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Early Pink Floyd is much weirder than I thought! (Arnold Layne, Pow R. Toc H., & Bike) | Episode 398
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- čas přidán 17. 05. 2022
- #PinkFloyd #SydBarrett #PinkFloydReaction
In this #WeirdWednesday episode of #TheDailyDoug, I'm listening to three early tracks from Pink Floyd. I originally planned on just listening to Bike from their first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn...but I was encouraged to listen to more of their early work while I'm at it. So, we're also listening to Arnold Layne, their very first single, as well as Pow R. Toc H., a very interesting piece of musique concrète. I hope you enjoy!
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Reference Video: • Pow R. Toc. H.
Reference Video: • Pink Floyd - Bike (Off...
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Fun fact: Piper was recorded in the room next door in Abbey Road while the Beatles were recording Sgt Pepper. McCartney was a big fan - he described the album as "knockout".
McCartney was damn right !
John Lennon also popped into Studio 3- I think he had a close listen to Syd's stuff.
McCartney must have been referring to the album he and the Beatles were recording, because this Pink Floyd album is far from "knockout".
@@michaelharrington75 That's what Paul said, and he was talking about Pink Floyd. Shame you don't like it, but, y'know... oh well... never mind...
McCartney was experimenting with psychedelic music about the same time (Lennon gets most of the credit for the experimental music, but Paul wasn't far behind). The (annoyingly) unreleased "Carnival of Light" soundtrack is reputedly very Syd-era Pink Floyd-like.
"The few times I saw Syd Barrett perform in London at UFO and the Marquee clubs during the '60s will forever be etched in my mind" - David Bowie
"Syd was a major inspiration for me." - David Bowie
Yes big influence on both Bowie and his friend and peer Marc Bolan, who both sported the same Syd hairstyle for a while! And of course many others been inspired by Syd.
Bolan completely stole Syd’s look, but why not ✌️
I'd say Robert Smith as well maybe?
Astronome Domine would have been a more interesting choice, since it's a more interesting chord sequence and, really, one of Barrett's best songs. See Emily Play might have been nice too, since it's closer to their live psychedelic sound than Arnold Lane (good though that is).
Totally agree with both of those. Astronome especially, is very special (maybe just to me). Even if I’m late to the party
My old band used to cover "Astronomy Domine". Great song, and so unusual!! The live versions are great as well.
@@tung-x Sure; AD is a great song. But to me Pow R. Toc H. is one of their most underrated/overlooked.
I'd want Matilda Mother also. Love it.
I'd love to hear him do Interstellar Overdrive too.
Syd's first solo album "the madcap laughs" is an outsider art masterpiece
I am part of the minority that prefers Syd-era Floyd. The early psychedelic stuff just works for me. His solo works are also worth a listen. Give me PF through Meddle and I am a happy man. Keep going down the hole.
Honestly Syd's era was the best. They were so goddamned innovative, but Roger still tried though. The worst was gilmour's era. 😂😂😂
Are you enjoying Nicks new band Daniel?
Dark Side was really when they changed. I also liked their early stuff, but don't know if I could say better. Thats one thing about a very small cadre of bands, they had SO many incarnations, almost one an album.
Barrett: Joyful and carefree.
Waters: Gloom and despair.
Remember that happy cheerful Pink Floyd song? Hmmm, let me think...
@@ALoonwolf Barrett was gloomy and despair before Waters. “Jugband Blues”, “Screa, Thy Last Scream”, “Vegetable Man”, most of his solo stuff. Fed up of Waters getting all the credit.
Piper at the Gates of Dawn is my fav psychedelic album of all time, hands down.
me too! and Second: Their Satanic Majesties by The Rolling Stones!
Why do you hate Jerry Garcia so much? Just because he put on a few pounds?
There are so many great ones. Like Satanic Majesties or Forever Changes by Love. Or The Zombies with Odessey and Oracle. The debut of the Doors, Revolver, Ogden's Nut Gone Flake...
But Piper is much more far out than those. I would only see the 13th floor elevators on that level of weirdness.
Mine too and Astronomy Domine the killer song!
It is the ultimate psychedelic album. Even the production was top notch.
