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| Album
Information |
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| Released:
September 15, 1975 |
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| Recorded:
January – July 1975 |
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| Genre:
Progressive rock |
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| Length:
44:28 |
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| Label:
Harvest (U.S. original) |
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| Columbia
(U.S. original) |
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| Producer:
Pink Floyd |
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Album Art |
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Background
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.
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
condition (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.
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
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