Dong Da Da Daaaaaaaaaang! Dow Da Da Daaaaaaaaaang! Dong Da Da Daaaaaaaaaahhh! Dow Da Da Daaaaaaaaaahhhh! faster... faster, dagger dagger dagger dagger de dah!
Bb, F, G, E !
What's that? It's that Shine On You Crazy Diamond riff innit! Funny how the simplest of motifs just get stuck in your head forever.
In my teenage years the Wish You Were Here album blew me away, and in particular the centrepiece being this Syd Barrett tribute. It was my favourite album for a time when I was about 18. I'd discovered rock and heavy metal, I'd graduated from ELO, through Rainbow and Deep Purple, to Led Zeppelin, but Pink Floyd were a whole new level opening doors to further prog excursions like King Crimson and Genesis I'd enjoy for many years afterwards.
Nowadays I probably play albums like the more understated Animals more. Meddle is excellent too with the side long Echoes. But Wish You Were Here (which strangely wasn't all that well received at the time following the classic Dark Side of the Moon) has really stood the test of time, particularly in the new remastered version recently released.
Title track Wish You Were Here suffers a little from over exposure and familiarity but nevertheless was a superb song. But what really stands out in the new remastered recordings for me are the less celebrated tracks - Welcome to the Machine gains new power with pulsing synthesizer jumping between speakers and reminds me of Kraftwerk (Autobahn) and Tangerine Dream (Cloudburst Flight)- comparisons I had never appreciated before, and quite a daring composition in its time, and Have a Cigar is a soaring rocker. Keyboards have more prominence and there are even some funky rhythms in places! The album is much closer to the follow up Animals than it's predecessor Dark Side... With the individual tracks knitted together by the Floyd trademark sound effects and spoken word interludes this is a satisfying concept album bookended by the largely instrumental Shine On...
Some have criticised the CD packaging on these new releases. I think it's great. I love cardboard sleeves and the booklet is fine with the original artwork and one or two pictures I don't recall (although both the booklet and the CD are so very snuggly fitted such that they require some crow bar work to extract). Even the sticker can be peeled from the plastic and reinstated on the cardboard if one is so inclined.
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| The setting for one of the Wish You Were Here photos - Mono Lake, California, then and on a visit I made in 2011 |
The full log this week #34:
1. The Doobie Brothers - The Captain and Me
2. Budgie - The Best Of
3. Laura Marling - I Speak Because I Can
4. David Crosby - If I Could Only Remember My Name
5. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
6. Bonobo - Animals
Just a quick word to finish on Budgie. They should have been huge but never were. This greatest hits package showcases some excellent rockers, great musicianship, a keen ear for a hook, and some extended guitar solos. Maybe the name Budgie just never sat well with the heavy rock fraternity. Maybe hailing from Wales wasn't cool either. Their closest comparison would probably be Rush and high pitched vocalist and bassist Burke Shelley was the spit of Geddy Lee.
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| Budgie and Rush, separated at birth |
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