Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here [180g] (LP) Vinyl

Wish You Were Here is the ninth studio album by Pink Floyd, released on 12 September 1975 through Harvest Records in the United Kingdom and a day later in the United States on Columbia Records, the band's first album for that label. It followed The Dark Side of the Moon and preceded Animals, and both Richard Wright and David Gilmour later named it their favourite Pink Floyd record. This edition is the Pink Floyd Records reissue on 180 gram heavyweight vinyl, catalogue number PFRLP9.

The Album

Recorded at EMI Studios in London, now Abbey Road Studios, between 13 January and 28 July 1975, the album's lyrics deal with longing, alienation and a sardonic view of the music industry. Most of its running time is taken up by "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", a nine part tribute to co-founder Syd Barrett, deliberately split so that "Welcome To The Machine" and "Have A Cigar" sit between its two halves. Roy Harper sang lead on "Have A Cigar", Dick Parry played saxophone and Venetta Fields and Carlena Williams sang backing vocals. The record topped the UK Albums Chart and the US Billboard 200, was Pink Floyd's fastest selling album, and by 2004 had sold an estimated 13 million copies worldwide.

This Pressing

Issued on Pink Floyd Records and marketed and distributed by Sony Music Entertainment, this stereo edition was remastered from the original analogue tapes by James Guthrie, Joel Plante and Bernie Grundman, with the lacquers cut by Bernie Grundman. The single record was pressed by Record Industry on 180 gram vinyl and plays at 33 1/3 RPM. The labels recreate the original mechanical handshake logo on a black and blue background.

Packaging

Storm Thorgerson built the sleeve around the theme of absence, so the artwork arrives concealed beneath a black shrink-wrap carrying a George Hardie sticker of two mechanical hands locked in a handshake. Underneath sits the Hipgnosis cover photograph by Aubrey Powell: two businessmen shaking hands with one of them on fire, shot on the Warner Bros. studio lot in California using stuntmen Ronnie Rondell Jr. and Danny Rogers. The back cover shows a faceless salesman with no wrists or ankles in the Yuma Desert, and the printed inner sleeve pairs a veil concealing a nude figure in a windswept Norfolk grove with a splash-less diver at Mono Lake. A postcard carrying the diver image is included.

Track Listing

Side A: Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 1-5); Welcome To The Machine
Side B: Have A Cigar; Wish You Were Here; Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 6-9)