•
Rating: Author's Foreword - this album has been reviewed many times. I know. But...
Silence, for a few moments. Dead waves that cut through the void. A burst of spatial notes and the hiss that grows stronger.
More intense than ever before. You can almost touch it. Then, suddenly, a sensual Fender comes in. Few sounds. Mystical.
There is nothing ahead, the ground is clear. Everything is to be conquered, still. Slow passages. You get lost in the music.
Slowly, the sound disappears. The world stops, caught between life and death. Four notes. Bare, that come in almost forcefully.
Bare, yet still divine. They are repeated a few times. The soft touch of the drums. One of those old types, with its sound worn
by the flowing time. The voices...the memories. Of youth, when you were shining like the sun.
A smile. With your ideas, free from every mean deception of the world. Now, your eyes seem like two black holes in the sky.
Unfortunately, nothing lasts forever. The thoughts flee, and the night changes. And so do you.
Then you find yourself in an alien world. Everything you believed in turns out to be wrong. Trapped in a machine, hunted between your breath and the metallic walls surrounding you. Nothing can help you. We are numbered human beings, built in distant factories we will never see.
We are industrialized. We are industrialization. Our life is a handful of coins.
That's all. Now that you know the truth, have a cigar with me. Rejoice. We lack nothing.
A man without hair. Without eyebrows. A free man. The Crazy Diamond.
Opens the door...
In a nearby room flooded with sunlight, a dusty room, you sit on the floor with an out-of-tune guitar in hand.
You play those four chords and cry over them. You feel alone.
You have no one to lean on. You're alone. Alone, and unique. Can you tell the difference between heaven and hell?
Have you traded your heroes for ghosts? You gaze thoughtfully at those metal rails?
"sounds a bit old..."
I miss you. I wish you were here. I wanted to tell you that, one day. We exchanged a handshake.
I saw your eyes and you saw mine. I wanted to tell you, but you vanished too soon in a trail of smoke.
With the fire inside. I wish you were here.
Do you really want it?
A mesmerizing bass brings us back to the cloud where we were pleasantly sleeping at the start of this adventure.
The Fender returns from behind the scenes. And it begins again.
"nobody knows where you are, how near or how far. Shine on you crazy diamond..."
And then we went out to see the stars again.
1. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (I - V)
2. Welcome To The Machine
3. Have A Cigar
4. Wish You Were Here
5. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (VI - IX)
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Welcome to the Machine (07:26)
Welcome my son,
Welcome to the machine.
Where have you been?
It's alright we know where you've been.
You've been in the pipeline, filling in time,
Provided with toys and Scouting for Boys.
You bought a guitar to punish your ma,
And you didn't like school,
And you know you're nobody's fool,
So welcome to the machine.
Welcome my son, welcome to the machine.
What did you dream? It's alright we told you what to dream.
You dreamed of a big star, he played a mean guitar,
He always ate in the Steak Bar. He loved to drive in his Jaguar.
So welcome to the machine.
03 Have a Cigar (05:08)
Come in here, dear boy, have a cigar,
you're gonna go far,
you're gonna fly high,
you're never gonna die,
you're gonna make it if you try,
they're gonna love you.
I've always had a deep respect and I mean that most sincere;
the band is just fantastic, that is really what I think,
oh, by the way, which one's Pink?
And did we tell you the name of the game, boy?
We call it "Riding The Gravy Train".
We're just knocked out.
We heard about the sell out.
You're gonna get an album out,
you owe it to the people.
We're so happy we can hardly count.
Everybody else is just green,
have you seen the chart?
It's a hell of a start,
it could be made into a monster,
if we all pull together as a team.
And did we tell you the name of the game, boy?
We call it "Riding The Gravy Train".
04 Wish You Were Here (05:40)
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?
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
Loading comments slowly
Other reviews
By charles
A few words on the matter are necessary to describe five tracks of rare perfection, of pure psychedelia.
When the stereo starts playing, it becomes clear why this album is a true milestone in the history of rock.
By Big D
Pink Floyd, what are they? They are a ray of sunshine in a messy room.
Only when you hear the four notes of 'Shine On' do you understand... that you have arrived... and have only just begun.
By Casacci91
Pink Floyd has never let us down.
Tell me, isn’t this the real music?
By Em
"Wish You Were Here can be defined as a concept album about absence: of the word, but also of the individual and thought."
"Pink Floyd were, are, and always will be the group that achieved pure perfection, both musically and ‘textually’."
By SydBarrett
It was as if he had never left the group; indeed, he hovered like a ghost, bringing sad memories that then influenced, more or less, the songs and themes of Pink Floyd.
A masterpiece, giving chills even today, undoubtedly one of the most beautiful songs of all time.
