Album:
The album Wish You Were Here entered the Australian albums chart* on 22 September 1975. It reached #1 on 13 October 1975 and remained there for 4 weeks.
Songwriters:
Wish You Were Here – David Gilmour, Roger Waters
Shine On You Crazy Diamond – David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Richard Wright
Producer:
Pink Floyd
Record label of Australian release:
CBS
*Kent Music Report / Australian Chart Book. See About.
Wish You Were Here live on 20 October 1994 at Earls Court, London UK, Pulse (restored and re-edited):
Scroll down for Shine On You Crazy Diamond
Wikipedia – Wish You Were Here:
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 the opening of the finale of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony), and finally to a new station where Wish You Were Here is beginning. The radio was recorded from Gilmour’s car radio. He performed the intro on a twelve-string guitar, processed to sound like it was playing through an AM radio, and then overdubbed a fuller-sounding acoustic guitar solo. This passage was mixed to sound as though a guitarist were listening to the radio and playing along. As the acoustic part becomes more complex, the “radio broadcast” fades away and Gilmour’s voice enters, while the rest of the band joins in.
The Wish You Were Here album was recorded over numerous sessions throughout 1975 at EMI Studios (Abbey Road) in London.
Read more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wish_You_Were_Here_(Pink_Floyd_song)
Lyrics:
So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell, blue skies from pain
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?
Click for full lyrics
This song is also on our Spotify playlist Bang a Gong – the 70s
SHINE ON YOU CRAZY DIAMOND
Also from the Wish You Were Here album, Shine on You Crazy Diamond was written about the Pink Floyd founder member Syd Barrett who left in 1968 following mental health problems. Australian singer Venetta Fields was backing vocalist on the original album recording.
This video was recorded live in October 1994 at Earls Court London – from the Pulse DVD:
Also on Bang a Gong from the Wish You Were Here album: Have a Cigar
Find more songs to enjoy: Bang a Gong song finder
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