Wish You Were Here (6:33)
4,856,464 plays (510,600 listeners)
“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”.
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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A series of pictures which accompany <b>Pink</b> Floyd's masterpiece '<b>Wish You Were Here</b>'.
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Albums featuring this track
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Echoes
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Pulse (disc 2)
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Pulse
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Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd (disc 2)
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Shouts
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le_dzedaj wrote:
My 100th listen of this song, still can't get enough of it. Absolutely love it!
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Green_Gentlgirl wrote:
One of the best songs ever written. Absolutely love it! [8]
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Infatylnie wrote:
One of the best songs ever written. Absolutely love it! [7]
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iamserge wrote:
same old fears, indeed. very much loved song. still.
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Maszaa_ wrote:
One of the most beautiful songs in the world. Some how brings summer in my mind
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annihiluzz wrote:
try to guess
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heyhowsitgoing wrote:
Wait... i thought this was A Limp Bizkit song.. who did its first?
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CptP3T3 wrote:
Wish u were here is the song 2 listen 2 while u think of the ones that aren't here anymore.
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stirnfalte wrote:
toll.
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richysig7 wrote:
oh how i love this song
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LoveEternity wrote:
alternative A Day In The Life.
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dredgspetch wrote:
feeling song
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guitardaani wrote:
my favorite song. ♥
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Grecen wrote:
the same old fears...
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IrethOronar wrote:
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year. My favorite line of all time, I would kill to have written that line. [2]
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hotpinkkissis wrote:
Wish U Were Here StEpHEn RiOs (R.I.P) Always
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mm1801 wrote:
I love these guys n any one else that understands them n me
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errikur wrote:
One of the best songs ever written. Absolutely love it! [6]
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ReptileRaph wrote:
Humankind greatest achivement best song ever really
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mxcl wrote:
I FUCKING LOVE THIS TRACK.
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