In 1974, Pink Floyd headed yet again to Abbey Road studios to compose new material. Unfortunately, though, the band was completely worn out from the success of their hit album and found creating anything new extremely difficult. They were so desperate to create interesting new material that they returned to an old concept of creating musical sounds from objects around the home, like pots, pans, and rubber bands. These Household Objects sessions, as they were called, we "tortuous" according to main song writer and bassist Roger Waters. Eventually, they scrapped the whole project and took back to traditional instrumentation, which yielded some new work, three long pieces in particular: "Raving and Drooling"and "You've Got to Be Crazy" which were later reworked to become "Sheep" and "Dogs", respectively, on their 1977 album Animals, and "Shine On You Crazy Diamond". Then Roger finally had an idea for the album: about missing someone, someone who was there but not there, absence in general. Pink Floyd used "Shine On", a twenty-some minute long track as the centerpiece to the album, scrapping the two other written tracks for now, and went ahead with recording new material with an idea in mind.
The result of their work is a beautiful album, which is just about as melancholy as Dark Side is, but returning more or less to their more jammy sound, especially on "Shine On You Crazy Diamond". They ended up splitting up the twenty-six minute piece, putting half at the beginning of the album and one at the end to make a bookends feel. In the middle were three shorter tracks that each have their own special and unique sound to them. When Wish You Were Here, as the album was named, was finally released in 1975, it went to number one in the UK and US and is certified 6x platinum! Impressive indeed for a progressive rock band, even if they gained fame from their previous magnum opus.
I often think of this album as a turning point in Pink Floyd's vocal standpoint, as previously Roger Waters, who wrote all the lyrics on this album, sang only a song or two on albums with guitarist David Gilmour singing most of the songs, and occasionally keyboardist Rick Wright here and there, whereas this album is about even, with Gilmour singing lead vocals on two songs, and Roger on two (the two halves of "Shine On") and one leftover that features Roy Harper's vocals (we'll get to that later). By the next album, though, Roger is singing the majority of the lyrics on the albums, which continues up until he leaves in band in the mid-eighties.
The album opens up with the first half of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond". This composition starts out with Rick Wright playing a single note on the synthesizer that fades in as the sound of fingers running around the rims of glasses full of water appears (this is the only part from Household Objects that was used). This builds up for a few minutes when Gilmour begins a bluesy and melodic guitar solo. At about 4 minutes into the song, this fades out and the iconic 4 note riff on guitar comes in. After the riff is played a few times, the drums roll in along with the rest of the band. Rick Wright plays his synthesizers which alternate with the guitar's riff. Roger keeps an almost funky groove on his bass and Nick Mason plays his drums in a standard 6/8. Next comes a very extended guitar solo by Gilmour. The solo lasts for a while and is very bluesy feeling still. It gradually gets louder, every once in a while coming to a soft section until it comes back in full force. At one point, the guitar takes the background and the synth comes out in front with a sad sounding solo of sorts. This sets the mood for most of the song really. Gilmour's guitar finally comes back in, though, and leads the band out for about another minute. When he finishes, the first vocals come in, at nearly 9 minutes into the song. Roger sings the mournful lyrics about old bandmate Syd Barrett who blew his mind on drug overdoses. A chorus comes every line or two featuring the whole band joining in and female backing vocalists. It is truly beautiful and sounds very heartfelt, as the band must have felt a haunting spirit of their ex leader at the time. After the second verse, a sax solo by Dick Parry, who played on several Dark Side tracks, comes in. After playing at the speed of the verses for a little while, the band picks up the pace, making it more groove sounding. This part reminds me a lot of the Soft Machine track "Slightly All the Time" from their album Third. At the end, this all begins to fade out which crossfades into the beginning of track two, "Welcome to the Machine".
