5 Stories About the Making of Pink Floyd’s ‘Wish You Were Here’ You’ve Probably Never Heard

It didn’t sell as well as Dark Side Of The Moon. And it didn’t receive the hype of The Wall. But you could make a legitimate argument that Wish You Were Here, released in 1975, represents Pink Floyd at their very best.

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The songs stand out as brilliant. And the stories behind them are quite amazing. Let’s look back at some of the fascinating tidbits surrounding the making of Wish You Were Here.

Who’s That Guy?

It’s well-documented that Syd Barrett, the former leader of Pink Floyd, whose sad story inspired so much of Wish You Were Here, showed up during the making of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”. What sometimes gets forgotten is that the band members actually took a while to even recognize that it was their former bandmate when he appeared in the studio. He had gained a lot of weight and had lost much of his hair since any of them had seen him. Once he realized it, Roger Waters, who wrote the song, slumped over in tears.

A Sad Party

“Welcome To The Machine” tells the story of a young musician with stars in his eyes. He sadly realizes that much of his individuality and otherness will be drained from him by the industry. At the end of the song, you can hear a brief snippet of people laughing and partying. Roger Waters intentionally inserted it because it represented the kind of soulless experience that this poor chap would have to endure from that point forward. Notice also the sound of the closing door at the song’s end. It implies that there’s no way out for him now.

A Dumb Question

“Have A Cigar” stands out as the rare classic rock hit sung by a non-member of the band that recorded it. Roger Waters’ voice was hurting from singing other songs on the LP. And David Gilmour didn’t like the tone of the lyrics. Roy Harper, a British solo artist and friend of Floyd, did the honor. Along the way, Harper inhabits the guise of a music executive. He asks, “Oh, by the way, which one’s Pink?” Indeed, confused press members had occasionally asked the band this actual question. These scribes actually believed that there was a man named Pink Floyd who had formed the group.

Wish We Were Here

Most people attach Syd Barrett to the meaning of “Wish You Were Here”. After all, the regret and sorrow that the band felt about his absence undergird the entire album. But Roger Waters admitted after the fact that this song, written first as a poem before David Gilmour added the music, referred to the entire Floyd band at the time. After the success of Dark Side Of The Moon, they lost much of the camaraderie that once characterized the group. That condition worsened in subsequent years, eventually leading to a big blow-up in the 80s.

Remembering “Emily”

“Shine On You Crazy Diamond” was such a mammoth track that Pink Floyd decided to break it up into two huge sections that bookend Wish You Were Here. After one more verse and chorus from Roger Waters, the final part of the closing section is primarily handled by keyboardist Rick Wright. Wright’s synthesizers take a brighter turn in the final moments, as if imagining a happy fate for the man who inspired the album. He even plays a brief snippet of the melody of the Floyd song “See Emily Play”. Barrett wrote and sang that single for the band in their early days.

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