This song can connect on so many different levels. At the time, one of Pink Floyd’s former band members Syd Barrett was going through serious health and mental issues due to heavy drug abuse. He visited the band in the studio while they were recording the Wish You Were Here album and they didn’t even recognized him at first. He seemed completely detached from reality, which possibly rooted the meaning behind this song.

Wish You Were Here – Pink Floyd

So, so you think you can tell
Heaven from Hell,
Blue skys from pain.
Can you tell a green field
From a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?

And did they get you to trade
Your heros for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange
A walk on part in the war
For a lead role in a cage?

How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We’re just two lost souls
Swimming in a fish bowl,
Year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found?
The same old fears.
Wish you were here.