Syd Barrett Pink Floyd Psychedelic Music Progressive Music

Download Have You Got It Yet?

2012-01-21T14:26:00.000-08:00

Download Have You Got It Yet? Set:

Download them from here ... all working links

Filesonic Links

http://www.filesonic.com/file/4226933215/01.Vol.1.rar

http://www.filesonic.com/file/4212571725/02.Psychedelic Artefacts.rar

http://www.filesonic.com/file/4226933255/02.Vol.2.rar

http://www.filesonic.com/file/4212566955/03.In The Wood - Complete Rarities
1968-1974.rar

http://www.filesonic.com/file/4226933355/03.Vol.3 + Vol.4.rar

http://www.filesonic.com/file/4212555895/04.You Got It Now.rar

http://www.filesonic.com/file/4226933375/05.Vol.5 + 06.Vol.6.rar

http://www.filesonic.com/file/4226933265/07.Vol.7.rar

http://www.filesonic.com/file/4226933305/08.Vol.8 + 09.Vol.9.rar

http://www.filesonic.com/file/4226933235/10.Vol.10.rar

http://www.filesonic.com/file/4226933275/11.Vol.19.rar

http://www.filesonic.com/file/4226933295/HYGIY V.2.0.rar

FileServe Link

http://zpag.es/91Hg

More places to download Have You Got It Yet?

Re: HYGIY Discs

Vol 1&2: http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4035087
Vol 3-10: http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/3717941
Vol 11: http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/5496150
Vol 12-19: http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/3766073
Errata: http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4936070

The Madcap Laughs

2012-01-07T08:37:00.000-08:00

January saw the 42nd anniversary of the release of The Madcap Laughs album on Harvest Records. Timeless photos that helped put Mick Rock on the map and the lovely Iggy graced the cover with Syd.

Peter Jenner was Syd's manager since May of 68. The sessions were in and out for over a year. By 1969, Malcolm Jones stepped in and took over. Back in the day at Abbey Road Studios, Jerry Shirley was a session drummer and some of Soft Machine's members were session musicians like Kevin Ayers and Robert Wyatt.

No one but Jones knew why he left the project, my guess is it was getting lengthy. They were playing well together. Waters and Gilmour got involved at this point due to Syd asking Gilmour for his help. They lived close to one another at this time. They were not altogether considerate of Syd's state or feelings at the time.

Syd did backing vocal and guitar tracks and the other musicians filled in. Of course he was a bit erratic on beats and bars so it was a difficult process. The late Robert Wyatt said they'd ask Syd "What key is that in?" and he would reply with a "Yeah!" or a color. That sparked debates to this day whether Syd had synaestesia or not but Hendrix termed chords in color also. Syd said he liked the albums outcome, but wanted it to be a whole thing people would listen to all the way through with everything related and balanced, tempos and moods offsetting one another.

The single "Octopus" was released in November of 69 and it went to #40 on the UK charts, with good reviews of course. Iggy helped supply fun vibes and gave him inspiration for some of his songs. She said they always had a giggly good time and talked how happy Syd was, contrary to some sources over the years.

When the photos were done and Mick Rock arrived, Syd was in his knickers tuning his guitar and having a fag. Iggy was in the kitchen, making coffee or something in her birthday suit. They eventually got dressed and made it out on the street where dozens more shots were snapped off. The late Alan Styles, PF's road manager happened along and made it in a few. Iggy looked smashing in her groovy pantsuit and Syd with tossled hair and Duggie's overcoat. Iggy would line his eyes with kohl and he looked amazing. The photos are iconic, to say the least.

The album was released three days before Syd's birthday on January the 6th. To check out Iggy and her divine adventures you can find her and the reverend Felix Atagong at The Holy Church of Iggy The Inuit. The Laughing Madcaps are the #1 Syd Site online and both are on FaceBook. Let the Goddess smile upon you!

Pink Floyd Avalon Ball Room Poster

2011-12-25T20:14:00.000-08:00

Check out my new poster! It's double matted (black and pink) with a pink frame!

Pink Floyd Avalon Ballroom (San Francisco, CA) Aug 2, 1968 (FD131-PO)

Performers:

Pink Floyd
Chrome Syrcus
The Holy Modal Rounders
Electroluminescense (light show)

Bob Schnepf Designed by: Jerry Wainwright. The poster was printed once before the concert on two different stocks. It measures 14" x 21 1/2".

Hideously Rare Syd Barrett Autograph - 1/67

2011-12-20T12:08:00.000-08:00

Check out this hideously rare Syd Barrett photo; a circa 1967, by photographer Irene Winsby. Winsby shot Pink Floyd in January, 1967 for the British tabloid News of the World, for what turned out to be an expose on drug use by pop groups. She first photographed them at a rehearsal, but band manager Peter Jenner thought the band looked too under-the-influence, and so Winsby returned the next day to shoot them under more controlled (and sober) circumstances. This is an original print shot on the second day, which has been boldly signed in ballpoint pen by Barrett in the lower right corner.

A few years ago, English photo archivist/dealer Mark Hayward discovered 25 of Winsby’s lost photographs of Barrett and Floyd in an album of vintage prints. This was the only signed print found, and indeed, is the only original signed photograph of Barrett we know of that has surfaced to date. Winsby’s Pink Floyd photographs were published in 2011 as part of a limited edition book titled “Barrett,” which documented Barrett’s creative output, and was published with the full participation of the Barrett family and Hayward. To commemorate the publication of "Barrett," an exhibition of Syd Barrett's work was held at London's Idea Generation gallery this past March.

The print measures 8” x 10 1/8" and is printed on pebble-textured photographic paper. It is in overall near-excellent condition with some light spotting, and vertical glue lines on the reverse from having been stored in an adhesive photo album (not visible on the front.) This will frame beautifully. With Recordmecca's written lifetime guarantee of authenticity, and a handwritten letter of provenance from Mark Hayward. Truly unique.

Kiloh Smith - Psychedelic Rock Poster Art

2011-12-19T13:41:00.001-08:00

Check out this video of much of my collection of rock poster art. I began to run out of time so I couldn't show two other rooms or my several portfolios (full) of posters or my huge amount of handbills and cards. But this is a lot.

You Syd Barrett fans will find stuff to oggle and you Texas Psych fans will find stuff to oggle.

Syd Barrett Leaving the band in the Dust

2011-12-05T15:08:00.001-08:00

I’ve always thought that the stories of Syd de-tuning his guitar onstage, playing on chord over and over and over, were people’s attempts at describing his trying to achieve a pure synthetic sound on his guitar. This has been called “Ambient” too.Barrett might have been attempting to take his sound “all the way out” and left his band mates scratching their heads. He might have been seeking a pure/new sound not based in Western music or even by playing notes.

For sure, I see Syd Barrett as a precursor to Robert Fripp and that whole universe that he helped open up.Here are some examples of groups trying something similar at the same time as Syd:

Red Crayola - Boards 1967:Velvet Underground - Melody Laughter 1966:Mothers - The Return of the Son of the Monster Magnet 1966:

Pink Floyd Gyllene Circelen ~ 1967

2011-11-07T14:21:00.000-08:00

Just leaked! Pink Floyd Gyllene Circelen ~ 1967. This was taped off the broadcast and so we hear the applause of both the 1967 audience and the 2010 one.

Rare-as-Hen's-Teeth Pink Floyd Roundhouse & Technicolour Dream Handbills!

2011-11-07T11:44:00.000-08:00

Check out these two, rare-as-hen's-teeth, Pink Floyd handbills. One is the Pink Floyd Roundhouse 1966 and this handbill was for a protest show against apartheid in Rhodesia (now: Zimbabwe). The other is for the fabled 14 Hour Technicolor Dream. Enjoy!

