During The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, Syd Barrett's acid intake apparently went from “enough to kill a small country” to double that, and it began taking a toll on him, mentally. During tours, mainly starting during the US Tour, Syd began.. well, I'm not too sure what the right word is here. I'd say breakdown, but somehow, that doesn't seem fitting. Well, the first sign things might be up was that Syd slowly began de-tuning his guitar during a show. With Pink Floyd being renowned already for their experimentation, the fans thought nothing of this. How else would they know that later, during the Pat Boone show interview that Pink Floyd did, Syd responded to all questions with a blank and silent stare. Before a performance in 1967, Barrett reportedly crushed Mandrax tranquillizer tablets and an entire tube of Brylcreem into his hair, which subsequently melted down his face under the heat of the stage lighting, making him look like "a guttered candle".
However, despite Syd's questionable mental stability, they were recording a follow up to The Piper At The Gates of Dawn. Starting in August 1967, the same month Piper was released, Pink Floyd entered the studio to record two tracks, “Set The Controls to The Heart of the Sun” and the unreleased “Scream Thy Last Scream.” These were to be released as a single, but was vetoed by EMI for.. some reason. I'm not sure what the reason is, but after this, in October, the band recorded “Vegetable Man” and “Jugband Blues.” Yeah, that's four songs recorded, only two for the album. Wow. “Remember a Day”, a song originally conceived for The Piper At The Gates of Dawn, received some overdubs and bam, it was decided it would be on this album.
Taking a break to record their next single and it's B-side, “Apples and Oranges/Paint box”(which didn't chart at all by the way) and do another US tour, by the time they started recording again, a new member had joined. With the constantly deteriorating mind of Syd, the band asked friend David Gilmour to become their live guitarist. As the others weren't confident in their song writing skills, the original plan was for Syd to become a non-touring member – in similar style to Brian Wilson's recent status in The Beach Boys. Though for a handful of shows in January, Gilmour played the guitar and sung whilst Syd wandered the stage, occasionally joining in. But for one live show, Southampton Universirty, 26 January 1968, with Waters driving people to the show, one person in the car said, "Shall we pick Syd up?" and another said, "Let's not bother.” That was that. Syd was fully gone. Gilmour was in. Just before this, songs “Let There Be More Light” and “Corporal Clegg” were recorded, with no Syd involvement.
But the band struggled to write and record material for the new album. They were missing 12 minutes, which the band wrote several pieces of material to try and feel, before Mason and Waters concieved a song like an architectural design, including peaks and troughs. This was the title track, “A Saucerful of Secrets.” Even though the producer didn't like it, it made it on the album and so, on 29 June 1968 (or 27th July for the US), we received..
A Saucerful of Secrets- 1968
1. Let There Be More Light (Written by Roger Waters, sung by Waters, Richard Wright and David Gilmour, 5:38.)
2. Remember A Day (Written by Wright, sung by Wright, 4:33.)
3. Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun (Written by Waters, sung by Waters, 5:28 )
4. Corporal Clegg (Written by Waters, sung by Nick Mason, Gilmour and Waters, 4:13)
5. A Saucerful Of Secrets (Written by Waters, Wright, Mason, Gilmour, Instrumental, 11:57)
6. See Saw (Written by Wright, sung by Wright, 4:36)
7. Jugband Blues (Written by Syd Barrett, sung by Syd, 3:00)
Some fun facts before I delve into my thoughts. "Set The Controls" is the only song all five band members appear on, as Gilmour did some overdubs to go with Syd's! Corporal Clegg was the first anti-war lyrics to appear in a Pink Floyd song! "Let There Be More Light" evolved from a bass riff that was part of "Interstellar Overdrive"! This is the first of several Pink Floyd album covers that were designed by Hipgnosis, and was only the second time that an EMI group (The Beatles were the first) was permitted to hire outside designers for an album jacket!
Thoughts on this album? I don't remember it starting off this good. Certainly, "Let There Be More Light" starting with the Rickenbacker Bass Riff from Waters gets me all ready, and the song is certainly.. unique. It's amazingly mixed, using full use of the stereo sound at least. The combination of Waters/Wright in the softer sections is certainly unique and great for those with headphones, especially how Waters whispers added some lovely texture to Wright's vocals, and the hard section is Gilmour's first vocal contribution the listeners would hear. The song contains a lyrical shout out to to The Beatles "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", which is.. nice I suppose. The last two minutes is the first time Gilmour solos for our ears, and that's important. I'd like to note when played live, the solo came BEFORE the last verse. I really love this track.
"Remember A Day", I can't talk too much about this track, but it's a nice soft track, that I always forget about when I'm talking about this album. It doesn't grab me like "Let There Be More Light" does, but it's Syd's first appearance on the album. David Gilmour would play this song on Jools Holland Live in tribute to Richard Wright in 2008. "Set The Controls for the Heart of the Sun" is a great tune. Based around Mason's drumming (played with timpani mallets) and Waters bass, it's a tune that I can see why it was very popular for fans of Pink Floyd no matter what style you preferred. It's mellow, mystical, and just a nice chill out before..
"Corporal Clegg." Okay, this is where the album starts to falter. It's.. Okay, this is the one I can compare to "Bike" the most. It's loud, it's a bit wacky and although there's some great little moments in it (The solid period where Mason is just hitting the toms and nothing else come to mind), but it's all too.. loud and random for my liking in certain spots. Especially that Kazoo, it just grates on my ears I want to tear out my hair. Stop it, please! I can take this song in small chunks, I'd even say I like it when I listen to it once a month, but the third listen in a week just.. Ergh. So, "A Saucerful of Secrets" is certainly.. well, it feels constructed with the big bits and the small bits. It's what I love in the long song, peaks and lows. I like this tune a lot more than the song before it, at least, though I can't think of much to praise about it.
"See-Saw" is a fantastic little tune, certainly not my favourite on the album but it's the best "trying to be Syd" song that they did, and the mellotron/xylophone on this song adds some cool little sounds on this song. The finale, (Really, this album is 39 minutes long), is Jugband Blues. Okay, I don't like the middle section of this song. Sandwiched between two unwacky sections, it's the wackiness that Syd embodied, really. Out of place, a bit insane and the marching band got a little confused look out of me the first time, but now, I want it to get to the last lyrical section, where the true genius of the song lies, the bittersweet lyrics. It has the same effect on me that Dream Theater's "Space Dye Vest" has. It gets me unsettled, it makes me worried and a bit concerned. Like I have some connection to the person who's crafted these lyrics, and it's.. Yeah. It's unsettling. I'd recommend giving this album a spin, because after "More", we're hitting some lows.
Well, hm. I wrote too much there I think.
"And what exactly is a dream
And what exactly is a joke.."
Topic: Pink Floyd Discography thread v. 'On An Island, end V1' (Read 33647 times)
