Piper at the Gates of Dawn 1967
Been threatening to do a Floyd thread for some time now, and since I'm taking a break from the Crimson one, this might be a good time to at least start this. Pink Floyd are a massive-selling psych/prog band with which a lot of BCBers can get behind. There are many views regarding the band's golden era. Some say only the Syd years (year?) counts the most, others say the band were great until Dark Side, still others claim the group were consistent through The Wall (or even The Final Cut), while die-hards stick around until the end. I've got it all so see no reason why I can't keep going right through The Endless River, unless I get bored - usually from lack of participation. That last album is almost all instrumental, so It'll be difficult to talk about with any degree of articulation though - but I enjoy it for what it is.
Then there's the whole Roger vs Dave scenario, with people coming out in favor of both sides almost equally. Waters was certainly the principal songwriter for most of the group's best albums, yet tends to alienate some fans of Floyd due to his extreme nature and combative stance and ego. Gilmour tends to not speak to the press so much regarding his thoughts concerning the split with Roger, yet has made his opinions known on multiple occasions. One takes into account the quality of the solo records as well when choosing sides. I'll get into all of this later on when we get to those albums. I'll review a few of Roger's and a few of Dave's but not everything. For one - I don't own it all, and also, I'm simply not interested in acquiring all of their solo LPs. As far as Nick and Rick - I'll probably review nothing, unless people request it. Certainly the two Syd solo efforts will be discussed, as they have a following here. These are my thoughts today regarding what I'll write about - I reserve the right to change my mind later on of course.
There's so much to say about Piper, I don't really know where to begin. In the minds of many, this is the ne plus ultra of British psych circa 1967, the platonic ideal of the psychedelic experience on vinyl for UK bands. For years I wasn't as awed by it as so many were/are, but I came around. I definitely prefer the mono mix - it hits harder, maintains that crude element so integral to Floyd's sound during that magic year (the 45s all have the same quality), and is LOUD! This is an LP you want to crank up the volume and play it as close to the pain threshold as you can get without actually going over. The stereo mix has panning which some people enjoy, that Syd didn't have anything to do with. There are many of us who will always choose two-channel stereo over mono. "I've got two ears, I like two speakers" and all that. Me, I love a good mono mix and this was the preferred way mixing engineers chose to work in until the late sixties. I like Sgt. Pepper's better in mono too.
Wikipedia: "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn is the debut album by English rock band Pink Floyd, the only album made under founding member Syd Barrett's leadership. It was released on 5 August 1967 by EMI Columbia. The studio album borrows its name from the title of chapter seven of Kenneth Grahame's 1908 novel The Wind in the Willows, which refers to the nature god Pan, who plays his pan pipes at dawn. The album was recorded at EMI Studios in London's Abbey Road from February to May 1967. The band consisted of Barrett (lead vocals, lead guitar), Nick Mason (drums), Roger Waters (bass, vocals), and Richard Wright (keyboards, vocals). Barrett was the band's primary songwriter, though two tracks on the album are credited to the band collectively and one track was written by Waters. The album was produced by Norman Smith, who would go on to produce two more albums for Pink Floyd.
In the United States, the album was released as Pink Floyd in October on Tower Records, with an altered track listing that omitted three songs and included the UK non-album single "See Emily Play". In the UK, no singles were released from the album, but in the US, "Flaming" was offered as a single. Two of its songs, "Astronomy Dominé" and "Interstellar Overdrive", became long-term mainstays of the band's live setlist, while other songs were performed live only a handful of times. The album has been hailed as a pivotal psychedelic rock album.
In 1973, the album was packaged with the band's second album A Saucerful of Secrets (1968) and released as A Nice Pair, to introduce the band's early work to new fans gained with the success of The Dark Side of the Moon (1973). Special limited editions of The Piper at the Gates of Dawn were issued to mark its thirtieth, fortieth, and fiftieth anniversaries, with the former two releases containing bonus tracks. In 2012, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn was placed at number 347 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", and number 253 in the 2020 edition."
Pink Floyd
Syd Barrett – electric guitar (1–7, 9–11), acoustic guitar (4, 5, 8, 10), percussion (4), vocals
Roger Waters – bass guitar (all tracks); slide whistle (4), percussion (4), gong (9) (uncredited), vocals
Richard Wright – Farfisa Combo Compact organ (1–7, 9–10), piano (2, 5, 11), tack piano (4, 11), Hammond organ (3, 4), harmonium (9, 11), celesta (8, 11), cello (9, 10), Lowrey organ (4), vibraphone (8), Hohner Pianet (9), violin (11), percussion (4) (uncredited), vocals
Nick Mason – drums (1–7, 11), percussion (2, 4, 5, 8–11)
All tracks are written by Syd Barrett unless otherwise noted.
Side one
1. "Astronomy Dominé" 4:12
Incredible opening number setting the tone for the rest of the LP. One can say space rock (that sense of hurtling through the cosmos like in 2001 A Space Odyssey) begins here, and if not this track, then certainly "Interstellar Overdrive." The lyrics mention earthly locations as well as other planets. It's all Syd of course and PF never really sounded like this again - though their take on space rock would certainly continue for years after.
Wiki - "The song was seen as Pink Floyd's first foray into space rock (along with "Interstellar Overdrive"), although band members later disparaged this term. The song opens with the voice of one of their managers at the time, Peter Jenner, reading the names of planets, stars and galaxies through a megaphone. A barely audible line, "Pluto was not discovered till 1930", can be heard in the megaphonic mix. Barrett's Fender Esquire emerges and grows louder. At 0:19, a rapid beeping sound is heard. At 0:26, Nick Mason's drum fills begin and Barrett plays the introductory figure. Keyboard player Richard Wright's Farfisa organ is mixed into the background. Barrett's lyrics about space support the theme in the song, mentioning the planets Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune as well as Uranian moons Oberon, Miranda and Titania, and Saturn's moon Titan. Barrett and Wright provide lead vocals. Roger Waters' bass guitar line, Wright's Farfisa organ and Barrett's slide guitar then dominate, with Jenner's megaphone recitation re-emerging from the mix for a time.
The verse has an unusual chord progression, all in major chords: E, E♭, G and A. The chorus is entirely chromatic, descending directly from A to D on guitar, bass guitar and falsetto singing, down one semitone every three beats. In the introduction, Barrett takes an ordinary open E major chord and moves the fretted notes down one semitone, resulting in an E♭ major chord superimposed onto an open E minor chord, fretting E♭ and B♭ notes along with the open E, G, B and high-E strings of the guitar; the G functions both as major third to the E♭ chord and minor third to the E chord. In the live version heard on Ummagumma (1969), the post-Barrett band, with David Gilmour on guitar, normalised the introduction into straight E and E♭ major chords, also normalising the timing of the introduction, but, in 1994, Gilmour began performing a version closer to the original (as heard on Pulse) that he carried into his solo career.
Barrett's Fender Esquire is played through a Binson echo machine, creating psychedelic delay effects. The track is the band's only overt "space rock" song, though a group-composed, abstract instrumental was titled "Interstellar Overdrive". Waters, in an interview with Nick Sedgewick, described "Astronomy Dominé" as "the sum total" of Barrett's writing about space, "yet there's this whole fucking mystique about how he was the father of it all".
