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Wish You Were Here by
Album: Wish You Were HereReleased: Charted: 68
This song is about the detached feeling most people go through life with. It is a commentary on how people cope with the world by withdrawing physically, mentally, or emotionally. In the commentary of The Wall, Roger Waters states that the inspiration was Pink Floyd founding member Syd Barrett and his ordeal with schizophrenia.
Roger Waters has said this song was based on a poem he wrote about Syd Barrett's fall from reality. It was said that Syd's friends would lace his coffee with LSD, which eventually lead to his mental breakdown.
This was a rare case of the Pink Floyd primary songwriters Roger Waters and David Gilmour mutually collaborating on a song - they rarely wrote together. Gilmour had the opening riff written and was playing it in the studio at a fast pace when Roger Waters heard it and asked him to play it slower. The song built from there, with the pair writing the music for the chorus and verses together, and Waters adding the lyrics.The song reflected the feeling of the band while they were recording the album. Waters felt they were not putting a full effort into the recording sessions.When this song starts, it sounds like it is coming from an AM radio somewhere in the distance. It represents the distance between the listener and the music.At the end, when the wind is blowing, you can hear the sound of a violin that was played by Stephane Grappelli, a Jazz musician who was recording in nearby studios. Pink Floyd asked him to guest on this when they found out he was there.The theme of the album is absence. They chose this as the title track because it summed up the message. The man who did their cover art, Storm Thorgerson, was the first to suggest this as the album title.The album contains images relating to the theme of detachment. The most prominent image shows 2 businessmen shaking hands, with one of them on fire. This represents an insincere business deal, with one of the men about to get burned. In all of the images, there is something missing, like the diver who does not make a splash.Like many Pink Floyd albums, this does not translate nearly as well to CD. A lot of work went into choosing which songs were on the front and back sides of the album, which is eliminated on the CD, and there is also a lot less room for the artwork, which goes along with the music.When Pink Floyd was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, they played this at the induction ceremony. Nick Mason accepted the award but didn't join the performance, while Roger Waters and Syd Barrett didn't attend.
In the 26th second of the song you can hear a small cough. This was to create the effect of a man listening to the radio and playing along with his guitar. In the 31st second you can hear a sniff. Rumors say that it symbolizes Gilmour quitting smoking, but it could just be the radio and the man.
This is one of the few songs Roger Waters continued to play at his shows after leaving Pink Floyd that David Gilmour helped him write.Fred Durst and
of Limp Bizkit and Johnny Rzeznik of The Goo Goo Dolls performed this at the 2001 "Tribute To Heroes" telethon to benefit victims of the terrorist attacks on America. Durst, Rzeznik, and Borland appealed to a younger audience, but this song was familiar to the older viewers as well. Almost 60 million people watched the telethon.Wyclef Jean does a Soul-Reggae version on his 2 Side II a Book album. He pays credit to Pink Floyd in additional lyrics at the end of the track.
The song was performed at the Closing Ceremony of the London 2012 Summer Olympics. Nick Mason played drums and he was assisted by singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran, Richard Jones of The Feeling and
of Genesis. Their version entered the UK singles chart at #34 the following week. The Pink Floyd original simultaneously landed at #68, marking the first time it had entered the UK top 75.
Comments: 309
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Wish You Were Here Lyrics
is found on the album .
Found on more albums:
Delicate Sound of ThunderPulse [Blinking Cover]Shine OnA Collection of Great Dance SongsLive BellEchoes: The Best of Pink FloydPulseEchoes: The Best of Pink Floyd [Biodegradable]Oh by the WayDiscoveryWish You Were Here [Experience Edition]Wish You Were Here [Immersion Edition]A Foot in the Door: The Best of Pink FloydShine On [Immortal]Wish You Were Here
"Wish You Were Here" as written by
and Roger/gilmour Waters....
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?
Did they get you to trade
Your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange
A walk on part in the war
For a lead role in a cage?
How I wish, how I wish you were here
We're just two lost souls
Swimming in a fish bowl
Year after year
Running over the same old ground
And how we found
The same old fears
Wish you were here
Lyrics submitted by
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"Wish You Were Here" as written by Roger Waters David Jon Gilmour
Lyrics (C) Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
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I truly enjoyed your comment on this...I was myself have love loved Floyd all my life and only 36yrs old....but did do a high school essay on Syd, I would give you two thumbs up if possible.
He clearly writes "two lost souls swimming in A (singular) fish bowl". So this probably means that he is speaking about just one, not two fish bowls.
I think you translation is a little too literal as Pink Floyd often used a full verse or sentence to say something quite simple. For example two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl... I take to mean two people in a generally unwinnable situation. I definitely agree that it is written about Syd, but I interpret the song to be a more general expression of emotion and questioning towards Syd and his situation, as most of the questions point back to the same simple question of why did you trade good for bad. The point is reinforced over and over to say I don't understand why you made that choice.
I think aside from the album's Syd theme, there's a more general meaning. One that struggled with with going through life and now see my own daughter fall into the same cycle. Having idealistic and maybe self centered ideals that tend to keep you in turmoil. I watch her try to contort reality into what she thinks is good, or what she wants at that time and inevitably sets herself back to a state of lesser understanding. Figuratively a lost soul swimming in a fish bowl.
think you nailed it. Emphasize the hurtful yearning, the nostalgia. Breathes throughout the song.
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