THE PINK FLOYD Saville Theatre, London October 1967 Concert Program

2011-11-01T20:13:00.000-07:00

Very rare original vintage concert program for The Pink Floyd at the late Brian Epstein's Saville Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue in London on October 1, 1967 along with Fairport Convention, Tim Rose, Tomorrow, and The Incredible String Band. The show was part of a series of concerts during October of 1967 called SUNDAYS AT THE SAVILLE, which also featured the Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Who, Junior Walker, and Cream.

I think that the Jimi Hendrix shows were cancelled as a show of respect for Brian Epstein who had passed away some few months previous.

See the Pink Floyd Saville Theatre Set List below:

Astronomy Domine
Flaming
Lucifer Sam
Matilda Mother
Pow R. Toc H.
Scarecrow
Candy and a Currant Bun
Interstellar Overdrive

Note: Two shows at 18.00 and 20.30.

Second Note: Click the Saville poster art image to read more about this show.

Joe Boyd Speaks

2011-10-14T00:02:00.000-07:00

Check out these Joe Boyd interviews and talks.

The UFO! Underground Freak Out!

2011-09-28T14:02:00.000-07:00

A short walk from the tube trains at 31 Tottenham RD in London was a place that transcended time and space, some say. It had formerly been the Blarney Club, an irish dancehall for the rowdy at heart.When Hoppy found it, he knew it was the right place for his new underground club. John Hoppy Hopkins and Joe Boyd collaborated together to open a new club, cause they needed some extra cash. They didn't know the mammoth purpose this club was destined to serve. It was a vehicle for the counterculture as well as an iconic place where artists, photographers, musicians, and freaks could mingle and the London Underground was launched. On December 23, 1966 the doors opened and the Pink Floyd and Soft Machine played amid the swirling lights and the first all night gigs or Night Trippers. It became the epi center of the counterculture movement for London and possibly, the world for the next nine months.The UFO left a deep imprint on art, music, film, and even politics. Dubbed the first psychedelic nightclub in England. "It was a great location and had all the new talent to die for!" Hoppy remembers. The night trippers were from 10~6 a.m. every Friday night. It allowed you enough time for a good trip and hop a tube train home. As you enter the building there was a very wide staircase still bathed in opulent thirties style. As you went down into the club there was a snow machine set up over the doorway and the swirling lights had a trippy, hypnotic effect that was disorienting like being in a heavy snowstorm. At the bottom of the steps were the heavies who took the bread and tickets. Lots of people sat on the steps and chilled out or rapped to one another between the bands sets. Once you went in it was a very large, long ballroom that could easily hold a few hundred people. It was literally underground and a basement, but it had a groovy laissez~faire vibe going on. The stage was low and small because it had originally been built for irish jugbands. There were two ceiling fans and a large shiny silver ball hung in between them. It had adorned the room since the twenties. They had imported their own psychedelic furniture and decor. Things like large penises stood in the floor. The colorful bubbly lightshows added to the psychedelia and the strong smell of incense made it like home. There was a technicolor strobe which threw out pulsating lights. There were blacklights and half naked girls painted in day glo paint and as they walk by a blacklight they would burst into living color. It was a home for expirimental groups, mixing media, lightshows, music, theatrics, and anything avant~garde!. One or two bands played a couple of sets. Poetry was read, it was the time of the beat poet who rymed a story to light taps on a bongo drum. Political points were made as well. Artists came in and filmed or did various things. Yoko Ono ferried UFO'ers back and forth to a hotel and filmed them walking across a revolving table bare assed. The outcome was titled "Bottoms". Peter Whitehead was introduced to the Floyd by Jenny Spires and he filmed them at Sound Techniques Studio for his "Tonight, Let's All Make Love In London". The Floyd swilled down a fifth of whisky and got mightily stoned and ripped it! There were many musicians who frequented the club. Some stopped in after their gigs at 3 a.m. to see what was going down and jam awhile. The club was a hang out for Hendrix, Townsend, McCartney, Clapton and a few others who came to see what Syd was up to. Hendrix was heavily influenced by Syd's guitar style. In between bands and their sets were the latest records played on a turntable in their entirety by DJ Jack Henry Moore. . There were 4 upright WEM speakers, one in each corner of the room. Chinese Cartoons on 16 mm were shown and as Hoppy put it, ravishing to the tripping eye. Avante~Garde films were also shown and the projectors often swung round so as to keep the crowd moving. They served UFOOD in one corner, veggie and rice type food with no alcohol!. The UFO was known for its groundbreaking lightshows by several artists. Peter Wynne~Willson (still doing lightshows and stage today), Mark Boyle and Joan Hills (the Boyle family today), Jack Bracelin (owned a nudist camp and known for his Sensual Laboratory Lights), Dermont Harvey (projected 3~D liquid projections onto helium filled balloons), and Joe Gannon (16 year old tech whiz who later produced the Mary Tyler Moore Show) were the magicians of light for the club. There were different light shows in each corner of the room. A scaffolding was built to house all the lightshow that trailed across the stage and walls. Joe and Pete did these particular lights and Mark projected from a scaffold in a corner on a muslin cloth which bathed the stage. Pete set up lanterns at the foot of the stage and they casted "spectral" shadows on the backdrop. He alternated switches and flashed lanterns in sequence, creating rippling stroboscopic shadows. Pete went on to be the Floyd's lightshow designer, and Joe Gannon was their first light engineer. Russell Page was their helper. Anthony Stern and Adam Richie took famous photographs there that are still on display today. John Esam as well as Edmond Wolf filmed at the Iconic club. Art was a major topic there also. The first handbills were printed up on Hoppy's offset machine and featured Pete Townsend's girlfriend Karen with a wavy Night Tripper legend printed across her face. Michael English said "it was the first poster I did for the underground before I teamed up with Nigel". A second handbill feautured Barrett in silhouette, onstage at All Saints. A lifelong partnership was born between Nigel Waymouth and Michael English there. They are Hapshash and The Coloured Coat. One album was produced by Hapshash that totally captured the spirit of UFO and it featured The Human Host and the Heavy Metal Kids. Brian Jones, Jenny Spires, and some of the future members of Spooky Tooth and a few assorted freaks did a free for all titled H.O.P.P. Why? . It was released on red vinyl. Hapshash posters mirrored the underground style with wild bright colors, quasi mystical style, and arcane philosophies. There was a turbulent and paranoid time in the freak community when the fuzz sent informants around into suspected drug dealers apartments and parties as the IT warned.. The UFO was a rallying pointand starting point for free speech. The International Times or IT was busted on obscenity charges and even Hoppy got busted. There was a Free Hoppy Movement that went down and some very influential people tried to change the laws and free him. There were demonstrations where a large number of freaks carried a coffin with Harry Fainlight inside from Fleet Street, for a long procession that took several hours to reach it's destination at Portobello Road. After nine months of operation the UFO's fame grew great and wide, deep like outer space!. It became way to overcrowded and things got too heavy so the doors closed on the end of a very hip place. Today is the time of the rave clubs, never again will be one so avante~garde as the UFO.

The Madcap Laughs Video

2011-09-12T15:21:00.000-07:00

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

See Emily Play - Hideosuly Rare Acetate!

2011-08-29T13:31:00.001-07:00

This is something that you might want to sell yer mother down the river for! From the archive of a South African radio DJ, there is every possibility that this amazing artyfact is a unique one off pressing! Look at the close-up pictures!

Pink Floyd original record company 4-track 10" acetate EP 1967 45rpm

Side 1 See Emily Play (2:52) Apples and Oranges (3:07)

Side 2 Paintbox (3:33) Bike (1:50) not sure why it says 3:20 on the label.

