Is the song wywh about Syd or a soldier in the vitnom (sp) war

i've been wondering if the song wywh was about syd or a soldier...since im 13 and my parents grew up with PF i asked them...my mom says its about syd...who i loved and got her loving him any way...my dad said it was abotu a solider...so im asking u guys for your opinon...Syd or Soilder




thanks alot,

Always,
The one and only 13 year old who can comprehend the lyrics of PF
Shawn

Shawn,

It's generally accepted that Shine On You Crazy Diamond is the true tribute track on WYWH, but I can understand how one could think this about the title track as well.
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Friendly Floydian,
Byron

The lyrics "...did you exchange a walk-on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?" do conjure up an image of a soldier taken prisoner or whatever, but I think Syd and the band themselves was on Roger's mind. I think when Roger wrote this he was lamenting trading their souls & anonymity ("a walk on part in the war") for fame and fortune ("lead role in a cage").

hate to be a jerk about it...but it's Vietnam.

The whole album is a tribute to Syd IMO. Especially SOYCD and WYWH.

I think the whole album can be related to Syd.

IMO Have a cigar is blatently about the music business chewing him up and spitting him out, same as welcome to the machine really

yeah, I think that's what we've all been brought up to understand, that WYWH was written with Syd in thought, combined with their own contempt for the music industry (meaning the business aspect of it anyway).

Thanks guys/gals for helping me...

I don't think the song is about Syd, or Vietnam. It is true that SOYCD is about Syd, but not WYWH. The album is about isolation, and specifically the feelings Roger had beiong in a successful Rock group, and still feeling empty (a lead role in a cage / lost souls swimming in a fish bowl).

Roger himself states:
"I think you could say that 'Wish You Were Here' was written,
partially specifically about Syd, but largely about my sense of the absence of one from another, and from the band."

That is all

You can relate all the songs on wish you were here to Syd.

Somewhere in A Saucerful of Secrets (Schaffner), it says it was about Mr. Waters' father. There's no reason it couldn't be about more than one thing, of course. But I thought I'd throw that theory out there to join all the others.

A lot of things were about Waters' father.

well, Roger Waters wrote about three major things, madness, the war, and education or schooling...to paraphrase Rick Wright.


the whole writing about his dad thing just makes me think of Waters as a poser of sorts. I mean, it's tragic, to grow up without a dad and all that, and sure it's perfectly understandable to write about it. But, for some reason, I feel he took it a bit to the extreme, I mean he didn't even know his father. Once again, Syd's dad died too, and he was old enough to know he had.

That was cold.

Interesting point, Wing'd. But I think Roger was more angry at the way his dad died.

Everything Roger wrote about his dad before The Final Cut was understandable. But I think he took it too far with the latter album. I think he had already proved everything on that subject on The Wall.

Plus, it might be possible that Syd never emotionally realized his dad's death? Just a guess. Or maybe since he died of cancer, Syd had accepted his father's death a while before he actually did die?