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Wish You Were Here
Studio album by Pink Floyd
Released	September 15, 1975
Recorded	January–July 1975 at Abbey Road Studios in London, England
Genre	Progressive rock Blues Psychedelic Rock Funk
Length	44:28
Label	Harvest (UK original) EMI (UK reissue) Columbia (U.S. original) Capitol (U.S. re-issue)
Producer	Pink Floyd
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link Blender link Robert Christgau (A-) link Rolling Stone link
Pink Floyd chronology
A Nice Pair (1973) Wish You Were Here (1975) Animals (1977)
Alternate cover
The original stickered outer packaging
Alternate cover
25th anniversary CD artwork

Wish You Were Here is a concept album by Pink Floyd. Recorded at Abbey Road Studios between January and July 1975 and released on September 15, 1975 (see 1975 in music), the album would later be regarded as one of Pink Floyd's greatest albums and was ranked 209 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list. Its lyrics, composed by Roger Waters and concerning the music industry, question the market-oriented record companies' lack of understanding and interest for musicians. The album also pays tribute to Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd's former guitarist and chief songwriter, especially "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", and the title track itself.

Contents 1 Overview 2 Reissues and remastering 3 Artwork 4 Syd Barrett's studio visit 5 Press coverage 6 Track listing 6.1 Original LP, cassette and CD 6.1.1 Side one 6.1.2 Side two 6.2 8-track cartridge 6.2.1 Program one 6.2.2 Program two 6.2.3 Program three 6.2.4 Program four 7 Singles 8 Personnel 9 Chart and sales success 9.1 Album 10 Quotes 11 External links

The Dark Side of the Moon had proved to be a phenomenal success, bringing Pink Floyd into the public spotlight, and the band's members began to worry how they could ever follow up such a masterpiece. After a brief flirtation with recording an album without using musical instruments, the band began honing three extended live songs over the next two years: "Shine On You Crazy Diamond," "You Gotta Be Crazy" and "Raving and Drooling". In the process, however, "Shine On" became too long to fit on a single side of a vinyl album and at the behest of Waters the band split it into two halves, composing new material to fit between them. Waters convinced the band to temporarily drop the other songs (a decision that guitarist David Gilmour fought against), which later became, respectively, "Dogs" and "Sheep" on the Animals album. Waters' newer compositions documented the band's current outlook (with the lyrics of the title track "Wish You Were Here" alluding to their boredom and frustration with music) and caricatured the negative aspects of the record business (on "Welcome to the Machine" and "Have a Cigar").

Wish You Were Here was Pink Floyd's first album with Columbia Records, their new label for the rest of the world (in Europe they remained with EMI), which they signed with in 1973 for a reported $1 million after the success of The Dark Side of the Moon. This change in labels stemmed from the band's dissatisfaction with Capitol Records, who had under-promoted the band in America prior to Dark Side. The deal with Columbia (and its subisidiaries outside the US CBS Records and later Sony Records) gave the band complete artistic control and also ownership of their own compositions and albums from this point forward would be copyrighted to the band instead of the label.

The crafting of the album saw tensions rise within the band. Wish You Were Here would be the last Pink Floyd album to see a writing credit for keyboardist Richard Wright until The Division Bell in 1994, and essentially the last Pink Floyd album where the whole band actively contributed to the process of creation; hereafter Roger Waters was to strengthen his grip on the band's output, writing the bulk of their material. Despite these difficulties, band members Gilmour and Wright confirmed on the radio show In the Studio with Redbeard that Wish You Were Here remains their favorite Pink Floyd album.

