WISH YOU WERE HERE

This is one of those classics that requires little review. Everyone has heard this and everyone loves it. The emotional and masterfully told story of the band and their true leader, Syd.

By this time, there was significant infighting going on within the group. They were creatively drained and not sure which way to turn after the phenomenon of Dark Side. Gilmour was unhappy with Mason who was having marriage problems and thus in a funk, and Roger and Dave were squabbling about the material. Gilmour wanted to lay down Shine On and two of Roger's other ideas (which later ended up on Animals) and split. But Roger wanted to further develop the themes of Shine On into other more appropriate new material and take time to get it right. Thankfully for us, he won the battle and Welcome, Cigar, and WYWH became the rest of this album. In June of '75, Barrett walked into Abbey Road as the group were finishing Shine On and brought Waters to tears at seeing his condition. He stayed a while chatting with people and left without saying goodbye. The Floyd never saw Syd again. Syd severed his ties to his past and would live his later years in Cambridge happily painting away and gardening.

"Shine On You Crazy Diamond" is one of the musical highlights of the Floyd, nothing but pure beauty as far as you can hear. Gilmour is flawless and Wright isn't too bad either. The other songs are less successful than the epic piece but all in all there is no denying this link in the string of Floyd classics. The title song is a nice acoustic number with great lyrics. Essential though not quite a masterpiece in my view.