Wish You Were Here (song)

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"Wish You Were Here"

Song by Pink Floyd
from the album Wish You Were Here
Released	September 15, 1975
Recorded	January - July 1975
Genre	Rock
Length	5:40 (5:24 on Echoes)
Label	Harvest, EMI (UK) Columbia, Capitol (US)
Writer(s)	David Gilmour/Roger Waters
Producer(s)	Pink Floyd
Wish You Were Here track listing
Have a Cigar (3)	"Wish You Were Here" (4)	Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts VI - XI) (5)

"Wish You Were Here EP"

Single by Pink Floyd
from the album PULSE
B-side(s)	Coming Back to Life (live), Take It Back (live)
Released	July 20, 1995
Format	CD
Recorded	September 20 (Rome); October 13 and 20 (Earls Court, London), 1994
Genre	Rock, Classic Rock
Label	Capitol Records (US) EMI (UK)
Writer(s)	Waters, Gilmour
Producer(s)	James Guthrie, David Gilmour
Pink Floyd singles chronology
High Hopes (1994)	Wish You Were Here EP (1995)

"Wish You Were Here" is the title track on Pink Floyd's 1975 album Wish You Were Here. The song's lyrics encompass writer Roger Waters's feelings of alienation from other people and himself, as well as disillusionment with music. Like most of the album, it also refers to former Pink Floyd member Syd Barrett. The main riff came to David Gilmour while playing his acoustic guitar in Abbey Road Studios. He then collaborated with Waters, who had already written some lyrics, to finish the song.

1 Composition
2 Other versions
3 Cover versions
4 Personnel
5 Quotes
6 Trivia
7 Notes
8 External links

[edit] Composition

In the original album version, the song segues from Have a Cigar as if a radio had been tuned away from one station, through several others, and finally to a new station where "Wish You Were Here" is beginning. Gilmour performed the intro on a twelve-string guitar, processed to sound like it was playing through an old transistor radio, and then overdubbed a fuller-sounding acoustic guitar solo. This passage was mixed to sound as though the guitarist was sitting in a room, playing along with the radio; it also contains a barely-audible whine that slowly changes pitch, as if receiving AM radio interference.

The intro riff is repeated several times and reprised when Gilmour plays further solos with scat singing accompaniment. At the end of the recorded song, the final solo crossfades with wind sound effects (reminiscent of "One of These Days" from the 1971 album Meddle), and finally segues into the second section of the multi-part suite "Shine On You Crazy Diamond".

During the opening solo, about 0:43 into the recording, a small cough can be heard, followed by a faint sniff at 0:48. It is often rumored that at the time of recording, David Gilmour's smoking habit caused him to cough during the solo and that he quit after hearing it played back during mixing; this was initially denied on Gilmour's official website in 2006 but the denial was removed shortly after it first appeared; it is also possible that the cough and sniff were intentionally or accidentally recorded and left in to bring character to the song.

[edit] Other versions

Wish You Were Here later appeared as the 5th track on A Collection of Great Dance Songs (with the radio intro following the end of a heavily edited Shine On You Crazy Diamond) and as the 23rd track on the Echoes compilation (with the radio intro following "Arnold Layne", and at the end crossfading with "Jugband Blues").

A live recording included in the 1995 live album P*U*L*S*E was issued as a single/EP. As of 2006, this is the last single released by Pink Floyd (although promos of Echoes and The Wall Live have been released).

Wish You Were Here made its stage debut on the band's 1977 tour, which featured a performance of the entire album at every show. It was not played live by the band for nearly ten years after this, yet became a concert staple after its reappearance in 1987 — and was performed at nearly all subsequent Pink Floyd concerts. In the original 1977 concert performances, Gilmour would play his Fender Stratocaster instead of acoustic guitar whilst Snowy White played a 12-string Ovation acoustic guitar. At some of these shows (all of the US shows, notably), Mason tuned an actual transistor radio onstage to start the song and Rick Wright would perform an extended piano coda as the wind effects played. During the 1987-88 tour, Gilmour was joined at some venues on acoustic guitar and vocals for this song by Tim Sutherland of Sutherland Brothers and Quiver.

[edit] Cover versions

The song proved to be a popular choice for a cover song for later artists such as Sparklehorse (in collaboration with Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke), Dream Theater^[1], The Flaming Lips, Wyclef Jean, Catherine Wheel, Velvet Revolver, and Rasputina, all of whom have recorded or performed live cover versions of the song.

Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst and Wes Borland, and the Goo Goo Dolls' John Rzeznik gave a performance of Wish You Were Here (previously unrecorded by them) for the America: A Tribute to Heroes television event following the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City. New lyrics for the song had been written for the occasion.

[edit] Personnel

Roger Waters - Fender bass guitar, six string acoustic guitar, tape effects
David Gilmour - six and 12-string acoustic guitars, pedal steel guitar, tape effects, lead and backing vocals
Richard Wright - Steinway piano, Mini-Moog Synthesizers
Nick Mason - drums, tape effects

Recorded between January and July 1975 at Abbey Road Studios, London.

[edit] Quotes

“

...Either the music comes first and the lyrics are added, or music and lyrics come together. Only once have the lyrics been written down first - "Wish You Were Here". But this is unusual; it hasn't happened before.^[2]
- Roger Waters

”

[edit] Trivia

There is a brief piece of violin playing at the end of the track which was subsequently all but drowned out by the addition of the wind effects. Violinist Stephane Grappelli was recording in a downstairs studio, and Gilmour had suggested that there be a little "country fiddle" at the end of the song. Grappelli duly obliged, although because his contribution is barely audible, the band decided not to credit him for it in the sleevenotes. According to Waters, he received the agreed fee of £300, however.
The voices and brief burst of orchestral music between "Have a Cigar" and "Wish You Were Here" were picked randomly from radio broadcast. The music includes a snippet of Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony, and a radio play. In concerts, the band extended the bit by playing live off-air samples from the local town, and then switching into the pre-recorded bit from the album. When the radio series was released on cassettes and CDs, this scene was cut for legal reasons.
Roger Waters has said the song is based on a poem he wrote about Syd Barrett's fall from reality^{[citation needed]}.
When Pink Floyd were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame^[3], the band (sans Roger Waters and Nick Mason, although the latter was in the audience) performed the song with the assistance of their presenter Billy Corgan on rhythm guitar.
In 2004, the song was ranked #316 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.