wrote: Thu Jul 30, 2020 11:34 am Let´s hope for the It´s not a Drill tour (if it will ever happen) as we know that The Powers that Be was rehearsed for that tour.
I’ve always been hoping he’d one day dust off several songs from Radio KAOS. I think I’ve already stated somewhere here that The Powers That Be would be ideal with his backing vocalists. But surely Me Or Him and The Tide Is Turning would also work, especially with his vocal range now.
Hey, I didn't say either of those things - I recently listened to Radio KAOS for the first time in a long while, and regretted every minute of it.
User avatar
Master_Chief
Blade
Blade
Posts: 102
Joined: Sun Jan 09, 2011 7:39 pm

Re: Pink Floyd- Wish You Were Here

Post by Master_Chief »

ZiggyZipgun wrote: Thu Jul 30, 2020 8:03 pm Hey, I didn't say either of those things - I recently listened to Radio KAOS for the first time in a long while, and regretted every minute of it.
Forgive me, my phone died as I was trying formulate my reply and seemed to quote you instead of Yucateco. All amended now... ](*,)
User avatar
twcc
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 1497
Joined: Sat Feb 08, 2014 7:02 pm
Gender: Male
Location: Whitelackington, UK

Re: Pink Floyd- Wish You Were Here

Post by twcc »

It has probably been posted before, but here's a map showing the location in Burbank of where the album cover photograph was taken -
.
WYWH-location.jpg
... click the pic
.
Here's a link to Google Maps -

www.shorturl.at/EKV45
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
warrenmw
Embryo
Embryo
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Nov 03, 2020 5:56 pm

Re: Pink Floyd- Wish You Were Here

Post by warrenmw »

Looking for a SOYCD mix where part 5 fades into part 6, yielding a full uninterrupted and smooth parts 1-9
warrenmw
Embryo
Embryo
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Nov 03, 2020 5:56 pm

Re: Pink Floyd- Wish You Were Here

Post by warrenmw »

warrenmw wrote: Tue Nov 03, 2020 6:02 pm Looking for a SOYCD mix where part 5 fades into part 6, yielding a full uninterrupted and smooth parts 1-9
Here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73ionoS ... t%27sVinyl
User avatar
K2+
Axe
Axe
Posts: 45
Joined: Sat Nov 28, 2020 8:51 pm

Re: Pink Floyd- Wish You Were Here

Post by K2+ »

4. SOYCD is a masterpiece, although I would have preferred solos from Rick instead of sax solos. Welcome To The Machine is another favorite, the other two tracks I can do without. Depending on the day, it might be my favorite album artwork.
Eclipse

Re: Pink Floyd- Wish You Were Here

Post by Eclipse »

still my favorite album of all time, after all these years. This and Foxtrot by Genesis, in a close 2nd place.