Wish You Were Here

I must admit I was a bit puzzled when I saw this Peter Brookes cartoon in The Times newspaper at the weekend.

Because while I vaguely remembered the cover of the Pink Floyd album 'Wish You Were Here' from the 1970s - I didn't really understand the reference to Gordon Brown and Ed  Miliband - the last but one and current leaders of the Labour Party, of course.

Now it could be I still don't know what I'm talking about, but having looked into things a little - it seems 'Wish You Were Here' had two recurrent themes.

One was the loss of a previous band member - Syd Barrett - to mental illness and the feelings of regret and sorrow that this loss provoked in other members of the group remembered in the following lines:

"Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun" - or - "You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon." 

Prententious rubbish borne out of too many drug and drink fuelled days - or wise words distilled from a Zen-like, mystical state of peace and tranquility?

A matter of taste, I suppose - but the 1970s were full of super groups spouting this kind of drivel and nonsense and Pink Floyd were no exception. 

Another theme, perhaps more relevant to the album cover designed by Storm Thorgerson - is that of getting 'burned' and exploited by big business - with the music companies and record lables ripping off naive musicians and bands struggling for their first big break.

In which case it seems that Ed Miliband is being set on fire - in the act of shaking hands with his old boss, Gordon Brown.