How Syd Barrett and Roger Waters’s Father Inspired “Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” remains one of the band’s defining songs. And the history leading to it is familiar to most fans: the loss of the band’s co-founder, paving the way for the arrival of David Gilmour, groundbreaking albums, and blockbuster success. Following Barrett’s exit, Roger Waters assumed the leadership role and became Pink Floyd’s thematic architect. The band had changed, but its success came at a great cost.

We’ll begin with Barrett. But he wasn’t the only one who shaped “Wish You Were Here”.

A Lost Friend

Syd Barrett’s mental decline had removed the band’s former leader. But it also led to its future masterpieces, The Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, and The Wall.

On “Wish You Were Here”, Roger Waters said the lyrics came to him in a stream of consciousness after hearing David Gilmour’s riff. The title track, like the rest of the album, was inspired by absence and the loss of Barrett. The band had witnessed their friend’s decline for years. And when he was around, it seemed like he had disappeared inside his own mind—as if trapped behind the eyes.

How I wish, how I wish you were here,
We’re just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year.

Walls and human connection are familiar themes in Pink Floyd’s music. And Barrett’s mental illness had created a wall between him and the outside world. Though he was alive, his friends could no longer communicate with him.

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?

War Hero

But Barrett isn’t the only one who shaped “Wish You Were Here”. Waters said everything he’s written has been shaped by his parents. His father died during World War II, while fighting in Italy, when Waters was young. “My father has been a central figure in everything,” he told Dan Rather.

Did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees? Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change? Did you exchange,
A walk-on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?

Moreover, the loss of his father and Barrett’s disappearance each reiterate the album’s theme of absence. And Waters, who became one of rock music’s great poets, puts it plainly on this eternal track: How I wish you were here.

Photo by Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music/Getty Images