Richard BodinWhen they released Dark Side Of The Moon in 1973, Pink Floyd went from the status of an acclaimed rock band, to the status of Legend. They had just produced one of the most influential album of the era. Breaking all records for sales, their music was everywhere on the radio. In HiFi stores, sellers would infamously use Pink Floyd innovative sound to display all the quality their stereo had to offer. The album was a major game changer on all accounts. Two years later, in 1975, they released their ninth album, Wish You Were Here, which was obviously highly anticipated, and turned out to be another turning point in the band’s career.
The album received mixed reviews upon its release. While some would sing the praises of a soulful album for its attractive simplicity, coupled with rich synths textures, some other would find it devoid of passion, or severely lacking imagination… The truth is: trying to eclipse Dark Side Of the Moon is no small feat. Wish You Were Here was the most anticipated album that year — everybody was waiting for the band’s new record with a lot of excitement. The announcement for the date of the album release alone was prime news. It was almost impossible for the band —amid public expectations, and record label pressure— to please everyone, after such a mind bending monument. And yet they did a pretty good job.
Back in Studios
In January 1975, Pink Floyd came back to Studio Three in Abbey Road, booked until July, with session starting from 2:30 pm til late in the evening. Alan Parson, the former recording engineer on Dark Side of The Moon, had decided to go on with his own project. So Brian Humphries —who had previously collaborated with the band on More or Zabriskie Point— was the logical choice to replace him. The engineer remembers coming in a studio who had just been equipped with a brand new recording equipment that no one had any real idea how to operate. « We were like guinea pigs and I was the main guinea pig. »
Torturous Sessions
The mood in the studio was not great. The band was drained both physically and mentally. They had spent the past two or three years touring almost constantly around the world. Their lives have changed considerably. They had reached their childhood dreams of fame and glory through their music, and now what? What’s next? Gilmour remembers: « everything had sort of come our way and [we] had to reassess what [we] were in it for thereafter, and it was a pretty confusing and sort of empty time for a while. » Roger Waters had his own vocal struggles during the recording and remembers the whole album gestation as « torturous ». On top of this Nick Mason was going through difficulties in his marriage, and that impacted his performance, provoking frustration among his bandmates…
Humphries recalled days of inactivity: « I don’t think they knew what they wanted to do. We had a dartboard and an air rifle and we’d play these word games, sit around, get drunk, go home and return the next day. That’s all we were doing until suddenly everything started falling into place. » While touring in France and UK the previous year, the band had come up with three new songs: “Raving And Drooling”, “Gotta be Crazy” and “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”. The latter became the starting point to the process, and the central piece of work for the album.
The Crazy Diamond
It stemmed from four notes played randomly by David Gilmour, that sparked Roger Waters’ attention, reminding him of their former friend and bandmate Syd Barrett. Shortly after the success of the first album (Piper At The Gates of Dawn, 1967), the former frontman and creative leader of the band, went into downward spiral. The band witnessed powerless as their friend was becoming but the shadow of himself due to mental illness, worsened by drug addiction. Childhood friend David Gilmour was called as a backup for the days Barrett was not showing up, or could not function properly. For a while, they considered keeping the creative genius safe at home, to create more material, while the band toured. Like Brian Wilson did with the Beach Boys. But nothing worked, and Pink Floyd had to let Barrett go.
A traumatic absence
His friends Waters and Gilmour tried to help him off starting a solo career, but this didn’t last long. Pink Floyd took a long time to figure out how to cope without him. They had to figure out how to write lyrics, and experiment new sounds. It was a rather democratic process, with each member providing his own songs here and there. Up until Dark Side Of The Moon, where Roger Waters seems to have found his voice through lyrics, and the band finally developed a unique sound. The disappearance of Syd was a very traumatic event in the career of the band. Many fans saw clearly Barrett’s presence behind the lyrics of “Brain Damage” on Dark Side Of the Moon. And now, he was the Crazy Diamond.
Needless to say that the song meant a lot to the band. It took a lot of effort, trials and errors to get it right. “We originally did the backing track over the course of several days, but we came to the conclusion that it just wasn’t good enough,” explained David Gilmour. “So we did it again in one day flat and got it a lot better. Unfortunately nobody understood the desk properly and when we played it back we found that someone had switched the echo returns from monitors to tracks one and two. There was no way of saving it, so we just had to do it yet again.” Humphries took the blame for it, although he claims differently: « A certain guitarist with sticky fingers who liked to try things out was responsible for that, » he says. « But, as it was four against one, I got the blame ».
