The U.K.’s poet laureate, Simon Armitage, has released a new poem inspired by Pink Floyd’s iconic album Wish You Were Here.
The poem, Dear Pink Floyd, is part of the band’s upcoming 50th anniversary reissue of the album, dropping Dec. 12. Armitage reads it in a new video posted to YouTube.
“I was thinking about the album and their noise, and what effect that has had on people right across the globe,” Armitage says of the poem. “I didn’t know whether I could put into words what that music sounded like. I only get involved with projects if I think I can’t do them, so this was a natural invitation.”
“I wanted to write something that was album-shaped, that would fit onto the side of an LP and bleed right to the margins of a square,” he adds. “I was trying to mimic the noise of Wish You Were Here – there are no gaps in it. Like a wall of warm sound. I wanted the text to be a physical manifestation of that.”
Finally, he notes, “There aren’t many artistic experiences in the form of noise that send shivers up my spine and make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. But when I put Wish You Were Here on as a record, and it begins, I get that feeling every single time.”
Wish You Were Here 50 will be released in a variety of formats, including a digital release that features the original album mixed in Dolby Atmos. It will feature 25 bonus tracks, including six tracks that have never been released before.
The bonus material also includes 16 live bootleg recordings from a concert at the Los Angeles Sports Arena on April 26, 1975, which are getting their first-ever official release.
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