Wish you were here?

[The Ruptured Duck]

could there be a connection between the Pink Flyod song "wish you were here" and the moon landings?

So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell,
blue skies from pain.(space looks peacefull but is quite deadly
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?
And did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?(maybe refering to the space race)
How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,(astronaut helmets=fishbowl)
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found? The same old fears.
Wish you were here.

anyone else see it?

[Sock]

I never thought it had anything to do with the space race, I just always had what the song meant to me.  I'm sure if everyone told each other what the song meant to them (if they find any meaning in it) they would, for the most part, have completely different ideas.

[Hagar]

I always understood that the album "Wish You Were Here" was dedicated to former Floyd front man Syd Barrett. If you know the story I think the meaning of the title track becomes clear.

http://www.sydbarrett.net/subpages/articles/wish_you_were_here_mojo.htm

He was Pink Floyd's astral voyager who went too far, the star-child of psychedelia who never returned from his journey to inner space.

Nearly 30 years after his brief creative shining, the cult of Syd Barrett continues to fascinate new generations. Cliff Jones investigates the truth behind the myth of the original Crazy Diamond.

In a private ward at the Adenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge, where a Barrett Room is named in honour of his late father, the respected pathologist, Syd Barrett lies resting. He is now almost totally blind, following complications arising from diabetes. The prognosis isn't good if he does not routinely take the prescribed insulin, and Barrett seems either incapable or unwilling to do so by himself. Since the death of his mother Winifred in 1991, Syd has often lapsed into diabetic coma, apparently unconcerned about his helth. However, he is watched over by a tight network of understanding relatives and neighbours.

When he's healthy, Syd lives a peaceful, comfortable life in one of a secluded row of semi-detached houses on the outskirts of Cambridge. His earnigns from his recordings are substantial and he wants for very little, though he chooses a modest existence. Nevertheless, he is still in an emotionally precatious state; talk of his illustrious past can trigger bouts of depression, sometimes stretching to weeks. For this reason, none of his former colleagues in Pink Floyd have direct contact with him anymore.

[The Ruptured Duck]

Moore and Gordon were anxious to initiate Syd into the ways of the new wonder drug. Moore set up a psychedelic garden party at Gale's home while his parents were away on holiday. The friends laced sugarcubes with generous doses of liquid LSD, and, having absorbed the drug through their skin, were tripping by the time Syd arrived. Barrett took his cube with little idea of what to expect and spent the next 12 hours, according to Storm Thorgerson, "lost in space". Syd seized an orange and a plum from the household fruit bowl and carried them everywhere during his trip. In his altered state the fruits came to represent the planets Jupiter and Venus. Syd imagined himself suspended in place between the two planets for hours until someone ate his plum (Venus) and his universe collapsed

funny, but sad

[Woodlouse2002]

Wish you were here doesn't have anything to do with the space race.

And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?(maybe refering to the space race)

In my mind this line is about how in one situation you may only play a small role, but in another you can play a big one. Like, as the line suggests in war, you can either have a small part to play, I.e. do very little, or, if you are captured, you can do great things in a prison camp, say planning and executing escapes.


And as for the Syd Barrett connection, I thought Brain Damage in Dark Side of the Moon was about him. And Shine on you Crazy Diamond. Not Wish You Were Here though.

[4_Series_Scania]

And as for the Syd Barrett connection, I thought Brain Damage in Dark Side of the Moon was about him. And Shine on you Crazy Diamond. Not Wish You Were Here though.

The "Crazy Diamond" was indeed Syd Barrett.  ;)

[Pinchaser...]

Hands down the best Pink Floyd song ever produced.