One year ago, today, David Gilmour made headlines around the world for a record-breaking charity guitar auction. The event was coordinated by Christie’s Auction House in New York. At Gilmour’s direction 123 guitars from his personal collection were sold off for a total of just over $21 million. Two thousand bids were offered by hopeful collectors from 66 countries around the world. The proceeds went to a charity known as ‘Client Earth’; an organization made up of lawyers and environmental experts working together to use the law to combat the incremental ravages of environmental change.
The global climate crisis is the greatest challenge that humanity will ever face, and we are within a few years of the effects of global warming becoming irreversible. I hope that the sale of these guitars will help Client Earth in their actions to use the law to bring about real change. We need a civilized world that goes on for all our grandchildren and beyond, in which these guitars can be played, and songs can be sung.”
David Gilmour
For Gilmour, the desire to raise a significant amount of money for an important charitable cause was something he had contemplated for a long time.
I have started the process at least twice before and chickened out. Don’t fret too much. I still have a few lovely guitars that I couldn’t let go… It does not mean retirement.”
David Gilmour
This promise has proven true because I read last week that some new solo work from this extraordinary guitarist is coming soon.
Among the guitars sold at this monumental event was David Gilmour’s famous Fender Stratocaster known as ‘The Black Strat’. This instrument was integral in the recording of four of the greatest albums ever pressed on vinyl; ‘Dark Side of the Moon’, ‘Wish You Were Here’, ‘Animals’ and ‘The Wall’. From 1973 through 1979 ‘The Black Strat’ was a constant companion for Gilmour’s outpouring of musical creativity. (See ‘Brain Damage/Eclipse’, ‘Nobody Home’ and ‘Comfortably Numb’). This guitar alone sold for nearly four million dollars which eclipsed the record previously set by a guitar once owned by the legendary Jerry Garcia, known as ‘The Wolf. (See ‘Deal’)
David Gilmour was recognized by an ecstatic ‘Client Earth’ CEO, James Thornton.
This is a truly humbling and extraordinary gift, which goes beyond our wildest expectations. It’s difficult to express just how deeply grateful we are to David for choosing ClientEarth as the beneficiary of this historic auction.”
James Thornton
To commemorate this remarkable act of generosity and the combination of David Gilmour’s philanthropic reputation and seemingly unending contribution to his art, today’s feature song will be ‘Wish You Were Here’.
Perhaps the most important aspect of ‘Wish You Were Here’ is it represents one of the last times David Gilmour and Roger Waters truly collaborated. True to form, despite the closeness involved in the song’s origin, the pair don’t quite see its inspiration as coming from the same source. Gilmour has suggested that he never plays this song without thinking of Pink Floyd founding member Syd Barrett, while Waters, who wrote the lyrics based on the memorable guitar piece created by Gilmour, considers the lyrics a moment of personal reflection. It clearly has an existential foundation, and in a rare conciliatory moment Roger Waters has agreed that ‘Wish You Were Here’ is ‘open to interpretation’.
The evolution from its original composition to recording, is an intriguing story. We are all familiar with the sound of a radio station playing the album’s previous song ‘Have a Cigar’ and then being tuned away to several other songs. Among the static, and audibly recognizable pieces within this brief medley of sound is Tchaikovsky’s ‘Fourth Symphony’.
This bit was actually recorded from David Gilmour’s car stereo.
Pink Floyd fans point to this recording as yet another example of the band’s musical brilliance. As the tuner selects the station, David Gilmour’s 12 string guitar emerges, finally settling on a clear overdub of an acoustic guitar solo. This gives way to Gilmour’s plaintive vocal delivery and the ultimate full band performance we all know. While the song evolves, the listener is greeted with additional moments of stellar guitar work, and a brief interlude of a scat style vocal before an expressive closing, featuring a final solo and even more studio innovation. This includes another cross fade into ‘Shine on You Crazy Diamond’; a track that is undoubtedly a tribute to Syd Barrett.
Roger Waters and David Gilmour both describe ‘Wish You Were Here’ in minimalistic terms.
Waters praises the song as;
…really good. All bits of it are really, really good. I’m very happy about it.”
Roger Waters
David Gilmour approaches it with a combination of humour and modesty.
Wish You Were Here is a very simple country song…because of its resonance and the emotional weight it carries, it is one of our best songs.”
David Gilmour
Before I move on to today’s cover versions, it is interesting to point out that the original vision of ‘Wish You Were Here’ involved a violin part by Stephane Grappelli. This was intended to compliment the Tchaikovsky connection at the beginning of the recording. Grappelli was a popular jazz violinist who had done some notable work with Yehudi Menuhin. Both violinists were recorded in a session at Abbey Road studios, and when Gilmour invited them to play a ‘country fiddle part’ for ‘Wish You Were Here’ (David Gilmour wasn’t kidding), Grappelli accepted for the modest fee of 300 pounds. This bit is barely audible on the album cut. Roger Waters suggested that it would be an insult to list Grappelli on the liner notes, for what became such a minor contribution, but they did pay the fee. This gave way to the alternate take being included in the re-release of the Pink Floyd catalogue called ‘Why Pink Floyd’. This is beautiful. It may not have fit the vision of the initial album release, but it stands the test of time…45 years later.
Now, in an effort to offer a broad stroke of cover versions, I will begin with this rendition by Wyclef Jean who is a Haitian-American rapper who created this fascinating recording of ‘Wish You Were Here’. It combines the original vision with elements of his genre. The result is both incredible and important.
This was a pleasant surprise. This duo known as The Running Mates came up in my search and grabbed me with an honest version. It has over two million views. Impressive!
From here I will take you to two extremely commercial artists who offer their obvious reverence to Pink Floyd and do a commendable job.
First, Miley Cyrus…Say what you want, but she is extremely talented, and in my mind, she stands on the right side of many social issues. She is an important voice in a tumultuous time. Here, she channels Melissa Etheridge. Enough said.
From here, we move on to Ed Sheeran. Again…really good. The vocals are exceptional.
Now to a lesser known act that should get way more attention. Here are the Milk Carton Kids. This is right up there with the best versions. It is haunting, while displaying the utmost respect to the original composition.
To close this post, I am heading back to the original creator. Here is David Gilmour doing an unplugged version.
As a final note, I wanted to be sure to add that the charitable contribution by David Gilmour mentioned at the beginning of this post, is just one in a long line of selfless acts by this model of philanthropy. The list of donations to charitable causes is long. In 2003 Gilmour sold his house in Little Venice for 3.6 million pounds and donated the proceeds to ‘Crisis’ which is a British charity that funds housing projects for the homeless. This is just the beginning. You can add charities such as Oxfam, the European Union Mental Health and Illness Association, Greenpeace, Amnesty International, the Lung Association, Nordoff-Robbins music therapy and PETA to the long list of organizations who have benefited from his support. As great a guitarist David Gilmour is, simply stated he is an even better person. Seeing him perform at Massey Hall in Toronto in 1984 still stands as my all-time favourite concert memory. The magnitude of this live experience can’t be relayed in words. I can’t believe that was 36 years ago. Time flies.
The time is gone, the song is over,
Pink Floyd
Thought I’d something more to say
Ted Tocks Covers 
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Originally posted on June 20, 2020
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