Simon Armitage, the poet laureate, has written a poem celebrating the 50th anniversary of Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here.
You can listen to Armitage read the poem below.
“I was thinking about the album and their noise, and what effect that has had on people right across the globe,” says Armitage. “I didn’t know whether I could put into words what that music sounded like. I only get involved with projects if I think I can’t do them, so this was a natural invitation.
“I wanted to write something that was album-shaped, that would fit onto the side of an LP and bleed right to the margins of a square. I was trying to mimic the noise of Wish You Were Here – there are no gaps in it. Like a wall of warm sound. I wanted the text to be a physical manifestation of that.
“The bigger voice in the piece is all fans in the world trying to say something. I was the generation that caught the tail end of punk – a sort of a musical resetting of the clock, for me. That’s how I wanted everything at that time. Then eventually you get to 17, 18, and you want something more introspective. That came in the form of Pink Floyd. It was so profound, so thought provoking. There aren’t many artistic experiences in the form of noise that send shivers up my spine and make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. But when I put Wish You Were Here on as a record, and it begins, I get that feeling every single time.”
The text of Armitage’s poem appears in the upcoming Wish You Were Here 50 box set, alongside bonus tracks, live recordings from from the Los Angeles Sports Arena, 1975 and six previously unreleased alternate versions. You can hear “The Machine Song” – the previously unheard demo of “Welcome To The Machine” – below.
Wish You Were Here 50 is released on December 12 via Sony Music on multiple formats including 3LP, 2CD, Blu-ray, digital and a Deluxe Box Set.
