Songs / 1967
See Emily Play: a whole world inside a single
A 1967 single that moves between immediate melody and unexpected studio colour.
Read the storyAN INDEPENDENT MUSIC JOURNAL
The first
spark.
Syd Barrett. Early Pink Floyd.
A small collection of extraordinary worlds.
Explore the songs, the records and the restless imagination that helped shape British psychedelia.
Enter the archive FROM CAMBRIDGE TO THE OUTER REACHES
SONGS THAT STILL SURPRISERECORDS WORTH RETURNING TOA HISTORY WITH THE VOLUME UP
01 / ON THE TURNTABLE
Three records.
Endless discoveries.
1967LISTENING NOTES / 01
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
A compact, strange and wonderfully restless debut. Start with the songs, then listen to how the record puts them together.
1970LISTENING NOTES / 02
The Madcap Laughs
The Madcap Laughs
Barrett’s first solo album makes room for abrupt turns, suspended phrases and songs that refuse to march in a straight line.
1988LISTENING NOTES / 03
Opel
Opel
An archive collection, released in 1988, that lets familiar sessions open in unfamiliar directions.
02 / BEHIND THE SOUND
Some ideas
need a little
more room.
A riff becomes a landscape. A studio becomes an instrument. Meet the people and places behind the early recordings.
Inside the early sound03 / FROM THE JOURNAL
Follow a different thread.
Scene / 1967
Games for May: more than a concert
On 12 May 1967, Pink Floyd brought its developing ideas to London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall.
Read the storyPeople / 1960s
Syd Barrett’s guitar: colour before convention
A way of playing in which texture, space and surprise can matter as much as a familiar lead line.
Read the storySongs / 1967
Vegetable Man: from an unreleased song to the official archive
An update to a subject whose release history changed after the original article appeared.
Read the storyCollecting / 1967–70s
From Vic Singh to Hipgnosis: looking at the sleeves
Pink Floyd’s visual history changes with its music. Start by giving the individual makers their credit.
Read the storyPeople / 1972
Stars: a short Cambridge chapter
Barrett’s brief group with Twink and Jack Monck belongs to the story, with the limits of the surviving record kept in view.
Read the story