This has always been my favorite Pink Floyd album, and for me, is Gilmour's high point as a musician. His soulful vocals give Waters' lyrics a deep gravitas and his guitar work stabs at one's heart. Just a brilliant effort, especially when one considers that it was largely recorded with the band members in absentia with one another.
Another interesting thing I've heard about the recording sessions is that Syd himself wandered into one of them. And nobody recognized him because he had gone bald and gained a lot of weight. Apparently, he acted like he was ready to go in and record with the band and didn't realize that the songs were all about him
Jul 20, 2022·edited Jul 20, 2022Liked by CJ Kaplan, Ken Warshaw
I wrote this about WYWH and what the record means to me in May. I know link dropping is poor form, but I hope this excerpt is okay (please delete if not!).
I didn’t have a Taz in my life, but I had a lot of people come & go at work over the years. They were all there at just the right time… and I miss ‘em a lot.
###
For being a devout audiophile, my dad had some really weird guardrails about music.
Any and all jazz was kosher. Rock & Roll was in bounds, just never played in my house-I didn’t hear any until I started school.
But Pink Floyd & Alice Cooper (and later Prince) we definite no-go items. He always regarded them as vaguely dangerous— as a sort of evil that needed to be warded off at all turns. it was off brand for a man not at all religious & rarely phased by anything, who nevertheless once spent an entire drive across the metro area ranting when one of my aunts brought a boyfriend in a Dark Side of the Moon T-Shirt to a family gathering.
###
My relationship with the band has always come in splinters: a song here, watching The Wall there. I never went to laser light shows. I didn’t try and sync Dark Side with the Wizard of OZ.
All of that to say that Pink Floyd is a band whose records are best consumed in whole. And that until this past week, I’ve never done that. Or really listened to much of their work at all.
Over the last few years, I’ve gone back to listening to music with intention. Sure, it’s still on while I’m doing something else, but that’s no longer the default mode.
And if there’s a silver lining to the hellscape of the last 2 years, it’s been connecting with other music writers online.
The catalyst for both of those was the bottom falling out of the aviation industry. I work as an Operations Agent for an airline. Pre-COVID, my job was to keep 5-6 plates in the air at all times. In the spring of 2020, it was reduced to being a distant early warning station, monitoring air traffic control feeds for diversions that rarely came.
As flights stopped coming, co-workers started going. Everyday felt like the last day of school as people took leaves. Many never came back, and between voluntary separations & retirements, roughly 18000 people hit the exits.
All of that to say that each of these points converged this past week.
###
A group of music writers meet monthly(ish) via Zoom to discuss a record. Hosting duties are rotated, and one of the perks of the job is picking the record. This month’s session was hosted by friend of On Repeat Terry Barr.
The record? Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here.
Most people in my universe count this record as a rite of passage from high school or college. I’ll have to settle for counting it as something I did before turning 50.
As part of the discussion, people are asked to share any stories they may have about the record; your first time listening, how the album makes you feel, memories attached to it, etc.
###
My work area is surrounded by concrete. That gate you sit at waiting for your flight? I work underneath it. That means radio reception is spotty at best, and we can listen to anything we want as long as it’s one of the 2 stations whose signal makes it in to us.
One of those is a classic rock station. And slower songs are usually reserved for the early morning hours, when people are either asleep or hanging onto the carpet to keep from falling off the face of the earth….or at work like me.
This is when you hear slower songs like Wish You Were Here, and it’s almost guaranteed that it gets played before sunrise. You can set your watch to it.
Week after week, the handful of us on the field would hear it, and roll our eyes or make some joke about having not heard it in forever. The type of inside joke that people make at an hour when actual talking is hard.
There is a line of thinking that Wish You Were Here is a tribute to Syd Barrett, and a lament to his absence from the band.
The title track reminds me of those countless pre-dawn Sunday mornings, and coworkers who are no longer here to spend them with.
