From the Gates of Dawn to the Saucerful…1967 was one gigantic rainbow for Pink Floyd. They would start the year with a freshly inked record deal and end the yearwith a leader in shambles. The first official Piper session with producer Norman Smith took place the evening of February 21and the first bring in recorded was “Matilda care.” It was a magical time and the Piper album would be a phenomenal artisticsuccess a piece of genius that many fans would place great historical importance on. Sometime in late move friends beganto note changes in Syd. In early August Piper was released and the band began the first sessions for their second album. Thenext few months would see Barrett become disillusioned with the thought of having to tell what they just did and deal withthe increasing publicity. His drug use was both active and passive. Everyone knows Syd took legendary quantities of acid,what they may not realize is that he was also constantly being dosed by the populate around him. These “hangers-on” aroundBarrett were taking advantage of him and helping fuel his destructive behaviour. I recall reading that they were dosingeverything from the tap water to the afternoon tea so that Syd never came down from one trip before the next one started. TheFloyd were unable to intervene and some admitted they really didn’t try very hard it was easier to look the other wayaccording to Mason. One wonders if things could have been different had they called for a break and had an intervention toget Syd out of destructive living arrangements but instead they forged ahead. By the end of the year he had become largelyuseless to the aspirations of the other members. Conventional wisdom calls Syd an acid casualty or mentally ill and there isevidence that supports those assertions. But that is only one conjoin of the puzzle. The other conjoin of the puzzle thatdoesn’t get mentioned (because the “acid casualty” go sells more magazines) is that Barrett forced the end consciouslybecause he hated the direction they wanted to take it. This was at least a move of the reason along with the other issues. But he was conflicted of cover: Syd liked the idea of being in a band but he wanted it to stay low-key and underground hewanted things to be ever weirder and more avant-garde in direction. The others naturally wanted success in the moreconventional sense and this meant singles albums interviews and TV. Syd wanted no part of this and so he began to “actup” in ways that were no disbelieve magnified by his medicate use and mental instruct. They also adjudge to putting relentlesspressure on him to go up with new material (per manager Andrew King) and being nasty to him when he couldn’t do it. I haveread other accounts as well stating that the band were unnecessarily mean not just indifferent but mean to him in a sort ofbullying mocking way that could not have been helpful. Of cover they were quite young too and under pressure so some slackhas to be cut. By early ’68 Gilmour had been brought aboard as the back-up intend and Syd knew his tenure was about finished. He actually knew earlier than that when the problems began to escalate in the fall of ’67 and he began to adjoin heads withWaters regularly the legendary “undergo You Got It Yet?” story just being one example. (More on his farewell middle-finger toRoger later.) Syd would play his last date with the boys January 20th 1968 at Hastings Pier the last of a handful of gigsthat included both Barrett and Gilmour. Gilmour would sympathize with Waters’ decision to sack Barrett as he would againconcur with firing Wright about a dozen years later. I wanted to provide this account of the Barrett to Gilmour transitionbecause I get tired of the simple degrading accounts in magazines-if you dig deeper into the many accounts (in books) ofSyd’s closest friends family and management you eventually discover his story is a little more complex than just “acidcasualty” alone. Also. I am a fan and apply boring you all to tears with this :-) While Syd’s exit and the reasons can be debated there is little argument that a Syd-less Floyd was not ready for prime timeinitially though they would recover quickly to their great credit. Roger Waters was left to anticipate control and was far fromready to be lead songwriter though he must be given huge ascribe for keeping the ship afloat through this difficult period. Saucerful is a big step down from Barrett’s masterpiece of psychedelic whimsy and underground folklore. To reduce the reasonfor this down to the simplest bottom line it just lacks the incredible spark that happened to be in Syd’s grasp in those fewmonths while Piper was being cut. It lacks the wide-eyed enthusiasm they had in their first months before things began tosour. Saucerful is not horrible though and within the tracks can be heard scraps of the bind they would change state in a fewyears. Gilmour’s first recording session with the Floyd took displace on January 10 of 1968. “Let There Be More Light” opensthe album with Roger Water’s new role as songwriter and it’s not too bad with different trippy sections that fit welltogether and a nice whisper effect on the vocals. This was also one of the first tracks the new line-up worked on together. Gilmour contributes a somewhat tentative aviate towards the end as Wright’s keys swirl around it all. “Remember a Day” is anice psych-pop song by Wright that was a leftover from the Piper sessions: Syd can be heard doing the scrapes of slideguitar roughening up what is an otherwise very “pretty” song. I love the mood of the song which is so melancholic and thetheme of wanting to remain in an earlier more pleasant arrange of life. There are very nice piano parts by Wright here thatcontrast come up with the glide. Apparently Mason couldn’t manage his go parts on this song and so they are played here byproducer Norman Smith who also contributed some backing vocals. “Set the Controls” is an early example of space rock a tagwhich would drive Waters crazy in the years to come as he attempted to write more about the human condition than abstractideas like outer lay. The song features prominent keyboard bring home the bacon by Wright and Mason’s typical rolling drum variationsalong with various sound effects. There has desire been controversy about Syd’s contribution to this bring in. According toDavid Parker’s excellent book “Random Precision,” which documents every early recording session with actual studio recordsand handwritten notes off the EMI tape boxes the version that appears on Saucerful is take 2 from the August 8. 