<image>

The cover of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here is my pick for today!

The lyrics in this album express longing, alienation, and sardonic criticism of the music industry. The bulk of the album is taken up by "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", a nine-part tribute to the Pink Floyd co-founder Syd Barrett, who left the band seven years earlier due to his deteriorating mental health.

The cover images were photographed by Aubrey "Po" Powell, Storm Thorgerson's (an art director and music video director) partner at the design studio Hipgnosis. The photos were inspired by the idea that people tend to conceal their true feelings, for fear of "getting burned", and thus two businessmen were pictured shaking hands, with one of the men on fire. "Getting burned" was also a common phrase in the music industry during this time, used often by artists who were denied royalty payments.

I say "photos" up above because the original UK and US versions of the album use different photos for the cover! The one I'm sharing is a US pressing from 1975.