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Track Listing - Read the Lyrics
1.  Shine on You Crazy Diamond I-V
2.  Welcome to the Machine
3.  Have a Cigar
4.  Wish You Were Here
5.  Shine on You Crazy Diamond VI-IX

Reviews
by Amanda Yusishen
by Yasmin Hayat

Wish You Were Here Album Review

By Yasmin Hayat

It just so happens that I went to the Waters concert. I thought it was good, and he played some Pink Floyd stuff. One of the albums he played was Wish You Were Here. From now on, I'll refer to this as wywh because I'm too lazy to type out the whole title.
Somewhere I read that wywh was the last Floyd album that was a group effort.
I sort of think so yet at the same time I don't. Mason is never credited in the album for writing any of the songs. In fact, I'm almost convinced he just sat there and banged on his drums. Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoy this album and i will proceed to review each of the songs. Just for the record: You may find me digressing while you read so just bear with me.

Shine On You Crazy Diamond I-II-III-IV-V

This was the first song Mr. Waters played off of wywh at the concert i went to. This song starts off with long keyboard playing for a few minutes and then really good guitar playing, I'd say Gilmour at his best--yes, maybe even better than "Time." 8 minutes and 48 seconds later they start singing. The song seems to reminisce of old times way back in the day when "you" were young. But then, something's not the same. Something's changed. And now they expect "you" (or would that be me--or Syd?) to shine. It's as if it's imperative that I or you or whoever to shine or something. The lyrics don't seem too clear to me, maybe because I'm 13, but i still love them. The song goes pretty slow, providing plenty of time to listen to--not hear-- the music and lyrics. The saxophonist Dick Parry (who played for Floyd on Dark Side) ends the song with some pretty darn good playing. I myself tried to play the sax and i could never do as well as him. All in all a great Floyd song. The radio stations don't play this because it's too long, but that's not fair. They are depriving the public's ears of good music. Shame on them and Shine on you.

Welcome to the Machine

This song is pretty good. Waters wrote it and i think i read somewhere that he said this song was about the pressures of the music industry. The song sort of does reflect the stress of being a star, now that i think about it. The sound effects make this seem more like a Pink Floyd-ish piece to me. Waters played this at the concert as well. The music is good, the lyrics are good, enough said, on to the next song.

Have A Cigar

In the same book, waters said that this song was about the stress of being a music star. I personally think that this song expresses it better than Welcome to the Machine, but what do I know? I know that Waters wrote this, and that it wasn't played at the concert. I thought this entire album was supposed to be some sort of tribute to Syd and this (to me) is the song which least expresses the longing for the guy. The intro is the music which is played throughout the whole song and when they get to the guitar solo it's still the same. It seems too rock-n-pop Beatles type of music and it seems too happy for an album written to mourn.

Wish You Were Here

Now, THIS, THIS is a true song. The lyrics are really deep. At the concert, they were showing pictures of Syd in the background so it was so obvious that this was meant for him. (unless you were at the concert and you thought that was Jim Morrison they were showing in the back) It shows the true longing for Syd. To tell you the truth a tear comes to my eye when i hear this. Radios don't play it as often as I'd like them to. If i can remember, Waters got a standing ovation for this one. He deserved it since it was and is such a brilliant piece of music.

Shine On You Crazy Diamond VI-VII-VIII-IX

The final song is this one. It starts off with some slow keyboarding and then breaks out into fast guitar (which sounds like screaming to me) and then they slow down so you can digest the lyrics. This is definitely shorter than the first one. The Lyrics sound optimistic, like "oh, Syd, I'll meet you in heaven so we can do whatever we want to the steel breeze." To end it ends with a bass guitary thing and fades off into really slow keyboarding (the same as what the album starts off with) and is so slow it sounds like a lullaby. And then it stops and then I play it again and again and again.

I really like this album wywh. However, since it came out after Dark Side of the Moon, it didn't get as much recognition, not as mush as it deserves. On a scale of 1-10 I'd give wywh an 8.5 because no album is perfect. I expressed some negative opinions throughout the review and that's why.