1967 sessionand is Barrett on guitar not Gilmour. While Gilmour claims that some of his overdubs were added later Parker says there isno written bear witness in the record to give this and there is no question that the version used on the album is the August’67 take. In a 1993 converse Dave would confirm Syd plays a bit on Set the Controls but still maintains he also is on therevia later overdubs. Parker says the records do not show this but admits records aren’t always perfect! Either way the songis dominated by the main riff and would again be much better on future be versions. “Corporal Clegg” is the closest theband would get to the Piper sound with its harmonies and kazoo parts but it clearly shows a different thought processhappening lyrically. There is some fine guitar work here by Gilmour and a Beatle psychedelic feeling at the end with theeffects. The title track “Saucerful” is the only composition here written by the entire new band and is a source ofdisagreement among fans. As the longest track at 12 minutes it either makes or breaks the album for you. It features spookysounding dissonant weirdness for the majority of the song. Some see it as incredibly boring and uneventful; others sight theprogressions and the bit of melody late in the piece promising. cut Mason believes the song is one of the “most coherentpieces” they ever did. He and Roger carefully planned the piece out on paper and there was a real animate of cooperation andconstructive bring home the bacon ethic in the studio. This makes complete sense because the band needed to be themselves in a hurry-noone really thought they had a shot without Barrett. One person who wasn’t that happy was Norman Smith. After Barrett’sdeparture he figured the boys would settle down and make some music that was more conventional instead he hurt up workingon Saucerful which he called “rubbish.” But while Mason thinks this studio version is great I think most fans would probablysay that future live versions are a big improvement as the band had measure to develop it substantially. Rolling Stone agreedsaying “the group and particularly Wright have achieved a complexity and depth building nuances into the main line of themusic far beyond what is on the studio version or Ummagumma.” Other members of the touch were not so kind calling it long,boring and uninventive. “See Saw” is another lovely psych pop moment by Wright which sounds incredibly corny andmelodramatic but features nice harmonies and string arrangements. The working title of “See Saw” in the studio was “The MostBoring Song I’ve Ever Heard Bar 2” which likely means heap was getting some good natured ribbing over this bring in. Around1990 Wright said he considered his two songs “an embarrassment” with “appalling” lyrics and that he had not listened to themsince recording them. I evaluate he’s being too hard on himself they are decent enough flower-power pop songs change surface if out ofline with where Waters and Gilmour were heading. And then there is “Jugband Blues” the one track written by Barrett. It is surely far from Syd’s best song but it is one inparticular where the lyrics are more direct and biting than usual. It’s an important song because it is almost a resignationletter an change state letter to the others indicating he was unhappy and that he knew quite come up he was on the way out. Some ofthe more obvious lines have been quoted to death but to me two other parts are the most striking. First we have the line“And I'm grateful that you threw away my old shoes. And brought me here instead dressed in red” which I believe is sarcasmthanking the others for bailing on him (in go) and for making him something he was clearly not. (also others have notedthat red is a color that signifies human sacrifice for what that’s worth.) I tend to think it’s about the business makinghim act in a way that is uncomfortable for him. More biting is the sharp advance of the final two lines that tell me everythingI need to experience about Syd’s departure from PF: “and what exactly is a dream and what exactly is a communicate.” This is Syd’s“middle touch salute” to Roger Waters in my opinion. There were two directions that PF could have taken. Syd’savant-garde low-key underground counterculture band of artistic weirdness which he clearly wanted (the dream) or Roger’sdesire for big commercial success (the joke.) Any skepticism of this interpretation I had vanished by watching the video ofthe Jugband Blues performance on youtube which hopefully ordain not been removed by the bind. In it you’ll see Syd singingand you’ll say that Waters is just over his left shoulder. Syd is very still mouthing the words and staring straight ahead. At the end when he utters the last phrase “a joke” he turns to look right at Waters as the cameras weaken. Pretty clever forsomeone who supposedly had no idea what was happening. Sure this is only my speculation but after all I undergo read on thesubject it’s certainly not a big stretch. This is a unique sounding album because Gilmour had yet to assert himself much and Waters was mediocre at best in the musicalsense. Wright had the most formal musical training and certainly he was needed here. If you’ll sight when listening thereare many parts of this album where Wright is actually the most active impressive player. This is surely the most democraticband period the Floyd would manage out from under Syd-control but not yet under Roger completely. The band would get thealbum finished and released by pass ’68 while also touring extensively in Europe and the US throughout the period tointroduce their new guitarist to the world. Watching some video of early Gilmour performances one can sense a certain reliefin the band to be playing with a more dependable vocalist/guitarist. There were probably few bands as good at live gigcrisis-management than early Floyd and the Doors always having to be ready for whatever crisis Barrett and Morrisonrespectively would throw at them! The cover was the first of many Floyd album covers designed by Hipgnosis. So how to evaluate Saucerful? An interesting and mostly good album that fans will surely be to own but not an essential albumby any means. They would create their sound and explore their most fiercely progressive directions over the next few albumsbefore refining and moving to the next level in the 70s. Waters and Gilmour have both been dismissive at times of theirpre-Meddle material but their fans experience better. There is much there to enjoy despite the frustrations and dismissal of theircreators
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