Nick Mason On Possible Syd Barrett Immersion Set

2011-08-26T11:56:00.000-07:00

Recently posted on Laughing Madcaps. News about possible Syd Barrett Immersion Set:

New copy of Uncut just came in the post (Bolan cover) - There's a feature & Nick interview the Dark side Immersions set & his vault. From the article by David Cavanagh

The Floyd story started with Syd Barrett, their first songwriter, their first leader, the man who gave them their name. At a certain point in the interview I look Mason in the eye and as him if 'Why Pink Floyd...? is going to be the point in history when "Scream Thy Last Scream", "Vegetable Man" and other unreleased 1967 tracks are finally, after many dashed hopes and false alarms, going to receive an official release.

Mason [at once]: "Yes. I would love that. If we did an 'Immersion' version of the early stuff, we could have all of those, and then we've got some demos that were made really early on, which I think are just charming. these come from 1965 and include 'Lucy Leave', "I'm A King Bee", "Walk With Me Sydney", and "Double O-Bo". They're very R'n'B. Of course we were yet another English band who wanted to be an American style R'n'B band. We recorded the demo at Decca. I think it must have been, in Broadhurst Gardens. A friend of Rick's was working there as an engineer, and managed to sneak us in on a Saturday night when the studio wasn't operating."

David Cavanagh: "Have you always know of this tape's existence?"

Mason: "Yes, I've always had a copy of it."

Nick came in with a huge box full of quarter tapes which had been sitting in storage. When we trawled through them, there were a lot of early recordings, pre-Piper, when they were playing "Louie, Louie" and being an R'n'B band. Then there were quite a few Barrett-era Floyd tracks that never got released, which were mixed recently as part of [the work done on] An Introduction To Syd Barrett, when we didn't know that they weren't going to get used. There is potentially the material to make an album of unreleased Barrett-era stuff.

David Cavanagh: "In other words [I ask Mason], there'll be an 'Immersion' edition of The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn? Or else an 'Immersion' that twins Piper with A Saucerful Of Secrets?" Mason: "More likely to be the latter, but yes, definitely. Personally I think the two albums go together very well, if you position the tracks suitably, because 'Jugband Blues' on Saucer is Syd's song and it's his farewell moment in a way"

That 1967-68 'Immersion' set will probably come out next summer Mason estimates. It will have been a long, long wait.

Previously UNSEEN 'Stars' gig photo - with NO Syd though :(

2011-08-13T14:30:00.000-07:00

While it's a great shame that Syd isn't in this photo it's still interesting to us Syd fans as it shows his band mates playing live on the site of the Cambridge Market Square in 1972. It shows Jack Monck on bass and Twink sitting in on the drums. Syd is most probably in front of them singing along, maybe, and playing guitar, maybe. There is a pic of Syd playing at, apparently, the same place. I think it's a good enough guess that it was taken the same time as this one. Massive thanks to Jenny Spires who forwarded me this photo and has allowed me to publish it here.

A previous post on this blog which includes said pic of Syd is here:

http://www.sydbarrettpinkfloyd.com/2010/02/syd-barrett-stars-its-so-long-ago-now.html

Here's the info on 'Stars' nicked straight from Wikipedia:

Stars

After a spell in Morocco Twink moved to Cambridge and worked with the 'Last Minute Put Together Boogie Band', initially with vocalist/guitarist Bruce Michael Paine (ex-Apple Pie & star of the San Francisco production of 'Hair')^[6]^[7] and 'The Honk' playing bass, and also played in a band named ZZZ with Alan Lee Shaw and Rod Latter (who later reunited as The Rings). The Last Minute Put Together Boogie Band, now with ex-Delivery bass player Jack Monck, backed American Blues guitarist Eddie "Guitar" Burns at King's College Cellar in January 1972. Jack's wife Jenny Spires, a former girlfriend of both Twink and Syd Barrett (ex-Pink Floyd), invited Syd down to the gig and he brought his guitar along and jammed with them at one point.^[8] The next day, the Last Minute Put Together Boogie Band, with guests Fred Frith and Syd Barrett, played on a bill with Hawkwind and the Pink Fairies.^[9]

Within the next day or two Twink formed the short lived trio 'Stars' with Barrett and Monck. Stars played a handful of shows which were well received.^[10] However, Syd, fragile mentally, quit after reading a negative review by Roy Hollingworth in Melody Maker,^[11] after which Twink moved back to London. During the years 1972 to 1975, Twink periodically performed with fellow Ladbroke Grove community band Hawkwind and with the band Glider, but no recordings were made.^[12] In July 1975, The Pink Fairies staged a reunion gig at the Roundhouse featuring the then-current line-up of Russell Hunter, Duncan Sanderson and Larry Wallis, joined by former members Twink and Paul Rudolph. The reunion show was released as a live album in 1982.

John "Hoppy" Hopkins Pioneer of the Undergound Scene

2011-08-13T12:31:00.000-07:00

One of the pioneers of the London Underground Scene during the sixties. To know him was to have your finger on the pulse of the Hip Counterculture scene of the swinging sixties in London. Also a British photographer, journalist, researcher, and political activist. John "Hoppy" Hopkins was a nuclear physicist and graduated from Cambridge in 1958. He received a camera from a relative for his graduation present, and fell in love with photography and here is where the rubber met the road for his career in photography and journalism. Hoppy arrived in London on January 1, 1960 and landed a job as an assistant of a commercial photographer and within a year was established as Fleet Street Freelancer. He worked for the Sunday Times and The Observer papers in London. He also freelanced a magazine called Queen.In this one he did the first ever article on Cannabis in England. He worked for music magazine Melody Maker and took some iconic beautiful shots of jazz musicians, such as Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Miles Davis just to name a few. Hoppy helped out Peace News and the CND magazine Sanity, where he documented the protest movement against nuclear weapons.He was a photographer from 1961-66 during this time he took beautiful photographs of the Beatles, the Stones, Alan Ginsberg, Malcolm X,and the less fortunates of London.He captured the times that are now, long gone.His photos were lost for 30 years and accidently rediscovered and have been on display twice at two London Galleries. Once in 2000 at the Photographers Gallery, a screening for a book on Hoppy and his iconic photos entitled "From the Hip" the first ever publication by Sartoria Communications and Damiani Editore which was quietly sponsored by Lee Jeans. His latest display is at the Adam Street Gallery off the Strand in London, now through September 18. Hoppy took his first lysergic trip in 1964. By 1965 he helped set up the London Free School in Notting Hill. That led to Notting Hill Carnival with the help of Rhuane Laslett. The school newsletter was called "The Gate" and that led to "IT" or the International Times which was known as the 'bible' for the counterculture movement and was published in 66.. The legendary UFO Club was founded was founded by Hoppy and record producer Joe Boyd in 1967. It was without question the hippest trip in London where Syd Barrett and the Pink Floyd's notes floated up and mixed with the incense and snowy colored lightshows that was born there. On June 1, 1967 Hoppy, who had been arrested for a small amount of weed in America,took trial by jury and was slammed into Wormwood Scrubs prison for 9 months by an unhappy judge. The "Free Hoppy" movement set about and Stephen Abrams co-ordinated a campaign for the liberalisation of cannabis laws and hence The Times magazines birth.It published a full page ad on July 24 stating the laws were immoral in principal and unworkable practice. This was signed by Dr. Francis Crick and member of Parliament Graham Greene as well as the Beatles. As a tribute to Hoppy this ad was sponsored by Paul McCartney. In the 70's Hoppy put down his camera and started working with video and researched for UNESCO, and the Arts Council. He edited the Journal of the Centre for Advanced TV Studies. He also worked as a technical journalist in the video trade press. His last gig was macro photography for the University of Westminster. He also founded BIT, an information and agitprop arm. If you live in the UK, you can still catch Hoppy's exhibit at Adam Street Gallery off The Strand. It will run through September 18.

Syd in 'Those Without' - rare photo!

