wish you were here

here is a really good song from an awesome band... posting this just for funsies, ill be back with my rants, tirades, nostalgia, and other goodies later... also analysis at the bottom.

(Album Cover from Wish you were here)


Pink Floyd- Wish You Were Here



So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell,
blue skies from pain.
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?
How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have you found? The same old fears.
Wish you were here.

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quick analysis:

The song is complicated but simple at the same time. With the series of contrasting elements that are juxtaposing one another, we are provided with two very distinct outlooks, scenes, feelings, and images. The most important line, I find, is the first--"so you think you can tell heaven from hell?" This single line sets up the whole song and even explains an intelligent perspective of life; an awakening of oneself to whats in front of his/her eyes. It simply asks-- is the world heading in the right direction? And could you tell if it was or wasnt? We have wars and governments and science and medical break-throughs and love and hate and humanity and genocide. There is just this feeling that things are building up to something, somethings happening, but whether that something is good or bad (heaven or hell) is a mystery. We love technology and innovation and the mass creation of buildings, but is that an improvement for the Earth? We love flowers. We love nature and great blue sky and the animals. A vast, lush green field filled with wildflowers, the occasional tree and some critters is a fucking beautiful sight--an image that cannot be replaced with anything else. So why? If nature is so beautiful, why do we keep expanding--keep infesting the land with our steel, with our pollution, with trash, with these buildings? Or we can think another way--these wondrous inventions and this concrete jungle could be an utopia of prosper, intelligence, and happiness. The path the world is treading is unknown--(utopia with an age of intelligence or doomsday by nuclear holocaust) Through this uncertainty, through this mist of chaos, through all this fucking bullshit pain and suffering, all i need is--you. I dont know whats going to happen in 20 years or 50 years or after I die, but all I know or wish--I wish you were here. It could be anyone: a friend, a dog, a lover, jesus, buddha, it could be anyone, anyone your heart desires to keep the mind, body, and soul safe. Im not looking for answers, but someone to...be near...to not go through whatever will happen alone. We might have compromised our integrity, sold out our future, doomed/saved it all, but dont leave me here alone. Wish you were here. Wish you were here. Thats what the song means to me. wish you were here.