Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here (1975)

The album is, supposedly, a tribute to original Floyd guitarist Syd Barrett, who basically had a breakdown in the band's early days and has been rather reclusive ever since. The first hunk of "Shine On..." begins with a very lush sea of keys and a melodic and simple synth line on top. This leads to a very effective Gilmour guitar solo that blends into the lyric, about basically how bright Syd was and how he burned out too fast. The thing about Floyd is that their music is never the most technically challenging or complex in the prog world but it is almost always done in such a way that anything more complex would be overkill. "Welcome to the Machine" and "Have A Cigar" are both indictments of the music industry and how this biz side of things work (complete with the classic line "by the way, which one's Pink?") "Cigar" fades to where it sounds like it is playing on a very small transistor radio in the next room. The listener flips around and lands on the opening acoustic chords of "Wish You Were Here," still very distant sounding, and drowned out by a solo acoustic guitar line. Lyrically, "Wish" is one of my Floyd favs, an obvious attempt by Roger Waters to somehow express his desire to Syd that he could join in the success, both critical and financial, that the band was enjoying at the time while doing things on their own terms. It's really an ode to everyone who has ever been chewed up and spit out by the music biz. The album concludes with another long, mostly instrumental, "Shine On...", which somehow doesn't seem to work quite as well as the opening section.

1. "Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I - V)
2. Welcome to the Machine
3. Have a Cigar
4. Wish You Were Here
5. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts VI - IX)

Pink Floyd
• David Gilmour – vocals, guitar, lap steel guitar, EMS Synthi AKS, keyboards, tape effects
• Roger Waters – vocals, bass guitar, guitar, VCS3, tape effects
• Richard Wright – keyboards, VCS3, clavinet, background vocals
• Nick Mason – drums, percussion, tape effects
Additional musicians
• Dick Parry – saxophone on "Shine On You Crazy Diamond"
• Roy Harper – vocals on "Have a Cigar"
• Venetta Fields and Carlena Williams – background vocals

Publicado por .Miguel Angel