"The band is just fantastic
That is really what I think
Oh by the way, which one's pink?"
Well, as yesterday was Roger Waters' birthday, we'll let him be pink. It's only fair, he wrote the track these lines come from (although he didn't sing them - read on). What isn't fair I suppose is that I've included a bootleg double vinyl in the photograph. It's a recording I have of a show at the Anaheim Stadium in California in May 1977. 'California Stockyard' has live performances of the 'Wish You Were Here' album plus tracks from 'Animals'. I just thought it was an interesting juxtaposition with the original studio album. Because it's a bootleg, the actual records have grubby, rough, plain unprinted labels, one of which is on the turntable. The only way to identify them is from the run-out matrix numbers.
'Dark Side of the Moon' was always going to be a hard act to follow and two years after DSOTM came this, their ninth studio album. This one was sporting another cover design by Hipgnosis, this time depicting two businessmen shaking hands, one of them on fire, illustrating the concept of 'getting burned' in business (and music).
I remember buying this album and playing it for the first time. I'd bought it blind, hadn't heard any of it, didn't know what to expect. There were only 2 tracks on side 1 and 3 on side 2. I sat through 13 minutes of 'Shine on You Crazy Diamond, Parts I-V' without getting the significance at first. When you figure out that it is basically about the tragic figure of Syd Barrett, founding member of the group from 1964/5 it takes on it's real meaning. Much the way that The Beatles 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' gave the acronym "LSD" so too "Shine on You crazy Diamond' gives us "SYD". By 1967 Syd sadly began to unravel, just standing on stage with his arms by his side during live concerts, or playing the same note over again, becoming more and more distant. Dave Gilmour was brought into the group to supplement Syd's lack of performance but eventually in January 1968 when the rest of the band were going to perform at Southampton University, they all agreed not to pick Syd up on the way.
'Welcome to the Machine' is pretty self-explanatory. The machine of the music industry thinly veiled in it's treatment of Syd.
As hinted at above, the song 'Have a Cigar' which featured the line "oh by the way, which one's pink?" was a Roger Waters composition and he was meant to sing it, but he'd pretty much exhausted his voice by this time. David Gilmour did a version but didn't really like it so they got their friend, folk singer Roy Harper to do it. Roy was recording at the same studio and he actually volunteered to sing the song. Rejected at first, he eventually did the version that appears on the album. Roy was friends with many artists, on their album Led Zepplin III there was a song 'Hats Off To (Roy) Harper' (Vinyl Vault - Led Zepplin 9 September 2020).
I did say I bought this album blind, without hearing any of it. When I got to the title track 'Wish You Were Here' I was intrigued. It started with an old radio going through various broadcasts before being tuned in to an acoustic guitar. It's a lot quieter than the previous track so my inclination was to turn it up - then at the 58 second mark a studio guitar comes in louder and fully rounded and literally sent shivers down my spine. This is a brilliant, beautiful song full of questions, one of them being Tracy's absolute favourite of all Pink Floyds lines ..
"Did you exchange
A walk on part in the war
For a lead role in a cage?"
When Wyclef Jean did his version of this song he acknowledged Pink Floyd in a couple of ways, in the rap part of the song where he sings ..
"Critics don't mistake this for just any cover tune
I'ma take y'all to the dark side of the moon" ...
followed by
... "My brother tune me into rock
Put me up on Pink Floyd, a band from the British blocks"
The last track on the album is 'Shine on You Crazy Diamond, Parts VI-IX' a 12+ minute instrumental leaving you with Pink Floyd doing what they do best - letting the music take you where YOU want to go.
This whole album is about Syd Barrett in one way or another and yet there is a poignant and unusual footnote to it. When the album was in it's final stages, Syd came into the studio. According to quotes from the Pink Floyd autobiography 'A Saucerful of Secrets' by Nicholas Schaffner, David Gilmour didn't even recognise him. He was wearing a white trenchcoat with white shoes, he'd shaved his eyebrows and he was bald and overweight. He was allowed to stay, although his offer to rejoin the group was rejected and as it turned out, that was the last time any of the members of Pink Floyd saw him. Syd (Roger Keith Barrett) passed away in 2006 aged 60.
This isn't my favourite Pink Floyd album, but it's one I go back to often. There are gems here, not just diamonds.
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