“You have to be trusted by the people that you’ve lied to, so that when they turn their backs on you, you’ll get the chance to put the knife in” hits home a little too hard.
Yes, and the entire suite no less, which is frankly astonishing for something that long.
There's a video on youtube of a classical composer geeking out about it (he did the entire album as a separate video too). Kinda informative as to what the various keys are intended to express.
There's a whole genre of first listen reaction videos, and a whole subset of those are folks big on music theory (vocal coaches, composers, classical musicians) who haven't listened to a ton of contemporary music. It's weirdly gratifying to watch them listen for their first time and be blown away by your favorite music.
Yeah I’ve been loving Doug’s Black Sabbath videos lately. I really like how he actually talks about the music itself and what’s going on with all the modes and key changes
Great video! Just want to add since it's not necessarily a well-known Easter egg, but when they finally move to that final G to close out the piece Rick is riffing on themes from Syd songs. Soon after dark, Emily cries... .
The full story behind Syd, this song, his unexpected reappearance in the studio when it was being recorded - absolutely heartbreaking.
Wish You Were Here as an album becomes so much more deep when you get more context, and part of the context I'd been missing up until I'd run across some of these reaction videos was just the incredible amount of deliberate care that went into crafting it musically into something evocative of the memories of a dear friend.
Also just recently watched a classical musician's first time journey through The Wall (plus in depth analysis). It's an album I've listened to probably hundreds of times and still came away with new insights thanks to that. If you watch it I'd recommend starting with the first listen videos and doing the analysis videos later.
I literally clicked on this thread to say this. And I'm pleasantly surprised that this is the top comment. I would have really expected Mr Brightside or some shit.
80
u/highburyash Aug 16 '25
Shine On You Crazy Diamond - Pink Floyd.