"Astronomy Domine" was a popular live piece, regularly included in the band's concerts. It is the first track on the live side of the album Ummagumma, released in 1969. This version reflects the band's more progressive style of that era. The song is extended by including the first verse twice, and the instrumental middle section, before becoming louder again by the last verse. The lead vocals are shared between Gilmour and Wright. While Wright sang the higher harmony in the studio version, Gilmour sang the higher harmony live. The Ummagumma version can also be found on the American release of A Nice Pair, a compilation album released in 1973.
It was dropped from the live sets in mid-1971, but reappeared as the first song in some sets on the band's 1994 tour. The last time the song was performed with Waters was on 20 June 1971 at the Palaeur in Rome, Italy. A version from a concert in Miami appears as the B-side on the band's "Take It Back" single, and a version from one of the London concerts appears on the live album Pulse. Gilmour played the song at some of his appearances during his solo 2006 tour, again sharing the lead vocal with fellow Floyd member Wright. He said of playing the song live for the first time in over 20 years:
[I hear you've dusted off "Astronomy Dominé" for the shows.] Yes, and it needed a bit of dusting, I can tell you! I don't think we'd played it since 1968.
The track is also on the 2001 Pink Floyd compilation album, Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd.
The Pulse version reverts to the original 4-minute length, with Gilmour and Wright taking lead vocals as in Ummagumma. This was the only song on the 1994 tour with Gilmour, Mason and Wright performing without backing musicians, with only Guy Pratt adding bass guitar and vocals.
The song was also played by Gilmour and his solo band (which included Wright with Pratt on bass guitar and Steve DiStanislao on drums) at the Abbey Road Studios sessions, which has been released as part of a CD/DVD On an Island package. "Astronomy Dominé" was performed during the last few dates of Gilmour's On an Island tour, and is on his Remember That Night and Live in Gdańsk DVDs.
Gilmour has inserted the song in the setlist of his last solo Rattle That Lock world tour.
The song was played by Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets in 2018."
Music video
In 1968, Pink Floyd travelled to Belgium and appeared on Tienerklanken where they filmed a lip-synched promotional film for "Astronomy Dominé", as well as "See Emily Play", "The Scarecrow", "Apples and Oranges", "Paint Box", "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" and "Corporal Clegg". Barrett does not appear in these films, as he had been replaced by Gilmour who lip-synced Barrett's voice in the "Astronomy Dominé" video."
2. "Lucifer Sam" 3:07
Another tremendous cut which would have been a fine single, perhaps more suited to airplay than "Apples and Oranges." Syd's ability to get as far out there as possible all while following the structures and demands of a pop song was virtually unparalleled in the rock universe of the time. Lennon/McCartney certainly, but even they didn't travel as far as Barrett did. Perhaps that's why he was unable to come back. Too much acid is never a good thing for fragile minds. Think Brian Wilson, Skip Spence, Roky Erickson, Sky Saxon, etc. This little ditty about a house cat is representative of Syd's childlike themes in his songs. I love it.
"The song is built around a descending riff, with the dominant instrument being composer Syd Barrett's electric guitar, fed through an echo machine; the resultant sound has been likened to a "sinister" Duane Eddy. This is augmented by bowed bass and increasingly agitated organ and percussion effects.
Though the lyric frequently refers to Lucifer Sam as a cat, some speculation has arisen as to whether this was in fact slang ("a hip cat") for a man, real or imagined, in some type of relationship with Barrett's then-girlfriend, Jenny Spires (referred to in the song as "Jennifer Gentle"). However, Sam was simply Barrett's Siamese cat (and is referred to as such in the first line: "Lucifer Sam, Siam cat"); the track was originally called "Percy the Rat Catcher" during the recording sessions, which took place between April and June 1967.
"Lucifer Sam" was only performed live by Pink Floyd in 1967 and featured as an encore during many performances, mostly notably at the Games for May concert.
Barrett later performed the song with his 1972 band Stars.
Lightning Seeds covered the song as a B-side, and it appeared on their 2006 best of collection.
The track has also been covered by the Black Crowes, Electric Hellfire Club, the Minders, the Flaming Lips, True West, Jay Farrar, Love and Rockets, Shockabilly, the Sadies, the Three O'Clock, MGMT, Spirits in the Sky, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Cat's Eyes, Bauhaus, Southern Culture on the Skids, The Horrors and Chris & Cosey.
Nick Mason played this during his 2018 Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets tour of Europe." - Wiki
3. "Matilda Mother" 3:08
Three winners in a row, with this track concerning a mother telling bedtime stories to her child - we're still in full-on Barrett mode as this tune wouldn't really fit in with Roger Waters' world view later on. It's songs like these which make this record so unique in the Floyd catalog.
Wikipedia - "Written by Syd Barrett, it is sung mostly by Richard Wright with Barrett joining in on choruses and singing the whole last verse. It was the first song recorded for the album. The lyrics quote fragments of fairy tales as read from a book to the singer by his mother ("read(ing) the scribbly black", referring to writing in a book as a child sees it), and in the chorus he implores her to "tell me more". "Matilda Mother" represents a common theme in Barrett's work: his nostalgia for childhood and awareness that it could not be regained.
The song begins with an unusual bass and organ interlude. Roger Waters repeatedly plays the B on the 16th fret of the G-string by varying the lower note from D to F# on the D string. Unlike many older beat and pop songs, the guitar rarely plays chords, and most unusually for Western music, Wright provides an organ solo in the F# Phrygian dominant scale with a natural sixth instead of its typical flatted counterpart. The song ends with a simple E mixolydian-based waltz with wordless vocal harmonies of Wright and Barrett.
Barrett originally wrote the song around verses from Hilaire Belloc's Cautionary Tales, in which a series of naughty children, including Matilda, receive their (often gruesome) comeuppance. He was forced to rewrite and re-record the track when Belloc's estate unexpectedly denied permission to use these lyrics.
A previously unreleased alternative version was released in a 40th anniversary reissue of The Piper at the Gates of Dawn; parts of this version's lyrics are also from Belloc's Cautionary Tales, i.e. Jim and Henry King, whereas the chorus is the same as in the standard version.
A different, stereo remix of the same alternative version was also released on the Barrett compilation, An Introduction to Syd Barrett in 2010. An extended version of this 2010 mix appeared in the Pink Floyd compilation box set The Early Years 1965–1972."
4. "Flaming" 2:46
Relaxing in an acid-fried bliss in a field of flowers seems to be the setting here with another effortless Barrett ode to getting high. One of the better deep cuts (which is to say not that well-known) on this record, despite its release as a 45. There hasn't been a mediocre moment on this album yet.
"Written and sung by Syd Barrett, the song remained in their set until late 1968; David Gilmour sang the lead vocal after Barrett's departure. Barrett's lyrics describe a childlike game with fantastical imagery, including a line "here we go, ever so high". Prominent organ and driving bass guitar carry the uptempo music.
"Flaming" was also the third US Pink Floyd single (Tower 378) and was released by Tower Records, but it did not chart. The mono US single mix of "Flaming" is slightly edited from other stereo or mono versions of the recording. This US single was released in place of the UK single, "Apples and Oranges" (backed with "Paint Box"), which had then just failed to break into the UK charts.