2011-08-12T12:01:00.001-07:00

Another delight to share with you all. This photo was one that Syd gave to Jenny Spires, who met Syd first around the time they did the 'Lucy Leave' & 'King Bee' demo. This photo was taken just before that, in 1964. It looks like Syd may have had an attack of acne when this was taken, but he gave it to Jenny so he couldn't have been that bothered about it. I wonder what song he was singing! :)

New pic of Syd at Cambridge Art School?

2011-08-05T05:47:00.001-07:00

Nearly 2 months ago someone called Elizabeth Hamey posted this photo on a Facebook Syd group. She captioned it "HALCYON DAYS A photo I took of Syd at Cambridge Art School".

I've never seen this photo before and no one seems to have jumped on the fact this has never, to my knowledge, been published anywhere.

So, while that COULD very well be Syd in the middle, he was moving when the photo was taken and is a little blurry. Anyone who knew Syd then confirm it's definitely him or is there anyone who went to Cambridge Art School and they recognise this room?

I'm not saying it's not him, it could be. But also it could be someone who looks a bit like him.

Any comments gratefully received.

Syd Barrett Dark Globe Choral Vocals

2011-08-03T12:40:00.001-07:00

SYD BARRETT DARK GLOBE CHORAL VOCALS

There are actually two versions of this song:

Dark Globe (July 27, 1969 - Choral Version. Peter Jenner 1974 Echo mix)
Dark Globe (July 27, 1969 - Choral Version. Malcolm Jones 1987 Clean mix)

Both versions of Syd Barrett Dark Globe are two sides of the same coin. The ‘Choral’ addition refers to Syd’s delayed double tracked vocals. The main difference between the two is that the 1987 version is somewhat tighter and wider than the 1974 version & clearer to listen to. The 2nd difference is that in the ‘74 Mix Barrett's singing voice is heard quite clearly over the multi-tracked vocals where as on the ‘87 mix the two voices are brought closer together in the mix the difference is not so obvious. The session log seems to omit the fact that there was a session on the 27th of July so we either have to assume that there was no session & the tapes are wrongly labeled ( and the 26th of July was the actual last session ) or the 27th was when the mixes of this track were submitted.

Below this is another version and the LP version:

Syd Barrett Will Always be the One Who Stood Out - by Ben Rayner Toronto Star

2011-07-10T20:26:00.000-07:00

Syd Barrett's Obit in the Toronto Star:

Syd Barrett was introduced to me at a very young age not through his music, but through a class photo.

Not explicitly through the photo, mind you. My dad, for some reason or another, had been coaxed during a long car trip or a hike or some other instance of casual father/son bonding onto the subject of a musician friend who'd declined playing keyboards for a young Manfred Mann mere months before "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" hit - foolish from a financial standpoint, perhaps, but a defensible artistic decision. It led into a discussion of other "celebrities" he'd known during his youth. And the list didn't go much farther than that: There was Martin Amis, whose books I'd seen around the house and have since come to cherish as much as life itself. And then there was Barrett - the same Barrett who died a recluse last week at age 60.

Barrett was a question mark. No more than 10 or 11 years old, I knew Pink Floyd - my parents would both sniff that the band was "pretentious" whenever "Another Brick in the Wall" came on the radio - and had read enough withering reviews of The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking (probably because of the naked lady on the cover) to know Roger Waters was the frontman. But Barrett's brief, formative involvement in the band was then a complete mystery.

"Who?"

He was gone from Floyd early on, it was explained. Drugs and madness or madness and drugs; either way, a volatile enough cocktail that he'd lived with his mother and passed his days staring into a pool since his 20s. A peculiarly affecting rock 'n' roll tale, even for a kid. Pink Floyd, it was added, had been even stranger before Barrett left.
"He was always into weird stuff, even back then, " Dad noted.

Soon after, whilst snooping one bored afternoon through several tiers of musty files, clippings, university papers and photos neglected on an upstairs bookshelf, I spotted Syd amidst the rows of fresh, uniformed faces captured in a black-and-white portrait from my father's A-level year at Cambridgeshire High School in England.

I found Dad first, since he was the guy who resembled me. Barrett, however, was second - even though, at the time, I had no real idea what Syd Barrett looked like. He might have been a bit taller than his schoolmates but, as I recall in apologetic cliche, it was something about his eyes that made him stand out. And indeed, the same piercing, thousand-yard stare beaming from beneath a tousle of black curls has anchored almost every photo I have ever seen of him since. So no wonder.

In any case, the photograph had the weird weight of an artifact and I regarded it as such, reading up on Barrett even though the Pink Floyd thing would elude me until a confluence of adolescent heartbreak and early experimentation with intoxicants brought me to The Wall a few years later at 15. Combine that with a concurrent obsession for Quebec metal band Voivod's cover of "Astronomy Domine" and a discount cassette of The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, and Barrett's strange presence fully entered my life.

Whoa.

How impossibly less cool was Pink Floyd without Syd?

The three early Barrett/Floyd singles (particularly the transvestite ode "Arnold Layne") were careening psych-pop trailblazers and, like his two fractured 1970 solo albums, The Madcap Laughs and Barrett, are often regarded by the Cult of Syd as somehow more worthy than 1967's Piper. It's this album, though, where Barrett's whimsical, LSD-spiked genius crests, putting a fanciful, lunatic spin on British Invasion pop and English folk without fear of tilting into the avant-garde.

"Interstellar Overdrive" and "Astronomy Domine" - Barrett's lilting verses to which were scrawled reverently on every single one of my high-school scribblers - more or less invented space-rock. "Lucifer Sam" is reverberant proto-punk that would echo through everyone from David Bowie to Adam and the Ants for years to come. "Scarecrow" is durably haunting acid balladry.

And "Bike" ... oh, "Bike." "Bike" is simply the best cracked love song ever written, wherein the author fervently woos a young lady with the bizarre collection of odds and ends at his disposal: a bicycle ("It's got a basket / A bell, it rings / And things to make it look good"), a ripped cloak that's "a bit of a joke, " a homeless mouse called Gerald, a "clan of gingerbread men" and, finally, "a room of musical tunes."

"You're the kind of girl that fits in with my world, " goes the swooning refrain. "I'll give you everything, anything if you want things."

It's one of the loveliest sentiments ever put to tape, and it reveals the sweet side to Barrett - the side that liked to write songs about gnomes and cats - that often gets lost in the stories of his random, hallucinogenic behaviour, onstage breakdowns and his eventual, complete alienation from his music, his fans and the outside world.

There would be no late-career "comeback" appreciation for poor Syd. He received news of his ousting from Floyd, a band he essentially created but was continually sabotaging with erratic stage antics, when the rest of the group simply didn't pick him up on the way to a gig in Southampton in 1968. And while his old bandmates did help out on Madcap Laughs and Barret, and later penned "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" in his honour (David Gilmour has been beaming a photo of Syd behind him during the tune on his current solo tour), he's essentially been relegated over the past 35 years to footnote status in Pink Floyd's degraded legend.

The drugs didn't help, but being pushed aside by his friends likely didn't do much to counteract the looming breakdown that silenced him forever just a couple of years later. And that only deepens the tragedy of Barrett's sad and mysterious existence.
Wherever you are, Syd, maybe you can take posthumous satisfaction from knowing that, during your life, you held sway over some of us born into a world from which you'd already retreated.

