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?

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 leading 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 we found?

The same old fears

Wish you were here

This song by Pink Floyd is one of my absolute favorites. I think it may well be the first Pink Floyd song I’ve heard, and it hooked me right away. The guitar melody in the beginning is iconic, and it slowly gets layered by other instruments until it becomes this full, rich sound.

As with every Pink Floyd song, the lyrics are deep, and they hit you hard with feelings of melancholy. Bringing images of regrets of the past, decisions that you wished you didn’t make, lost loves and friendships. This is a hard world we live in, and we wish things were different, we wish for that someone to still be here with us, but in the end we’re still just lost in our own ways.

I love the vocals on this track, David Gilmour never considered himself a singer/vocalist, but his performance is always exceptional and unique. This song and the entire album was made during an especially hard time for the band, they’ve recently lost their friend and band member Syd Barret, and the pressures from the music industry and record labels makes them feel like they’re slowly losing themselves. Through all of this strife Pink Floyd still manage to create one of the most famous and iconic albums of all time, with one of my favorite all time songs in there as well.