Re: Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here Full Album Download Zip
Melva Simons
Wish You Were Here is the ninth studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 12 September 1975 through Harvest Records in the UK and Columbia Records in the US, their first for the label. Based on material Pink Floyd composed while performing in Europe, Wish You Were Here was recorded over numerous sessions throughout 1975 at EMI Studios in London.
The lyrics express alienation and criticism of the music business. The bulk of the album is taken up by "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", a nine-part tribute to the Pink Floyd co-founder Syd Barrett, who had left seven years earlier due to his deteriorating mental health. Barrett coincidentally visited during the recording. As with their previous release, The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Pink Floyd employed studio effects and synthesisers. Guest singers included Roy Harper, who provided the lead vocals on "Have a Cigar", and Venetta Fields, who added backing vocals to "Shine On You Crazy Diamond". To promote the album, Pink Floyd released the double A-side single "Have a Cigar" / "Welcome to the Machine".
Wish You Were Here was certified gold in the UK and the US in its year of release and topped the charts in several European countries. By 2004, it had sold an estimated 13 million copies worldwide. It initially received mixed reviews; critics found its music uninspiring and inferior to Pink Floyd's previous work. It was later acclaimed as one of the greatest albums of all time, appearing on lists including Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums. It was cited by the keyboardist, Richard Wright, and the guitarist, David Gilmour, as their favourite Pink Floyd album.
During 1974, Pink Floyd sketched out three new compositions, "Raving and Drooling", "You Gotta Be Crazy" and "Shine On You Crazy Diamond".[nb 1][5] These songs were performed during a series of concerts in France and England, the band's first tour since 1973's The Dark Side of the Moon. As Pink Floyd had never employed a publicist and kept themselves distant from the press, their relationship with the media began to sour. Mason said later that a critical NME review by Syd Barrett devotee Nick Kent may have had an influence in keeping the band together, as they returned to the studio in the first week of 1975.[6]
Wish You Were Here is Floyd's second album with a conceptual theme, mostly at Roger Waters' direction. It reflects his feeling that the camaraderie that had served the band was, by then, largely absent.[7] The album begins with a long instrumental preamble and segues into the lyrics for "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", a tribute to Syd Barrett, whose mental breakdown had forced him to leave the group seven years earlier.[8] Barrett is fondly recalled with lines such as "Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun" and "You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon".[9]
Wish You Were Here is also a critique of the music business. "Shine On" crosses seamlessly into "Welcome to the Machine", a song that begins with an opening door (described by Waters as a symbol of musical discovery and progress betrayed by a music industry more interested in greed and success) and ends with a party, the latter epitomising "the lack of contact and real feelings between people". Similarly, "Have a Cigar" scorns record industry "fat-cats" with the lyrics repeating a stream of cliches heard by rising newcomers in the industry, and including the question "by the way, which one's Pink?" asked of the band on at least one occasion.[10] The lyrics of the next song, "Wish You Were Here", relate both to Barrett's condition and to the dichotomy of Waters' character, with greed and ambition battling with compassion and idealism.[11]
Alan Parsons, EMI staff engineer for Pink Floyd's previous studio album, The Dark Side of the Moon, declined to continue working with them due to him starting his own group and working on their first album. The group had worked with engineer Brian Humphries on More, recorded at Pye Studios,[13] and again in 1974 when he replaced an inexperienced concert engineer.[14] Humphries was therefore the natural choice to work on the band's new material, although, being a stranger to EMI's Abbey Road set-up, he encountered some early difficulties. On one occasion, Humphries inadvertently spoiled the backing tracks for "Shine On", a piece that Waters and drummer Nick Mason had spent many hours perfecting, with echo. The entire piece had to be re-recorded.[10][15][16]
The sessions for Wish You Were Here at EMI's Studio Three (now Abbey Road Studios)[17] lasted from January until July 1975, recording on four days each week from 2:30 pm until very late in the evening.[18] The group found it difficult at first to devise any new material, especially as the success of The Dark Side of the Moon had left all four physically and emotionally drained. Keyboardist Richard Wright later described these sessions as "falling within a difficult period", and Waters recalled them as "torturous".[19] Mason found the process of multi-track recording drawn-out and tedious,[20] while Gilmour was more interested in improving the band's existing material. Gilmour was also becoming increasingly frustrated with Mason, whose failing marriage had brought on a general malaise and sense of apathy, both of which interfered with his drumming.[19]