It was the first of two US Pink Floyd singles released on Tower that were not released on a single in the UK. The other US single that was not released in the UK was "Let There Be More Light" b/w "Remember a Day" (Tower 440). A live version of "Flaming" (at that time known as "Snowing") was played in London's All Saints Hall in 1966. A version performed at the Paradiso, Amsterdam on 31 May was broadcast on NTS, while a performance in L'Antene du Chapiteau du Kremlin-Bicêtre, Paris, on 31 October was broadcast on ORTF." - Wikipedia
5. "Pow R. Toc H." (Barrett, Roger Waters, Wright, Nick Mason) instrumental, wordless vocals by Barrett, Waters and Wright 4:26
Trippy little instrumental with Syd providing vocal sound effects. You can see him do it on the video in The Early Years box. The whole band gets songwriting credit here.
Wiki: " In addition to the vocal effects, the piano is a prominent instrument in the piece. Toc H. was the army signallers' code for "TH", representing Talbot House, a club where officers and enlisted men were equals, which later became an interdenominational Christian fellowship organization serving the community. (The emblem of Toc H. is an oil lamp, so a "power Toc H." would be an electric torch--probably with a dim bulb, as per the saying "as dim as a Toc H. lamp".)
According to Nick Mason, the original four members of Pink Floyd (Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, Richard Wright and Mason) were present at Abbey Road Studios and watched the Beatles record "Lovely Rita" from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Voice effects and noises similar to those used in "Lovely Rita" could be heard in "Pow R. Toc H.", recorded in the next studio during the same period.
In the song, Barrett displays an early example of beatboxing. Waters also uses the "scream" he later used in "Careful with That Axe, Eugene". "Pow R. Toc H." was renamed "The Pink Jungle" in the "Journey" part of The Man and The Journey. Pink Floyd performed the song live from 1967 to 1969.
6. "Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk" (Waters) 3:05
The only song completely credited to Roger is also my least fave number here. This is in no way representative of my feelings towards Waters and the future direction the band would take, only my opinion on this particular track. Something about the staccato rhythms doesn't appeal to these ears. Imagine substituting this for "See Emily Play" or "Arnold Layne." The mind boggles... Since wiki has absolutely nothing to say about this song, I'll let them provide background on the album:
"The band's record deal was relatively poor for the time: a £5,000 advance over five years, low royalties and no free studio time. However, it did include album development, and EMI, unsure of exactly what kind of band they had signed, gave them free rein to record whatever they wanted.
They were obliged to record their first album at EMI's Abbey Road Studios in London, overseen by producer Norman Smith, a central figure in Pink Floyd's negotiations with EMI. Balance engineer Pete Bown, who had mentored Smith, helped ensure that the album had a unique sound, through his experimentation with equipment and recording techniques. Bown, assisted by studio manager David Harris, set up microphones an hour before the sessions began. Bown's microphone choices were mostly different from those used by Smith to record the Beatles' EMI sessions. Because of the quietness of Barrett's singing, he was placed in a vocal isolation booth to sing his parts. Automatic double tracking (ADT) was used to add layers of echo to the vocals and to some instruments. The album features an unusually heavy use of echo and reverb to create a unique sound. Much of the reverb came from a set of Elektro-Mess-Technik plate reverberators – customised EMT 140s containing thin metal plates under tension – and the studio's tiled echo chamber built in 1931.
The album is made up of two different classes of songs: lengthy improvisations from the band's live performances and shorter songs that Barrett had written. Barrett's LSD intake escalated part-way through the album's recording sessions. Although in his 2005 autobiography Mason recalled the sessions as relatively trouble-free, Smith disagreed and claimed that Barrett was unresponsive to his suggestions and constructive criticism. In an attempt to build a relationship with the band, Smith played jazz on the piano while the band joined in. These jam sessions worked well with Waters, who was apparently helpful, and Wright, who was "laid-back". Smith's attempts to connect with Barrett were less productive: "With Syd, I eventually realised I was wasting my time." Smith later admitted that his traditional ideas of music were somewhat at odds with the psychedelic background from which Pink Floyd had come. Nevertheless, he managed to "discourage the live ramble", as band manager Peter Jenner called it, guiding the band toward producing songs with a more manageable length.
Barrett would end up writing eight of the album's songs and contributing to two instrumentals credited to the whole band, with Waters creating the sole remaining composition "Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk". Mason recalled how the album "was recorded in what one might call the old-fashioned way: rather quickly. As time went by we started spending longer and longer.
In June 1967 before the album was released, the single "See Emily Play" was sold as a 7-inch 45 rpm record, with "The Scarecrow" on the B-side, listed as "Scarecrow". The full album was released on 5 August 1967, including "The Scarecrow".
Pink Floyd continued to perform at the UFO Club, drawing huge crowds, but Barrett's deterioration caused them serious concern. The band initially hoped that his erratic behavior was a phase that would pass, but others, including manager Peter Jenner and his secretary June Child, were more realistic:
... I found him in the dressing room and he was so ... gone. Roger Waters and I got him on his feet, we got him out to the stage ... and of course the audience went spare because they loved him. The band started to play and Syd just stood there. He had his guitar around his neck and his arms just hanging down.
To the band's consternation, they were forced to cancel their appearance at the prestigious National Jazz and Blues Festival, informing the music press that Barrett was suffering from nervous exhaustion. Jenner and Waters arranged for Barrett to see a psychiatrist – a meeting he did not attend. He was sent to relax in the sun on the Spanish island of Formentera with Waters and Sam Hutt (a doctor well-established in the underground music scene), but this led to no visible improvement.
The original UK LP was released on 5 August 1967 in both monaural and stereophonic mixes. It reached number six on the UK charts. The original US album appeared on the Tower division of Capitol on 21 October 1967. This version was officially titled simply Pink Floyd, though the original album title did appear on the back cover as on the UK issue, and Dick Clark referred to the record by its original title when the group appeared on his American Bandstand television program on 18 November. The US album featured an abbreviated track listing, and reached number 131 on the Billboard charts. The UK single, "See Emily Play", was substituted for "Astronomy Dominé", "Flaming" and "Bike". Released in time for the band's US tour, "Flaming" was released as a single, backed with "The Gnome". The Tower issue of the album also faded out "Interstellar Overdrive" and broke up the segue into "The Gnome" to fit the re-sequencing of the songs. Later US issues on compact disc had the same title and track list as the UK version. The album was certified Gold in the US as a part of A Nice Pair with A Saucerful of Secrets on 11 March 1994."
Side two
7. "Interstellar Overdrive" (Barrett, Waters, Wright, Mason) instrumental 9:41
Fucking ace tune which still makes me think of hurtling through the cosmos while under the influence. The even longer version on the Tonite Let's All Make Love in London CD is also spectacular. Did Hawkwind fashion a career out of this song? LOL The essence of Syd Barrett.
"The song originated when guitarist Syd Barrett heard the band's manager Peter Jenner humming a song, which Barrett tried to interpret by playing it on his guitar. Sharing the same emphasis on chromaticism with "Astronomy Domine", the piece was recorded in several takes during March and April 1967. An earlier, longer recording of the song can be heard on the soundtrack to the film Tonite Lets All Make Love in London, which was recorded at Sound Technique Studios in early 1967 and was released in the same year. Other versions of the track appear on various bootleg recordings. The piece has been covered by acts such as T. Rex, Pearl Jam, Hawkwind, the Melvins, and Simon House.
