bellbottoms
Pacific Coast Highway
Posts: 727
Likes: 201
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Post by bellbottoms on Nov 26, 2019 22:46:16 GMT
This past Spring, I checked out Nick Mason's A Saucerful of Secrets, and they opened with a version of Interstellar Overdrive that lasted probably four minutes. It instantly became my favorite version of the track ever. Pink Floyd would excel with longer pieces of music, but in 1967, they weren't there yet. I assume it must have resembled this version? There are some unfortunate volume dips in this recording, but I enjoyed this... you only juuuust start to get a bit antsy before they bring it back home, haha.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Nov 26, 2019 23:20:47 GMT
If the album had ended with Interstellar Overdrive, I feel like there would be a sense of completion or fulfillment. As charming as I found Bike, what an odd choice to end the album with. I agree with you, the end of "Interstellar Overdrive" has a certain finality to it, especially as a bookend with "Astronomy Domine". It would've made an excellent closing song. But I have read some comments on other message boards where Pink Floyd/Syd fans are adamant about closing the album with "Bike"; maybe because the song eerily predicted how Syd would eventually end up - riding his bike around the streets of Cambridge. The fading out of the strange sound effects and horn is effective as a close to the album. But to me, "Bike", at least lyrically, sounds more like an introductory song, with Syd awkwardly offering his bike to...a friend. I've got a bike, you can ride it if you like...
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bellbottoms
Pacific Coast Highway
Posts: 727
Likes: 201
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Post by bellbottoms on Nov 26, 2019 23:38:17 GMT
I agree with you, the end of "Interstellar Overdrive" has a certain finality to it, especially as a bookend with "Astronomy Domine". It would've made an excellent closing song. But I have read some comments on other message boards where Pink Floyd/Syd fans are adamant about closing the album with "Bike"; maybe because the song eerily predicted how Syd would eventually end up - riding his bike around the streets of Cambridge. The fading out of the strange sound effects and horn is effective as a close to the album. But to me, "Bike", at least lyrically, sounds more like an introductory song, with Syd awkwardly offering his bike to...a friend. I've got a bike, you can ride it if you like... Yeah, I want Bike further up in the track listing. Lighter fare is great, but I don’t want this album to end light, I guess. I think something as simple as switching Interstellar with Bike could work. The cacophony in the second half of Bike wouldn’t be too out of place leading into the Gnome, or pretty much any track on the album – it’s not as if they were saying “ ah yes, let’s leave the weird noises to the end”. There are plenty of weird noises all over the place! But who am I to argue with Pink Floyd/Syd Barrett fans
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Post by kds on Nov 27, 2019 13:11:17 GMT
This past Spring, I checked out Nick Mason's A Saucerful of Secrets, and they opened with a version of Interstellar Overdrive that lasted probably four minutes. It instantly became my favorite version of the track ever. Pink Floyd would excel with longer pieces of music, but in 1967, they weren't there yet. I assume it must have resembled this version? There are some unfortunate volume dips in this recording, but I enjoyed this... you only juuuust start to get a bit antsy before they bring it back home, haha. Yes. I'll admit when the band came out and that riff started, my first thought was "uh oh." But, in order to get more songs onto the setlist, they played shorter versions of several Floyd epics.
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Post by kds on Nov 27, 2019 13:12:20 GMT
And, I agree with Sheriff. Take out Pow R Toc H and Instellar Overdrive, and plug in Arnold Layne, Candy and a Currant Bun, and See Emily Play, and that makes a pretty good album a great one.
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Post by kds on Nov 27, 2019 18:10:53 GMT
1968
IT WOULD BE SO NICE / JULIA DREAM
As Syd Barrett's mental state and reliability got worse, Pink Floyd brought in David Gilmour as a fifth guitar player. By 1968, things were so bad with Syd, that one day, the band just decided not to pick Syd up. So, after a brief period as a five piece, the man who'd been Pink Floyd's primary song writer and single, as well as the guy who gave the band their name, was gone. They actually toyed with the notion of Syd taking on a Brian Wilson role, where he would write songs at home while Waters, Mason, Wright, and Gilmour toured, but his songwriting output had become erratic as well. The band, harbored a guilt about what happened with Syd for the rest of their career, and would continue to reference him in the music, and ensure that he kept receiving payments until the day he died in 2006.
