Suits and schizophrenia

After using a substantial number of my last twenty texts for the month trying to explain to Mat the meaning behind the Storm Thorgerson graphic on the front cover of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here, I realised that it might be a good idea for me to do a serious write-up detailing my interpretation of the overall package. To properly understand the symbolism that lies in the artwork, one must take into account the dual concepts of the album -- those are, the impersonality and manipulative nature of the recording industry, and Syd Barrett's mental disintegration. These concepts overlap significantly for reasons that I will explain in due course.

Obviously this analysis is going to make a lot more sense to those of you who have heard Wish You Were Here. If you haven't, I can honestly recommend it as one of, if not the best, albums I have ever had the pleasure of listening to. Judging by the huge acclaim that it has received throughout the thirty years since its release, I think it would even be fair to pick that it's one of the greatest albums in history. Therefore, you should definitely try and find someone who has it and have a listen. If you're thinking of buying it, hold out for a while because it is going to be re-released -- probably around Christmas time -- as an SACD, in recognition of the album's thirtieth anniversary. Enough dawdling though -- on with the analysis.

Syd Barrett was the original frontman of The Pink Floyd, as they were called when they were starting out in the sixties. He was -- and still is -- regarded by many as a musical genius; a pioneer of psychedelic music. During his relatively short time in the band, Syd was the dominant creative influence, responsible for writing the vast majority of their material. He was well-known for his fusion of sixties pop whimsy with intense psychedelic elements. He was also regarded as the "pretty face" of the band, which planted him immediately in the spotlight as a sort of poster boy for the exploding British psychedelic scene. This all came at a very young age for Syd, who was barely nineteen by the time that The Pink Floyd had started achieving acclaim all over the country.

He was gifted. However, the latter period of his childhood had been far from idyllic. His father, with whom he had been very close, died during Syd's adolescence. Many of Syd's then-friends have spoken out about how hard it hit him. Syd was also a very undisciplined child. Not long after entering the psychedelic music scene, Syd became a user of LSD. His rapidly emerging psychological problems reached their peak during The Pink Floyd's mini-tour of the US in 1967, where he frequently made special efforts to de-tune his guitar during their sets. Syd continued with this behaviour later in the year when The Pink Floyd toured Britain in support of Jimi Hendrix, as well as allegedly not showing up to some gigs. In the following year, the band simply stopped picking Syd up for gigs, as he was obviously becoming detrimental to the quality of their live shows.

No one is sure exactly what it was that spawned Syd Barrett's mental breakdown and the development of his schizophrenia. It is likely that it was a combination of all of the factors that I have mentioned above. However, for the purposes of this analysis, it is helpful to focus on the fact that Syd's fame came to him very easily and at a very young age. The sudden position of significance that he held in the world around him would have been hard for him to get his head around, particularly given his frequent use of LSD. Also, as a talented artist he became a target to the whims of the recording industry, who were constantly trying to mould and shape his musical output to their liking, for the sake of ensuring its commercial viability. This, of course, is a theme focussed on extensively in the album Wish You Were Here, particularly in the songs Welcome To The Machine and Have A Cigar. Therefore, one can now see the link between the impersonality of the record industry and Syd's schizophrenia.

Three of the four songs on the album, with lyrics by Roger Waters, make reference to the transition between childhood and the adulthood in the context of the recording industry. Shine On You Crazy Diamond, an unashamedly emotional tribute to Syd, opens the album and is the first to mention the issue in the lyric "You were caught in the crossfire/Of childhood and stardom". This is an obvious reference to the fact that Syd achieved legendary status very early on in the piece.

The next track, Welcome To The Machine, is constructed entirely around the idea that the recording industry (or even society in general) tries to craft one in one's young age to ensure maximum profitability. Society likes to think that it spends a lot of time and effort raising its children, and it expects a return on its alleged investment. The lyrics here that pay reference to the transition between childhood and adulthood are, particularly, "You've been in the pipeline/Filling in time/Provided with toys/And scouting for boys/You bought a guitar/To punish your ma/You didn't like school/And you know you're nobody's fool". This paints an image for us that individuals, Syd included, are constructed with the intent of them being turned into products to fit society's expectations. "You've been in the pipeline" evokes thoughts of individuals being fed through an almost mechanical process before being welcomed into the machine that is society, and whatever awaits them in adult life. For Syd, the recording industry awaited him. Its attempts to turn him into a product are referenced in the second part of the lyric lift-out, starting with "You bought a guitar". To me, this conveys the idea that corporate interests are intent on constructing his image for him as opposed to letting him truely express himself. In this example it sounds almost as if they are trying to push a punk image onto him.