"Interstellar Overdrive" was one of the first psychedelic instrumental improvisations recorded by a rock band. It was seen as Pink Floyd's first foray into space rock (along with "Astronomy Domine"), although band members would later disparage this term. It has also been described as an experimental rock and psychedelic rock song as well as an example of proto-prog. "Interstellar Overdrive" originated when early Pink Floyd manager Peter Jenner was trying to hum a song he could not remember the name of (most commonly identified as Love's cover of "My Little Red Book"). Guitarist and vocalist Syd Barrett followed Jenner's humming with his guitar and used it as the basis for the principal melody of "Interstellar Overdrive". Bassist Roger Waters once told Barrett that the song's riff reminded him of the theme tune from Steptoe and Son (by Ron Grainer). Around the time the song was written, Barrett was also inspired by AMM and their guitarist Keith Rowe, who had a pattern of moving pieces of metal along his guitar's fretboard. The free-form section (and also, "Pow R. Toc H.") was inspired by Frank Zappa's free-form freak-out and The Byrds' "Eight Miles High".
"Interstellar Overdrive" shares an emphasis on chromaticism with "Astronomy Domine". The main theme descends chromatically from B to G, before resolving to E, all chords major. The opening hook of the piece is a distorted, descending guitar riff, played by Barrett, its composer, with Waters on bass and Richard Wright on organ. Nick Mason's drums then kick in, and after the riff repeats itself a bit, the track turns into improvisation, including modal improvisations, flourishes on the Farfisa organ, and quiet interludes. The song gradually becomes almost structureless and in free-form tempo, punctuated only by strange guitar noises. Eventually, however, the entire band restates the main theme, which is repeated with decreasing tempo and more deliberate intensity. Waters once called the song "an abstract piece". A bass riff in the song later evolved into another Pink Floyd song, "Let There Be More Light", which was written by Waters.
Recording
The stereo version of the song has an organ moving from speaker to speaker; the effect is lost on the mono version of the song, where it simply gains an extra organ and guitar sound. However, the organ is very prominent during the first 50 seconds of the mono version—along with some special effects—but inaudible in the stereo mix until the improvised section. Five takes of the song were originally recorded on 27 February 1967, with a sixth later recorded on 16 March 1967, in an attempt to create a shorter version, with overdubs in June of that year. The Piper version also appears on the official compilation albums Relics and A Nice Pair. Despite Smith trying to bring the rest of the album's tracks from a jam-long length to something more manageable, Smith relented for "Interstellar Overdrive", as Jenner recalled: "It was definitely the deal that—hey, here you can do 'Interstellar Overdrive', you can do what you like, you can do your weird shit. So 'Interstellar Overdrive' was the weird shit . . . and again, hats off to Norman for letting them do that." A delay effect was created by producer Norman Smith by superimposing a second version of the song over a previous version. Smith played the drum roll on the song near the very end.
Alternative versions and live performances
The studio recording on The Piper at the Gates of Dawn is the one that most listeners are familiar with, yet several other versions survive from both the recording studio and the stage. It was first recorded as a demo on 31 October 1966, recorded live-in-studio at Thompson Private Recording Company. This version was used as the audio sound to the film San Francisco, which was made by a friend of Barrett's, Anthony Stern. While filmmaker Peter Whitehead and his secondhand Stern were having a discussion, the topic about Pink Floyd was brought about by Stern, to which Whitehead told him, "yeah, terrible music". Stern said that "they're successful now", and suggest the pair go watch Pink Floyd, at their gig at the Royal College of Art. Whitehead recalled that they "went to UFO and I liked them. Not connected to pop music, a long improvisatory quality, ideal for what I wanted." Whitehead convinced Pink Floyd to record "Interstellar Overdrive" for a film he was working on. Before turning up at the recording studio, the band held a rehearsal, and the next day, 11 January 1967, went to Sound Techniques studios. The studio, which was originally a dairy factory, was run by engineers Geoff Frost and John Wood.
For the session, which was booked for two hours, Wood and Joe Boyd operated the mixing desk, while Whitehead and Stern were filming. This recording of the song lasted nearly 16-minutes in length, recorded onto a 4-track recorder in one take, as the band didn't want to have to play through the song again. The band then played another original instrumental, titled "Nick's Boogie". While 5 seconds of the band playing was included in Whitehead's Tonite Lets All Make Love in London film, edits of the recording was included on the film's respective soundtrack. The soundtrack (released in 1968) includes an edited version of the song and two reprises of it. The full version is available on the album London '66–'67. While attempting to get the band a record deal, Boyd returned with the group to Sound Techniques studios. There, Boyd and the band recorded a demo tape which was to be given to various record labels, one of the songs that features on the tape was "Interstellar Overdrive". An early, unoverdubbed, shortened mix of the album's "Interstellar Overdrive" was used for a French EP released in July 1967. The 40th anniversary edition of The Piper at the Gates of Dawn contains two different, five-minute-long versions of the song, one of them being take 6 from 16 March.
Despite its encapsulation of their concert repertoire under the leadership of guitarist and composer Barrett, the long, improvisational, freeform structure of the piece is not particularly representative of the group's recorded output. As drummer Mason states in his book Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd, live versions of the song featured many sections that did not appear on the album, and would often last more than 20 minutes. During the band's days playing in residence at London underground clubs such as the UFO (Underground Freak Out), the song usually opened their show. It occupied other positions, including the encore, until it was retired from the band's setlist in 1970. The song had first appeared in live performances in the autumn of 1966. During one performance of the song, at a gig organized by Hoppy Hopkins, Pink Floyd managed to blow out the power of a venue. Hopkins called it "Very cold, very dirty but very nice." After recording session for Piper were over, Pink Floyd played a 30-minute version of "Interstellar Overdrive". Pink Floyd were filmed performing the song for Granada Television's Scene Special Documentary, in January 1967 at the UFO Club. A late-Barrett era rendition was recorded live in Rotterdam in November 1967, at the Hippy-Happy Fair. The song was later replaced by "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" as the main part of the band's set lists, after Barrett left the band. A version of "Interstellar Overdrive" was cut from the Ummagumma live album. The song was played by Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets in 2018.
In 1969, Frank Zappa joined the band onstage at the Actuel Festival in Amougies, Belgium, to perform a long loose version of the song. Although Zappa himself later had no recollection of the performance, Floyd drummer Mason praised him, saying, "Zappa is really one of those rare musicians that can play with us. The little he did in Amougies was terribly correct."
The song has been released in many different lengths across different releases, original 1967 Piper at the Gates of Dawn releases have the track at 9:41, whilst the edited 1968 Tonite Let's All Make Love in London version clocks in at 3:02. This same recording was released in its entirety twice, first on the 1990 reissue of the album, and then again in 1995 on the EP London '66–'67 clocking in at 16:49. The earliest studio recording of the song to be released was the 1966 recording with a running time of 14:57 and was released in 2017 on the Interstellar Overdrive single. Three live performances of the song featured on The Early Years 1965–1972 boxset, with timings being 4:24 (recorded in 1969), 8:57 (recorded in 1967) and 9:37 (recorded in 1968).
Covers and legacy
"Interstellar Overdrive" has been covered by many artists, including Teenage Fanclub and Kylesa.
