The story of the song
Wish You Were Here forms part of a concept album with the same title that focus on absence and disenchantment with the music industry. They chose this as the title track because it summed up the message. The first to suggest this as the album title, was Storm Thorgerson, the man who did their cover art.
The song is dedicated to Syd Barret, and was based on a poem that Roger Waters wrote about Syd Barrett’s fall from reality. It was said that Syd’s friends would lace his coffee with LSD, which eventually lead to his mental breakdown.
This was a rare case of the Pink Floyd primary songwriters Roger Waters and David Gilmour mutually collaborating on a song — they rarely wrote together. Gilmour had the opening riff written and was playing it in the studio at a fast pace when Roger Waters heard it and asked him to play it slower. The song built from there, with the pair writing the music for the chorus and verses together, and Waters adding the lyrics.