Wish You Were Here was originally released on Harvest Records in the UK and on Columbia Records in the US. In 1980 Columbia's CBS Mastersound label released a half-speed mastered audiophile LP. The album was first digitally remastered in 1992 for the box set Shine On. In 1993, Sony Mastersound released a 24 karat gold-plated CD of the album, which was remastered with Super Bit Mapping and also had all of the original art work from the LP, in both longbox and regular jewel case forms, the latter with a cardboard slipcover. Then, the 1992 remaster was made available in 1994 as a CD in its own right in the UK and Europe, on the EMI label with a running time of 44:11 on the CD and the CDs picture label depicted a flame with a black background. Then in December of 1997, Columbia Records released an updated remaster (which was 17 seconds longer than the EMI remasters from 1994, giving it a running time of 44:28). The Columbia CD's artwork featured a recreation of the original vinyl picture label (which was the handshake logo with a black and blue background). The album was subsequently re-released on April 25, 2000 in time for its 25th anniversary, on the Capitol Records label in the US, and on the EMI label for the rest of the world again using the 1992 Shine On remaster and artwork from the 1994 EMI reissue.

It is rumoured that Wish You Were Here was to be re-released as a dual-layered Super Audio Compact Disc in late 2005 to commemorate the album's thirtieth anniversary, but the release has been pushed back into 2007. The latest rumours (including the latest version of Storm Thorgerson's book Mind Over Matter) claim that the reissue is planned to be released in February 2008. Dark Side of the Moon received the same treatment in 2003 for its own thirtieth anniversary.

The original vinyl release was intended to be shrouded in an anonymous, all-black plastic wrapper. This idea was rejected by the record companies, who were appalled at the suggestion that they deliberately hide their product, so an additional image featuring the band name over top of two robotic hands in front of the four elements was included as a sticker on top. Removing this outer wrapper then revealed the proper artwork with its now-famous cover: the flaming businessman, shaking hands with his counterpart (as in the robot image). Three other photographs on the back and inner sleeve represented the remaining elements: a faceless salesman selling Pink Floyd products in the desert (earth); a naked female figure in a grove, barely visible behind a windswept red veil (air); and a splash-less diver half submerged in Mono Lake (water). All four photos in this design appeared to have each element 'breaking' (or burning) into the surrounding white margins.

The vinyl record's custom picture labels depicted the robotic handshake (as on the wrapper) with a mainly black with blue prisms background. This picture label was then used again for the 1995 SBM Mastersound reissue and the 1997 Columbia/Sony remastered CD.

Beneath the outer cover, which on the U.S. release was dark blue, Columbia originally released the LP with a slightly different sleeve, using an alternative picture showing the burning man standing up straight (instead of leaning toward the other businessman) and taken from a lower angle. Columbia started using the more familiar EMI photo in 1984 for their first CD issue and kept using it in subsequent reissues, the only exception being the "SBM MasterSound Collector's Edition". There are other, subtler differences in the artwork of the more commonly-found remastered CD: the naked female is clearly visible behind the veil in the LP artwork, but is almost completely obscured in the remastered CD booklet; the photo of the diver used in this booklet is larger, and shows more of the background salt formations; additional black-and-white photos of the band working in Abbey Road Studios were added to this booklet as well.

According to drummer Nick Mason's book Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett actually turned up at the studio in the middle of a recording session on 6 June 1975, which was also (according to the book Saucerful of Secrets: The Pink Floyd Odyssey) the day David Gilmour married his first wife, Ginger, however Gilmour denies that this was the same day during an interview in 2003(The Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett Story). Barrett hadn't been seen by any of the band members in five years. He arrived unannounced, his head completely devoid of hair (including eyebrows, as alluded to in The Wall film) and had put on so much weight that most of the band did not recognize him at first. Later reports would indicate that Barrett repeatedly jumped on a nearby couch and compulsively brushed his teeth during the visit. Waters later confided that the sight was enough to bring him to tears. While the band were listening to a song in progress (allegedly "Shine On You Crazy Diamond"), Barrett sat motionless; he is sometimes quoted as saying, when someone asked to play it back again, that this would be pointless as they had already just heard it. In a recent televised special on Barrett, Gilmour says that it was "Shine On" that they were recording as he showed up. In the same special, he says that Barrett asked (despite the album being nearly complete) if there was anything he could do, and said that he was available if needed. Later on, one of the band's technicians, Phil Taylor, drove past Barrett, who appeared to be looking for a lift. Avoiding an awkward situation, Taylor ducked down in the car as he passed. In a July 2006 interview with a New York City radio station before Barrett's death, Gilmour indicated that they never saw him again after that point. However, Roger Waters has said later on he almost bumped into Syd in Harrods, but did not speak to him. Echoing Barrett's presence, Wright plays a subtle refrain from "See Emily Play" in the final seconds of the album.