Camper Van Beethoven covered the song on their studio album Camper Van Beethoven.
Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets included it in their repertoire of early Floyd material. "What I don't want to do is slavishly copy what we did on the album," Mason noted. "The great thing with 'Interstellar' is that it's a piece that lends itself to improvisation. What I'd like to do is capture some of the weirdness – some of the very specific things that Syd did – but actually bring a bit of our own language into it."
The album version was ranked number 36 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 greatest guitar songs of all time.
The song featured on Pink Floyd's compilation Relics, and was considered for—but ultimately left off—their career-spanning retrospective Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd.
"Interstellar Overdrive" was used in the 2016 film Doctor Strange, starring Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role." - Wikipedia
8. "The Gnome" 2:13
Yet another charming little tale from Floyd's erstwhile leader dealing with adolescent concerns. One might say this is just one more kiddie ditty from the mind of a man who never grew up himself, but Syd gifted us with precious few songs and I treasure all of them from the Floyd era. This and the next three are four concentrated Barrett blasts of songwriting for us to cherish. This Tolkien type of songwriting would become quite common in the rock world in upcoming years.
Wiki: "The Gnome" is a song by the English rock band Pink Floyd. Written by Syd Barrett, it is the eighth song on their 1967 debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. The song takes place in a fictional gnome world from the perspective of a gnome named Grimble Grumble.
The song tells the tale of a scarlet tunic wearing gnome named Grimble Grumble. The lyrics ostensibly "came off the top [of Barrett's] head". "The Gnome" was included on the B-side of the US Pink Floyd single "Flaming" (Tower 378), which was never released in the UK.
Up-and-coming society photographer Vic Singh was hired to photograph the band for the album cover. Singh shared a studio with photographer David Bailey, and he was friends with Beatles guitarist George Harrison. Singh asked Jenner and King to dress the band in the brightest clothes they could find. Vic Singh then shot them with a prism lens that Harrison had given him. The cover was meant to resemble an LSD trip, a style that was favoured at the time. In 2017, the lens was displayed at the Victoria and Albert Museum, as part of the Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains exhibition.
Barrett came up with the album title The Piper at the Gates of Dawn; the album was originally titled Projection up to as late as July 1967. The title was taken from that of chapter seven of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows which contains a visionary encounter with the god Pan, who plays his pan pipe at dawn. It was one of Barrett's favourite books, and he often gave friends the impression that he was the embodiment of Pan. The moniker was later used in the song "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", in which Barrett is called "you Piper". The cover for the album was one of several Pink Floyd album covers used on a series of Royal Mail stamps issued in May 2016 to commemorate 50 years of Pink Floyd.
In 2018, the album was reissued in its mono mix. With this version came with a new packaging box with the original record cover inside. This new design was done by Hipgnosis' Aubrey Powell and Peter Curzon and includes a gold-embossed version of the graphic by Syd Barrett which features on the back cover of the original LP."
9. "Chapter 24" 3:42
Syd seemed to take more care with the lyrics to this one - as if its theme derived from the I Ching was important to him. One of the more esoteric tunes to be found on Piper, it still maintains that stoney vibe so redolent in the rest of the tracks.
"It was written by Syd Barrett and its lyrics are inspired by text from chapter 24 of the ancient Chinese tome I Ching (The Book of Changes).
I Ching
The translation Barrett referenced is not known, but phrases from the lyric can be found in the Richard Wilhelm and Cary Baynes translation of 1950, and the Legge translation of 1899. The former is more poetic, but the latter has greater detail. Chapter 24 explains the significance of the Fû (复, means "returning") hexagram.
"All movement is accomplished in six stages..." – The lyric's opening line appears to be taken from the I Ching's instructions for performing a divination, which is accomplished in six stages, one for each row of the hexagram, and is used to select a hexagram and its corresponding chapter. These are words from the Richard Wilhelm translation into German, rendered into English by Cary F. Baynes. The German text from Wilhelms comment to the judgement is (I Ging. Das Buch der Wandlungen. Eugen Diederichs Verlag, Jena 1924): "Alle Bewegungen vollziehen sich in sechs Stufen. Die siebente Stufe bringt dann die Wiederkehr." and Baynes translates: "All movements are accomplished in six stages, and the seventh brings return." (see also the next line).
"...and the seventh brings return..." – A significant theme of this chapter is that the subject may freely come and go without great trouble, although the last row of the hexagram (the top row) takes the contrary position. A journey lasting six days is implied, and "in seven days comes his return" (Legge translation).
"...for seven is the number of the young light..." – In the German text, Wilhelm writes in his comment to the judgement: "Darum ist die Sieben die Zahl des jungen Lichts, die dadurch entsteht, dass die Sechs, die Zahl des grossen Dunkels, sich um eins steigert." and Baynes translates literally: "Therefore seven is the number of the young light, and it arises when six, the number of the great darkness, is increased by one." "Young light" may also refer to the sun at winter solstice (see below).1 As the lines in the hexagrams of the I Ching are seen ascending from below, the "young light" is the first (unbroken) line at the bottom. In his comments to the judgement of chapter 24 in the third book of the I Ching, Richard Wilhelm explains: "Nachdem die Kraft des Lichten im Zeichen Gou (Nr. 44, das Entgegenkommen) abzunehmen beginnt, kommt sie im Zeichen Fu nach sieben Wandlungen wieder." which corresponds in English to: "After the power of light starts to wane in the sign Kou (No. 44, Coming to Meet) it returns in the sign Fu (No. 24, Return / The Turning Point) after seven changes."
"...change returns success..." – The first line of the Wilhelm and Baynes translation is: "Return. Success." – a summary of the Fû hexagram.
"...going and coming without error..." – This references "going in and coming out without error" (from Wilhelm and Baynes, second line of the translation), and refers to the meaning of the third row of the hexagram, counting from the bottom (from Legge).
"...action brings good fortune..." – The first and second rows (from the bottom) both indicate "good fortune".
"...sunset, sunrise..." (latter word added in repeats of the chorus) – This refers to winter solstice (see next line): the longest night of the year, the greatest length of time between sunset and sunrise.
"The time is with the month of winter solstice, when the change is due to come..." – Fû also symbolizes the eleventh month, which contains the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, when the length of daylight changes from becoming shorter each day, to longer each day.
"...thunder in the other course of heaven..." – Each hexagram can also be viewed as two trigrams: the bottom three rows (inner trigram) and top three rows (outer trigram). Fû is composed of trigrams for thunder and earth. The lyric may inadvertently refer to chapter 25's "Wú Wàng" hexagram, composed of the trigrams for thunder and heaven." - Wiki
Anybody read all of that? I sure didn't.
10. "The Scarecrow" 2:11
Similar to "The Gnome" or even "Bike" as another look into Barrett's psyche. Minimalist words as if from the mind of a boy. He seemed to be retreating from the adult world (in his writing, anyway) even before his eminent collapse. A sense of loneliness is also present which I should have mentioned before now that I think about it.