It feels like I’m the last the last one at the party sometimes, and man, do I wish they were here
Jul 23, 2022·edited Jul 23, 2022Liked by CJ Kaplan, Ken Warshaw
Another top post. I am, for the most part, a post Syd, pre Dark Side sort of Pink Floyd fan but I've got this one on right now for the first time in years. Great album no question. I saw Roger W a few years ago. It was a good show but the pig with the Jewish star made me feel sick. He's welcome to his opinions but that isn't about Israel, it's just racist. My wife and I were talking after the show and she said, 'is he is an anti Semite or just a jerk'? Both, clearly. Lots of great music but I'd rather have David Gilmour and his wife Polly around for dinner.
In the moments just before Roger Waters opened his concert last week at TD Garden, a giant message appeared on the video board, and read aloud in Roger's voice (paraphrasing): "If you came to hear Pink Floyd music without Roger Waters's politics, better fucking leave now." Moments later came the opening notes of "Comfortably Numb"
It wasn't billed as a "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" show, but I think he played every song from the album (just as he's done The Wall and Dark Side on prior tours)
At 78 years old, I would argue nobody in the building enjoyed the show more than Roger himself. His emotions are genuine, his musicianship is still masterful, and he played *new* material that truly stands up with some of his best. In particular, he featured all 9 parts of Shine (my son recognized 6-9 when I thought it was a preamble for One of These Days), and talked lovingly of his time with Syd, starting the band in college, losing Syd to madness, and having moments of his own wondering if he might succumb to the same madness.
In terms of his alleged antisemitism, Roger has a long history of calling out political oppression and violence wherever it occurs. I happen to agree with him that Israel's treatment of Palestinians is abominable, worthy of condemnation, and I do not equate criticism of Israel with "anti-semitism" (as ADL does). If anyone is suggesting Israel's modern history is spotless I've got some Palestinian funerals to invite you to, mostly of kids who threw a rock in political protest and tool a bullet. I never saw a Star of David on the pig, but I saw potus45 featured on the pig last tour, and it was festooned with "Fuck the Poor" this tour, part of an over-the-top rage against grotesque transfer of wealth into the hands of an undeserving few. I also saw and heard Nazi images throughout The Wall ("...there's one in the spotlight, he don't look right to me..."), and understood the message was about rejecting authoritarianism and conformity, not embracing it.
I had wondered for a long time why I wasn't seeing any PF (or LZ) on EONS, and wondered if they had a special status or something, like you don't really need to elect Michael Jordan to the Hall of Fame, it's a given.
I just found video of the pig with Star of David on Youtube. Hadn't seen that before, agree it's hard to watch.
It's also the spot in the performance (In the Flesh) where the music is about wrongful persecution of vulnerable groups.
I respect anyone who was/is offended. I choose to see it in a larger context of his catalog of work, and provocative visuals he's always used throughout his shows, generally speaking loudly against injustice and prejudice.
During this show, he had the faces of recent US presidents (both parties) on the screen with "War Criminal" stamped across their faces, listing all the political killings under their admins. He also paid tribute to black victims of police violence (george floyd, brianna taylor, d'andre campbell, etc). His new song was about Native Americans.
When the pig came out it said "Fuck the Poor" with a Raytheon logo on it, while the screens flashed "Fuck the Warmongers." It was clear to me he means the second one literally, but not the first.
I think we can all agree he's got no interest in subtlety.
I'm sure that Roger Waters doesn't consider himself an anti-semite, but he spreads and normalizes anti-semitic tropes, and he is a very active supporter of BDS, which is an anti-semitic organization that advocates for the destruction of Israel. That's close enough for me.
As a result, I've never see him live (even when my beloved Jonathan Wilson was playing lead guitar) because I don't want to cheer for him, but I certainly wouldn't judge anyone else who attends his shows. The music is still great.
That said, he's a mediocre bass player (who nonetheless wrote an iconic baseline for "Money"), an even worse singer, and he's tread the same thematic ground so many times that he's long since run out of anything original or interesting to say.
