One of the contestants on American Idol Rock Star INXS sang Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd and it gave me the bug to listen to that album again.
Sweet Jesus what an incredible piece of work.
I haven’t listened to it since the end of high school, and while I knew it was about Syd Barrett, I had no idea how much the album is completely and totally about Syd Barrett. Each song is a lament for Syd and a stab at the industry and culture that destroyed Syd Barrett‘s soul.
The end of Have a Cigar just about blew my mind this morning in the car. In my interpretation, it beautifully captures Syd’s isolation after his drug-induced meltdown. Up until that point, the album feels 1st person, as if you’re part of this group making this incredible music. Suddenly reality sets in and you realize it’s all on the radio, and an impassable gulf separates the listener from the band. Wish You Were Here begins to play and there is only a partial connection as the listener picks up a guitar to play along, adding licks here and there, but nobody’s listening. The lyrics to Wish You Were Here conveys the band’s grief over losing their friend and former bandmate, whose mind is so far gone that he may as well be dead. Shine On You Crazy Diamond is an heroic lament, celebrating Syd’s genius in his early years and grieving over what he had become, and possibly hoping to call his younger self back to the present.
All in all, a heavy album and a very interesting followup to their smashing success, The Dark Side of the Moon.