Back to the time at hand. Floyd released this single soon after officially becoming a four piece. Richard Wright's A side is a surprisingly jaunty pop tune for Floyd. Roger Waters's Julia Dream is more of a haunting song with prominent mellotron, and features Gilmour's first lead vocal as a member of the band.
A SAUCERFUL OF SECRETS
This is the only album to feature all five primary members of Pink Floyd - Syd, Roger, Rick, Nick, and David. And, it even featured lead vocals from all five. The album was recorded while Syd was in the band, and he's featured on three tracks. I'm in the minority as I think their disjointed sophomore album is an upgrade over Piper.
For the second straight album, we open with a bit of space rock with Let There Be More Light. David Gilmour's lead vocals on the chorus as well as his guitar playing on the coda immediately sound like an upgrade over the band's previous leader, even if Gilmour had yet to really find his own style.
Syd's slide guitar and Rick's piano open Remember a Day, supposedly a song once considered for Piper. This Wright composition, sung by its writer, is a longing for childhood themed song, a subject Floyd would revisit several times. The song is simultaneously uplifting, nostalgic, and sad. But, an interesting early Floyd song.
Wright also contributes the light and airy See Saw, a song that's much disliked by the band themselves, and their fans, but I've always loved it's atmospheric dreamy feel. The lyrics have been interpreted to be about drugs or even insist, but when you consider Wright's previous entry, it's likely just literally referencing memories of playing on a see saw.
Depending on what source you find, Set the Controls For the Heart of the Sun is the only song to feature all five Floyds. Although the guitar is pretty far down in the mix. This song would become a live staple for early Floyd, often being stretched out to three times it's length. I like the compact, more up tempo studio version.
Corporal Clegg is a bit of a jokey song, rare for Floyd, and features the only officially released Nick Mason lead singing on a Floyd album. And also, not one, but two, kazoo solos. It's zany, but it somehow works with this band in transition.
The album closes with Syd's Jugband Blues, which may not actually feature any other bandmembers as he's backed by a Salvation Army band. It's heartbreakingly self aware, as Syd seems to address his fading stature in the band.
The centerpiece is the four part, 12 minute instrumental title track. More structured than any of the instrumentals on Piper. The first two parts can lag a little, but the closing Celestial Voices section, with wordless vocals from Wright and Gilmour, is quite beautiful. This is a sign of the more conceptual works Floyd would do in the 1970s.
It's definitely not an album I'm throw on to introduce somebody to the greatness of Pink Floyd, but I think ASOS has a certain charm.
POINT ME AT THE SKY / CAREFUL WITH THAT AXE EUGENE
After this single flopped in late 1968, Floyd would not release another (at least in the UK) for over a decade. The A side is a fairly conventional verse chorus verse chorus song with Gilmour and Waters trading vocals. A solid song even if the lyrics are a little unfocused. The B side is an instrumental that Floyd had in their live shows which slowly builds tension before a blood curdling scream from Waters. The piece wasn't really fully realized on this version, and a superior live version would be released later.
Since Floyd focused on LPs after 1968, my next entries will be album based instead of year based.
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Post by Kapitan on Nov 27, 2019 19:23:08 GMT
I'd never heard the first two songs. "It Would Be So Nice" is funny, almost like the Kinks interspersed with some big epic psychedelia effort. "Julia Dream" is so of the time. It's pretty.
In both cases it's so interesting to hear how Pink Floyd, hi-fi masters of the studio only a few years later, were so amateurishly produced.
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Post by kds on Nov 27, 2019 19:40:10 GMT
The singles from 1968 are sort of oddballs in the Floyd canon. The B sides were released on the 1971 compilation - Relics. But the A sides just sort of vanished, not to be heard again until the Singles Disc of the 1992 Shine On boxset, and later the Early Years box. And, yeah, the production dates some of their earlier material.
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Post by Kapitan on Nov 27, 2019 20:27:02 GMT
Saucerful is the first album on which the band sounds like what became the classic Pink Floyd, in my opinion. It's not a great album, but it has glimmers of what would happen later. That said, this is the first time I've played my CD of it in probably 20 years.
I swear I know the riff from "Let There Be More Light" from something else, but I can't recall what. (Wait, just did: some Beastie Boys song?) Anyway, I like the tightness of this song and the album on the whole. They seem better players than on the debut, which could be due to actual improvement, or just recording circumstances, budget, etc. But while the lengthy instrumental jams in general don't do it for me, it is generally an enjoyable album.