This has always been my favorite Pink Floyd album, and for me, is Gilmour's high point as a musician. His soulful vocals give Waters' lyrics a deep gravitas and his guitar work stabs at one's heart. Just a brilliant effort, especially when one considers that it was largely recorded with the band members in absentia with one another.
Another interesting thing I've heard about the recording sessions is that Syd himself wandered into one of them. And nobody recognized him because he had gone bald and gained a lot of weight. Apparently, he acted like he was ready to go in and record with the band and didn't realize that the songs were all about him
What a sad descent . . .
I wrote this about WYWH and what the record means to me in May. I know link dropping is poor form, but I hope this excerpt is okay (please delete if not!).
I didn’t have a Taz in my life, but I had a lot of people come & go at work over the years. They were all there at just the right time… and I miss ‘em a lot.
###
For being a devout audiophile, my dad had some really weird guardrails about music.
Any and all jazz was kosher. Rock & Roll was in bounds, just never played in my house-I didn’t hear any until I started school.
But Pink Floyd & Alice Cooper (and later Prince) we definite no-go items. He always regarded them as vaguely dangerous— as a sort of evil that needed to be warded off at all turns. it was off brand for a man not at all religious & rarely phased by anything, who nevertheless once spent an entire drive across the metro area ranting when one of my aunts brought a boyfriend in a Dark Side of the Moon T-Shirt to a family gathering.
###
My relationship with the band has always come in splinters: a song here, watching The Wall there. I never went to laser light shows. I didn’t try and sync Dark Side with the Wizard of OZ.
All of that to say that Pink Floyd is a band whose records are best consumed in whole. And that until this past week, I’ve never done that. Or really listened to much of their work at all.
Over the last few years, I’ve gone back to listening to music with intention. Sure, it’s still on while I’m doing something else, but that’s no longer the default mode.
And if there’s a silver lining to the hellscape of the last 2 years, it’s been connecting with other music writers online.
The catalyst for both of those was the bottom falling out of the aviation industry. I work as an Operations Agent for an airline. Pre-COVID, my job was to keep 5-6 plates in the air at all times. In the spring of 2020, it was reduced to being a distant early warning station, monitoring air traffic control feeds for diversions that rarely came.
As flights stopped coming, co-workers started going. Everyday felt like the last day of school as people took leaves. Many never came back, and between voluntary separations & retirements, roughly 18000 people hit the exits.
All of that to say that each of these points converged this past week.
###
A group of music writers meet monthly(ish) via Zoom to discuss a record. Hosting duties are rotated, and one of the perks of the job is picking the record. This month’s session was hosted by friend of On Repeat Terry Barr.
The record? Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here.
Most people in my universe count this record as a rite of passage from high school or college. I’ll have to settle for counting it as something I did before turning 50.
As part of the discussion, people are asked to share any stories they may have about the record; your first time listening, how the album makes you feel, memories attached to it, etc.
###
My work area is surrounded by concrete. That gate you sit at waiting for your flight? I work underneath it. That means radio reception is spotty at best, and we can listen to anything we want as long as it’s one of the 2 stations whose signal makes it in to us.
One of those is a classic rock station. And slower songs are usually reserved for the early morning hours, when people are either asleep or hanging onto the carpet to keep from falling off the face of the earth….or at work like me.
This is when you hear slower songs like Wish You Were Here, and it’s almost guaranteed that it gets played before sunrise. You can set your watch to it.
Week after week, the handful of us on the field would hear it, and roll our eyes or make some joke about having not heard it in forever. The type of inside joke that people make at an hour when actual talking is hard.
There is a line of thinking that Wish You Were Here is a tribute to Syd Barrett, and a lament to his absence from the band.
The title track reminds me of those countless pre-dawn Sunday mornings, and coworkers who are no longer here to spend them with.
It feels like I’m the last the last one at the party sometimes, and man, do I wish they were here
You can drop a link here anytime, Kevin
As always…great stuff, Kevin. Thanks for sharing that.