Have A Cigar is a more straightforward, blatantly sarcastic take on the manipulative nature of the industry, and although it's a seemingly more appropriate piece to apply to the situation of the band itself at the time of the album's release (1975), it is still applicable to Syd as it confronts a similar concept to what I see in Welcome To The Machine. I think it shows that at that point in time, following the gargantuan commercial success of The Dark Side of the Moon (go listen to that album also -- it's already out on SACD) the Roger Waters-led Floyd felt like they were in the same situation as Syd was years before; under threat from self-interested executives and heading towards possible disintegration. "The band is just fantastic/That is really what I think/Oh by the way, which one's Pink?" is one of the most oft-quoted sections of lyrics in the entire album, for the simple reason that it is the most scathing and obvious allusion to the disconnectedness that exists between musical artists and the record companies. It emphasises the fact that the corporate executive satirised in the song is totally insensitive to the individuality of the band and does not understand them to any significant degree. It's always been characteristic of people who are not fans of the band to think of it as an individual artist, rather than a band, when they hear the name "Pink Floyd". This shows that the corporate exec is simply springing on the latest big thing to try and squeeze as much money from it as he possibly can. The theme of Have A Cigar is reflected in one of the more simplistic readings of Wish You Were Here's cover art -- that the man on fire is one who has been burned in a business deal.

It is interesting to consider that the previous two songs I have discussed are often simplified in people's minds as anti-corporate diatribes, when in fact it's quite likely that they are also highly significant in that they integrate elements of Syd's story. The same sort of simplification is also often foisted on the title track, Wish You Were Here, which a lot of people choose to view as a simple love song or as a call-out to Syd in the vein of Shine On. I strongly believe, however, that it serves to tie together the whole duality of the album and capture the disorientating nature of Syd's schizophrenia. The track commences with the sound of an acoustic guitar playing a solemn tune, coming from what seems to be a tinny-sounding radio. After a few seconds of building up, a second acoustic guitar then joins in, playing an alternate progression but in harmony with the music coming through the radio. Both guitars sound very much the same except for the fact that one of them is somewhat crackly.

It is almost as if someone is playing along to a recording of themself. Just before the vocals start, the quieter guitar comes to the fore and there are now two guitars playing together. This reflects the duality of the album as a whole. To me, it also conveys the idea that in his state of schizophrenia Syd has lost a part of himself; the better part of himself. The recording playing in the background at the beginning of the song could symbolise the part of himself that is distant and lost, whilst the clearer-sounding guitar would be Syd attempting to reunite himself with his other half. This would serve to explain the fact that the guitars are playing different tunes -- Syd is not quite able to pull himself back together but he is making an attempt. "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 we found/The same old fears/I wish you were here". The anthemic focal verse of the song expresses the idea that Syd is longing to find himself again. The "two lost souls" who are "running over the same old ground" are Syd divided within himself. One of the lost souls is the bright shining light that the band and his fans all knew, and the other is the terrified, disturbed, mentally fragile hermit that has come to the fore.

"Did you exchange/A walk-on part in a war/For a lead role in a cage?" -- Syd's interior monologue, asking himself what has happeneda to him. The "walk-on part in a war" represents the frantic, confusing and wearying nature of being a successful musical artist. It was too much for him, especially at such a young age. Now he's achieved a "lead role in a cage" -- he is imprisoned within his own mental instability and unable to express himself anywhere near as well as he could before all this happened. He's also become more of a legend following his breakdown than he was beforehand; he has become a martyr, which is also touched on in the lyrics of Shine On.

Thus, now that one understands the true nature of the album, the cover artwork has the potential to take on a completely different meaning. The two men appear to be standing in a desolate, relatively featureless environment. It is actually a Hollywood backlot. Both of these factors make the image attributable to Syd's story -- the figures look alienated in the context of the strange scenery; it shows the impersonality of showbusiness. They therefore fit in well with the songs Welcome To The Machine and Have A Cigar. Now look closer. The two men actually look very similar. They could even be alter-egos. The two halves of Syd? One of them -- possibly representing Syd's better half -- is being destroyed by fire. Despite this, the other figure is not letting go. He is keeping a firm grip even though the burning figure is progressively slipping away into oblivion. He's not giving up. This ties in with the title track and the band's possible idea that Syd must still be holding on to that other part of himself, no matter how dire the situation gets. The bleakness of the background scenery establishes the conflict inside himself as the prominent feature in Syd's mind and also shows that he feels alienated from the rest of the world.

Needless to say I probably have more ideas that I will add in due course, but for now I think I'll call it a day. Beautiful weather. This entry has turned out pretty long. Perhaps I read too much into things? I hope you enjoy it anyway. It's good to finally get all this written down.

Shine On.