There are several reasons why many deem 1975’s Wish You Were Here the ultimate Pink Floyd album. While these include the band successfully refining their sound following the innovative masterpiece, The Dark Side of the Moon and expanding the limits of a concept album, arguably the most salient is that it is imbued with the real-life tragedy of the group’s former frontman, Syd Barrett, adding another magneting layer to its fabric.
Barrett’s reputation precedes him. He was one of the greatest songwriters of his generation, brilliantly fusing the pulsating rhythms of his hero, the blues pioneer Bo Diddley, with the outlandish twists of the nascent psychedelic sound. A wholly singular individual who was as captivating on record as he was living his day to day life, for a time it looked certain that he was to become one of the 1960s’ biggest stars, but sadly, it never came to fruition. He suffered a tremendous mental health collapse after Pink Floyd’s 1967 debut, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn was released, and it would change the course of his life, as well of that of his band mates.
Although no one has been able to definitively pinpoint what caused this plummet, according to those who were there, his heavy use of the drug du jour, LSD, exacerbated existing mental health issues. This meant that by the time they came to record the greatly anticipated follow-up, 1968’s A Saucerful of Secret, the writing was on the wall for him and the band. In January that year, they drafted in their friend David Gilmour to help mitigate the void of the increasingly absent Barrett, and after the frontman’s eventual dismissal in April, Gilmour then joined on a permanent basis. They didn’t know it at the time, but this was a significant step towards true greatness.
With the help of Gilmour and Floyd bassist Roger Waters, Barrett would release his two cult solo albums in 1970 – the aptly titled The Madcap Laughs and Barrett – but then would fade into obscurity, becoming a recluse in his native Cambridge. This sad withdrawal is made all the more stark given the eye-watering heights his old band were to reach over the coming years.
Pink Floyd did not forget Barrett, though. While the regret concerning his arc is found throughout The Dark Side of the Moon, it is the prominent theme on the pertinently named, Wish You Were Here. While the title track remains a heartbreaking doff of the cap to Barrett, it is the epic nine-part suite ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ that remains their ultimate tribute to their old friend.
In addition to the sprawling song being musically imbued with the intense emotions surrounding Barrett’s distressing decline, the lyrics are incredibly hard-hitting, with lines such as the following deeply affecting: “Remember when you were young? / You shone like the Sun” and “Now there’s a look in your eyes / Like black holes in the sky”.
Oddly, a strange twist of fate occurred as Pink Floyd were mixing ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’. During the final sessions for the song in June 1975, a strange, bald, overweight and eyebrowless man appeared in the studio, who kept getting up and brushing his teeth, putting them on edge. It took the best part of an hour for the band to realise that it was their old friend Barrett. Not only did they not recognise him, but the fact that he chose the day to reappear as the one that they were finalising the track written in tribute to him only cemented its importance to them.
Editors’ Picks
- 1970s Albums
- David Gilmour
- Pink Floyd
- Progressive Rock
- psychedelic rock
- Rock History
- Roger Waters
- Shine On You Crazy Diamond
- Syd Barrett
- Wish You Were Here
