| "Wish You Were Here" | |||||
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| Song by Pink Floyd | |||||
| Album | Wish You Were Here | ||||
| Released | September 15, 1975 | ||||
| Recorded | January - July 1975 | ||||
| Genre | Progressive rock Folk-rock |
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| Length | 5:40 (5:24 on Echoes) | ||||
| Label | Harvest, EMI (UK) Columbia, Capitol (US) | ||||
| Writer | David Gilmour/Roger Waters | ||||
| Producer | Pink Floyd | ||||
| Wish You Were Here track listing | |||||
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| "Wish You Were Here EP" | |||||
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| Single by Pink Floyd from the album P*U*L*S*E |
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| B-side | Coming Back to Life (live), Keep Talking (live) | ||||
| Released | July 20, 1995 | ||||
| Format | CD | ||||
| Recorded | September 20 (Rome); October 13 and 20 (Earls Court, London), 1994 | ||||
| Genre | Rock, Classic Rock | ||||
| Label | Capitol Records (US) EMI (UK) |
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| Writer | Waters, Gilmour | ||||
| Producer | James Guthrie, David Gilmour | ||||
| Pink Floyd singles chronology | |||||
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"Wish You Were Here" is the title track on Pink Floyd's 1975 album Wish You Were Here. The song's lyrics encompass writer Roger Waters' feelings of alienation from other people. Like most of the album, it partly refers to former Pink Floyd member Syd Barrett and his breakdown. However, unlike the Shine on You Crazy Diamond suite, Wish You Were Here is universal: it is directed at anyone who is missing a special person from their life. The main riff came to David Gilmour while playing his acoustic guitar in Abbey Road Studios. Gilmour then demonstrated the riff to Waters, who was impressed. They collaborated to complete the song, as Waters had already written some lyrics. In 2004, the song was ranked #316 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
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Composition
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 Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony), and finally to a new station where "Wish You Were Here" is beginning. Gilmour performed the intro on a twelve-string guitar, processed to sound like it was playing through an old transistor radio, and then overdubbed a fuller-sounding acoustic guitar solo. This passage was mixed to sound as though the guitarist was sitting in a room, playing along with the radio; it also contains a barely-audible whine that slowly changes pitch, as if receiving AM radio interference. The intro riff is repeated several times and reprised when Gilmour plays further solos with scat singing accompaniment. At the end of the recorded song, the final solo crossfades with wind sound effects (reminiscent of "One of These Days" from the 1971 album Meddle), and finally segues into the second section of the multi-part suite "Shine On You Crazy Diamond".
Other versions
Wish You Were Here later appeared as the 5th track on A Collection of Great Dance Songs (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 (with the radio intro following "Arnold Layne", and at the end crossfading with "Jugband Blues"). A live recording included in the 1995 live album P*U*L*S*E was issued as a single/EP. As of 2006, this is the last single released by Pink Floyd (although promos of Echoes and The Wall Live have been released). Wish You Were Here made its stage debut on the band's 1977 tour, which featured a performance of the entire album at every show. It was not played live by the band for nearly ten years after this, yet became a concert staple after its reappearance in 1987 — and was performed at nearly all subsequent Pink Floyd concerts. In the original 1977 concert performances, Gilmour would play his Fender Stratocaster instead of acoustic guitar whilst Snowy White played a 12-string Ovation acoustic guitar. At some of these shows (all of the US shows, notably), Mason tuned an actual transistor radio on stage to a local radio station, seguing into the pre-recorded bit from the album to start the song and Rick Wright would perform an extended piano coda as the wind effects played. When Pink Floyd were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame[1], Gilmour and Wright (Mason was in the audience) performed the song with the assistance of their presenter Billy Corgan on rhythm guitar. In 2004, Waters and Eric Clapton performed the song at the Tsunami Aid concert, and in 2005's Live 8, Waters rejoined his former bandmates (albeit it for this one-off show) in London to perform it, along with 3 other classic Pink Floyd songs.
Cover versions
The song proved to be a popular choice of cover for artists including Sparklehorse (in collaboration with Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke), Dream Theater[2], The Flaming Lips, Pearl Jam, Wyclef Jean, Catherine Wheel, Rasputina , Velvet Revolver, Ana Torroja, Bob Forrest, Widespread Panic, Irish rock-band Aslan, Dan Andriano (of the Alkaline Trio) and Rodrigo y Gabriela all of whom have recorded or performed live versions of the song. Marillion played their Marillion Mix version of the song during their Marillion 2003 Weekend, which can be found as an eastern egg on dvd 3 of the 4dvd-boxset named Wish You Were Here. Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst and Wes Borland, and the Goo Goo Dolls' John Rzeznik gave a performance of Wish You Were Here (previously unrecorded by them) for the America: A Tribute to Heroes television event following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City. New lyrics for the song had been written for the occasion. This song was covered on the Echoes of Pink tribute album in 2002. A cover version of Wish You Were Here by Sally Semrad appears on Pink Floyd tribute album A Fair Forgery of Pink Floyd. The 2007 song, "Your Love Alone Is Not Enough" by Manic Street Preachers contains the lines: 'Trade your heroes in for ghosts', a line which was adapted from this song.
Personnel
- Roger Waters - Fender bass guitar, six string acoustic guitar, tape effects
- David Gilmour - 6 and 12-string acoustic guitars, pedal steel guitar, tape effects, lead and backing vocals
- Richard Wright - Steinway piano, Mini-Moog Synthesizers
- Nick Mason - drums, tape effects
- Stephane Grappelli- violin (There is a brief piece of violin playing at the end of the track which was subsequently all but drowned out by the addition of the wind effects. Violinist Stephane Grappelli was recording in a downstairs studio, and Gilmour had suggested that there be a little "country fiddle" at the end of the song. Grappelli duly obliged, although because his contribution is barely audible, the band decided not to credit him for it in the sleevenotes. According to Waters, he received the agreed fee of £300, however.)
Recorded between January and July 1975 at Abbey Road Studios, London.
Quotes
| “ | ...Either the music comes first and the lyrics are added, or music and lyrics come together. Only once have the lyrics been written down first - "Wish You Were Here". But this is unusual; it hasn't happened before.[3] - Roger Waters |
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Notes
- ^ Official Article
- ^ Excerpt from recording of the band Dream Theater covering the song at Google Video
- ^ October 1975 interview in Wish You Were Here songbook, retrieved 28 April 2006
External links
- Lyrics to Wish You Were Here (It is the 4th song in the list)
- Tabs/Chords to Wish You Were Here
- Wish You Were Here at lyricinterpretations
