“Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd, August 17, 2023 [trigger warning: discussion of mental health]

When I'm sick, I like to delve back into childhood favorites. Although I didn't listen to Wish You Were Here very much when I was in middle or high school--Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall were my go-to Pink Floyd albums--the song "Wish You Were Here" was a staple for warming up on guitar. In Pink Floyd's extensive discography, 1975's Wish You Were Here  rests in the band's golden age. The band's previous album 1973's Dark Side of the Moon was an unprecedented success, taking an obscure psychedelic rock band to a household name. In some ways, Wish You Were Here deals with the aftermath of that fame in tracks like "Welcome to the Machine" and "Have a Cigar." 
 

DID THEY GET YOU TRADE YOUR HEROES FOR GHOSTS?  It's the story of the little guy, the "Crazy Diamond," that the music industry failed, that is at the center of Pink Floyd's second concept album. Wish You Were Here marked Pink Floyd's tenth year as a band. Taking eight years to go from a psychedelic pop band founded and led by the eccentric Syd Barrett, whose mental decline and eventual ousting from his own band would become the lyrical inspiration for much of Pink Floyd's albums. The band hired guitarist David Gilmour as a second guitarist to help cover up Barrett's erratic stage antics, particularly his staring blankly into the crowds. Gilmour took on most of the vocals after Barrett's departure, with bassist Roger Waters stepping up to the microphone on a few songs before almost completely dominating The Wall and its forgettable sequel albums. Gilmour was often assisted vocally by keyboardist Richard Wright. However, when we think of Pink Floyd today, we often think about the tension between Waters and Gilmour--if not between Waters and the rest of the band, especially after The Wall. For a time, the Waters-Gilmour tension was responsible for the band's creativity. The two rarely collaborated when songwriting, with "Wish You Were Here" as a notable exception.

DID YOU EXCHANGE A WALK-ON PART IN THE WAR FOR A LEAD ROLE IN A CAGE? 

Roger Waters penned the lyrics to "Wish You Were Here" thinking about his old friend and colleague Syd Barrett. As fame was taking a toll on Waters' own mental health, his writing started to explore the mental paths that he imagined Barrett went down to end up the way he did. We now speculate that Barrett struggled with schizophrenia, paranoia, and delusions, which have been thought to have been exacerbated by his favorite hallucinogenic, LSD. The lyrics of "Wish You Are Here" are a series of questions of contrasting images, almost as if they are photographs to flash in front of a "Vegetable Man" to get him to respond to anything. Rather than Waters singing his own lyrics, he entrusted the role of singer to Gilmour, who penned the famous riff on which the song was based. There is some conflicting information as to whether Waters intended to sing the song himself but was unable to because of vocal cord damage during the recording sessions, or whether he thought that his bandmate's voice could better express his own questions revolving around Syd is still contested between bandmates to this day. The title track of the album is perhaps a more reflective counterpoint to "Shine On You Crazy Diamond," the song for which was the last time that band actually saw Syd Barrett, who appeared at the studio unrecognizable to everyone except, eventually, Richard Wright. Seeing Barrett, ten years later in an even more delusional state. Drummer Nick Mason recalled Barrett's conversation that day as "desultory and not entirely sensible." The song "Wish You Were Here," is a song about loss. It may be that cliché line on a postcard you send on vacation, but in Pink Floyd's acoustic ballad, you really feel like one of those "lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year." The tragic story of Syd Barrett is unfortunately just one in a growing mental health crisis. Today, we have more research and better ways of treating mental health issues, but there are still major problems, mainly with regard to funding. I wish we lived in a world that could help out Syd and Roger and the bandmates who were traumatized by Syd's mental decline. I wish we lived in a world where there were systems in place where friends could check in on friends, and if the burden ever got too much to carry, affordable mental health services could be of service. But yet, we're running over the same old ground. The stigma of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest may not be surrounding mental health treatment, but the unavailability due to cost is just as deadly. 

Read the lyrics on Genius.