Today in 1975, Pink Floyd released the album Wish You Were Here.
This was a standout among standouts, part of a legendary string of 70s records.
Even if you don’t know the songs like the title track, “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” or “Have A Cigar,” you might know the cover: it’s the one where the two men in suits are shaking hands… and one of them is on fire.
The idea for the cover came from Storm Thorgerson of the design group Hipgnosis.
Many of Pink Floyd’s memorable album covers are Hipgnosis works, from the flying pig on “Animals” to the prism on “The Dark Side of the Moon.”
The artwork is designed to represent a couple themes that run through the album.
One is what Thorgerson described as “absence,” specifically, the absence and virtual disappearance of Pink Floyd’s founder, Syd Barrett.
Hipgnosis made “absence” present in the artwork by putting the entire package inside black shrink-wrap, an idea that I can’t imagine the people at the record label loved.
Which brings us to the other main theme: the band’s frustration with the music business.
To bring that concept to life, Hipgnosis hired stuntmen Ronnie Rondell and Danny Rogers to put on business suits and stand on the Warner Bros. studio lot.
As photographer Aubrey Powell got into position, the production team lit Rondell on fire!
He was being literally burned to show how Pink Floyd felt that people got figuratively burned by the business.
Rondell was wearing a fire-proof suit, so he stayed ablaze long enough for Powell to take 15 photos; then the wind shifted and a bit of fire signed the stuntman’s mustache.
Fortunately he was ok, and the cover became one of the most famous in rock music history.
You might even say that, with record buyers, it caught fire?
Starting tomorrow at the Nelson-Adkins Museum of Art, it’s the Kansas City Deaf Cultural Festival.
There will be lots of live performances in American Sign Language by storytellers and poets, hands-on activities and self-guided video tours of the museum’s collection in ASL.
The Story Behind Pink Floyd’s ‘Wish You Were Here’ Album Cover (American Songwriter)
Kansas City Deaf Cultural Festival (Nelson-Adkins Museum of Art)