And thank you so very, very much for "Bike." I will never, ever stop playing it.
brayner@thestar.ca

Syd Barrett Olympia - Show Upgrade

2011-07-07T10:40:00.000-07:00

There is an upgrade of the Syd Barrett Olympia show on torrent now over at Yeekshul:

"Syd Barrett_1970-06-06 Olympia_16-44

************************************************** **********************************************
Syd Barrett Extravaganza '70 Music And Fashion Festival Kensington Olympia, London 6 June 1970

Lineage: Maxell UD C-60 cassette > *Technics RS-B965-M > Focusrite Saffire Pro 14 > Audacity 1.3 > Wav (24bit/96kHz) ----> Adjustments (32bit/96kHz) > Wav (16bit/44kHz) > CDWave (1.98) > FLAC

*The Technics RS-B965-M is a deck heavily modified by expert tapehead A.N.T.- for details see the Tapeheads.net forum

1 [04:24] Terrapin 2 [01:41] Audience/Tuning 3 [04:58] Gigolo Aunt 4 [01:14] Effervescing Elephant 5 [05:58] Octopus .. [18:17] Total Syd Barrett - guitar and vocals David Gilmour - bass Jerry Shirley - drums
***Neonknight's Notes***

Kbrubaker very kindly sent me this tape amongst a number of others that he obtained around 1980 to see whether it merited transferring and torrenting. My reference point was the late Bernard White's reel copy of the orginal recording, which many trade copies and releases have been made from over the years. After a number of listens it became clear that Kbrubaker's had a smoother, clearer sound.

According to Bernard (I knew him pretty well) the recorder was a 15-year-old who wandered down to Olympia with his girlfriend and tape machine. He chose to stand right in front of Syd's guitar monitor, explaining why his guitar dominates the mix.

The performance probably commenced at around 8pm and Melody Maker announced the festival line-up on 28 March 1970. Promoter Bryan Morrison was quoted as saying "In addition to the pop and fashion attractions, record companies and all ventures allied to the record business will be taking part. There will be film shows and high divers. £10,000 in rent has already been spent so far".

Barrett, Gilmour and Shirley seemingly played for less than twenty minutes. Because of a bad PA the vocals were barely audible until part-way through Octopus when somebody balances the mix out properly. Listen carefully and you'll note that a member of the audience shouts for the vocals to be turned up. At the end of Octopus you can hear where Syd unplugs his guitar before leaving the stage.

It took me a little while to get used to hearing this recording at the correct speed after many years of hearing versions that were too fast. Listening to it afresh really adds to the feeling that this is an underrated performance and the band were showing strong promise for what might have been had they gone on to perform again.

***Littlepieces' Mastering Notes for -Syd Barrett_1970-06-06 Olympia- version***

This recording had a lot of level fluctuations, some caused by the recorder, some by Syd, and some by the person running the board. Neon provided me with three different transfers at different levels to enable me to splice the parts together to complete the show and avoid making broad digital gain changes.

Kbrubaker's cassette is a mono recording that was dubbed as two channel stereo. It has a significant phase shift that varies from 18 to 28 samples and its left channel's output is a little higher than the right channel and it also has more high end than the right channel. Given this is a mono recording, the best solution was to eliminate the inferior right channel which eliminated the phase shift and the channel level differences.

For the corrected version I took steps to diminish a series of buzzes and hums during the 30s preceding Octopus, removed several noise artifacts and edited and smoothed a number of recorder stops and starts. I also adjusted the speed which was very fast and varied a little as well.

When comparing this recording to previously torrented versions I noted that it has 15s more audience/tuning before Terrapin and two separate segments of 76s and 18s more audience/tuning after Terrapin. Also, 15s more audience/tuning before Octopus and 5s more after Octopus. The total additional audience/tuning is 2:09m.

Syd's vocals begin to come back into the mix at about 13:25m, around 35s into Octopus. Shortly after his vocals are more stable and the overall mix seems more balanced and at this point is when the thought came to me..........what if? What if these guys had continued the gig then stuck together for a while. A few minutes later the track finishes and you can hear Syd put his guitar down.

***Littlepieces' Mastering Notes for -Syd Barrett_1970-06-06 Olympia_LPP version-***

To accompany the corrected version I have produced a LPP version. Other common versions that have been torrented previously are EQ'd, dehissed-NRed, and possibly compressed. Generally, these kind of subjective changes are not appropriate for an initial release so I decided to produce a LPP version featuring some additional modifications.

Splicing parts of three transfers completed at different levels helped to even out the differences among large parts of the recording but it couldn't address the many level differences and drop downs within these parts. I applied various gain changes to several dozen segments in order to further reduce and smooth the level differences. These often required a relative reduction in hiss in order to make the transitions transparent. Some of the more significant level changes that were adjusted occurred during the first 35s of Terrapin, the first 10s of Gigolo Aunt, and the first 90s of Octopus.

There wasn't a lot going on after about ~8k, so I rolled off the hiss starting around this point varying my approach according to the gain adjustment of the segment.

Finally, I applied some EQ to the low-mids and a modest increase to the upper end which sloped to zero before 6k. After this point any increase introduced bad artifacts.

Generally the objective was to maintain the natural sound of an unprocessed lower generation source.

Kbrubaker Cassette / Neonknight Tape Transfer/ Little Pieces Production (LPP)/(June 2011)"

Cool Syd Barrett Video

2011-07-06T15:19:00.000-07:00

This is a cool Syd Barrett vid. Check it out.

New 'Amsterdam' pic, 29 April 1967

2011-07-04T10:18:00.000-07:00

Syd Barrett Songs and Bits

2011-07-03T10:30:00.000-07:00

OK, a link was published, on the great Laughing Madcaps Group, to a much, much, much longer page of material on pink-floyd.org. Here it is:
http://www.pink-floyd.org/artint/tap_song.htm

I found it hard to sift through all of the solo material and 'Floyd without Waters material and Waters running 'Floyd into the ground with his iron fist material to find the really interesting Syd Barrett stuff.

Therefore, I cut all of that stuff out and made this handy blog post about it. I don't think that my friend, Vic Moccia, will mind. If he does? Fuck it! Anyway, in the red is his verbiage on his page.

One more thing, obviously, when the song name is followed by a band members' quote that refers to that song. Duh.

The now defunct TAP published an incredibly handy reference guide in segments through its last issues. Unfortunately, I do not own many TAP back issues, but I will endeavor to do the best I can with those that I do own. Perhaps some kind person with the missing issues will fill in the gaps (mail them to v.moccia@pink-floyd.org).

Remember A Day (Wright): From 'A Saucerful Of Secrets', sung by the author. There is evidence to indicate that this track was originally recorded (under the title 'Sunshine' [qv]) for inclusion on 'The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn'. The track was also released as a single in the US backed by 'Let There Be More Light'. The Japanese reversed this pairing for their single release.

Wright: "From every album we issue in America, a single is taken and played on AM stations in order to sell the album. None of the singles makes it, of course."

Reopening (Waters): Generic title applied to 'Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun' on the bootleg 'The Early Tours'.

Return Of The Son Of Nothing (Waters, Wright, Mason, Gilmour): An alternative tag for 'Echoes' [qv] as performed in the spring of '71.

Wright: "We went into the studios in January to put down a lot of ideas and called them all bits of 'Nothing', which is where the title comes from. It's 22 minutes long and is a piece we can do live without any of the problems of 'Atom Heart Mother'".

Richard's Rave Up (Wright): An unreleased track recorded in February 1968. It is possible that this is a working title for a track on 'A Saucerful of Secrets', but more plausibly an instrumental later incorporated into the title song on that album.

Andrew King: "You could never tell with Rick what number he was playing; it always seemed to be the same. We used to call it the 'Rick's Fry's Turkish Delight Lick'."

Rush In A Million (Barrett): An alternative title for the early live piece 'One In A Million' [qv]. The mistake is caused by Roger's introduction of the piece at the Star Club Copenhagen 13/9/67 when he laughed making 'one' sound like 'rush'.

