posts tagged "shine on you crazy diamond"

Rick Wright: I walked into the studio at Abbey Road, Roger was sitting, mixing at the desk, and I saw this big bald guy sitting on the couch behind. About 16 stone: huge, bald, fat guy. And I didn’t think anything of it. In those days it was quite normal for strangers to wander into our sessions. I thought, ‘He looks a bit…strange’ Anyway, so I sat down with Roger at the desk and we worked for about ten minutes, and this guy kept on getting up and brushing his teeth and then sitting, doing really weird things, but keeping quiet. And I said to Roger, ‘Who is he?’ and Roger said ‘I don’t know.’ and I said ‘Well, I assumed he was a friend of yours,’ and he said ‘No, I don’t know who he is.’ Anyway, it took me a long time, and then suddenly I realize d it was Syd, after maybe 45 minutes. He came in as we were doing the vocals for ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond,’ which was basically about Syd. He just for some incredible reason picked the very day that we were doing a song which was about him. It was a huge shock, because I hadn’t seen him for about six years. He kept standing up and brushing his teeth, putting his toothbrush away and sitting down. Then at one point he stood up and said, ‘Right, when do I put my guitar on?’ And of course he didn’t h ave a guitar with him. And we said, ‘Sorry Syd, the guitar’s all done’. That’s what’s so incredibly…weird about this guy. And a bit disturbing, as well, particularly when you see a guy and you don’t recognize him. And then for him to pick the very day we start putting vocals on a song about him. Very strange.