I’ve been meaning to talk about Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here (1975,) for a while, but I couldn’t control myself over other musical ideas and records that I’ve had in mind. But, Wish You Were Here is one of my favourite Pink Floyd records. I mean It’s up there with their 1973 release The Dark Side of the Moon. I’ve heard about this record for the first time back in highschool where I really didn’t know what direction I was heading towards when it came to my musical taste. I mean I was listening to anything, as long as it sounds good, then I’ll dig it. And the best is that I still apply that principle to this day! Wish You Were Here was one of the Pink Floyd records that I got really into after listening to Dark Side of the Moon. It was interesting in a sense where the record only consists of five different tracks. Pretty short for a record? Yeah, no. There are songs that can be pretty long like Shine On You Crazy Diamond Parts 1-5, and Parts 6-9, but are divided into different fragments. And the meaning is what really intrigued my attention. It’s a pretty nice “tribute” to their former band member Syd Barrett, but also goes over the music industry, where they neglect musical creativity, but more about the pressures behind success, fame, and bringing the “big bucks” in the house with songs like Welcome to the Machine, or even Have a Cigar. And if you tend to look at the industry today, sure there’s a-bit more caring these days about musicians, but most giant record labels will just “piggyback” on a record hit for a year or even two, TOPS, then immediately drop the musician(s) if they’ve got nothing interesting. Yeah, it sucks, but that’s what’s actually going on these days. But, if I would have to highlight one song from the entire record, it’s going to be its title track Wish You Were Here. In the beginning of the song, there’s this cool effect as if you’re adjusting your radio to the perfect station, and then BOOM, you find yourself listening to the entire song. It carries a beautiful acoustic melody, and towards the end, it fades out into the sky, distancing yourself further and further off the track, perfectly segueing you into Shine On You Crazy Diamond Parts 6-9. Beautiful.