A Crushing Music Industry
Somehow they managed to see it through. And as they were, Roger’s vision for the album started to focus on a concept. On top of the terrible feeling of absence left by what happened to Syd Barrett, he felt that his band was also on its last legs. Following the recording and overwhelming success of Dark Side of The Moon, tensions started growing within the band. Waters felt that the band of friends that was figuring things out after Barrett left, was starting to disappear. Something had shifted, things were different. Which also left him with a terrible feeling of loss… So he imagined a tribute to Syd Barrett at the forefront, underpinned by a critique of the music business causing a growing sense of alienation.
As “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” had grown into this 20 minutes masterpiece, he suggested that it should be cut in two sections that would open and close the album rather than occupying a full side of the record. Gilmour was opposed to the idea, but he was outvoted three to one. In between, would figure two new songs. “Welcome To The Machine” was about a young man full musical ideals and ambitions, crushed by a controlling and greedy industry. And “Have A Cigar” impersonates a meeting with a record executive more interested in the gravy train the band can provide than the actual artistic message they might want to explore.
As a result, “Raving And Drooling” and “Gotta be Crazy”, didn’t fit in with this concept. They were shelved, only to be used later for Animals in 1977 as “Sheeps” and “Dogs”.
The Madcap Visits
As they were mixing the last parts of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”, a strange visitor appeared into the studio unannounced. The man, chubby, with his head and eyebrows shaved, walked in with a plastic bag and just sat there, in the control room, for a while. Gilmour thought the man was some EMI staff member and didn’t think more of it. Richard Wright presumed he was a friend of Waters… Then it dawned on them. « It’s Syd » muttered David to Nick Mason who felt horrified. Gilmour and Waters cried at the sight of their long lost friend. Everyone in the room was shocked. Cover artist Storm Thorgerson reported: “Two or three people cried. He sat round and talked for a bit but he wasn’t really there.”
As it turns out, Syd also brought his guitar with him, ready to record with his old band. Of course, the irony of the situation is not escaping anyone. The band is literally working on a song about him at the very moment. However Barrett doesn’t connect the dots. When the band made him listen to the track, he simply comments: « It sounds a bit old ».
He attributed his weight gain to eating too many pork chops while living in isolation at his mom’s. The man reportedly spent some time in the studio, hanging around, brushing his teeth, or engaging in some “desultory and not entirely sensible” conversations. According to Gilmour, he came for two or three days, until he didn’t anymore. This was the last time they saw him.
By the way, Which one is Pink ?
During the sessions, tensions rose in the studio. Waters, a workaholic, has a lot of ideas, and sort of throws is weight around. Which sometimes leads to some clashes. According to Waters, the band is somehow split in two with the « musicians »—Gilmour and Wright — on one side and the « architects » — Mason and himself — on the other1. As a result he sometimes felt like David and Rick would look down, condescending, on himself and Nick.
A good example of the tensions lies in how Roy Harper found himself singing lead vocals on “Have A Cigar”. A couple days before recording, Pink Floyd was playing at Knebworth. This also came after recording the last parts of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” which proved to be difficult for Roger’s voice. He was supposed to sing “Have A Cigar”, but struggled. Reportedly, Gilmour wasn’t too keen on singing it as he didn’t necessarily agree with the views expressed in the song, and Waters then dared: “Why don’t we ask Roy then?”.
Roy Harper was recording his album HQ in Studio Two next-door. Harper owed a favour to Gilmour —he played guitar on “The Game” in 1973— so he accepted to sing the song for a price: season tickets for life to the Lords (Middlesex cricket team home field). The result was approved by everyone in the control room. David Gilmour even admitted it was the perfect delivery. Waters however, went on to regret the decision of letting someone else sing the song. He felt that his version would have come up « more vulnerable and less cynical ».
The long awaited Wish You Were Here
Ultimately, after months of work, pressure and tensions, the band released Wish You Were Here on September 12 1975.
