Bill Flores, David West - Wish You Were Here (Bluegrass, Pink Floyd Cover)

March 24, 2011

From ’’ Pickin’ On Pink Floyd (A Bluegrass Tribute) ’’ Label: CMH Records – CD-8614 Series: Pickin’ On Format: CD, Cinram, Huntsville Pressing Country: US Released: 2001

Tracklist 01. Gabe Witcher, David West - See Emily Play 02. Dennis Caplinger, Lorenzo Martinez, David West - Money 03. Gabe Witcher, David West - Astronomy Domine 04. Gabe Witcher, Lorenzo Martinez, David West - Julia Dream 05. Tom Ball, Lorenzo Martinez, David West - Another Brick In The Wall 06. David West - Run Like Hell 07. Bill Flores, David West - Wish You Were Here 08. Lorenzo Martinez, David West - Breathe In The Air 09. David West - Lucifer Sam 10. Byron Berline, David West - Comfortably Numb 11. Tom Ball, David West - Time 12. David West - Goodbye Blue Sky

🎵 [SONG INFO]

“Wish You Were Here” is the title track on Pink Floyd’s 1975 album Wish You Were Here. The song’s lyrics encompass writer Roger Waters’ feelings of alienation from other people. Like most of the album, it refers to former Pink Floyd member Syd Barrett and his breakdown. The main riff came to David Gilmour at home while playing on an acoustic guitar, and it became something which he continued to play in-between takes at Abbey Road Studios where it caught the attention of Roger Waters. They collaborated to complete the song, as Waters had already written some lyrics. In 2004, the song was ranked No. 316 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Cover versions

Sparklehorse (in collaboration with Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke). The song was covered by Dream Theater, The Flaming Lips, Velvet Revolver, Indigo Girls, Catherine Wheel, Rasputina, Ana Torroja, Bob Forrest, Miracle Legion, the Lovehammers, Widespread Panic, Irish rock-band Aslan, Circa Survive, Dan Andriano (of the Alkaline Trio), Angra (Brazilian metal band), Will Martin, Rodrigo y Gabriela and Europe, all of whom have recorded or performed live versions of the song.

Pink Floyd once said in an interview that the live version by Aslan is the best cover they have heard of the song. Marillion played their Marillion Mix version of the song during their Marillion 2003 Weekend, which can be found as an easter egg in the DVD box set also named Wish You Were Here. Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst and Wes Borland, and the Goo Goo Dolls’ John Rzeznik gave a performance of “Wish You Were Here” (previously unrecorded by them) for the America: A Tribute to Heroes television event following the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City. New lyrics for the song had been written for the occasion. Grindcore band Brutal Truth covered the song as Wish you were here… now go away and released it on the Japanese version of Need to Control. The song was covered by Pascale Picard, a Canadian rock group from Quebec City which appears on the Pink Floyd redux A New Music Experience album. A reggae version of this song was recorded by Alpha Blondy on his 2007 album Jah Victory. Circa Survive recorded an acoustic version of the song in 2008 for an AOL session. Europe covered this song on their 2008 live album Almost Unplugged. Tangerine Dream covered the song in their 2010 album Under Cover - Chapter One.

Wyclef Jean version

“Wish You Were Here” served as the fifth and final single from Wyclef Jean’s second studio album, The Ecleftic: 2 Sides II a Book. The track was released in December 2001, peaking at No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart. This particular cover version was very controversial, as Wyclef overlaid a rap about Pink Floyd onto the track, therefore claiming writing credit.

The 2007 song, “Your Love Alone Is Not Enough” by Manic Street Preachers contains the line “Trade your heroes in for ghosts”, in reference to a similar line in “Wish You Were Here”.

Composition

In the original album version, the song segues from “Have a Cigar” as if a radio had been tuned away from one station, through several others (including a radio play and one playing Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony), and finally to a new station where “Wish You Were Here” is beginning. The radio was recorded from Gilmour’s car radio. Gilmour performed the intro on a twelve-string guitar, processed to sound like it was playing through an old transistor radio, and then overdubbed a fuller-sounding acoustic guitar solo. This passage was mixed to sound as though the guitarist was sitting in a room, playing along with the radio; it also contains a whine that slowly changes pitch-emulating the heterodyne between two drifting AM radio signals.

The song borrows the imagery of a “steel rail” from Syd Barrett’s solo song, “If It’s In You,” from The Madcap Laughs album.

🔗 [LINKS]

Available on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/26rlZ9D2VpsaZgEWvXCneq

Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/pickin-on-pink-floyd-a-bluegrass-tribute/992296344

and Deezer: https://www.deezer.com/us/album/1104475

#billflores #bluegrass #wishyouwerehere #cdcollection

Keywords: video

Reply via email