Saucerful of Secrets, A (Waters, Wright, Mason, Gilmour): The title track of Floyd's second album. As there is no record of the piece having been recorded, 'Saucerful...' would appear to be a compilation of various instrumentals - such as 'Richard's Rave Up' [qv] - recorded in early '68. This seems to be backed-up by Roger Waters' claim that they were given the last twelve minutes of the album to do with as they pleased. Its earliest confirmed appearance is on the BBC session of 25/6/68 under the title 'Massed Gadgets of Hercules' [qv] [see TAP 39]. The piece became a mainstay of the Floyd's live set, performances varying from under ten to over twenty minutes. Having appeared on "Ummagumma' (where it was divided into four, titled parts: a) Something Else, b) Syncopated Pandemonium, c) Storm Signal and d) Celestial Voices [see TAP 46]) and in the film 'Live At Pompeii', the song was eventually retired on the US tour of Autumn '72. The 'Celestial Voices' section was also performed as the final part of 'The Journey' [qv], titles 'The End Of The Beginning' [qv] [see TAP 39].

Waters: "'A Saucerful of Secrets' allowed you to think of anything that you wanted and because it had echo, people thought it was science-fiction; but it could be anything."

Wright: "We all believed it was going to be one of the best things we'd ever put onto record - which I think it was at that time... Parts of 'Saucerful' on 'Ummagumma' came from the Birmingham gig, which we put together with the Manchester stuff... but the stuff on the album isn't half as good as we CAN play."

Mason: "It contains ideas that were all well ahead of the period, and were very much a route that I think we have followed... [Devices] like provoking the most extraordinary sounds from a piano by scratching around inside it."

Gilmour: "I still think it's great. That was the first clue to our direction forwards, from there. If you take 'Saucerful of Secrets', the track 'Atom Heart Mother', then 'Echoes' - all lead quite logically towards 'Dark Side Of The Moon'."

Scarecrow, The (Barrett) : From 'The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn', sung by the author. The track first appeared as the B-side of the 'See Emily Play' single and subsequently reappeared on 'Masters of Rock'. For some reason Pathe News chose, in 1967, to show a film clip of the Floyd messing about in fields to the accompaniment of this track.

Wright: "Just listen to Syd's songs, the imagination he had. If he hadn't had this complete breakdown, he could easily be one of the greatest songwriters today. I think it's one of the saddest stories in rock'n'roll, what happened to Syd. He was brilliant - and such a nice guy."

Scream Thy Last Scream (Barrett) : The proposed (but later scrapped) third Floyd single, sung by Syd Barrett. This track was recorded by the band in August 1967 shortly after it was announced as a possible follow up to 'See Emily Play'. The public were given the chance to hear this classic as it was part of the Floyd's live set in '67 and was also performed as part of a BBC session in December of that year. It has also been listed as 'Scream Thy Last Scream Old Woman with a Casket' and the slightly shorter 'Old Woman with a Casket'.

Scream thy last scream old woman with a casket, Plan, plan your pointers, point your pointers, Waddle with apples to crunchy Mrs. Stores, She'll be scrubbing bottles of all fours...

Scream thy last scream old woman with a casket, Fling your arms madly old lady with a daughter, Flat tops of houses, mouses, houses, Piddle and diddle, sitting fat...

Watching tele' 'til all hours silly child, Fling your arms madly old lady with a daughter,

(Repeat 1st verse)

Scream thy last scream old woman with a casket,
See Emily Play (Barrett): Pink Floyd's second - and, until 'Another Brick In The Wall part 2', most successful - UK single; reaching the Top 5 in Britain and the Top 40 in the USA. Sung by the author, it was subsequently included on 'Relics', 'Masters of Rock', 'Works', and the US and Japanese releases of 'The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn'. Andrew King explained the idea behind the song: "The Games for May concert was in two parts: there was a Floyd set and a number of individual efforts. I think the individual efforts came in the first half. They were basically pre-recorded tapes; Roger and Rick got some together, but no-one else did really because Syd was in the middle of writing 'See Emily Play' which was like a theme song for that show - 'Games for May' comes in the lyric. The released version was lyrically altered a bit, but it was basically the same song."

Gary Brooker of Procol Harum was played the song as part of a 'Blind Date' singles review: "The Pink Floyd - I can tell by the horrible organ sound. It's much better than 'Arnold Layne'."

Barrett: "Singles are always simple... The whole thing as the time was playing on stage (but) obviously, being a pop group, one wanted to have singles."

A different version of the song had to be recorded for the Floyd's 'Top of the Pops' appearance - a performance that has allegedly been wiped from the BBC archives. The surviving promo (with Gilmour instead of Barrett) can be found on the Rock'n'Roll: The Greatest Years - 1967' video [see review TAP 34].

Wright: "Although it sounds a bit gimmicky, hardly any special effects were used. Take that 'Hawaiian' bit at the end of each verse: that was just Syd using a bottleneck through echo. The part that sounds speeded-up, though, was speeded-up! John Woods, the engineer, just upped the whole thing about an octave. On stage, we have to cut that particular bit out, but then I don't think the audience minds if our reproduction isn't 100% accurate... "I don't think the success of 'See Emily Play' has affected us personally. Sure we get more money for bookings, but the next one could easily be a flop. [Yep! - SF] When I first heard the playback in the studio, I had a feeling it would go higher than it did, but I'm not complaining."

David Bowie, who included a disastrous version of the song on his 'Pin-Ups' album, commented: "Pink Floyd got a hit, and for a few months they were moderately overground. And Syd just didn't want any part of that, so he opted out. And I understood why. I thought "Yeah, right, they're being accepted: nobody wants that' (ironic laughter)."

Arnold Layne (Barrett): The b-side of 'Point Me At The Sky' in Japan and of 'If' in Holland.

Flaming (Barrett): Sung live by Roger Waters in the 60s.

Gnome, The (Barrett): B-side of the US 'Flaming' single.

Interstellar Overdrive (Barrett, Waters, Wright, Mason): The version intended for 'Ummagumma' was pressed onto acetates and given to band members and friends. John Peel had a copy which he loved until it was stolen. Another version appears on a French EP.

Jugband Blues (Barrett): Exists in three official versions: the familiar UK stereo; the UK mono (on which the middle section has slightly more guitar and no vocals over the brass band); and the stereo mix from the Canadian 'A Nice Pair'.

Power Touch (Barrett, Waters, Wright, Mason): Bootlegger's title for 'Pow R Toc H'.

Baby Lemonade (Barrett): From 'Barrett', the Peel Sessions EP and French promo LP 'A Good Harvest'. It was also played for a Radio One 'Sounds of the Seventies' session, broadcast February 1971, with 'Dominoes', 'Terrapin' and 'Love Song'. The name 'Baby Lemonade' was subsequently adopted by a "Glasgow buzzsaw guitar outfit"

Birdie Hop (Barrett): From 'Opel'. The title is rumoured to refer to UFO co-founder John 'Hoppy' Hopkins.

Bob Dylan Blues (Barrett): An unreleased song recorded in 1970. The lyrics boast: "I've got the Bob Dylan Blues / I've got the Bob Dylan Blues / My hair and my hat's in a mess / but I don't give a damn about that."

Boom Tune (Barrett): It has been speculated that this may be an alternative title for 'Here I Go' [qv], in view of the latter's line, "What a boom this tune".

Joe Boyd: "I was looking for a follow-up to the Purple Gang's 'Granny Takes A Trip' single and so I asked Syd to give me a tape of his songs. He had some really cheerful, melodic, wonderful tunes; one of which was 'Boom Tune', which the Purple Gang were definitely going to do. But somehow it never happened, and I lost the tape."

Clowns And Jugglers (Barrett): An alternative version of 'Octopus' [qv] from 'Opel'.

Malcolm Jones: "He called it 'Clowns And Jugglers' and decided to call it 'Octopus' later. I'd have preferred it to be called 'Clowns And Jugglers' actually; I think it's a much nicer title."
Barrett:"I thought the Soft Machine (three of whom play on this track - Eds) were good fun."

