Pink Floy'd Wish You Were Here released as an "iTunes LP": A great addition to any serious record collection

Before I start writing about this great new release on iTunes, I must first disclose, and those who have read my previous posts would know this, "Wish You Were Here" is my most favourite rock album of all time!

What Pink Floyd achieved in 1975, in their tribute to their founding wayward member "Syd Barrett" is unique. After all, this was meant to be the follow up to their masterful best selling 1973 album "Dark Side of the Moon" & rock music history is littered with bands failing to repeat their success with an even better album, which is the case here!

I have written reviews on this album in several occasions. This post however is more about the reissuing of the entire Pink Floyd catalogue & in particular as a new concept called "iTunes LP' on iTunes (RIP Steve Jobs). ie I am not sure if this exact version will be available as a hard copy in music stores or is unique to iTunes.

According to iTunes description, this is a new remastered release of the original album, plus previously unreleased live & studio tracks, screen films, memorabilia & more.

For any serious Pink Floyd fan, this "iTunes LP" is a must have & great value for money. The extra tracks include several jewels:

- Live performances of "Shine on you Crazy Diamond" at Wembley in 1974 prior to the release of the album in 1975

- An alternative version of "Have a Cigar" without Roy Harper on lead vocals (album version) as well as an alternative version of their epic "Wish you were here"

- 1974 live performances of songs titled "Raving & Drooling", & "You've got to be Crazy"which finally found their way as the songs "Sheep" & "Dogs" in their 1977 album "Animals"

- Concert screen video of Shine on, and of course PF fans know Pink Floyd are famous for their concert screen videos.

All in all, whilst I will buy the "Discovery Box Set" which features all 14 Pink Floyd albums remastered, I will be looking out for more of the iTunes LPs to purchase as well.

My rating: 10/10 Must have for any serious Pink Floyd & rock fan

Roger Waters, the masterful rock lyricist to bring Pink Floyd's "The Wall Live" to Australia in February 2012

Roger Waters will at last bring his live world tour of The Wall to Australia in early 2012.

I need to start this post by qualifying two points:

1) When it comes to the acrimonious split between Roger Waters & the rest of Pink Floyd band members in the mid 80s and what has followed ever since, I am firmly in the David Gilmour & Pink Floyd camp & resent Roger Waters for his pompous & arrogance which resulted in him being literally left out of Pink Floyd ever since.

2) However, the genius of Roger Waters is clearly on display in Pink Floyd's best albums & The Wall is his magnum opus.

The Wall is universally regarded as the greatest concept album in rock history. Roger Waters wrote most of the songs & just about all the lyrics for the album.
The album was performed live a mere 18 times in selected USA & European venues upon its release in late 1979 & Roger Waters & a cast of pop/rock artists re performed it once more at the site of the Berlin Wall before its demolition after the fall of eastern Germany.

Meanwhile, Pink Floyd fans worldwide have had to content with the numerous (and in some cases very good) Pink Floyd cover bands performing The Wall live around the world (including Australia) since 1981!

And now thanks to Roger Waters, Australia will finally get to see "The Wall Live" in early 2012!

Why should you consider going to see it if you are not a huge fan, or are not familiar with Pink Floyd's music?

Besides enjoying "the theatre" of the best ever concept album in rock history, the music, it is most importantly Roger Waters' shear genius when it comes to lyrics that makes The Wall (and other Waters' penned songs) rock classics.

The earliest signs of Roger Waters' lyrical genius emereged in the late 60s when he penned his first major Pink Floyd song in their second album (A Saucerful of Secrets) & beautifully named it "Set the controls for the heart of the Sun":

Witness the man who raves at the wall
Making the shape of his questions to Heaven.
Whether the sun will fall in the evening
Will he remember the lesson of giving?
Set the controls for the heart of the sun.
The heart of the sun, the heart of the sun.

This was followed by great album titles such as "Atom Heart Mother" (a collective Pink Floyd chosen title) & subsequent maturity of Roger Waters' lyrics in the albums "Echoes" & "Dark side of the Moon" & culminated in the masterfully written album "Wish you were Here" with beautiful melodies & great lyrics as well as timeless song names such as "Shine on you Crazy Diamond", "Welcome to the Machine" & of course "Wish you were Here":

So, so you think you can tell
Heaven from Hell,
Blue skys from pain.
Can you tell a green field
From a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?

And did they get you to trade
Your heros for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange
A walk on part in the war
For a lead role in a cage? ............

Roger Waters' lyrical masterly continued with The Wall, his final Pink Floyd Album "The Final Cut" & throughout his solo career ever since as he continued to develop & express his political & social views into his lyric writing talents. This is where & why Roger Waters in a unique talent. He expresses political & social views in a masterful way no other noted rock identity has ever managed to do!

Here's brief selection of Roger Waters lyrics in the album The Wall:

If you should go skating
On the thin ice of modern life
.......Don't be surprised when a crack in the ice
Appears under your feet..............

When we grew up and went to school
There were certain teachers who would
Hurt the children in any way they could
By pouring their derision
Upon anything we did
And exposing every weakness
However carefully hidden by the kids
But in the town, it was well known
When they got home at night, their fat and
Psychopathic wives would thrash them
Within inches of their lives.