In 2007, one of Germany's largest public radio stations, WDR 2, asked its listeners to vote for the 200 best albums of all time. Wish you were here was voted #1.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 209 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. This happened twenty-eight years after the magazine initially panned and trashed the recording (which is not uncommon), when reviewer Ben Edmonds wrote in the November 6, 1975, issue that "Passion is everything of which Pink Floyd is devoid." [1] Rolling Stone once hosted the original review on their website, but has since removed it in favor of a 5 out of 5 star review. [2]

In 1998, Q magazine readers voted Wish You Were Here the 34th greatest album of all time. In 2000 the same magazine placed it at number 43 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.

In 1986, Slitz (at that point the leading pop/rock magazine of Sweden, with strong new wave/post-punk credibility) invited its readers to vote for the best produced rock album of all time. Wish You Were Here was voted #1 and Dark Side of the Moon #2.

1. "Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V)" (David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Rick Wright) – 13:31
2. "Welcome to the Machine" (Waters) – 7:30

1. "Have a Cigar" (Waters) – 5:08
2. "Wish You Were Here" (Gilmour, Waters) – 5:26
3. "Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts VI-IX)" (Gilmour, Waters, Wright) – 12:28

1. "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" (parts 1–4 and intro of part 5)

1. "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" (conclusion of part 5)/"Welcome to the Machine"/"Have a Cigar" (part 1)

1. "Have a Cigar" (conclusion)/"Wish You Were Here"/Shine On You Crazy Diamond" (intro to part 6)

1. "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" (remainder of part 6, parts 7–9)

• (1975) Have a Cigar / Welcome to the Machine (U.S. release only)
• (1975) Have a Cigar / Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part 1) (Italy and France release)

• David Gilmour – vocals, guitars, lap steel guitar, EMS Synthi AKS, additional bass guitar, additional keyboards, tape effects
• Roger Waters – vocals, bass guitar, additional guitar, VCS3, tape effects.
• Richard Wright – keyboards, VCS3, background vocals
• Nick Mason – drums, percussion, tape effects
• Roy Harper – vocals on "Have a Cigar"
• Dick Parry – saxophone on "Shine On You Crazy Diamond"
• Michael Bufando – additional saxophone on "Shine On You Crazy Diamond"
• Venetta Fields – background vocals on "Shine On You Crazy Diamond"
• Carlena Williams – background vocals on "Shine On You Crazy Diamond"
• Stéphane Grappelli – violin on "Wish You Were Here" (barely audible in the final mix)
• Brian Humphries – engineer
• Peter Christopherson – design assistant (see hipgnosis)
• Peter James – engineer, assistant engineer
• Hipgnosis – design, photography
• Storm Thorgerson – re-design
• Phil Taylor – additional photography (remaster)
• Jill Furmanovsky – additional photography (remaster)
• George Hardie – illustrations
• Richard Manning – design assistant
• Howard Bartrop – design assistant
• Jeff Smith – design assistant
• James Guthrie – remastering producer
• Doug Sax – remastering
• Gerald Scarfe – music video (for "Welcome to the Machine")

Wish You Were Here peaked at #1 on Billboard's USA Pop Albums chart in October 1975 (dethroning Jefferson Starship's Red Octopus from the top spot for two weeks before being unseated by John Denver's Windsong) and stayed on the charts for a year. The album has, to date, sold over 12 million copies (6 million in the USA). It was certified Gold on September 17, 1975 in the US and as Sextuple Multiplatinum in the US on May 16, 1997 by the R.I.A.A.