Dark Globe (Barrett): From 'The Madcap Laughs'. Another version, titled 'Wouldn't You Miss Me' [qv], appears on 'Opel'... and Roger Waters sings it in the bath.

Peter Jenner: "I think Syd was in good shape when he made 'Madcap'. He was still writing good songs, probably in the same state as he was during 'Jugband Blues'."

Dolly Rocker (Barrett): From 'Opel'.

Dominoes (Barrett): From 'Barrett'.

Gilmour: "The song just ended after Syd had finished singing and I wanted a gradual fade so I added that (end) section myself. I played drums on that, by the way."

Jerry Shirley: "Dave was with Syd trying to get a lead guitar track, but Syd couldn't play anything that made sense. In a brain wave, Gilmour turned the tape around and had Syd play guitar to the tracks coming at him backwards... The backwards guitar sounded great; the best lead he ever played. The first time out and he didn't put a note wrong."

Effervescent Elephant (Barrett): An alternative title for... Effervescing Elephant (Barrett) : From 'Barrett' and the Peel Sessions EP. Apparently one of the first songs Syd wrote, it was played at his appearance with Gilmour and Jerry Shirley at Olympia on June 6 1970; a set that also included Terrapin, Gigolo Aunt and Octopus.

Barrett: "(Performing) would be nice. I used to enjoy it; it was a gas. But so's doing nothing. It's art-school laziness, really."

Feel (Barrett): From 'The Madcap Laughs'.

Gilmour: "It was like one side of the album was six months' work and we did the other tracks in two and a half days. The potential of some of those songs... they could have really been fantastic."

Gigolo Aunt (Barrett): From 'Barrett' and the Peel Sessions EP. Gilmour: "We had baed 'Wouldn't You Miss Me' [qv], appears on 'Opel'... and Roger Waters sings it in the bath.

Peter Jenner: "I think Syd was in good shape when he made 'Madcap'. He was still writing good songs, probabld was lying down some kind of track before and then having him play over it. The third was him putting his basic ideas down with just guitar and vocals and then we'd try and make something out of it all. "It was mostly a case of me saying 'Well, what have you got then, Syd ?' and he'd search around and eventually work something out."

Golden Hair (Barrett, James Joyce): From 'The Madcap Laughs', 'Opel' and the b-side of the 'Octopus' single. The latter also includes an instrumental version of the song.

Barrett: "I've got books lying around at home: Shakespeare and Chaucer, you know. But I don't really read a lot. Maybe I should."

Here I Go (Barrett): From 'The Madcap Laughs'.

Malcolm Jones: "He wrote it, I seem to recall, in a matter of minutes. The whole recording was done absolutely live, with no overdubs at all. Syd changed from playing rhythm to lead guitar at the very end and the change is noticeable. Syd, however, would change like that often... that accounts for the 'drop' during the solo, as Syd's rhythm guitar is no longer there!"

If It's In You (Barrett) : From 'The Madcap Laughs'.

Just Before You Disappear (Barrett) : From the Barrett bootleg 'Melk Weg' (Milky Way). Anyone know what it is? [A careful review of the RoIO database's entry for 'Melk Weg' has failed to turn up this title - so perhaps it's even more mysterious than I'd initially suspected! - SF]

Lanky (Part One) (Barrett): An instrumental from 'Opel'.

Gilmour: "I've listened to 'Opel' and there's nothing on there that really illuminates very much or gives very much to anyone. I didn't approve of it, personally, but it's not my choice."

Lanky (Part Two) (Barrett): The unreleased continuation of the above, consisting of a seven-minute drum track.

Late Night (Barrett): From 'The Madcap Laughs'.

Barrett: "I always write with guitar. I've got this big room and I just go in and do the work. I like to do the words and music simultaneously, so when I go into the studio I've got the words on one side and my music on the other. I suppose I could do with some practice."

Let's Split (Barrett): From 'Opel'.

Living Alone (Barrett): An unreleased song recorded in 1970. The tape is believed to be owned by Gilmour (as is 'Bob Dylan Blues').

Long Gone (Barrett): From 'The Madcap Laughs'.

Love Song (Barrett): From 'Barrett'.

Love You (Barrett): From 'The Madcap Laughs' and the Harvest retrospective, 'Art School Dancing: The Harvest Story Volume 1'.

Malcolm Jones: "Lack of adequate rehearsal gave the Softs' performances a rather ragged aspect, for which I must take responsibility... although I must add that over the years the erratic quality of these tracks has been what has endeared them to Barrett fans. I can't help feeling, though, that the Soft Machine themselves were not very proud of their contributions!"

Maisie (Barrett): From 'Barrett'. The title may have been inspired by either the series of 'Maisie' films from the 30s and 40s, or the 'Perishers' cartoon strip!

Milky Way (Barrett): From 'Opel'.

Malcolm Jones: "He is pretty together there, isn't he?"

No Good Trying (Barrett): From 'The Madcap Laughs'.

Malcolm Jones: "[This] was positively impossible! Syd had, before the session, taken copy tapes... which I presumed were to give to the musicians he was booking to learn... I was wrong; he kept them!"

No Man's Land (Barrett): From 'The Madcap Laughs'.

Octopus (Barrett): From 'The Madcap Laughs' and released as a single (just before the album), in December '69. The song also appears on the 'Harvest Sweeties' promo LP and an earlier version, entitled 'Clowns And Jugglers' [qv], appears on 'Opel'.

Opel (Barrett): From 'Opel'.

Waters: "What was so stunning about Syd's songs was, through the whimsy and the crazy juxtaposition of ideas and words, there was a very powerful grasp of humanity. They were quintessentially human songs and that it what I've always attempted to aspire to. In that sense, I feel a strong connection to him."

Rats (Barrett): From 'Barrett'.

Jerry Shirley said: "'Rats' in particular was really odd. That was just a very crazed jam and Syd had this lyric that he just shouted over the top..."

Barrett: "I don't buy many records... there's so much around that you don't know what to listen to. All I've got at home is Bo Diddley, some Stones and Beatles stuff and old jazz records..."

Rhamadan (Barrett): An unreleased song, recorded in 1968.

Malcolm Jones: "This was a long, boring track, lasting about eighteen minutes, which Syd (or at least, I have always presumed it was his playing) had made... It featured several conga drum overdubs, with no apparent theme or direction."

Rooftop In A Thunderstorm Row Missing The Point (presumably by Barrett): A poem published in Sydzine Terrapin [issue 9 - SF] and an Italian book. The existence of a track of the same name has been neither confirmed nor even rumoured.

Rooftop Song, The (Barrett): An alternative title for the above.

With yellow, red and roomy food, and quivered crouching on a golden cushion undressed himself to disappear through an infinity of pleasure and smiled to free the running me with "Am I my brother's keeper?" his meek hand on devils gloves shaping running blood. The prohecy, to ricreate the truth in visions of a seasonal mood in truth, the only sight he saw lay hidden in the bathroom door and spat on the rug as high is high, so low is low and that's the end of it
She Was A Millionaire (Barrett): Another unreleased version of a song Syd had first recorded with Pink Floyd (see TAP's A-Z, issue 50). This one is believed to have been attempted during Syd's penultimate set of sessions in June 1970. However, neither this nor the Floyd's version has been released, officially or otherwise.
Barrett: "Piper at the Gates of Dawn? That was very difficult in some ways, getting used to the studios and everything. But it was fun; we freaked about a lot. I was working very hard then; there's still lots of stuff lying around from then, even some of the stuff on Madcap."

She Took A Long Cold Look (Barrett): From 'The Madcap Laughs'.

Swan Lee (Silas Lang) (Barrett): From 'Opel'.

Peter Jenner: "I only did a couple of sessions (in 1968): it was reasonably together in a fairly wacky way - at least there were songs and things."

