Wish You Were Here lyrics by Pink Floyd, 9 meanings. Wish You Were Here explained, official 2024 song lyrics | LyricsMode.com
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Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here lyrics

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Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here lyrics
So,
So you think you can tell
Heaven from Hell?
Blue skies from pain?

Can you tell a green field
From a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?

Did they get you to trade
Your heroes for ghosts?

Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?

Cold comfort for change?
Did you exchange
A walk on part in the war
For a lead role in a cage?

How I wish
How I wish you were here
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl
Year after year

Running over the same old ground
What have we found?
The same old fears
Wish you were here
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Songwriters: David Gilmour, Roger Waters
Wish You Were Here lyrics © BMG Rights Management, CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC
Corrected by DimeForever

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Wish You Were Here meanings Post my meaning

  • l
    + 19
    LivingDeadAlive 2008-12-18 05:07:13
    Tiptonj you're just way off from the meaning of the song. You know nothing. He wrote this song about his "BEST" friend "Syd Barrett ". One of the founding members of pinkfloyd. He did have a drug addiction but he didn't die from it, he just got mentally ill. He died of pancreatic cancer in 2006. He also quit the band or was no longer part of Pinkfloyd in 68. The entire album "Wish you Were Here" referers to his feeling of Syd Barrett. Stop believing the media, and read what the f*****g composer richard wright said. You people know s*t.
    Add your reply
  • U
    + 12
    Unregistered 2012-03-12 03:25:31
    It is about syd barret and his drug use/mental illness. He's inquiring, rhetorically, if syd can tell the difference between living and existing. In his 'shell' (either his earlier drug induced 1 or his later mental illness) does he know what's going on. Did the drugs get him to trade a fake reality with nothing good for him, hot ashes etc for real pleasures, like trees, a cool breeze. By choosing drugs, did he exchange reality and it's difficulties we all must face (walk on part in a war: life's struggles) for a lead roll (full time) in a cage. A cage of isolation the drugs/illness put him in. Now, though I'm sure all of the floyd members probably used drugs but none the epic use like syd, the rock stars, pink floyd, are living in a fishbowl of fame, while syd is living in a fishbowl of people thinking that he was a wasted of talent and a genius gone mad. For sure all of the albums have meaning, saying they don't proves you know nothing about their creativity. These guys used a fire extinguisher as sleeve art for the album and also used one in the studio because they admired the sound. Deep. And living, you are correct. Syd left well before the 80's, so I dunno how someone could have met them in the 80's at msg.
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  • U
    + 9
    Unregistered 2012-03-22 23:28:52
    Don't get lost in the games we play status, religion and materialism. Remember to be amazed at the beauty of all creation and your place in it. Marvel at how small you are and how ignorant before being astonished at how easy it is to walk while massively complex in detail. Stay together if you can. Enjoy this world with the ones you care about. What else could there ever be?
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  • e
    + 3
    extet 2015-05-14 18:54:25
    What's it about? Who cares, it's good freaking music, period! Anyone can interpret music to fit their own meaning, that's what makes a good record identifiable because it has multiple meanings to those who listen to it and those who wrote it. I doubt it's about Syd Barrett because the band members aren't psychoanalysts now are they?
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  • U
    + 2
    Unregistered 2018-08-17 19:01:36
    This entire song is about Syd. Because of his extremely heavy use of acid it caused him to basically loose his mind. This is their dedication to Syd and how much they truly miss him. The drugs took his mind soul and spirit. He never did anything of musical importance after he left.
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  • U
    + 2
    Unregistered 2015-07-03 08:36:28
    I think... it's guilt about living in general. The specific things the songwriter shares speaks to us all in some way. Someone dies, you live. Someone vacations and you work. Someone serves and you are free. The title and the final verse explains the guilt again and the wish that they were here. Lost souls who miss lost souls and have more fears.
    Add your reply
  • U
    + 2
    Unregistered 2015-01-30 23:05:42
    I watched the Wish You Were Here documentary a few years back, and Roger Waters, who wrote the lyrics, in an interview said it was about the person you were and the person you could be. On the album, it was Shine On You Crazy Diamond that was written for Syd Barrett, not Wish You Were Here. However, David Gilmour, who sings the song, in another interview, said that when he sings it, he sings it with Syd in mind. So whilst it wasn't originally written for Syd Barrett, it was sung for him.
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  • t
    + 1
    Tenderfoot 2015-05-29 01:27:19
    Whlle I do think a lot of Floyd's songs were influenced by what happened to Syd i.e. "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", "Brain Damage", "Comfortably Numb", to name a few. I am convinced "Wish You Were Here", is more in keeping with "Another Brick in the Wall", in that it was a direct bash at the '50s and '60s British education system, which I can also relate to. A lot of the bully male teachers in those days had seen military service in WW2, and brought their regimented ideas into the classroom. The key lines "walk on part in the war" is self explanatory if you subscribe to my theory, as is the next line. The "wish you were here" part is sarcasm, they wish their teachers were here to see the fruits of their violent teaching. If you think this a load of..., just listen to the little intro before the guitar starts the song. I think most of the other lines were fill ins and poetic license.
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  • r
    + 1
    righigh 2010-02-25 18:39:44
    I worked backstage as a stage hand in a large city which was frequented by Pink Floyd over the past 30 years. I know nothing of what his true feelings for the lyricks of the song meen because musicians by my account rarely if ever tell anyone the whole or real truth as to what a song was written about, or who, or for what real reason. I was lucky I met Roger Waters, Syd Barrett, Richard Wright and the other mebers of the band once many years ago at Madison Square Gardens, after a show in the early 80s. Unfortunately they did not tell me or everyone else why, who and what each song was about.
    No one really knows except the writer and he likely has many stories for who and why, depending on who asks and his mood at that moment.
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    • l
      + 19
      LivingDeadAlive
      Tiptonj you're just way off from the meaning of the song. You know nothing. He wrote this song... Read more →
    • U
      + 12
      Unregistered
      It is about syd barret and his drug use/mental illness. He's inquiring, rhetorically, if syd can... Read more →
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    [Intro][Verse][Pre-Chorus][Chorus][Hook][Bridge][Outro]