Year	Chart	Position
1975	Billboard's Pop Albums	1

"I definitely think that at the "Wish You Were Here" recording sessions most of us didn't wish we were there at all, we wished we were somewhere else. I wasn't happy being there because I got the feeling we weren't together. The album is about none of us really being there, or being there only marginally. About our non-presence in the situation we had clung to through habit, and are still clinging to by through habit - being Pink Floyd."

- Roger Waters, Unidentified press article c.1977

"Wish You Were Here was a very good title for that album. I've often said what that album should have been called was Wish We Were Here because we weren't really."

– Roger Waters, July 1989, In the Studio with Redbeard for the making of The Wall.

"It was a very difficult period I have to say. All your childhood dreams had been sort of realized and we had the biggest selling records in the world and all the things you got into it for. The girls and the money and the fame and all that stuff it was all...everything had sort of come our way and you had to reassess what you were in it for and it was a confusing and sort of empty time for a while but...I for one would have to say that it is my favourite album, the Wish You Were Here album. The end result of all that, whatever it was, definitely has left me an album I can live with very very happily I like it very much,"

– David Gilmour, December 1992, In the Studio with Redbeard for the making of Shine On (parts 1 and 2 aired in December of 1992) and In the Studio with Redbeard for the making of Wish You Were Here (first aired in September of 1995).

"It's hard to say but it just happens to be the album for me that from the moment it starts 'til it finishes, it flows, the songs flow into each other and it just has a wonderful feeling in it".

– Richard Wright, March 1994, US World Premiere of The Division Bell with Redbeard and In the Studio with Redbeard for the making of Wish You Were Here (first aired in September of 1995).

"The line sounds like a weak joke, but it used to be a fairly common question".

-Richard Wright commenting on the line "Oh by the way, which one's Pink?" in Have A Cigar. From an interview cited in Pink Floyd - through the eyes of the band, its fans, friends and foes, ed by Bruno MacDonald, Da Capo Books, N.Y.C. 1997.

• Album lyrics and trivia
• Official Pink Floyd Website
• Pictures, Lyrics, Guitar Tabulature and More
• Pink Floyd Discographies Page

v • d • e Pink Floyd
David Gilmour · Nick Mason · Richard Wright Syd Barrett · Bob Klose · Roger Waters
Studio Albums	The Piper at the Gates of Dawn · A Saucerful of Secrets · Ummagumma · Atom Heart Mother · Meddle · The Dark Side of the Moon · Wish You Were Here · Animals · The Wall · The Final Cut · A Momentary Lapse of Reason · The Division Bell
Soundtracks	Tonite Let's All Make Love in London · More · Zabriskie Point · Obscured by Clouds
Live	Ummagumma · Delicate Sound of Thunder · P•U•L•S•E · Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980-81
Compilations	Relics · A Nice Pair · Masters of Rock · A Collection of Great Dance Songs · Works · Shine On · (The Early Singles) · 1967 Singles Sampler · Echoes · Oh, By the Way
Unreleased material	Lucy Leave · (I'm A) King Bee · Double O-Bo · Butterfly · In the Beechwoods · Reaction in G · One in a Million · Vegetable Man · Scream Thy Last Scream · Have You Got It, Yet? · Moonhead · Seabirds · Hollywood · Pink Floyd Live at Montreux Casino · Oneone/Fingals Cave · The Merry Xmas Song
Films	Live at Pompeii · The Wall · Delicate Sound of Thunder · La Carrera Panamericana · P•U•L•S•E · The Making of The Dark Side of the Moon · The Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett Story · London '66-'67
Related articles	Discography · The Sights and Sounds of Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd · Steve O'Rourke · Contributors · Live performances · Household Objects · Pigs · Publius Enigma · Dark Side of the Rainbow · The Man and the Journey · "Give Birth to a Smile" (from Music from "The Body") · 19367 Pink Floyd