"Welcome to the Machine" is sung by Gilmour, which is odd because the song has a very dark and sinister sound to it, portraying music executives and the "big people" in business as just robots with no feelings or individuality. I always thought this track would have been an excellent Roger Waters sung tune, but Gilmour does fine. The song begins with several robotic sound effects until an minor sounding acoustic guitar riff comes in. The acoustic guitar and synthesizers are the prominent instruments on the track. Rick Wright's synths are heavily used and add so much to the track with their wonderful sounds. There are several time signature changes in the song, going from 3/4 to 4/4 a couple of times, which sounds odd, but very cool for those who are interested in the mathematical part of music. The song is actually quite creepy to listen to, but the music certainly reflects the dark lyrics. I just love how much the synths get to stay out in front, it really makes this track great, as with the rest of the tracks on the album. The synths are definitely the personality of this track, as the extended instrumental sections and groove of "Shine On" is it's personality. The whole track ends after a synth solo where an abrupt sound effect that sounds like a rocket launching comes in that transfers into the sound of a room full of laughing people. This is a very odd end to the track for sure.
The next side of the album opens up with the not so popular single "Have a Cigar". This song seems like the darker version of "Money" from Dark Side. The track is notable for featuring Roy Harper's vocals as he would better suit the voice of a snobby music representative for the lyrics. The tune is very blues sounding, with the guitar and bass working together to create a funky sound. The song follows the standard verse-chorus technique and stays to a fairly concise 5 minutes, which is probably why it was released as a single. The track also contains the gem lyrics "Oh, by the way, which one's Pink?" which was inspired by the people who would actually ask the band this question. That is like asking which band member is Lynyrd Skynyrd in the band of that name. The song ends with a guitar solo that is cut off by a swoosh sounding keyboard that turns the guitar solo into the sound of a radio, transferring into the next cut on the album.
The fourth track, "Wish You Were Here" is a great and heartfelt one, that, like "Shine On", reflects on the absence of ex bandmate Syd Barrett. The song opens up with the sound of the radio from the previous track being changed until the acoustic guitar on the radio comes to a regular tune. Then, an acoustic guitar, played by, presumably, the listener of the radio, comes in playing a solo overtop. Finally, the radio effect is ditched, and Gilmour sings the first verse. After this verse, the whole band joins, with Rick Wright's piano featured prominently. Gilmour sings the second verse which is followed by a reprisal of the opening tune which has a guitar solo played over it. Finally, the final verse is sung with the whole band, and the band leads out the song playing the same riff over and over with David Gilmour singing scat overtop until the end. This song is short and concise, but is still very beautiful and soulful. The band eventually fades into the sound of wind gushing, which leads into the final track.
The last track is part two of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond". Part two begins with, after the gushing wind sound, a bass and guitar line similar to that of "One of These Days" from Meddle. This plays for a while as it gets louder, with drums coming in softly. What follows is a wonderful synth solo by Rick Wright. This all eventually gains some momentum, and plays a rather quick beat with Gilmour soloing over the top. This speed, though, does not stay for long, as it quickly returns to the melody of the verses. The guitar triumphantly returns to the slow 6/8 groove of the verse to go into the last verse of the song. Roger sings mournfully as he does on the first half, and this all is parallel to the first half. I think this song would have been great if it were kept as one piece because the song would have made more sense as one epic side long piece, but it is fine as it is. After the last verse is sung, the band takes a groovier approach to the tune with the bass forming as a more prominent instrument making the groove, and Nick Mason's drums keeping the rhythm well. The keyboards get a type of solo, as they are right at the front with the bass, as the guitar stays in the background for a while. This whole section reminds me of a jazz fusion type of band. Then it gets even funkier with a very cool bass groove with the keyboards still playing in front. The guitar plays a clean guitar riff similar to the one in "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" from The Wall. This all fades out after a while with the synths coming in to transfer into the next section, a slow 4/4 section with a mournful feel to the synth and piano sound. This is a very different part of the song as it utilizes a chord sequence much different than that of the verses. This is just a wonderful break in the song as it makes way for the soft ending of the song. Something I've noticed is that "Shine On" and "Echoes", two long epics, both end very soft and unassumingly compared to ones like Rush's "2112" which ends with a very loud series of sounds of getting louder and louder, going out with a bang. The song finally ends with Rick's synths playing in a finally major key ending the song in G major which is a stark contrast to the opening of the tune which is in G minor. What a lovely end to the song and the whole album.
This album is definitely one of my favorite albums of all time, I don't like it as much as I like Meddle and Atom Heart Mother, but this is definitely a worthy follow up to Dark Side. I give the album a 10 out of 10.
A live version of "Wish You Were Here" from the band's one off reunion performance in 2005 at Live 8:
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