Last Night at my local bar my friend played Shine on You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V) and it sounded great. It made reflect, while drinking my beer, that this album is an amazing piece of work. In Pink Floyd catalog it's one of the middle albums that came out in the 1970's. A streak of four albums in 1970's which includes Dark Side of the Moon which came before it, and after it was Animals and The Wall. A good group of albums. My friend claimed that it is the most impressive four albums anybody has done. I quickly pointed out the first four Zeppelin, and realized after I said it that Led Zeppelin III was not as popular as the other three Led Zeppelin albums.
I was only 2 when Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd and Physical Graffiti by Led Zeppelin, but I wish I was around buying these when they where fresh. Graffiti was issued in the winter of 1975 and Wish You Were Here was issued a few weeks shy of my second birthday. I have both in my collection and play them often. I think the fact that classic rock radio plays these albums way to much that I kind of ignore how classic they are. Wish You Were Here is about half the length of Graffiti.
I am not going to debate the importance of each or that one is better then the other, because they are both great. Pink Floyd made a concept album out of Wish You Were Here. "Shine on" was about Syd, who appeared at the studio to watch them and was barely recognizable. It was a shock to the band and very sad to see an old band mate like that. What I like about Wish You Were Here is Gilmour's guitar playing and the very cool and more then likely not recognized Richard Wright keyboard work. Both are on top of their game and more then likely Gilmour is the only one talked about.
With all five songs feeding into each other and Roy Harper on "Have a Cigar," the album was a hit and quickly sold. As I told my friend last night, my post Syd album is Meddle and Atom Heart Mother, but this album quickly nudges its head once in a while. Seeing Floyd twice, the stuff from those albums I just mentioned are played in concert. I can see that Wish You Were Here is their favorite as well.
I was told this once about the album that Gilmour created ambient guitar with Shine on. More and More I feel like this is the album that defines the 1970's. All in all I like this Floyd album and taking a time machine to 1975 to listen to and to buy it when it came out must have been amazing. For all the Floyd fans reading this blog, this is one of my favorites and rightly so. It is a prog album and with only five songs it makes a great case.
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Matt, thanks so much for featuring this album.
ReplyDeleteThis is my all time favorite album. I think it’s simply the best album ever made.
You talk about when it first came out. Interestingly, it wasn’t the smash that Dark Side or later The Wall were. Sure it sold a lot. But I think it was only after the luxury of several years passing that in retrospect this has sorted itself out as probably their greatest piece of work. A real achievement in light of the terrific body of work they created.
Oddly, you mention their four titanic pieces from the 70s, yet I know your favorite PF album is Meddle. It took some restraint to not to discuss their run of five classics. Still, Meddle is out of sorts a bit, in that its not as polished nor as commercial successful as the next four, so I understand why you left it out.
Anyway, back to Wish YWH. I bought this used in 1980 or so, after I had The Wall and Dark Side of the Moon and Meedle. I frankly wasn’t expecting much, RS only gave it 3*, and it was The Wall and Dark Side that got all the attention, and “One of These Days” from Meedle was what was always played at the lazer shows. But I loved it immediately, and thought that maybe it was a sugar rush that would wear off. But it never did, the dang thing just sounded better and better as the years went on.
I think it expands on the polished breakthrough of Dark Side, but stretches out the languid mood and less self consciously “we’re trying to make a masterpiece” sort of way. The Wall is an enigma in some ways, a Roger Waters fueled diversion, where Wish You Were Here to me always represents Pink Floyd at their pinnacle as a creative unit.
Lyrically, the album can almost be overwhelming in its poignancy. “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”, about Syd Barrett, perfectly captures a brilliant artist burning out too young...”you reached for the answer too soon.” “Wish You Were Here,” is in part about missing that passionate, youthful, loving part within us that can drift away as we grow older and take on the demands of life. At first pass “Welcome to the Machine” is about the music business, but its also about the compromise we all face in life, as we enter our respective machines/careers; and I don’t view it as cynical either. Its just life. And life can be a little alientating at times, but its poetry like this that makes realization of such, a little less so.
Crazy thing is, the lyrics are secondary to the mind blowing music. I think this album expands on the polished breakthrough of Dark Side, but stretches out the languid mood in a less self consciously “we’re trying to make a masterpiece” sort of way. The Wall is an enigma in some ways, a Roger Waters fueled diversion, where Wish You Were Here to me always represents Pink Floyd at their pinnacle as a creative unit. Just the guitar alone makes this my favorite guitar album in the history of rock. Gilmour is no Hendrix. Instead he’s to Hendrix what Miles Davis was to Coletrane. Trane may have had more chops, but nothing can beat the beautiful melodies that Davis (Gilmour) improvised, and of course knowing “what not to play.” I never tire of the music on this album, and always find new things to discover within it.
I have searched for ages for another CD that sounds like this. There’s nothing like it. Its sort of space rock, but not really. It doesn’t get its ethereal qualities from wooshes of experimental synth or electronics, but instead from very clean and clear guitar and crisply written, albeit long and winding, songs. Fascinating. A true original album.
Rick/AKAJazzman
Thanks for the great response.
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