Eventually, Pink Floyd had finally got around to releasing their much anticipated album. But the initial reception became a cause for concern as the album had received plenty of mixed reviews. Ben Edmonds of the Rolling Stone reported “This lackadaisical demeanor forces, among other things, a reevaluation of their relationship to all the space cadet orchestras they unconsciously sired. The one thing those bands have going for them, in their cacophonously inept way, is a sincere passion for their "art." And passion is everything of which Pink Floyd is devoid.” Though it was only able to fulfill 50% of its pre-orders at first, “Wish You Were Here” still became the fastest selling album for the band, toppling the former success of “The Dark Side Of The Moon.” Almost thirty years later in 2004, the album was estimated to have sold thirteen million copies worldwide.
In modern times, the album managed to received wider recognition and more positive reviews. Robert Christgau, a professional rock critic, named the album his favorite from the band. He called it “not only simple and attractive, with the synthesizer used mostly for texture and the guitar breaks for comment, but it actually achieves some of the symphonic dignity that The Dark Side of the Moon simulated so ponderously.” In 2004 Wish You Were Here was ranked number 36 on Pitchfork Media's list of the Top 100 albums of the 1970s In 2012, Wish You Were Here was voted 211th on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time. And “IGN” ranked it as the eight greatest classic rock album.
The song of the album of which it was named after did not get a music video. However, the album cover is more than enough to depict the pain and affliction of the band. The cover shows two men facing each other and shaking hands. The man on the left seems confident in his appearance while the other is looking down as if he’s lost. But most notable is that this man on the right is on fire. These two men reflect the band, with the man on the left being Roger Waters or David Gilmour, and the man on fire being Syd Barrett. I prefer the cover of the album to allude to the diminishing friendship between Syd and his former friends. While Waters and Gilmour chose a better path in life without drugs, Syd was still burning from the consequences of his actions. One of my personal favorite lines from the song, “We’re just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year, running over the same ground, what have we found?” also relates to the cover of the album in terms of its symbolic meaning.
Both Syd Barrett and the rest of Pink Floyd are locked in an eternal struggle of helping one another while Syd stubbornly refuses it. In the end, nothing becomes accomplished or resolved as Syd Barrett never recovered from his stint with drugs and LSD.
The Motivations Behind "Wish You Were Here"
Rock
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