Wiki: "The song contains nascent existentialist themes, as Barrett compares his own existence to that of the scarecrow, who, while "sadder" is also "resigned to his fate". Such thematic content would later become a mainstay of the band's lyrical imagery. The song contains a baroque, psychedelic folk instrumental section consisting of 12-string acoustic guitar and cello. Reflecting the experimental nature of many of the band's early psychedelic pieces, all instruments are panned to the extreme left hand and right hand sides of the stereo, with two vocal lines, one spoken and one sung. The US single (Tower 356) was released by Tower Records three times between July 1967 and late 1968. Each time it failed to duplicate its UK success.
Music videos
A promotional film for the song, made for a Pathé newsreel and filmed in early July 1967, features the band in an open field with a scarecrow, generally fooling around. It shows Roger Waters falling down as if he were shot, and Nick Mason exchanging his hat with the scarecrow's. Part of this film has been featured in Waters' live performances of "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun".
A second promo was filmed in 1968 in Brussels, Belgium, with David Gilmour replacing Barrett, and Waters lip-syncing while playing his Rickenbacker bass with a violin bow.
Cover versions
The industrial band Rx covered "The Scarecrow" on their album Bedside Toxicology. The vocals for the cover were provided by Nivek Ogre from Skinny Puppy.
11. "Bike" 3:21
The last number is pretty much more of the same, with Syd providing lyrics about his bicycle to a woman along with descriptions of his mouse. The gingerbread man fitting in with his world part is excellent self-analysis on par with the later "Jugband Blues."
Wikipedia - "In the song, Syd Barrett's lyrical subject shows a girl his bike (which he borrowed); a cloak; a homeless, aging mouse that he calls Gerald; and a clan of gingerbread men, because she "fits in with [his] world." With each repetition of the chorus, a sudden percussive noise is heard similar to the firing of two gunshots. Towards the end of the song, he offers to take her into a "room of musical tunes". The final verse is followed by an instrumental section that is a piece of musique concrète: a noisy collage of oscillators, clocks, gongs, bells, a violin, and other sounds edited with tape techniques, apparently the "other room" spoken of in the song and giving the impression of the turning gears of a bicycle. The ending of the song fades out with a tape loop of the band members laughing reversed and played at double speed. The song was written for Barrett's then girlfriend, Jenny Spires. She is also mentioned as "Jennifer Gentle" in the song "Lucifer Sam", which is also on The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.
Other album appearances
The song also appears on two Pink Floyd compilation albums: Relics (1971) and Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd (2001); it serves as the closing track on both albums.
Cover versions
P-Model covered the song for their 1984 album Another Game. The lyrics were adapted by bandleader Susumu Hirasawa, who focused on Japanese lyrics that sounded similar to the English version rather than a direct translation, turning it into a parodic version. It features a toy piano sound played by a Yamaha DX7.
The Hotrats covered the song on their 2009 album Turn Ons.
Phish has performed this song at (to date, Sept. 2015) 41 of their shows, often with drummer Jon Fishman playing a baby blue Electrolux vacuum cleaner.
The song was played by Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets in 2018. "The interesting thing is how complex Syd's writing was," Mason observed. "I think we'd all agree that one of the most challenging songs is 'Bike', which has a very curious feel."
At the time of release, both Record Mirror and NME gave the album four stars out of five. Record Mirror commented that "[t]he psychedelic image of the group really comes to life, record wise, on this LP which is a fine showcase for both their talent and the recording technique. Plenty of mind blowing sound, both blatant and subtle here, and the whole thing is extremely well performed." Cash Box called it "a particularly striking collection of driving, up-to-date rock ventures". Paul McCartney and Pink Floyd's previous producer Joe Boyd both rated the album highly. Some voiced the opinion of the underground fans, by suggesting that the album did not reflect the band's live performances.
In recent years, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn has gained even more recognition. The album is hailed not only as a psychedelic masterpiece but LSD is named as a direct influence. In 1999, Rolling Stone magazine gave the album 4.5 stars out of 5, calling it "the golden achievement of Syd Barrett". Q magazine described the album as "indispensable" and included it in their list of the best psychedelic albums ever. It was also ranked 40th in Mojo magazine's "The 50 Most Out There Albums of All Time" list. In 2000, Q magazine placed The Piper at the Gates of Dawn at number 55 in its list of the 100 greatest British albums ever. In 2003, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn was ranked number 347 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time", maintaining that rank in the 2012 update and climbing to number 253 in the 2020 reboot of the list.
James E. Perone says that Piper became known as a concept album in later years, because listeners wanted to play it all the way through rather than pick out a favourite song. While Beatles biographer Philip Norman agrees that Piper is a concept album, other authors contend that Pink Floyd did not start making concept albums until 1973's The Dark Side of the Moon. Author George Reisch called Pink Floyd the "undisputed" kings of the concept album, but only starting from Dark Side. In July 2006, Billboard described The Piper at the Gates of Dawn as "one of the best psychedelic rock albums ever, driven by Barrett's oddball narratives and the band's skill with both long jams and perfect pop nuggets".
Hmmm, don't think I've ever thought of Piper as a concept album.
"Arnold Layne" b/w "Candy & a Currant Bun" 1967
Transcendent non-LP 45 functioning as one of all-time best psychedelic singles from The Summer of Love. I don't usually write about stand-alone 45s in my threads but I'll make an exception for these guys because these songs are among the best things the Syd-era Floyd ever released. They're both better than some of the cuts on Piper in fact. Barrett's twisted little tale of a cross-dressing man who steals women's garments from clothes lines was among the first songs I ever heard from this iteration of PF and I was bummed when I discovered it wasn't on the Piper record. I don't think I actually owned it until the Shine On box came out in the early '90s!
"The song's title character is a transvestite whose strange hobby is stealing women's clothes and undergarments from washing lines. According to Roger Waters, "Arnold Layne" was actually based on a real person: "Both my mother and Syd's mother had students as lodgers because there was a girls' college up the road so there were constantly great lines of bras and knickers on our washing lines and 'Arnold' or whoever he was, had bits off our washing lines."
Recording and production
In January Pink Floyd went to Sound Techniques studio in Chelsea, where they had previously recorded two songs for Tonite Lets All Make Love in London. Here, the band recorded "Arnold Layne" and a few other songs: "Matilda Mother", "Chapter 24", "Interstellar Overdrive" and "Let's Roll Another One" (which was renamed to "Candy and a Currant Bun", at the lead of Waters).
Nick Mason said of why "Arnold Layne" was chosen over the other songs: "We knew we wanted to be rock'n'roll stars and we wanted to make singles, so it seemed the most suitable song to condense into 3 minutes without losing too much". The band had tried to re-record "Arnold Layne" after signing up with EMI, but the Joe Boyd version from January was released instead. The song would be Boyd's last production for the band.
Boyd mentioned in several interviews over the years that "Arnold Layne" regularly ran for ten to fifteen minutes in concert (with extended instrumental passages), but the band knew that it had to be shortened for use as a single. He has also said it was a complex recording involving some tricky editing, recalling that the middle instrumental section with Richard Wright's organ solo was recorded as an edit piece and spliced into the song for the final mix.
The backing track for "Arnold Layne" was recorded in multiple takes on 4-track tape, the third take being the best. Drums and bass were recorded on track one, electric guitar on track two, keyboard on track three, and acoustic guitar on track four. It was then bounced onto one track on another 4-track reel so vocals could be overdubbed. This was done across multiple takes where take seven became the master.
