Pink Floyd “Wish You Were Here”

 

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#377 in the Series and #12 in the Whale Wednesday Series) is Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here.
What can you say about Wish You Were Here that hasn’t been said already? This is one of the iconic albums in rock and roll.  This is one of Pink Floyd’s best.  It was released in 1975 which was right in the middle of their “meat era.” The period where they produced four of their most popular releases, they being of course The Dark Side of the Moon (‘73), Wish You Were Here (‘75), Animals (’77) and The Wall (’79.)
That was four of the most popular albums of the seventies, and yes, I do feel that they were their best albums.  That also was the era that produced some of the best live shows of any band’s careers as well.
There was one reason also why this album always had a soft spot in my heart.  That would be that this is the last time we hear the great Dick Parry’s saxophone work.  He added so much to the Pink Floyd sound. Think about his work on “Money”, “Us and Them” and “Shine On.”
Overall however, I love WYWH, there’s not a ton of songs here, basically “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”, “Welcome to the Machine”,” Wish You Were Here” and of course, “Have a Cigar.”
Much of this album was written about and as a tribute to Pink Floyd’s original leader, Syd Barrett.
I’m not going to go into depth on this album.  You can find pages and pages elsewhere.  I’ll leave you with a playlist that has some great live versions of most of these tracks.  No, Roger Waters isn’t on all these versions, but he does a great intro to “Wish You Were Here” from the Live 8 reunion in 2005.