Wish You Were Here

[the stranger]

[preface...skip if need be]

 

#349 on RolingStone's 500 all time list. Whatever. No offense, but Nirvana is out of it's league.

 

The top ten songs are:

 

1. "Like a Rolling Stone," Bob Dylan

2. "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," The Rolling Stones

3. "Imagine," John Lennon

4. "What's Going On," Marvin Gaye

5. "Respect," Aretha Franklin

6. "Good Vibrations," The Beach Boys

7. "Johnny B. Goode," Chuck Berry

8. "Hey Jude," The Beatles

9. "Smells Like Teen Spirit," Nirvana

10. "What'd I Say," Ray Charles

 

[/preface]

 

 

Anyway,

 

What is it about this song that makes it so emotionally intense? Is it the key changes, the lyrics, the combination of both?

 

how i wish, how i wish you were here we're just two lost souls swimmin' in a fish bowl year after year runnin' over the same ol' ground he ya found the same old fears? wish you were here...

 

It's stuck in my head. And Pink Floyd needs a thread in the SW (songjam? ) forum. Not only did they create their own genre (that appears to be beyond classification..."progressive rock" doesn't sum it up), but they also managed to write some timeless material.

 

What makes Pink Floyd...Pink Floyd?

[JoeyJoJo]

the part in the song you quoted is emotionally charged with the topic of questioning self-worth, which has been common in art since the beginning of civilization.

 

to be honest, i think it's the subject matter of losing someone, and the relatability-factor of that.

[Dubb]

I agree that the lyrics are a big part of this. It's certainly not the key changes (there aren't any).

 

The melody is also really effective. The way it lingers on the 6th degree not only gives that sense of tension begging to be resolved, it also subtly implies an Em7 chord when played against the G chord, which gives it a bit more of a melancholy feel. On the final two repeats, it also lingers on the 2nd degree, increasing the sense of tension - longing, even.

 

By the way, I'm not sure Pink Floyd "defies classification" - I think they fit pretty squarely into the "space rock" category that they helped to define in the first place.

[blue2blue]

Funny... I was a big PF fan and really excited when Wish You Were Here came out. And I really tried to like it. But, aside from the one pretty sharp-eyed song about the music biz ("Have a Cigar?" I think it was called) I found it to be -- for me (proving how personal and subjective these things are) to be an uninvolving album, particularly compared to their preceding works.

 

Meddle was a personal fave, though it's an odd album, oddly pieced together (yet, for me, it somehow flows nicely). But, while I was turned off by the insufferable hoopla and hype over Dark Side, once I sat down with the album and got into it, I decided it had some of their most mature and focused writing.

[captain average]

i don't think any of those songs belong on that list.

[blue2blue]

Just curious, Cap'n...

 

What might be a few songs in your top 10 or 25? (Just a handful to get the flavor.)

 

 

I mean, I might argue with the composition of the top ten, there, but in terms of impact and importance to pop music -- and with the notion that this is 500 greatest rock era songs, I think they all make good sense as being somewhere on that list. And I think I'd personally have to say that "Like a Rolling Stone" would bear inclusion on the 500 greatest pop songs of recorded history... but, you know, these things are subjective. And "Satisfaction" may be one of the greatest songs about being a young man, ever. (And, though I'm decidedly not a fan of Alice Cooper, by and large, I'd have to say that "Eighteen" is another truly great song about being a young man.) A song like "Smells Like Teen Spirit" may not have the same kind of intrinsic interest and merit -- having nearly incomprehensible but somehow still resonant lyrics -- but for sheer impact, yeah, babe, ya gotta have it on such a list, seems to me.

[captain average]

hell, most of those aren't even my favorites by the people named. just the most popular or well known. and i just meant the top ten, not top 500.

[blue2blue]

OH!

 

That's a big diff from what I was thinking... yeah, I'd for sure agree that, by and large, those aren't my faves by the artists (though I'm a big fan of "Like a Rolling Stone" -- no one could tell someone to kiss off (you should pardon the expression) like Bob Dylan in his prime.

 

Yeah... I can't even imagine what my top ten would look like ("Satisfaction" MIGHT just be in there, though, and "Like a Rolling Stone" would certainly be in the running).

 

I know one song that for sure would be in there, though... Captain Beefheart's "Blue Million Miles." (A lot of it is in Beef and the Magic Band's performance, mind you... I've heard a couple covers and they really don't do it justice. There's a "chick rocker" [term used advisedly] -- who'll go nameless as much because I'm blanking on her name and don't want to look it up just to diss her -- who covers it and, though I definitely appreciate that the song means something to her -- as it does to me, her reading of the song is so flat and uninvolving... it's really kind of sad.)