Shine On You Crazy Diamond

Soul Music

BBC

Music, Music Commentary

4.7 • 831 Ratings

🗓️ 26 December 2018

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Shine On You Crazy Diamond discussed by voices, including David Gilmour of Pink Floyd.

Understood to have been written about Syd Barrett, their former band member, it’s both a tribute, and a call for him to ‘shine on’ despite suffering serious mental health issues.

David Gilmour of Pink Floyd recalls the legendary day that Syd Barrett unexpectedly appeared in the studio where they were recording Wish You Were Here, the album bookended by Shine On.

Nobody recognised Syd at first; once handsome and slender, he'd gained weight and shaved his head and eyebrows.

Anna Gascoigne talks about the pain of losing her son, Jay. He was a gentle boy, a talented musician, who eventually succumbed to the multiple mental health problems he'd battled for years. Shine On You Crazy Diamond, for Anna, speaks directly to her of Jay; he loved Pink Floyd and Shine On was played at his memorial service.

Anna, herself, was driven to the brink of suicide by her son’s death. It was the support of her family – including her brother, Paul Gascoigne - that helped her to carry on.

Ed Steelefox, a DJ based in Worcester, describes a New Year’s Eve house party from a few years ago. As guests gradually fell asleep, he chose to slip out the door leaving a non-stop playlist of different, live, versions of Shine On You Crazy Diamond to penetrate their dreams.

And regular Soul Music contributor, Professor Allan Moore takes to the grand piano to play and talk about what it is in the track that is so directly reminiscent of Syd Barrett.

Series about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact.'

Details of organisations offering information and support are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline/

Producer: Karen Gregor

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2018.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to quickly tell you about some others.
0:05.2	My name's Andy Martin and I'm the editor of a team of podcast producers at the BBC in Northern Ireland.
0:11.3	It's a job I really love because we get to tell the stories that really matter to people here,
0:16.3	but which also resonate and apply to listeners around the world.
0:19.6	And because the team is such a diverse
0:21.2	range of skills and strengths, we have trained journalists, people who love digging through
0:26.0	archives, we've got drama and even comedy experts. We really can do those stories justice. So if
0:31.8	you like this podcast, head to BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more fascinating stories
0:37.1	from all around the UK. BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more fascinating stories from all around the UK.
0:40.0	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:49.3	It was New Year's Eve, 2016, and being a DJ, I'd been out working late at night, and in the early
0:55.8	hours, I called by a friend's house where they were having a party. My name's Ed Steelfox,
1:01.7	and I'm a DJ local to Worcester, and I specialise in parties and special events. When I got
1:09.1	there, my friends and I started having a YouTube disco session where we'd just be playing each other songs that we loved.
1:16.6	And obviously everyone else had been partying and started earlier, partying a lot harder than I.
1:25.6	Bit by bit as the night went on and it got closer to dawn in fact most people were either asleep or half asleep across the room
1:32.7	it looked like a renaissance painting with bodies lounging on the sofas and on the floor and i realized it was
1:41.4	almost time for me to go so i thought as, as a parting gift, what would I leave them with?
1:48.2	And I'm often in particular about the song that I finish a night with.
1:52.5	And I like it to have a certain resonance to echo out.
1:56.7	So I sat at the computer for a while, and I put together a playlist of about 15 to 20 alternate live versions of Pink Floyd's Shine on Your Crazy Diamond.
2:13.9	I think the reason I chose the song was because the beginning fades in, almost like the opening scene of a film.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.