Shine on you Crazy Diamond

I love Pink Floyd. Animals, The Wall, Dark Side they all make my list of desert island albums. Wish You Were Here was a five song full length album written after the incredible success of Dark Side of the Moon. Beginning and ending the album are the two parts of the song Shine on You Crazy Diamond.

I downloaded it off Amazon the other day. I had heard parts before, the shortened live versions or the greatest hits version. But I wanted to hear the whole thing. The album's most known song, Wish You Were Here served as a ode to Syd Barrett, the founder of the group who had slipped into mental illness and left the band years before. This song in it's epic length also served as a song for Syd.

It is, like much of Pink Floyd, uncompromising in it's vitality and, to many, it's inaccessibility. After all 22 minutes plus just for two different stanza's of actual singing.

What does it mean. It means that Pink Floyd became one of the biggest bands in the world. It means that this happened after their founder slipped away into a mental haze. It means that they never forgot his influence. It means that as soon as they were beyond the record company's instruction and " untouchable" they made sure Syd knew how they felt.

Shine on You Crazy Diamond is a personal message we all get to hear.