1 Overlooked Gem Song From Every Pink Floyd Album
9. Welcome To The Machine - Wish You Were Here
Not only is Wish You Were Here one of Pink Floyd’s most celebrated albums, it’s the favourite of Dave Gilmour and Richard Wright.
That said, the album is a bit of a weird one, hidden gems wise. You see, the band released Have A Cigar and Welcome To The Machine as a double A-side single to promote the album in the US. However, those two tracks are inarguably overshadowed by Wish You Were Here and Shine On You Crazy Diamond, two of the most well known and beloved songs in Pink Floyd’s entire catalogue.
With the album comprising only five tracks, and two of those being the multiple parts of Shine On You Crazy Diamond, we need to turn back to the lead single and pronounce the doomy Welcome To The Machine this album’s hidden gem.
The “Machine” of the title is a metaphor for the record industry but the tracks relentless pulse and mechanical sounding rhythm offer a much more literal interpretation, recalling electronic pioneers Kraftwerk and their experiments transforming the repetitive sounds of cars and trains into music.
The band are known for experimenting in the studio to create new sounds but on this track they used studio trickery to hide Dave Gimour’s vocal failings. Gilmour handles lead vocals but struggled to hit the notes on one line, so they slowed the track down a semi-tone for him to sing at a lower pitch before speeding the recording back up again.