Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters loves performing their hit song ‘Wish You Were Here’ for one reason: He can stop singing.
In a new video snippet he shared on his Instagram, the singer is seen answering fan questions. While addressing only one specific question in the video, he was asked about his favorite song to perform and the reason behind it. The rocker mentioned their most famous hit and went on to explain why he enjoys performing it:
“I kind of love ‘Wish You Were Here’ only because I can almost stop singing and almost wherever I am in the world, particularly the last verse, I ask them actually. I say, ‘Sing with me.’ And then I kind of shut up and let them get on with it. ‘How I wish, how I wish you were here. Two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl year after year, running over the same old ground. What have we found? The same old fear. Wish you were here.’ I love hearing audiences sing that back at me.”
David Gilmour Had A Hard Time Singing ‘Wish You Were Here’
As Pink Floyd experienced the reality of life as a successful rock band, they began to retreat inward. Reflecting on the impact of fame, particularly after witnessing the struggles of Syd Barrett, Roger Waters conceived Wish You Were Here as an exploration of the fame that accompanied the music industry. The track ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ was a tribute to Barrett’s influence on the band.
Despite delivering a captivating performance on the final song, Gilmour encountered difficulty during the production. While the last line fell within his comfortable vocal range for most of the song, the concluding note proved too high for Gilmour to hit seamlessly. Gilmour recalled in the Wish You Were Here songbook that the band had to employ various tape speeds to correct the note and bring it to the appropriate pitch:
“The only time we’ve ever used tape speed to help us with vocals was on one line of the Machine song. It was a line I just couldn’t reach, so we dropped the tape down half a semitone and then dropped the line in on the track.”
You can see the video here.
