Pink Floyd » Tracks » Wish You Were Here

Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here (4:40)

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About This Track

“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’ feelings of alienation from other people. Like most of the album, it refers to former Pink Floyd member Syd Barrett and his breakdown. The main riff came to David Gilmour while playing his acoustic guitar in Abbey Road Studios. Gilmour then demonstrated the riff to Waters, who was impressed. They collaborated to complete the song, as Waters had already written some lyrics. In 2004, the song was ranked #316 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

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 (including a radio play and one playing Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony), 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 whine that slowly changes pitch—emulating the heterodyne between two drifting AM radio signals.

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”.
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  • Eureka96

    I wish YOU were here !!! :)

    5 hours ago

  • juanbrujox

    Remember not being a sickening fan of PF and still loving this song to death. Good premonition for what was coming

    yesterday evening

  • emtycasingM16

    to my friends R.I.P

    Thursday morning

  • IBrokeTheOath

    Nah. There's plenty of great metal around today. There's great modern music of almost all kinds. You just have to look for it.

    last week

  • giggleloop1

    Todays metal ain't in the same universe, my friend. This is the stuff of legends:O)

    last week

  • newkor

    I tell my son all the time today's metal can't compete.

    last week

  • IBrokeTheOath

    My God, the emotion in this song. So simple but so powerful.

    9 days ago

  • PinkFloyd06

    I wish i had 4 ears for this song....

    11 days ago

  • Sulisk

    Mega

    12 days ago

  • giggleloop1

    You'll get no arguments there, My friend!!!

    14 days ago

  • oldiesfanjohn

    Easily,one of PF's best!

    15 days ago

  • giggleloop1

    We're just 2 lost souls swimming in a fish bowl!! Classic Floyd<3

    17 days ago

  • corky64

    Great....<3

    17 days ago

  • demo1960

    Great Floyd tune. Did you expect anything different????

    18 days ago

  • Sexy_Distimija

    masterpiece (: :)

    20 days ago

  • placebobsh

    Makes me miss my friends that have passed away. Great song

    20 days ago

  • Apehanger

    Astounding!!!!!!!!!

    27 days ago

  • suckmesidewayz

    Love this song.

    27 days ago

  • vakraas

    @ pabloon_5: Dark Side of the Moon may well be 'awsome' [sic], but I think you'll find 'Wish You Were Here' is on, well, Wish You Were Here.

    28 days ago

  • monkeystew580

    could you tell a green field from a cold, steel rail

    last month
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