PINK FLOYD: "The Story Of Wish You Were Here"

Rating: DVD

Label: Eagle Rock 2012
Review by: Urban "Wally" Wallstrom

Confession time: I've always been afraid of the seventies music in the past. I thought of the whole darn era as trippy, hippie, weirdy and, ehem... smelly? You know, unwashed hairdos and sideburns. Not to mention the dodgy fashion and the awful sounding music? It's been quite the drastic change as of lately (probably due to finally growing up?) since I've been listening to all the 70's albums by Bowie, ELO, Ramones, Sabbath, Television, Kate Bush, Eagles, Who, Cat Stevens, Supertramp, Clash, Stones, Costello, Damned, Genesis, Dylan, Elton, Marley, Sparks, Gaye, Doobies, Kraftwerk, Wire, Yes, Eno, etc, etc, etc.

There's however one album that beats most, if not ALL of the 70's albums, and here's the story behind the making of the legendary platter. Indeed, 'Wish You Were Here' by Pink Floyd was released in 1975 as the follow-up to their most successful and best selling album. People, don't kid yourself though, this is THE best album ever released by the band and probably also of the seventies era. Sure, Dark Side of The Moon is the album people refer to when mentioning the band. But we all know the truth, yeah?

There's a rather sad story behind the making of the album. We all know about former bandmember Syd Barrett, yeah? The mental illness took control over the man and the band wrote songs such as "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" about his state of mind. Interviews with all surviving members (Gilmour, Waters, Mason) and engineer Brian Humphries are breaking down the tracks so you can hear individual sections of the original masters which is always fun to watch. Hardly everything is new and essential but it's been captured in high definition and top notch audio. The album itself is more essential though and the tracks are all classics [Shine On You Crazy Diamond Part 1. Welcome To The Machine. Have A Cigar. Wish You Were Here. Shine On You Crazy Diamond Part 2].