Wishes & Wardrobes
Wistful music · a Tolkien geek · Sweater illusions ·
September is chugging along, and thank you for having me in your inbox again. Today we shall find gathered at the table a 50 year old rock album, meticulously knitted sweaters and rappers with Lord Of The Rings. Whether you are listening or reading- tell me what you think!
🎧 Prefer to listen? Hit play above to hear me narrate instead! (that’s me, in the corner, not some AI voice).
50 Wistful Years: Pink Floyd’s commemoration of a burning man.
Friday Find: of knitting, photos & illusions
Tolkien & Rap: an unlikely connection from a JRR nerd.
With: A YoYo champion, 2025 imagery, bots taking over and dating apps.
1. 50 Wistful Years
I found myself a bit taken aback few months ago when I realised this was the 50th year since Pink Floyd released ‘Wish You Were Here’. Its pretty incredible how some albums and tracks have it in them to resonate across time and the pops in culture.
Then , the other day, I was a little confused to see a Floyd album cover on Spotify. I thought it was a glitch in the matrix, because the actual album image I know flickered a moment before settling on this.
I quickly realised this was no black-cat glitch. Every Floyd album had been given this treatment, a nearly flat black background with simple text. The words? They described the original album cover. Intentionally or not, this gave off a real gen-AI prompt vibe; or the illusion that people might have, thinking this simple text prompt could result in the album covers we have known over the years.
In fact, it has been some sort of marketing stunt without any (explicit) explanation. The general reaction in Floydian circles was that the band (or new rights owners Sony Music) were likely setting up some sort of 50th anniversary announcement.
Why?
Secrets & Fire.
Back in 1975, the album was originally released in a black shrink wrap, with the logo of two robotic hands shaking on the front. Inside was the album cover we are more familiar with- the iconic burning man. That album art was kept ‘secret’ till you opened the record you bought. Different times, eh?
“In the 1970s, album covers were equally as important as the music, because the cover helped to sell the record.”
Indeed- album covers were a key tool in any bands’ arsenal back then, needing to stand out in music store shelves. (60s-70s album art is a whole rabbit hole, maybe worth getting into another time!).
The visual was developed by UK design collective Hipgnosis- Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey ‘Po’ Powell, who crafted a visual statement that has remained instantly recognisable.
“Record stores would carry 10,000 different images in album sleeves, so what we were doing had to look different and stand out amongst the crowd,” Powell has said. “I remember turning around to Storm and saying, how are we going to set a man on fire? Because there was no digital way of doing it in those days. He said, Po, you’re just going to have to do it for real. That was it.”
She also pointed out how Floyd were the only (rare) band besides the Beatles, who had the rights & control to the album cover creatives. “That’s why we were allowed to do what we wanted. It was brilliant.”
Pink Floyd had become one of the biggest rock groups in 1973 with The Dark Side Of The Moon; this follow up in 1975 became their first to reach the top of the charts either side of the Atlantic. In many ways seen as a tribute to founding member Syd Barrett (who had left few year earlier)— especially ‘Shine On Your Crazy Diamond’— the album is known for themes of “absence, isolation, transience, and comment on the insincerity of the music business.”
The theme of the album duly surfaced as “absence” — emotional and physical absence. In relationships, when people withdraw their commitment — their emotional presence — and become absent, it is often for fear of getting hurt or being “burned.” Hence a burning man — a man on fire.
The two men shaking hands in a studio lot symbolised “stereotypical corporate executives— the type who ignorantly ask, “Oh by the way, which one’s Pink?” in the song ‘Have a Cigar’.”
Eventually— fifty years to the day the album was released— it was announced that the commemorative ‘Wish You Were Here 50’ is out December 12 (below); an expanded edition which will feature alternate mixes and demos. You can have a listen to an early release of a demo for ‘The Machine Song’- an alternate, more spacey version of ‘Welcome To The Machine’.
Roger Waters did recently say, “Yeah, well, you know, those kind of classic albums from the middle years, The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish you Were Here, The Wall, whatever, Animals maybe, they do seem to have stood the test of time, and they do seem to have affected successive generations in a way… you know, in a good way.”
As of this morning, I see the original album covers restored.
> Just a few weeks ago, the stuntman who was set alight for that album cover, died. Ronnie Rondell Jr was 88.
2. Friday Find: Invisible Jumpers
What would you say to me introducing a photography and knitting project? A what, you say?
Photographer Joseph Ford collaborated with knitter Nina Dodd in a project that had chance beginnings, then took over five years to become a book.
In ‘Invisible Jumpers’, released few years ago, you will find meticulously-knitted sweaters crafted by Dodd. These were then precisely composed and clicked by Ford. The results? Subjects and their jumpers melt into their surroundings.
Nina Dodd, who lives in Brighton, UK, had created a jumper based on the seat covers of Brighton buses. Ford suggested they take a photograph, and the gate was opened.
Ford has made it a point to note the craft- there is no use of any digital manipulation. A short interview.
Before this he had been doing some aerial diptychs; these are combined images, matching aerial landscapes with a detail of clothing- well worth a look for challenging perspectives.
Reminded me of the delightful work that Anna & Daniel do, though that has a clean, bold, aesthetic.
3. Tolkien and Rap
Recently I re-read The Lord of The Rings, with great vigour for the Appendix, then slid into selections of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales. Though I had wanted to revisit LOTR for some time, this was inspired in part also by watching the Amazon Prime Video Series ‘Rings of Power’, ostensibly based on the treasure that is the LOTR appendix. Some of the liberties the show takes, erm shall we say, makes one shake the head and sigh deeply.
If this is geeking out, then see what prompted me to write about it today: a video of Stephen Colbert. He is a well known Tolkien nerd, and I have seen him nerd out wildly a couple of times- his is no shallow fanboy stuff.
But then, there’s this wonderfully likeable piece where he breaks down a rap song by Childish Gambino and Chance the Rapper for Rolling Stone. Pray what does that have to do with Tolkien, you might ask?
Click on the video, I will smilingly answer.
Gotta love Colbert, “because I have to link everything back to JRR Tolkien.”
Shoutout: I also write The Colour Bar, a weekly dispatch on media, entertainment, brands, content, creativity and tech. Last week, for example, I wrote about content from an app that says its ‘designed to be deleted’. I also spoke about it, if videos are your thing.
Masala Peanuts
(where I share stories or tidbits I find interesting).
I enjoy photo collections at the end of the year, though the sheer volume sometimes means you miss out on many. This recent collection of striking images from 2025 on the BBC comes little later than mid-year and has, curiously, some commentary connecting the images to other art work- paintings, photographs etc. A good collection irrespective (and short).
For the first time, bot generated content makes up more of the internet than human. So says a recent report, which focuses on ‘bad bot’ action and security risks, but gives us another reason to pause and consider how much of what we encounter online is actually human-generated.
Hajime Miura just won his eighth World Title. In? The World 3A YoYo Championship. Yes, that’s a thing and its pretty cool. “Unlike single yo-yo categories, 3A demands ambidextrous control and spatial awareness of two yo-yos maintaining their spin through continuous motion.”
The problem with knitting is that it is very complicated stuff.
If it is a regular pattern like the bus with straight lines then it is easy-peasy.With the other stuff you are knitting three stitches and changing colours