“Shine On You Crazy Diamond” – Part I
The first half of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” opens quietly, fading in over a looped glass harp, with synths rich texture slowly adding in. It builds up, introducing a guitar solo, until the iconic four guitar strings resonates on the second movement. The echoey sound of the guitar was obtained by recording Gilmour, alone with his guitar, in Studio One, a large room dedicated for bigger orchestral kind of work. The rythmic section kicks in, and after a calmer section on the 3rd movement, Roger Waters starts singing the lyrics — giving the listener some goosebumps if it hadn’t happen already. The last part introduces Dick Parry’s baritone saxophone for a mellow ending with arpeggio guitars… It slowly fades away and segues into the next song over industrial machine sounds.
“Welcome to The Machine” and “Have A Cigar”
“Welcome To The Machine” kicks in, ominous, with droning synths, and David Gilmour’s anxious vocals. The synths are just phenomenal, inventing new sound palettes, inspired by industrial machinery sound, adding the angsty edge of the song. The end of the song sort of segues the listener into the run-out groove of the first side. The next side opens with “Have A Cigar” with a much more biting rocky sound. Roy Harper’s voice is spot on as he impersonates a greedy record company executive. It sort of is a follow-up to “Money” on their previous album. The song is catchy, and the guitar solo exciting, even though the general mood is just as ominous sounding as the previous track. The cynical tone of the vocals sort of helps relieving the tension. The track finishes sounding as though it was coming out of the radio, and fades into the next song.
“Wish You Were Here”
This is none other than the title track, one of the most famous track in the history of Rock N Roll. “Wish You Were Here” opens with Gilmour strumming his accoustic guitar, and soon enough rocks his famous riff. The guitarist voices basks the listener in a sort of warming blanket, as the instrumentation is taking us places. Surely one of the finest lyrical work by Waters. The song is of course a call to Barrett, but not only. Some see it as a reference to his father, who died in World War II —which he will explore later in The Wall and The Final Cut. But it can also be read as Waters communicating with his younger self, reinforcing the theme behind the concept of the album.
“Shine On You Crazy Diamond” – Part I
The second half of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” starts closing the album. The sixth movement starts with a howling windy sound, fading from the previous track. An ominous bassline kicks in, and slowly the other instruments add in: Wright with his Solina String Ensemble Synthesiser, Gilmour and with a rythmic guitar, and the drums… A climactic dialogue between all instruments follows, with high pitched guitar solos… It slows down with the seventh movement, as Waters starts singing the second part of the song.
The eighth movement is a more groovy section, with funky sounding guitars and a groovy baseline. Finally the ninth movement starts, like a slow funeral march—the parting musical eulogy to Syd’s according to Gilmour. It comes back to more prominent keyboards, guitar are only faded in the background, and a slow but strong rythm section accompanies the whole until the last minute. The ending only features Rick Wrights synths textures and melodies as it fades off on a slow musical line taken from “See Emily Play” — the last tribute to Syd.
Final Thoughts
In the end, Wish You Were Here, turned out to be one of the best album by Pink Floyd. It was also the last truly collaborative effort. From then on, the relations in the band deteriorated further. In 1977, the recording and release of Animals saw even more tensions arise around the repartition of royalties. Wright would go on to be dismissed from the band after the release of The Wall in 1979. And in 1983, Waters would finally leave the band, thinking that would be the end for the band… Legal battles would ensue to allow Gilmour and Mason to keep Pink Floyd alive, later on re-joined by Wright.
A very sour fate, really. But Wish You Were Here lives on as a testimony of what Pink Floyd could do at its best, as a collaborative collective. With tensions, maybe, but all of them taking part. Today, Wish You Were Here is often cited as an all time top album. It was an all time favourite even for the band members. Gilmour said « The end result of all that, whatever it was, definitely has left me an album I can live with very very happily. I like it very much. »
In the end, Wish You Were Here stands as both a tribute and a reckoning: a farewell to Syd Barrett, a confrontation with an industry machine, and a fleeting moment when Pink Floyd still worked as a true collective. If Dark Side of the Moon made them legends, Wish You Were Here proved their legend had a soul.
- Richard Wright, Nick Mason and Roger Waters studied Architecture in London’s Royal Polytechnic School. However, Wright left after a year to pursue music ↩︎
