A shorter and sharper version of Welcome to the Machine will no doubt be of interest to dedicated Pink Floyd fans. The Machine Song (Demo #2) is just that. A two-pronged song where the influence it has on the rest of Wish You Were Here can be heard alongside the build towards a new sound on the track itself. What The Machine Song would turn into is Welcome to the Machine, and both are masterclass moments from the band for different reasons. Like the Have a Cigar and Have a Cigar (Alternate Version) features on the Wish You Were Here anniversary, the differences are sweet. They highlight both the legacy and a truly fascinating selection of what-if questions. Should Roger Waters and David Gilmour share vocal duties, rather than offering it to Roy Harper? Yes. But that’s beside the point. The Machine Song (Demo #2) is a suggestion of where the band could have taken a prominent Wish You Were Here track.
Differences are clear from the first seconds of The Machine Song (Demo #2). It’s very close to Welcome to the Machine but, like that earlier version of Have a Cigar, there’s a flicker of difference at play. That’ll be enough for the seasoned listener to cling to. Waters on vocal duties is a difference maker too. It feels more like guide vocals for Gilmour than anything else, but this Wish You Were Here 50 release offers an alternative thrill. Haunting is the word for it. There’s a ghost in this machine with a fader on Waters’ vocals as the howls brought on by some brilliant instrumentals are embedded. Instrumentally, The Machine Song (Demo #2) is almost identical to Welcome to the Machine. Nastier is the word for this one. Between this and the overlap between Gilmour and Waters on Have a Cigar, there is a crueller tone, a sharper edge to some songs which were softened on first release.
Be it because Gilmour was not comfortable delivering the viciousness or because the band needed to keep in mind a more commercial sound, these alternate versions offer a darker tone. It’s more like a contrast to the B-side instrumental displays of The Dark Side of the Moon. Sparse is what The Machine Song (Demo #2) is. That contrast between how Gilmour and Waters would deliver a song is made clear here. Where Welcome to the Machine has a delicate voice disconnected from the cries of industrialised arts, Waters’ performance on The Machine Song (Demo #2) is a man facing off against the crisis at hand. It’s the difference between writing a song and interpreting the words of another. That latter style of performance would serve Pink Floyd well in the years before Wish You Were Here.
But what both Have a Cigar and The Machine Song (Demo #2) needed was the conviction of its songwriter. To get there is to have the writer be the vocalist, not dish it out to those who believe they understand the message at hand. Both initially released versions are stellar but there’s a reduced instrumental on this early version of Welcome to the Machine which benefits the criticisms and story found in Waters’ work better than the track people know and love. Differences like this make it worth digging deeper into the discography of the band. Other alternates featured on this Wish You Were Here boxset are likely to have the same effect. An understanding of what the band accomplished with one of their very best albums, but also a real highlighting of the difference between Waters and Gilmour.
