Pink Floyd
Wish You Were Here

After 1973, Pink Floyd found themselves facing an artistically vital problem. They had to succeed in delighting and satisfying their audience while maintaining high standards after composing and releasing the absolute masterpiece that is "The Dark Side of The Moon." Anyone with an even slightly refined ear, therefore, will have no difficulty understanding that "Wish You Were Here," released in 1975, has perfectly hit the mark.

During the album's recording, Syd Barrett, who had left the group years ago due to his well-known mental imbalances caused by drug abuse, showed up at the studio. Aged by twenty years, deteriorated, alienated, it took his former bandmates a few hours to notice him and recognize him. But when they did, they were emotionally overwhelmed: they decided to partially modify the LP and dedicate it (though never officially) to their friend Syd.

The album starts with "Shine On You Crazy Diamond," a long suite that opens and closes the work, with a total duration (in the two parts it consists of) of 26'05''. I believe many will agree with me when I say that this piece alone would be enough to convince us to buy the record. The opening is unforgettable: the instruments start softly, evoking suggestive dawns, hallucinated auroras. And it goes on, among synthesizers and the guitar, which David Gilmour, as always, guides, gentle as a mare, with light strokes of the pick. Without overdoing it, without a flaw, the song continues, increasingly evocative, leaving the flow of the music intact. You get the impression that such a perfect melody has always existed. After almost nine minutes, Roger Waters' voice makes its way, for Syd, the Crazy Diamond. "Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun..- Shine on you crazy diamond - Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky... - Shine on you crazy diamond -/Ricordi, quando eri giovane, splendevi come il sole... - Continua a brillare, tu, Diamante Pazzo - Ora c'è un'espressione nei tuoi occhi, simile buchi neri nel cielo... - Continua a brillare, tu, Diamante Pazzo -". One of the most significant songs in human history.

Soon after the first part of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond," "Welcome To The Machine" and "Have a Cigar" arrive, which tell respectively of the artist's relationship with the showbusiness, a bringer of constant pressure, new tensions, and then with the entire outside world, with the social consortium as a whole. These are two excellent pieces, but placed between a rock and a hard place, they pale in comparison to the beauty of the other compositions. "Welcome To The Machine" is configured as a strongly electronic, oppressive, unsettling track. The entertainment world is an anxious and terrifying gear (machine, in fact). "Have a Cigar" instead starts with a blues guitar (a great passion of Gilmour, and it is felt in almost every album), but then the synthesizer forcefully enters, asserting itself as a fundamental component of Pink Floyd's music.

The fourth track is "Wish You Were Here." An overused piece (especially for loving couples), now turned into a widely consumed good. It remains one of the most heart-wrenching songs in the group's entire output, fundamentally dedicated to Barrett (the title literally means, "I wish you were here"). Again, the opening made history: "Have a Cigar" ended with a stroke of genius: the melody is suddenly sucked into a vortex, to be then imprisoned in a radio. "Wish You Were Here" begins, and you can hear (I dare say you "see") a man's hand on the knob of that same radio, intent on changing stations. Indecisive, the hand then lingers on an acoustic guitar riff, filtered through the typical radio disturbance. Evidently, the man likes the riff because he picks up the guitar, and finally, the instrument's strings start playing with clarity, sharpness. Beyond the melody (I repeat: heart-wrenching to the point of excess), here it's the lyrics that excel: "So, so you think you can tell, Heaven from Hell? Blue skies from pain? [...]Cold comfort for change?And 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/ E così, così tu pensi di saper distinguere, il Paradiso dall'Inferno? I Cieli blu dal dolore? [...] Un benessere freddo con il cambiamento? Hai scambiato una parte da comparsa nella guerra, per il ruolo da protagonista in una gabbia? [...] Come Vorrei, come vorrei che fossi qui...

The guitar slowly fades away to lower the curtain on the show, and instead, a strong wind rises, sweeping away all that is superfluous. From the wind, a heart can then be heard: rapid beats, initially frightened, then increasingly imposing. That heart is Roger Waters' bass: this is how the second part of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" begins. Essentially it follows the pattern of the first, with melodies possessing a life of their own, less reflective but equally refined. However, this song immediately appears more willful, more energetic (an effect created mainly thanks to Gilmour's splendid solos). Then there's the lyrics again, the evocation of Syd Barrett, the lost friend, the Diamond that cannot stop shining. And finally, the piece closes: it is the imaginative sunset of the album, the twilight of the gods. It achieves a stylistic level that sees Pink Floyd at their peak here, at the height of creative collaboration, the desire to see beyond. Before the group creates a wall within itself, and with the fans, which the famous album of '79 ("The Wall," indeed) will only partly succeed in breaking down. But that's another story.

An album that changed the conception of music, I find no other expressions. Perfect in every detail, in every minutiae, in every little note.

Post Scriptum: a small curiosity. The album was released covered with a layer of black cellophane so that only those who bought it could tear it off and see the beautiful cover image (the man on fire, to be clear). Many distributors tore off the cellophane, convinced that this would help sales. This should confirm the artist's distrust of producers and distributors.