Maps of Music

Wish You Were Here (1975)

Where the lyrics of Wish You Were Here take you, and where it was really made.

Syd Barrett, the former bandmate the album honours, walked into the studio while the band was completing the mix of its opening track.

Key places

Sessions at EMI's Studio Three (1975)

Recording site Abbey Road Studios — The album was recorded in sessions at EMI's Studio Three from January to July 1975. The studio is now known as Abbey Road Studios. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: Jubilee line to St John's Wood station, then about a 5-minute walk.

Cover photo shot at Warner Bros. Studios (1975)

Album cover Warner Bros. Studios — The cover photograph was shot with two stuntmen, one wearing a fireproof suit under a business suit. The shoot took place at the studio then known as The Burbank Studios. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Final tour show at Knebworth Festival (1975)

Live show Knebworth Festival — Pink Floyd played their final tour performance at the Knebworth Festival on 5 July 1975, two months before the album's release. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Wish You Were Here: ninth studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd
• Released 12 September 1975 in the UK on Harvest Records, and the next day in the US on Columbia Records
• First Pink Floyd album on Columbia, an affiliate of CBS
• Based on material composed while performing in Europe
• Recorded over numerous sessions throughout 1975 at EMI Studios in London
• Lyrics express longing, alienation and sardonic criticism of the music industry
• Bulk of the album is "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", a nine-part tribute to Syd Barrett

Background

• In 1974 the band sketched three new songs, performed during concerts in France and England
• These concerts were the band's first tour since The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
• The band had never employed a publicist and kept their distance from the press
• Nick Mason said a critical NME review by Nick Kent may have influenced the return to the studio in the first week of 1975
• The concept was mostly at Roger Waters's direction, reflecting his feeling that the band's communal structure had disappeared
• Barrett had left the group seven years earlier because of his deteriorating mental health

Recording

• Sessions at EMI's Studio Three lasted from January to July 1975
• The band recorded four days each week, from 2:30 pm until very late in the evening
• After the success of The Dark Side of the Moon, all four members were physically and emotionally drained, which made new material hard to devise
• Waters recalled the sessions as "torturous"
• Roy Harper sang lead on "Have a Cigar" after Waters struggled with the vocals
• Dick Parry performed saxophone on "Shine On You Crazy Diamond"

Cover

• The cover images were photographed by Aubrey Powell, Thorgerson's partner at Hipgnosis
• Two businessmen shake hands, one of them on fire
• The artwork is hidden in black shrink-wrap, which makes the album art "absent"

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in London in 1965 by Syd Barrett, Nick Mason, Roger Waters and Richard Wright; David Gilmour joined in 1967.
• Among the first British psychedelic groups, gaining an early underground following at the UFO Club.
• Known for extended compositions, sonic experiments, philosophical lyrics and elaborate live shows.

Members

• Nick Mason on drums (1965–present).
• Roger Waters on bass and vocals (1965–1985), becoming the primary lyricist after Barrett's departure in 1968.
• Richard Wright on keyboards (1965–1981, 1987–2008), who died in 2008.
• Syd Barrett on vocals and guitar (1965–1968), who died in 2006.
• David Gilmour on guitar and vocals (1967–present).

Career

• Concept albums The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977) and The Wall (1979) made them one of the best-selling acts of all time.
• Pink Floyd – The Wall (1982) won two BAFTAs.
• Reunited with Waters for Live 8 in 2005; the last studio album The Endless River came out in 2014.
• Released 'Hey, Hey, Rise Up!' in 2022 in protest of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
• Sold over 250 million records; inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 and awarded the Polar Music Prize in 2008.

Reception

At release

• Rolling Stone: Ben Edmonds wrote that the band's "lackadaisical demeanor" leaves the subject of Barrett "unrealised"
• Melody Maker: the reviewer wrote that the album still sounds unconvincing in its ponderous sincerity
• The Village Voice: Robert Christgau praised the music as simple and attractive, with the synthesizer used mostly for texture
• Upon release, critics gave mixed reviews, finding the music "uninspiring" and "inferior" to the group's previous work

Reappraisal

• Later acclaimed as one of the greatest albums of the 1970s and of all time
• Rolling Stone named it the fourth-greatest progressive rock album in 2015
• Prog readers voted it the seventh-greatest progressive rock album in 2014
• Wright and Gilmour cited it as their favourite Pink Floyd album
• Waters called it one of the "most complete" Pink Floyd albums
• Christgau later called it his favourite Pink Floyd album, writing that it has soul

Records

• Topped the UK Albums Chart and the US Billboard 200
• UK: 250,000 advance sales; debuted at number three, then reached number one the following week
• US: 900,000 advance orders, the largest for any Columbia release; number one in its second week
• Pink Floyd's fastest-selling album ever
• UK: certified silver and gold on 1 August 1975
• US: Gold on 17 September 1975
• Estimated 13 million copies sold worldwide by 2004
• Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2003): number 209

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Barrett coincidentally visited the studio during recording, and the band was finishing the mix of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" when he arrived.
• Humphries accidentally spoiled the backing tracks for "Shine On" with echo, so the entire piece had to be re-recorded.
• Stéphane Grappelli's violin was included but mixed so low that the band presumed it would be insulting to credit him, and he was paid £300.
• Mason found the process of multi-track recording to be "tedious", while Gilmour was more interested in improving the band's existing material.
• The opening bars of the title track were recorded from Gilmour's car radio, with Gilmour turning the dial.
• At Knebworth, Harper destroyed one of Pink Floyd's vans after finding his stage costume missing, injuring himself in the process.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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