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Post by kds on Nov 27, 2019 20:41:26 GMT
Saucerful is the first album on which the band sounds like what became the classic Pink Floyd, in my opinion. It's not a great album, but it has glimmers of what would happen later. That said, this is the first time I've played my CD of it in probably 20 years.
I swear I know the riff from "Let There Be More Light" from something else, but I can't recall what. (Wait, just did: some Beastie Boys song?) Anyway, I like the tightness of this song and the album on the whole. They seem better players than on the debut, which could be due to actual improvement, or just recording circumstances, budget, etc. But while the lengthy instrumental jams in general don't do it for me, it is generally an enjoyable album.
I think the musicianship did improve on ASOS due partly to experience, and partly due to the addition of David Gilmour, who appears on each song except for Remember a Day and Jugband Blues. I just think he's a far better guitar than Syd was, and a far better singer as well. And when you put him in with Wright, Mason, and Waters (I always thought Nick was an underrated drummer), you have the beginnings of the classic Floyd sound.
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bellbottoms
Pacific Coast Highway
Posts: 727
Likes: 201
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Post by bellbottoms on Nov 27, 2019 22:47:47 GMT
Just finished my first listen of A Saucerful of Secrets, and I'm not sure I "got" it. Maybe I need to spend some more time with it.
Remember A Day did stand out, and Corporal Clegg was amusing.
Of the A Saucerful of Secrets suite, the third hymnal section was nice.
That's all I have right now. I'm glad we're getting a few days with this one because I think I need them.
The non-album singles... It Would Be So Nice and Julia Dream - those were both lovely. Interesting point about them sounding a bit dated. It Would Be So Nice especially sounds like it could have been written a few years before.
Oh and I missed out on Candy and a Currant Bun from the 1967 discussion... not that I have that much to say about it. I liked the quaintness of it.
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Post by kds on Nov 28, 2019 3:57:05 GMT
It's hard to believe a song like Corporal Clegg came from the mind of Roger Waters, whose lyrics grew so overly bitter and angry as his career went on.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Nov 29, 2019 19:32:06 GMT
Again, I agree with most of kds's review of A Saucerful Of Secrets. I don't agree that it's an upgrade from The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, but that's a matter of opinion, and I'm a big Syd fan. It would've been fascinating to hear a fully realized five-man Pink Floyd with David Gilmour.
I like A Saucerful Of Secrets a lot. I prefer Side 1 to Side 2. Waters was really coming on. "Remember A Day" is a good one. I would've followed "Let There Be More Light" with "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun".
I continue to be fascinated by "Jugband Blues". Is it art? Is it insanity? Was Syd playing head games? But what a song to go out on, though they didn't know it at the time. And the sea isn't green, and I love the queen, and what exactly is a dream, and what exactly is a joke...
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bellbottoms
Pacific Coast Highway
Posts: 727
Likes: 201
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Post by bellbottoms on Nov 30, 2019 13:49:05 GMT
After a few more listens of Saucerful I don't know that I can compare it to Piper and say it's an upgrade, a downgrade, or even on the same level. It's almost completely different, but also... not. Kind of indefinable, actually. I'm glad I reserved judgment for after I got to know it a bit better - I like it. It's a bit arty, and definitely an atmospheric soundscape. There are a lot of stunningly beautiful moments on it.
I can't believe I somehow didn't grab on to Let There Be More Light and See-Saw the first time around, they're both fantastic songs.
Saucerful the song - I had only detected 3 sections the first time, but apparently there are 4. I like this more every time I hear it, but the final choral section really is the payoff... it's extremely moving.
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Post by jk on Dec 2, 2019 15:31:52 GMT
I can't believe I somehow didn't grab on to Let There Be More Light and See-Saw the first time around, they're both fantastic songs. Well I have to start again somewhere--after an eight-month hiatus--so why not here? (Hi bellbottoms .) I bought this album when it was released in '68 (I already had their debut) and these were the two tracks that leapt out at me. The lyrics of "See Saw" must be pretty unique in post-Barrett Floyd. I like the way the riff of "LTBML" began life in "Interstellar Overdrive" (here at 4:22):
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