Another top post. I am, for the most part, a post Syd, pre Dark Side sort of Pink Floyd fan but I've got this one on right now for the first time in years. Great album no question. I saw Roger W a few years ago. It was a good show but the pig with the Jewish star made me feel sick. He's welcome to his opinions but that isn't about Israel, it's just racist. My wife and I were talking after the show and she said, 'is he is an anti Semite or just a jerk'? Both, clearly. Lots of great music but I'd rather have David Gilmour and his wife Polly around for dinner.
In the moments just before Roger Waters opened his concert last week at TD Garden, a giant message appeared on the video board, and read aloud in Roger's voice (paraphrasing): "If you came to hear Pink Floyd music without Roger Waters's politics, better fucking leave now." Moments later came the opening notes of "Comfortably Numb"
It wasn't billed as a "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" show, but I think he played every song from the album (just as he's done The Wall and Dark Side on prior tours)
At 78 years old, I would argue nobody in the building enjoyed the show more than Roger himself. His emotions are genuine, his musicianship is still masterful, and he played *new* material that truly stands up with some of his best. In particular, he featured all 9 parts of Shine (my son recognized 6-9 when I thought it was a preamble for One of These Days), and talked lovingly of his time with Syd, starting the band in college, losing Syd to madness, and having moments of his own wondering if he might succumb to the same madness.
In terms of his alleged antisemitism, Roger has a long history of calling out political oppression and violence wherever it occurs. I happen to agree with him that Israel's treatment of Palestinians is abominable, worthy of condemnation, and I do not equate criticism of Israel with "anti-semitism" (as ADL does). If anyone is suggesting Israel's modern history is spotless I've got some Palestinian funerals to invite you to, mostly of kids who threw a rock in political protest and tool a bullet. I never saw a Star of David on the pig, but I saw potus45 featured on the pig last tour, and it was festooned with "Fuck the Poor" this tour, part of an over-the-top rage against grotesque transfer of wealth into the hands of an undeserving few. I also saw and heard Nazi images throughout The Wall ("...there's one in the spotlight, he don't look right to me..."), and understood the message was about rejecting authoritarianism and conformity, not embracing it.
I had wondered for a long time why I wasn't seeing any PF (or LZ) on EONS, and wondered if they had a special status or something, like you don't really need to elect Michael Jordan to the Hall of Fame, it's a given.
I just found video of the pig with Star of David on Youtube. Hadn't seen that before, agree it's hard to watch.
It's also the spot in the performance (In the Flesh) where the music is about wrongful persecution of vulnerable groups.
I respect anyone who was/is offended. I choose to see it in a larger context of his catalog of work, and provocative visuals he's always used throughout his shows, generally speaking loudly against injustice and prejudice.
During this show, he had the faces of recent US presidents (both parties) on the screen with "War Criminal" stamped across their faces, listing all the political killings under their admins. He also paid tribute to black victims of police violence (george floyd, brianna taylor, d'andre campbell, etc). His new song was about Native Americans.
When the pig came out it said "Fuck the Poor" with a Raytheon logo on it, while the screens flashed "Fuck the Warmongers." It was clear to me he means the second one literally, but not the first.
I think we can all agree he's got no interest in subtlety.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/roger-waters-concert-features-pig-with-star-of-david/
"The ADL, citing longtime use of such imagery by Pink Floyd co-founder, says incident not anti-Semitic"
I'm sure that Roger Waters doesn't consider himself an anti-semite, but he spreads and normalizes anti-semitic tropes, and he is a very active supporter of BDS, which is an anti-semitic organization that advocates for the destruction of Israel. That's close enough for me.
As a result, I've never see him live (even when my beloved Jonathan Wilson was playing lead guitar) because I don't want to cheer for him, but I certainly wouldn't judge anyone else who attends his shows. The music is still great.
That said, he's a mediocre bass player (who nonetheless wrote an iconic baseline for "Money"), an even worse singer, and he's tread the same thematic ground so many times that he's long since run out of anything original or interesting to say.
File under: I'm not angry, just disappointed