On 5 June 1975, on the eve of Pink Floyd's second US tour that year, Gilmour married his first wife, Ginger.[nb 2] That day, the band were completing the mix of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond"[nb 3] when an overweight man with shaven head and eyebrows entered, carrying a plastic bag. Waters did not recognise him.[8] Gilmour presumed he was an EMI staff member.[22] Wright presumed he was a friend of Waters, but realised it was Barrett.[25] Mason also failed to recognise him and was "horrified" when Gilmour identified him. In Mason's Pink Floyd memoir Inside Out, he recalled Barrett's conversation as "desultory and not entirely sensible".[26] Cover artist Storm Thorgerson reflected on Barrett's presence: "Two or three people cried. He sat round and talked for a bit but he wasn't really there."[27] According to Gilmour, Barrett "came two or three days and then he didn't come any more.".[28]
As with The Dark Side of the Moon, the band used synthesizers such as the EMS VCS 3 (on "Welcome to the Machine"), but softened with Gilmour's acoustic guitar, and percussion from Mason.[10] The beginning of "Shine On" contains remnants from a previous but incomplete studio recording by the band known as "Household Objects". Wine glasses had been filled with varying amounts of fluid, and recordings were made of a wet finger circling the edge of each glass. These recordings were multi-tracked into chords.[7]
Jazz violinist Stphane Grappelli and classical violinist Yehudi Menuhin were performing in another studio in the building, and were invited to record a piece for the new album. Menuhin watched as Grappelli played on the song "Wish You Were Here"; however, the band later decided his contribution was unsuitable and, until 2011, it was believed that the piece had been wiped.[30][31] It turns out his playing was included on the album, but so low in the final mix that the band presumed it would be insulting to credit him.[32] He was paid 300 for his contribution (equivalent to 3,200 in 2024).[33][34] Saxophonist Dick Parry, who had performed on The Dark Side of the Moon, performed on "Shine On You Crazy Diamond".[35] The opening bars of "Wish You Were Here" were recorded from Gilmour's car radio, with somebody turning the dial (the classical music heard is the finale of Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony).[36]
Recording sessions had twice been interrupted by US tours (one in April and the other in June 1975),[37] and the final sessions, which occurred after the band's performance at Knebworth, proved particularly troublesome for Waters.[23] He struggled to record the vocals for "Have a Cigar", requiring several takes to perform an acceptable version. His problems stemmed in part from the stresses placed upon his voice while recording the lead vocals of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond". Gilmour was asked to sing in his place,[30] but declined, and eventually colleague and friend Roy Harper was asked to stand in. Harper was recording his own album in another of EMI's studios, and Gilmour had already performed some guitar licks for him. Waters later regretted the decision, believing he should have performed the song.[38] The Blackberries recorded backing vocals for "Shine On You Crazy Diamond".[35]
The band played much of Wish You Were Here on 5 July 1975 at the Knebworth music festival. Roy Harper, performing at the same event, on discovering that his stage costume was missing, proceeded to destroy one of Pink Floyd's vans, injuring himself in the process. This delayed the normal setup procedure of the band's sound system. As a pair of World War II Spitfire aircraft had been booked to fly over the crowd during their entrance, the band were not able to delay their set. The result was that a power supply problem pushed Wright's keyboards completely out of tune, damaging the band's performance. At one point he left the stage, but the band were able to continue with a less sensitive keyboard, a piano and a simpler light show. Following a brief intermission, they returned to perform The Dark Side of the Moon, but critics displeased about being denied access backstage savaged the performance.[39][40]
The album's cover images were photographed by Aubrey "Po" Powell, Thorgerson's partner at the design studio Hipgnosis, and inspired by the idea that people tend to conceal their true feelings, for fear of "getting burned", and thus two businessmen were pictured shaking hands, one man on fire. "Getting burned" was also a common phrase in the music industry, used often by artists denied royalty payments. Two stuntmen were used (Ronnie Rondell and Danny Rogers), one dressed in a fireproof suit covered by a business suit. His head was protected by a hood, underneath a wig. The photograph was taken at Warner Bros. Studios in California, known at the time as The Burbank Studios.[42][43] Initially the wind was blowing in the wrong direction, and the flames were forced into Rondell's face, burning his moustache. The two stuntmen changed positions, and the image was later reversed.[44] The versions released on Harvest label (in Europe) and on Columbia label (among others, United States, Canada and Australia) use similar, but different photos from the photo session.[45]
7fc3f7cf58