Both "Arnold Layne" and "Candy and a Currant Bun" were mixed into mono for the single. Neither have ever been given a stereo mix, although the four-track master tapes still exist in the EMI tape archive.
Music videos
A black and white promotional film of "Arnold Layne" was made in late February 1967, directed by Derek Nice and featuring members of the band dressing up, dismembering and carrying around a mannequin on a beach, filmed at East Wittering, West Sussex. One sequence employs reverse motion. This promo, made for £2,000, was meant to be screened on 3 April 1967 for the BBC's Top of the Pops show, but was cancelled when the single dropped down the chart. Another promotional film was recorded for the song, this time filmed on 29 April 1967, near St Michael's Church in Highgate. The film is the only known footage of Barrett lip-synching to the song, and was made around the time that he began to deteriorate mentally.
The single was released on 10 March 1967 in the UK, backed by "Candy and a Currant Bun". The band is credited as "The Pink Floyd" on the single, though the determiner the would be dropped for subsequent releases. The band's management, Blackhill Enterprises, had paid to boost the single's chart position, as manager Andrew King stated: "We spent a couple of hundred quid, [...] trying to buy it into the charts. The management did that, not EMI." However, despite reaching number 20 in the UK singles chart, the song's unusual transvestism theme attracted the ire of pirate radio station Radio London, which deemed the song was too far removed from "normal" society for its listeners, before eventually banning it from radio airplay altogether.
The song later appeared on the budget 1971 compilation album Relics, their 1983 compilation album Works and their 2001 retrospective best-of, Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd. Both sides of the single appear on the first volume 1965–1967: Cambridge St/ation in the 2016 Early Years box set, and on a replica seven-inch single also included in the set.
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"Candy and a Currant Bun" was the B-side to Pink Floyd's first single, "Arnold Layne". Its lyrical content is about drugs and casual sex. When performed live in 1967, the song was known as "Let's Roll Another One" and contained the line "I'm high – Don't try to spoil my fun", but the record company forced Syd Barrett to rewrite it, at the suggestion of Roger Waters, without the controversial drug references.
Critical reception
When the collection Relics was released in 1971, critic Dave Marsh wrote in Creem that he had expected "Candy and a Currant Bun" to be on it. (It was not.) His album review was largely composed of a paean to this missing track, writing in part that "It's simply the definitive 1967 British rock'n'roll single. It's also uniquely powerful, like one of those first two or three Who 45s, the kind that send chills runnin' up and down your spine, and make you listen time and time again. Unlike the Pink Floyd's later work, 'Candy And A Currant Bun' never ditches rock'n'roll for space music, but it does manage to give something of the sense of multi-galactic perspective that the best of Pink Floyd's (read Syd Barrett's) music has had."
The Mars Volta cover
The Mars Volta's cover of "Candy and a Currant Bun" was released in some U.S. indie stores as free 5" VinylDisc in 2008. It was given away with purchase of the album The Bedlam in Goliath. The VinylDisc was an experimental format that contained a digital side and a vinyl side, one side playing in a CD player, while the other side playing on a turntable. The vinyl side contains the Pink Floyd cover "Candy and a Currant Bun", while the CD side contains the audio track for "Candy and a Currant Bun" as well as the Wax Simulacra video as enhanced content. It also comes with a removable foam spindle insert to switch between CD and vinyl.
The track was a bonus track on the UK and Australasian releases of the album." - Wiki
"See Emily Play" b/w "Scarecrow" 1967
Well, this is it - perhaps my all-time fave psych single. Eclipsing such stalwarts as "Eight Miles High" and "I Can See for Miles," this watershed 45 is the most exciting, effects-laden attempt at marrying an acid trip (or Syd's idea of one) to the pop song format that I can think of. I made an MP3 set of psychedelic songs (only one track per band/artist) about a year or so ago and this was the first track! I can't speak highly enough of it. I remember being very excited when it would come on the radio as a teenager because you didn't really hear it all that much in the seventies or eighties.
Wikipedia: "See Emily Play" is a song by English rock band Pink Floyd, released as their second single in June 1967. Written by original frontman Syd Barrett, it was released as a non-album single, but appeared as the opening track of the U.S. edition of the band's debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967).
The song was written by Barrett following the Games for May concert, and became a top 5 hit when released in the UK the following month. The group appeared three times on Top of the Pops, where Barrett started showing signs of erratic behaviour, which ultimately led to him leaving the group in early 1968. Though Pink Floyd seldom performed the song live, it has been covered by a number of diverse artists and regarded as a classic psychedelic pop single.
"See Emily Play" is also known as "Games for May", after a free concert on 12 May 1967 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on London's South Bank, in which Pink Floyd performed. It was the first show where the group set up a quadrophonic PA system, which would be a regular feature of future gigs.
The song was reportedly about a girl named Emily, who Barrett claimed to have seen while sleeping in the woods after taking a psychedelic drug. According to A Saucerful of Secrets: The Pink Floyd Odyssey, by Nicholas Schaffner, Emily is the Honourable Emily Young, daughter of Wayland Young, 2nd Baron Kennet and nicknamed "the psychedelic schoolgirl" at the UFO Club. Bassist Roger Waters later said the woods mentioned in the song were based next to the Gog Magog Hills near Cambridge.
It has been suggested by some that the slide guitar effect was produced by Barrett using a Zippo lighter, but elsewhere that he used a plastic ruler.
The train depicted on the single's sleeve was drawn by Barrett.
Recording
The song was recorded at Sound Techniques studios on 18 May 1967 The exact recording details are unclear because of a lack of paperwork in the EMI archive. Engineer Jeff Jarrett recalls that it was recorded in a much longer form, which was then edited down for the single release. The recording involved backward tapes and much use of echo and reverb; the first piano bridge between the first chorus and second verse was recorded at a slow pace then sped up for the final master. The four-track master tape was wiped or misplaced. It no longer exists and has never been mixed into true stereo; it was reprocessed for Duophonic stereo on the 1971 Relics compilation.
Barrett, reputedly, was not happy with the final studio cut, and protested against its release, which producer Norman Smith speculated was based on his fear of commercialism. During sessions for the song David Gilmour visited the studio, on Barrett's invitation, and was shocked by the perceived changes in Barrett's personality when he did not appear to recognize him. For many years Gilmour would recall this, saying, "I'll go on record as saying, that was when he changed".
Release
The UK single was released by Columbia Records on 16 June 1967, with "The Scarecrow" as the B-side. It reached number 6 in the charts. Melody Maker said they recognized the single as Pink Floyd's "by the horrible organ sound" but said it was "much better than Arnold Layne".
The US single was released by Tower Records on 24 July 1967, both as a standard issue and a white label promotional pressing. Cash Box said that it's "one of those hard to predict outings that could hit in a grand manner or fall flat." It reached number 134 in the charts. A further white label promo was issued on 22 July 1968 with a note asking if DJs would play it.
"See Emily Play" later appeared on a number of compilations: Relics (1971), Works (1983), Shine On (1992), Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd (2001),[20] The Piper at the Gates of Dawn 40th Anniversary Edition (2007),[21] The Best of Pink Floyd: A Foot in the Door (2011) and The Early Years 1965–1972 (2016). The song was also included on the Barrett retrospective An Introduction to Syd Barrett (2010).