We don't need no education
We don't need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!

Hush now baby, baby, don't you cry.
Mother's gonna make all your nightmares come true.
Mother's gonna put all her fears into you.
Mother's gonna keep you right here under her wing.
She wont let you fly, but she might let you sing.
Mama will keep baby cozy and warm.............

Did you see the frightened ones?
Did you hear the falling bombs?
Did you ever wonder why we had to run for shelter when the
promise of a brave new world unfurled beneath a clear blue
sky?

And the lyrics are not all that are extraordinary about this once in a life time event! The theatre, the music & of course watching Roger waters perform The Wall is a once in a life time event which will sadly never be seen again! A must see show! I will be going to every single night it will be performed in Sydney!

Album Review: Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here", Arguably Roger Waters at his best lyrically, & Gilmour & Wright at their best instrumentally. The result is one of the greatest albums of all time!

Music in my view is a religion, it's personal & private & should be respected by those who may disagree with your musical opinions! What sounds unique & irreplacable to my ears may sound out of tune to someone else's and vice versa.

At the same time, like proven scientific discoveries, opinions in the art of songwriting are at times fully aligned.

Pink Floyd's 1975 album "Wish You Were Here" combines both of the above into one album. It is religiously loved by many fans around the world & at the same time is universally acknowledged as one of the greatest rock albums of all time, and in that I mean all genres & not simply progressive/space rock as Pink Floyd are known for, and yet it has never been accused of being pompous or self indulgent.

The reason the album is not pretentious is probably because it is a heartfelt dedication to the wayward Pink Floyd founding member "Syd Barrett', who was suffering from LSD induced schizophernia & the major songs "Wish You Were Here" & "Shine on you Crazy Diamond" are written about.

At the same time, the band, at the height of their international success, make a direct and pointed attack on the music industry & its money grabbing & at times sleezy record executives (with the famous line.."The band is just fantastic, That is really what I think, Oh by the way which one's Pink?")

Even before I start a brief review of the songs in the album, let me state some of the other interesting points about this album which by themselves would make it unique and in a calibre of its own::

• The cover/sleeve photos,all designed by the great Storm Thorgeson are amongst the most brilliant front & back & sleeve photos of all time. The front cover being a man shaking the hand of another man on fire! (see above for all photos on album's sleeve/cover/back)
• The album was the potential "career ruining" album for Pink Floyd because it was the band's next album after their massive & legendary 1973 album "Dark Side of the Moon" (which ended up remaining in the Billboard Top 100 Album Charts for 10 years in a row and is still one of the Top 5 highest selling albums of all time)
• The lyrics & song titles represent Roger waters at his absolute best & the highest point of his creativity. at the same time, David Gilmour's & Richard Wright's contribution to the 27 minute epic "Shine on you Crazy Diamond" is Pink Floyd at its synergistic best. (David Gilmour also wrote the music to waters' lyrics for the title song Wish You were Here)
• Gilmour's fantastic lead guitar & Wright's unique keyboard sounds (plus mason's simple yet brilliant drumming & Waters' bass) make the the album haunting & meloncholic whilst amazingly enjoyable to listen to.
• Syd barret is reported to have turned up to the studios during the recording of the album & not recognised by any of the band members initially (due to his much older looking appearance as a result of drug use & mental illness)

Instead of teh usual song by song review, and since the album only contains 4 songs(1), I rest my case with simply reprinting the lyrics for Shine on you crazy diamond & Wish you were here (both about Syd barrett).

Simply read each one, preferably whilst you are listening to the song, and see for yourselves the creative genius of the"sums much bigger than the parts" at work in Pink Floyd. enjoy! They are universally acclaimed as two of the greatest rock lyrics of all time by Roger Waters. Look out for great phrases which I have highlighted in italics.

Shine on You Crazy Diamond
(Song 1 on the Album, Parts 1-5)

Remember when you were young,
You shone like the sun.
Shine on you crazy diamond.

Now there's a look in your eyes,
Like black holes in the sky.
Shine on you crazy diamond.

You were caught on the crossfire
Of childhood and stardom,
Blown on the steel breeze.

Come on you target for faraway laughter,
Come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!

You reached for the secret too soon,
You cried for the moon.
Shine on you crazy diamond.

Threatened by shadows at night,
And exposed in the light.
Shine on you crazy diamond.

Well you wore out your welcome
With random precision,
Rode on the steel breeze.

Come on you raver, you seer of visions,
Come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine!

(Song 5 on the Album, Parts 6-9)

Nobody knows where you are,
How near or how far.
Shine on you crazy diamond.

Pile on many more layers
And I'll be joining you there.
Shine on you crazy diamond.

And we'll bask in the shadow
Of yesterday's triumph,
And sail on the steel breeze.

Come on you boy child,
You winner and loser,
Come on you miner for truth and delusion, and shine!

Wish You Were Here

So, so you think you can tell
Heaven from Hell,
Blue skys from pain.
Can you tell a green field
From a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?


And did they get you to trade
Your heros for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange
A walk on part in the war
For a lead role in a cage?

How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls
Swimming in a fish bowl,
Year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found?
The same old fears.
Wish you were here.

I hope you can see what I mean!

My rating: The greatest album of all time: 10/10