Terrapin (Barrett): Originally from 'The Madcap Laughs', this reappeared on the Peel Sessions EP, of which Strange Fruit's

Clive Selwood said: "It was difficult to find Syd, but once I'd found his brother, who handles his business, that was fine... We also had to have the approval - as we always do - of the other musicians involved. We had to track down Jerry Shirley, who was then working with the new version of Badfinger in the States, and also ask Dave Gilmour. I understand that Syd himself is alive and quite well, has a happy life, spends a lot of time working in the garden and has a decent income from his songwriting royalties. So he's probably got a better life than any of us!"

Of the five songs that Syd performed on the session, only 'Terrapin' came from the album that he was presumably supposed to be promoting. The LP version is also on 'Picnic' and the BBC version reappeared on the compilations 'Before the Fall' (UK) and 'Best of Peel Sessions Par Bernard Lenoir' (France).

Two Of A Kind (disputed credit): From the Peel Sessions EP, officially credited to Syd Barrett but more likely to be the work of Rick Wright.

Untitled (Barrett): Probably an alternative title for 'Let's Split' [qv], recorded in 1970.

Waving My Arms In The Air / I Never Lied To You (Barrett): From 'Barrett'.

Barrett: "I have lots of undeveloped things lying around. I'm still basically like I've always been - sitting around with an acoustic getting it done. I never get worried about my writing."

What's The New Mary Jane (Lennon): A cacophonous Beatles outtake reputed (by entrepreneurial bootleggers) to feature Barrett. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that this is so.

Wined And Dined (Barrett): From 'Barrett' and 'Opel'.

Gilmour: "He would never do those songs twice the same, ever. He'd change the chords and his way of singing them and everything... extraordinary. But it would take forever with him, because he just wouldn't do it the same twice, so he kept getting it wrong. So you'd be lifting vocal lines off and moving them to a different place on the tape and stuff. Just the method of working was so difficult... and I don't think he had as many good songs as we had for 'The Madcap Laughs'."

Wolfpack (Barrett): Reputedly Syd's favourite track from 'Barrett'.

Barrett: "(The songs) have got to reach a certain standard and that's probably reached in 'Madcap' once or twice and on the other one only a little - just an echo of that. Neither of them are much more than that."

Womb Bit, The (Waters, Geesin): An instrumental from 'The Body'.

Word Song (Barrett): From 'Opel'. Also known as 'Untitled Words' or simply 'Words'.

Barrett: "It would be terrific to do much more mood stuff. They're very pure, the words... I feel I'm jabbering."

Wouldn't You Miss Me (Barrett): An alternative version of 'Dark Globe', from 'Opel'. A US promo 12" features this song on both sides.

Waters: "If our hobby is to be interested in... whether Syd did this or did that, or what colour shoes he wore on March 18th 1967 or whatever, who am I to say that's obsessive? Some people collect stamps! It's better than watching Ninja Turtles on TV, in my view. Being a Syd Barrett fan seems to me to be a perfectly legitimate and reasonable way of spending your spare time.
"He was a very interesting man. He wrote some fantastic songs. There's a body of work; unfortunately it is complete. There won't be any more, I don't think. He was a visionary, he was an extraordinary musician, he started Pink Floyd... well, Syd and I started the band together but if he hadn't been there, nothing would have happened. I'd be working for an architect... I might be my own boss by now - I probably would - but I would not be doing the work that I'm doing, I don't think. He was the key that unlocked the door to rock'n'roll for me."

Corporal Clegg (Waters): The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film (Plexus, 1983) claims that Captain Clegg, from Hammer's 1962 film 'Night Creatures', aka 'Captain Clegg', inspired this track. Dogs (Waters, Gilmour) :

Gilmour: "I did one or two very nice, slightly different, guitar solos on it that I was quite pleased with... Three-part, in some cases; it's two-part in the melody sections, but the last line of the first solo, I believe, is a three-part descending augmented chord. Which is quite nice and I was very proud of it; I thought it was very clever. Then Roger went and wiped it out, but mistake, and I had to re-create it."

Flaming (Barrett): Warbling this on French TV's 'Tous en Scene' (November 26, '68; repeated March '91), DG switched lines from the second and third verses, then changed the final lines from "Yippie, you can't see me, but I can see you" to "Hey-ho, here we go, ever so high". Also performed by "Les Pink Floyds" (sic) for this show were Let There Be More Light and Point Me At The Sky.

Golden Hair (Barrett, James Joyce): Our entry for this in TAP 56 gave the impression that an instrumental take appears on the Octopus single, when it in fact appears on the Opel album.

Interstellar Overdrive (Barrett, Waters, Wright, Mason): The plethora of available renditions has defeated our planned guide to the adventures of Interstellar Overdrive. 'Floyds of London' (TAP 46) describes the version used for Piper and 'Tonight Let's All Make Love In London'.

Gilmour: "I've never seen that film. It was before my time, in '67. Ask Nick about that, he would know..."

Mason: "I don't know; I can't remember."

Gilmour: "Wasn't it a live version of Interstellar Overdrive?"

Mason: "No, that was 'San Francisco'."

We concur that the Interstellar on the 'San Francisco' film was indeed a 1968 version, and not, as has been reported, the first recorded version. The one found on a French EP sounds like an edit from the mono Piper mix. This still leaves the version used for the CBC radio interview, repeated as part of Capital's The Pink Floyd Story; another puzzler which we entrust to future Floyd watchers.

Just Before You Disappear (Barrett): Bootleg title for Octopus, from Syd's June '70 Olympia gig.

Let There Be More Light (Waters): Amnesia strikes 'Tous en Scene' again as DG mangles lyrics and moves his solo from the Song's end to before the final verse.

Ian Anderson: "We [Jethro Tull] played the first Hyde Park concert in 1968. Pink Floyd, minus their lights of course, were top of the bill..."

"We'd actually played support to the Floyd a year or so earlier when Syd Barrett was in the band. They were genuinely amazing. It wasn't their songs as much as the way they broke down all musical and presentational barriers. I never did any drugs, so I wasn't particularly interested in the psychedelic aspect of what they were doing. But the way they seemed to mix rock and folk and Eastern influences was fascinating. Very eclectic. It prompted me to pick up an instrument again."

Piggy Got Stoned (uncredited): A "really messy, guitar-focused, instrumental" of dubious authenticity found on a bootleg tape, 'Pink Floyd: Early Freakout Demos'. (Andrew Pask)

Waters: "We don't want people to be stoned out of their minds all the time when they go to hear us. We'd like to induce an experience without drugs. Anyone is free to have that kind of experience."

Pink Jungle, The (Barrett, Waters, Wright, Mason): Alternative title for Pow R Toc H, as played in The Journey, may have been inspired by 1968 adventure-comedy of the same name, starring James Garner.

Rats (Barrett): Ex-Mr Chili Pepper, John Frusciante: "... unless you've heard Rats I can't really explain what it's about. It's mainly acoustic, this riff, but when he comes in with the vocal... It's wild. Real fugitive sound, ya know ?"

Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun (Waters):

Waters: "I managed to get hold of a book of Chinese poetry from the late T'ang period - and I just ripped it off. Except for the title: I've no idea where it came from. It came from... within me.

"I'm glad it did, because I got a letter many years ago from a woman whose child had died of cancer. This kid... had listened to this song a lot, towards the end, and it had, in some strange way, really comforted her... I find that, obviously, very touching. I don't know where it came from, and so her connection with it is probably as strong as mine was..."

Karl Dallas has identified the title as a quote from William S. Burroughs.

Syd books?

2011-06-20T11:18:00.001-07:00

Here is my collection of Syd Barrett related books. They all offer something unique, whether it be a unique photo, interview or insight.

Too many for someone who was a recording artist for little over 2 years?

Nahhhhh! :p