Television performances
Pink Floyd performed the song three times on BBC TV's Top of the Pops. The appearances were taped at the BBC Studios in Shepherd's Bush and broadcast on 6, 13 and 27 July. For the final appearance, Barrett complained that the band shouldn't appear, because "John Lennon doesn't have to do Top of the Pops". He did perform, but without the enthusiasm of the previous week. This was the first sign of Barrett exhibiting erratic behaviour, which caused problems for the group throughout the remainder of the year, and ultimately leading to him leaving the band in early 1968.
The BBC wiped the shows. In late 2009 a badly damaged home video recording was recovered by the British Film Institute containing the first and third show the song was performed on, though only the first appearance was recoverable in part. Parts of the 6 July performance have been recovered from the damaged video recording. It was given a public screening in London on 9 January 2010 at an event called "Missing Believed Wiped" devoted to recovered TV shows. It was the first time any footage of the performance had been seen since its original broadcast. The Pink Floyd management used a copy of the footage in The Early Years 1965–1972.
The band were booked to appear on the German television programme Beat-Club. The appearance was cancelled, explaining Barrett had suffered "nervous exhaustion" and the band decided to take a month-long break in the hope his health would recover.
In February 1968, Pink Floyd traveled to the RTB studios in Brussels to film a TV special for the television programme Tienerklanken, broadcast on 31 March. The special featured promotional films for "See Emily Play", as well as for "Astronomy Domine", "The Scarecrow", "Apples and Oranges", "Paint Box", "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun", and "Corporal Clegg". This was Gilmour's first TV work with the band. The footage for "See Emily Play" was shot in the Parc de Laekan. Though Barrett was no longer performing with Pink Floyd, his departure had yet to be formally announced. Gilmour, Waters and Richard Wright mimed to Barrett's vocals.
Live performances
"See Emily Play" was very different to Pink Floyd's live show, which was based around lengthy instrumentals, and the group avoided playing it. Promoters outside London insisted that they include the song in their live shows to avoid rioting. As a response, the group wrote a piece called "Reaction in G" as a reaction against having to play "See Emily Play" on tour.
The song only stayed in the band's set list for a few months; the last documented live performance was on 25 November 1967 in Blackpool as part of a package tour supporting Jimi Hendrix. On the group's late 1971 US tour supporting Meddle, a fan cried out for "See Emily Play", to which Waters retorted, "You must be joking!"
"See Emily Play" has been covered by Canadian group Three to One (aka Okee Pokey Band) on the 1967 Yorkville album CTV After Four; David Bowie, for his Pin Ups album in 1973; Japanese group Salon Music, for their 1984 album La Paloma Show; The Grapes of Wrath, as a B-side on the 1991 CD single "I Am Here"; on the 1996 Games for May EP by perfect children; Arjen Anthony Lucassen, on his 1997 album Strange Hobby; The Changelings, on their 2002 album Astronomica; Judy Dyble, for her album Spindle; David West, on the 2001 bluegrass tribute album Pickin' on Pink Floyd: A Bluegrass Tribute; Martha Wainwright, on her 2008 album I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too; and by 3, on the 2008 re-release of their album The End Is Begun. John Frusciante has played it live. All About Eve played the song live c. 1992 and recorded a demo, which was not released until 2006 as part of the Keepsakes compilation.
"See Emily Play" is included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll" list. It is also the 277th most acclaimed song of all time according to Acclaimed Music.
"Apples and Oranges" b/w "Paint Box" 1967
The last of the '67 Barrett-era 45s may be the least successful both artistically and on the UK charts, but it's still fuckin' awesome and its failure to place highly on the charts is not so much a testament to its merits so much as a sign of the times and the fickle nature of those who purchase pop singles. You get a unique Rick Wright B-side too. I still say "Apples and Oranges" is a better song than some of the tracks on Piper (said cuts shall remain nameless, of course), and is sprinkled with that same Barrett fairy dust as everything else Floyd released with his name on it that year.
"The song is about a girl whom the narrator meets at the supermarket. It is one of only a handful of songs by Pink Floyd which deals directly with love. The song was recorded shortly before the band's US tour, on 26 and 27 October.
Pink Floyd, along with Barrett, mimed the song on their first US televised performances on The Pat Boone Show and American Bandstand. Barrett kept his lips closed during the first performance but mimed competently on the latter show, of which footage survives. After Barrett was replaced by David Gilmour, the band recorded a promotional film in Belgium in a fruit market with Roger Waters lip synching, as Barrett had left the band by this point.
Release
This was the group's first single that failed to break into the UK charts, and their US label Tower Records issued a US-only single instead: "Flaming" b/w "The Gnome" (Tower 378). Waters blamed the single's sales performance on Norman Smith: "'Apples and Oranges' was destroyed by the production. It's a fucking good song". When the single failed to reach the charts, Barrett's reply was that he "couldn't care less."
Further release
Both sides of the single were mixed in stereo, but the single was issued in mono, which was very muddy and probably contributed to its lack of success. The stereo mix of "Paint Box" first appeared on the Relics compilation (1971), and both tracks appeared in stereo on the Masters of Rock compilation (1974). The other four early UK singles were issued in mono originally. "Arnold Layne", "See Emily Play", "It Would Be So Nice", and "Point Me at the Sky" only exist in mono or false stereo, while "Julia Dream" was remixed for stereo at a later time, for inclusion on Relics. Mono and stereo mixes of "Apples and Oranges" and the mono mix of "Paint Box" are included in the 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition release of The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.
Reception
"It's a happy song, and it's got a touch of Christmas. It's about a girl who I saw just walking round town, in Richmond." — Syd Barrett
NME hailed it as "the most psychedelic single the Pink Floyd have come up with", however, it was "pretty hard to get a hold of".
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"Paint Box" (or, "Paintbox" on later reissues) is a song by the psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd, written and sung by keyboardist Richard Wright. It was first released in 1967 as the B-side to the single "Apples and Oranges". Musical features of the song include its long drum fills by Nick Mason, and a piano solo by Wright, which is panned around the stereo spectrum. Wright also doubles on tack piano in addition to the ordinary acoustic piano.
The song's lyrics begin with "Last night I had too much to drink / Sitting in a club with so many fools", and feature an ambivalent chorus: "I open the door to an empty room / Then I forget".
The song is the first of many Pink Floyd songs to prominently feature an E minor added ninth chord. This chord would become a signature aspect of their better-known material: It opens The Dark Side of the Moon with "Breathe". It is prominent in "Welcome to the Machine" from Wish You Were Here, where it alternates with a C Major seventh chord for most of the song. "Dogs" from Animals centers around the chord as played on down-tuned guitars, resulting in a concert pitch of D minor ninth. It appeared again in "Hey You" and "Vera" from The Wall. It would appear in no less than four songs from The Final Cut: "Your Possible Pasts"; "The Hero's Return"; "The Gunner's Dream"; and "The Fletcher Memorial Home".
A promotional film for this song was shot for Belgian television on February 18 or 19, 1968, in which the band mimes to the song on a bridge in Brussels. Although Syd Barrett was still a member of the band when the song was recorded (October 1967) and at the time of the film shooting, the film features David Gilmour on guitar, in his first appearance on film with Pink Floyd. The Atomium monument can be seen in the background as the band plays." - Wikipedia
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