Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here early US first-issue press 1975 Columbia Stereo NM

$

70

Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

Columbia · PC 33453 · 1975 · Stereo

Vinyl: NM · Cover: NM

Matrix / runout:
Side A: AL 33453-1C
HTM
Side B: BL 33453-3C

Early US first-issue pressing (stereo, 1975-77) - Columbia PC 33453 custom handshake labels, no-barcode jacket; A-side lacquer AL 33453-1C with HTM (Harry T. Moss) etched, B-side BL 33453-3C; metalwork matches the documented Santa Maria pressing family, no plant mark in the transcription.

Wish You Were Here was recorded at Abbey Road between January and July 1975, with the band exhausted and creatively becalmed in the wake of the runaway global success of The Dark Side Of The Moon. Roger Waters shaped the record around the twin themes of absence and the corrosion of the music business, anchoring it with 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond', an elegy for Syd Barrett built on David Gilmour's four-note guitar phrase; the most famous story of the sessions is Barrett's unannounced arrival at the studio in June 1975, overweight and unrecognisable, while the band mixed the very song written about him. 'Welcome To The Machine' and 'Have A Cigar' are direct satires of the record industry, the latter sung by folk singer Roy Harper - who was recording in an adjacent studio - after Waters and Gilmour both struggled with the vocal. The title track's acoustic lament, framed by a car radio and a fake AM-radio guitar intro, became one of rock's most quoted songs of loss. The album marks the point where Pink Floyd shifted from studio-conceptual spectacle toward Waters' increasingly personal, embittered writing, the path that would lead to Animals and The Wall. It topped the charts in both the US and UK on release and, after mixed initial reviews from critics who found it thin next to Dark Side, was steadily re-evaluated as the band's most emotionally direct statement. Gilmour and Wright both named it their favourite Pink Floyd album, and it remains a cornerstone of progressive rock and one of the great records about friendship, disappearance and disillusion.

GRADING
Vinyl and sleeve are graded separately (vinyl/sleeve). Grading is done AFTER cleaning, so what I describe is what the record grades at CLEAN. Visual grading is under direct light. Photos are of the actual item, not stock images.

PACKING
The record travels outside the jacket in its new inner sleeve, jacket in
a new outer sleeve, in a 12" LP mailer with stiffeners.
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RETURNS
30-day returns accepted. If the record is not as described, I pay
return shipping and refund in full. Records must come back in the same condition and
packed to the same standard.

IF THERE IS A PROBLEM
Message me first. Grading is subjective and I would rather sort out a
disagreement directly than have either of us go through a dispute.
I have been collecting for decades and I stand behind every grade.