Day After Day #231: Wish You Were Here

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Wish You Were Here (1975)

By the mid-'70s, Pink Floyd had been through enough drama to last a band lifetime. Founding members Roger Waters, Nick Mason and Richard Wright were all enrolled in 1962 at London Polytechnic to study architecture and started playing in a group with some other students. There were different lineups before guitarist Syd Barrett joined Waters, Wright, Mason and guitarist Bob Klose in 1963, with singer Chris Dennis joining soon after. 

The group had several names before settling on the Pink Floyd Sound in late 1965. By this point, Klose had quit the band and Barrett was playing lead guitar and singing. They eventually dropped "Sound" from the name and became part of London's underground scene, playing long instrumental jams and using psychedelic light shows. They signed with EMI in 1967 and released a few singles, "Arnold Layne" and "See Emily Play"; the latter hit #6 on the U.K. singles chart.

Barrett's use of LSD had caused his behavior to become erratic, even as the band released its psychedelic debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. The album was well received, going to #6 on the U.K. album chart, but Barrett was refusing to answer questions in TV interviews and in December 1967, Pink Floyd added guitarist David Gilmour as the fifth member of the band. The group's management announced that Gilmour would tour with the band while Barrett would write songs. The arrangement wasn't working so the band announced in March 1968 that Barrett was leaving. 

Waters and Wright began to contribute more of the songs that appeared on Pink Floyd's second album, 1968's Saucerful of Secrets, with Barrett contributing to three and Gilmour playing guitar on most. It wasn't as successful as its predecessor, but the band started to explore longer instrumental pieces like the nearly 12-minute title track. The next few albums began to get more experimental but continued to perform well in the U.K. and started to gain traction in the U.S. Gilmour was stepping up into a bigger creative role.

In 1973, the band elevated itself to another level of success with The Dark Side of the Moon, which was more concise than previous efforts while also exploring mental illness--both from the pressures of being in a touring band and Barrett's struggles. It was a monster triumph, going to #1 in the U.S. and selling over 45 million copies worldwide. "Money" and "Us and Them" were radio hits and Pink Floyd became one of the biggest bands in rock. Waters wrote all the lyrics, but split the lead vocals with Gilmour.

Their ninth album, 1975's Wish You Were Here, was mainly written while they were touring for Dark Side of the Moon. Waters wrote about the music business with "Have a Cigar" and "Welcome to the Machine," but much of the album was taken up by "Shine On You Crazy Diamond," a nine-part tribute to Barrett. 

But it was the title track that stands out as my favorite Pink Floyd song. "Have a Cigar" fades into "Wish You Were Here," as you hear a radio's stations being changed from one to another until you hear the intro to "Wish You Were Here." Gilmour played it on a 12-string guitar, first sounding like it was coming through an AM radio and then the radio effect fades and Gilmour starts singing.

"So, so you think you can tell heaven from hell?/Blue skies from pain?/Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?/A smile from a veil?/Do you think you can tell?/Did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?/Hot ashes for trees?/Hot air for a cool breeze?/Cold comfort for change/Did you exchange a walk-on part in the war/For a lead role in a cage?"

Waters said he wrote the song about himself, but Gilmour has said he always sang the song thinking about Barrett. Later, Waters acknowledged that it was indeed also about Barrett leaving the band years before.

"How I wish, how I wish you were here/We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl/Year after year/Running over the same old ground, what have we found?/The same old fears, wish you were here."

The song wasn't a successful single per se, only getting to #68 in the U.K., but it's become a classic rock staple here and is usually found at or near the top of lists of the best Floyd songs. The album went to #1 in the U.S., U.K., Spain, Australia, the Netherlands, Italy and New Zealand.

Pink Floyd continued on, releasing Animals in 1977 and then The Wall in 1979, a double album epic about a rock star who gets hooked on drugs and transforms into a megalomaniac. Led by "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2," which went to #1 in the U.S. and U.K., The Wall was another huge hit, topping the Billboard 200 for 15 weeks. Later, it was adapted into a movie starring Bob Geldof of the Boomtown Rats as Pink.

Even in the face of the band's massive success, tensions grew between Waters and the rest of the band. When they were working on 1983's The Final Cut, Gilmour didn't have material ready and Wright and Mason had minimal input, leading some to call the album a Waters solo release. In 1984, both Waters and Gilmour released solo albums. Waters left the band and there was a court battle over whether Gilmour and the others could continue on as Pink Floyd; eventually, the two sides reached an out-of-court agreement. A Gilmour-led Pink Floyd released A Momentary Lapse of Reason in 1987 and The Division Bell in 1994. 

In 2005, Waters reunited with Gilmour, Mason and Wright to perform as Pink Floyd at Live 8, a benefit concert in London that was organized by Geldof. Despite a huge offer to do a final tour, the group turned it down and went their separate ways. A year later, Barrett died at the age of 60, and two years after that in 2008, Wright died of cancer at 65.

In 2013, Gilmour and Mason took recordings made with Wright from the Division Bell sessions to make a new Pink Floyd album, The Endless River, which was released in 2014. There was no tour for the album, but in 2018, Mason formed Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets and toured Europe and North America playing early Pink Floyd material. Waters has continued to tour, playing The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall as a solo act.