Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd song)

Composition[edit]

In the original album version, the song segues from "Have a Cigar" as if a radio had been tuned away from one station, through several others (including a radio play and one playing the opening of the finale of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony), and finally to a new station where "Wish You Were Here" is beginning.^[9] The radio was recorded from Gilmour's car radio. He performed the intro on a twelve-string guitar, processed to sound like it was playing through an AM radio, and then overdubbed a fuller-sounding acoustic guitar solo. This passage was mixed to sound as though a guitarist were listening to the radio and playing along. As the acoustic part becomes more complex, the "radio broadcast" fades away and Gilmour's voice enters, while the rest of the band joins in.^[10]


The intro riff is repeated several times before Gilmour plays further solos with scat singing accompaniment. A third verse follows, featuring an increasingly expressive vocal from Gilmour and audible backing vocals. At the end of the recorded song, the final solo crossfades with wind sound effects, and finally segues into the second section of the multi-part suite "Shine On You Crazy Diamond".


Lyrically, the song is often considered to be a direct tribute to Syd Barrett. However, on the documentary The Story of Wish You Were Here, Gilmour and Waters separately describe the original concept that differs from this interpretation. Waters, who mainly wrote the lyrics complementing Gilmour's initial riff idea and subsequent joint composition, describes the lyrics as being directed at himself, as his lyrics often are. Being present in one's own life and freeing one's self in order to truly experience life is a main topic in this song. Gilmour, on the other hand, recognises that he never performs the song without remembering Syd Barrett. Waters later adds that the song is nevertheless open to interpretation.^[11]


Both Gilmour and Waters have praised the song as one of Pink Floyd's finest. Waters has noted that the collaboration between himself and Gilmour on the song was "really good. All bits of it are really, really good. I'm very happy about it."^[12] Gilmour has playfully called "Wish You Were Here" "a very simple country song" and stated that "because of its resonance and the emotional weight it carries, it is one of our best songs."^[13]

Other versions by Pink Floyd[edit]

"Wish You Were Here" appeared as the fifth track on A Collection of Great Dance Songs in 1981 (with the radio intro following the end of a heavily edited "Shine On You Crazy Diamond") and as the 23rd track on the Echoes compilation^[22] in 2001 (with the radio intro following "Arnold Layne", and at the end crossfading with "Jugband Blues").


A live recording included on the 1995 live album Pulse was issued as a single/EP. Its intro replicates the sound of the original, semi-ambient intro. The cover of the EP features two men whose faces are distorted by fish bowls, referring to the line "We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year".


The Experience edition of Wish You Were Here from the 2011 Why Pink Floyd...? re-release campaign includes a version of "Wish You Were Here" featuring Stéphane Grappelli on violin much more prominently. The recording of Grappelli, which Mason had thought he might have recorded over in subsequent sessions for "Wish You Were Here", was uncovered in the EMI vaults during re-mastering work for the Why Pink Floyd...? campaign.^[23] Mason discussed the alternative version on the BBC Radio 4 Front Row programme, and revealed that Yehudi Menuhin, who was recording with Grappelli in Abbey Road's Studio Two, was also invited to play on "Wish You Were Here" but declined, as he was not as comfortable as Grappelli at improvising.^[24]

Pink Floyd


Additional musicians