Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Box Set

As any longtime reader of Tape Op will know, I've been a big Pink Floyd fan since I first heard The Wall as a teenager in 1979. The Wall was an amazing studio achievement and a commercial success, but it was their 1975 release, Wish You Were Here, that soon became my favorite. The initial CD version was a crap mastering job, and newer masters overseen by James Guthrie rectified that misstep. The 2011 Immersion box sets included Wish You Were Here with some bonus tracks (all here as well), various surround and Quad mixes, and such. This new set has even more bonus songs, including some "Welcome to the Machine" versions that are way cool. One of my fave new tracks is Guthrie's remix of "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" where he joins the two halves of the song together in the way they had originally written and performed it before recording at EMI Studios/Abbey Road. Brian Humphries was the engineer that Pink Floyd brought in to do this record with them, later taking him to run their Britannia Row Studios where he tracked their Animals LP. Brian's no longer with us, and was one interview I never was able to get a contact for. The live set, recorded by the resourceful fan Mike Millard at Pink Floyd’s Los Angeles Sports Arena show in April 1975, was tracked on a Nakamichi cassette recorder with AKG C 451 mics (how did he phantom power them? Batteries?). Steven Wilson did an excellent restoration of the source tapes and some light widening, EQ, and such. It's incredible how ferocious some of the playing sounds, like David Gilmour's guitar leading in "Have a Cigar" or The Dark Side of the Moon's "Any Colour You Like."

The hardcover booklet has lots of cool photos and items and pix from longtime Floyd/Gilmour tech/studio manager Phil Taylor's collection. The Blu-ray has concert screen films from the 1975 tour, a Storm Thorgerson short film, and hi res downloads, Atmos mixes, and more. With 2 CDs, three main LPs plus a fourth LP, Live At Wembley 1974, a replica Japanese 7-inch of "Have A Cigar" b/w "Welcome To The Machine," a comic book tour program, and Knebworth concert poster, it's a lot of stuff. Streaming services have all the main audio (not Knebworth) and other CD or LP versions also are out. I'm such a fan of this band, yet I never suspected they'd release anything beyond their main albums for years. It seems maybe the sale of their recorded works (not songs) to Sony might be paying off for fans, and that makes me happy!