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Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here

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From time to time, I'd like to introduce you to great music albums that I like. I will start with the ninth studio album of Pink Floyd: "Wish You Were Here" (Amazon-CD) from 1975 - what a great year this was.

There is no hidden order or something - I really do have many favorite interprets and albums and would not know where to start with any specific order.

The group Pink Floyd had three "front-men" resulting in three major band phases: Syd Barrett (approx. until 1968), Roger Waters (until approx. 1982) and David Gilmour (since 1982).

Losing Syd Barrett because of drug issues was a dramatic experience to the other group members which were dominant topics in the album "The Dark Side of the Moon" and "Wish You Were Here".

The songs Shine On You Crazy Diamond (part 1-9) and Wish You Were Here are referring to Syd. Both are hymns which are known by heart by any decent Pink Floyd fan. Beautiful pieces of music.

Two other songs are somewhat different: Welcome to the Machine is an ingenious piece about the storyboard of an average life. We are living in a big machinery, playing our pre-defined role in society. Critics of bourgeoisie, 9-to-5-jobs, "do how it was done before" and so on are going to love this piece of art.

In Have a Cigar Pink Floyd is doing an awful great job of criticizing the business of the music industry. Even in the 70s, music bosses did not have any clue about the band and products they were selling. It includes a great sense of humor and irony ("by the way, which one is Pink?"). Money-driven motivations are more important than music, lyrics, or stories. The idea that artists want to express something with music is obviously not in the mind-set of the music industry. Go on, and do think on how the situation changed or did not change within the previous fourty years. Also worth mentioning: There is also a really good cover version of this song by the Foo Fighters and Brian May (Amazon-CD).

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