Dave Gilmour said that Syd Barrett was one of the three or four most seminal figures in 60's music, including Dylan. He was a superb visual artist as well as revolutionizing English contemporary music. Not to mention the fact that he was one of the most beautiful men to have walked the earth. I feel that his poetic sensibility was a direct inheritence of both the English Romantic and English surrealist tradition, eg Lear , Lewis Carroll. He sings as an Englishman; his imagination inhabits an English landscape. I'm not sure that we create such people now.
I always saw him as a latter day Lord Byron. And he was gorgeous.
@@ellenjones8695 music is not about beauty or talent these days. It is unfortunate.
@@saboabbas123 you're not paying attention. There's mega talent out there, it just doesn't look like anything you're familiar with.
I got a Lewis Caroll vibe from this album too
jim morrison, jimi, corbain , joplin and syd barrett , as neil young says better to burn out than fade away , we put em on a pedestal and expect em to live upto their public persona some can't handle it , syd should never have been a front man , the idea of of women throwing their knickers at syd didn't help him in anyway in the long term , and comparing him to others is insulting
It was hearing "See Emily Play" that at a young age made me realise there was other music besides the jingly, jangly stuff that seemed to be the only thing on TV and radio at the time. I subsequently bought every album of theirs and, decades later, am still listening to their output.
Looking forward to your hearing Floyd’s “Careful With That Axe Eugene.”
Love that song. Glad I don’t really know why.
@@mousiebrown1747 Even got the Wife to say "careful with that..." (She's never heard the LP)
Love that
Sixth year at school, we had our own room for recreation. The scream from "Careful With That Axe Eugene" blasted out from the open window as the headmaster walked by. A priceless moment.
@REF_MusicPlaying Nope, pompeii is defiantly the best for me. He really needs to check out the whole concert
Not only was the Piper era led by Syd instead of David or Roger, but Rick was a bigger presence in the band early on.
One word: Paintbox. Best Pink Floyd song ever.
@@G.D.1968 wonderful song. Nick's drum fills have always been my favorite part of that song. Just watched the video they made for it. Strange to see Roger with a Rickenbacker and David with a tele.
@@G.D.1968 lovely lovely song, just like Burning Bridges or Summer 68. RIP Rick.
I think Ummagumma is the epitomy of early Pink Floyd.. 2albums, one live, one studio.
Brilliant !
I'm friends with Ricks former wife, Franka Wright. That's absolutely true. We have to remember, all 5 were friends first & went to school together. It was Syd & David who got into trouble in France, while bashing the Beatles 😅💙 Can you imagine what all of them together, could have done??
I heard Bike as a child and found the outro quite scary and strange. As an adult some 45 years later I think it's quite wonderful. NOBODY makes music like this anymore, and somebody really should...
Syd's solo albums are amazing.
Piper is one of the things Syd is called in the lyrics of Shine on You Crazy Diamond. My favorite thing about Shine on... though is if you turn it up, the very last thing you hear at the end of part IX is Rick playing the vocal melody to go with "Emily tries, but misunderstands"
I’d love to see you review “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun”.
I agree, especially the version from "Live at Pompeii." The vocals are mixed a little higher in that version and easier to hear.
Yes
Absolutely.
"Flaming" is a very underrated song from this album, it is really good. See Emily Play is really good too
"Flaming" features the first Floyd outing of the word "eiderdown" which also appears in "Julia Dream" and "Pillow Of Winds".
"You're the kind of girl that fits in with my world" the chorus lyrics fit metrically while the verse lyrics waft long and short. The vocals are jagged in the verse and calm in the chorus. Either the girl is as crazy as him and they kind of cancel out or she is capable of calming him.
There is NOTHING like early Pink Floyd!
🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘
Man, the look of bewilderment at the end of Bike is priceless. "WTF was that!!!" 😂 Wonderful songs. Arnold Layne and Bike are brilliant, and timeless pieces of art.
The sound at the end is a duck lure?
True
He hasn't got a clue, been living under a stone I think.
I thought maybe a bike horn played backwards. But maybe a duck call backwards, or blown in a strange manner.
Syd had a habit of throwing every chord he could think of into a song, sometimes basically every major chord, and somehow making it all work.
Or making a song out of 1 or 2 chords.
Agreed - that was his genius. He broke the rules left, right and centre. Arnold Layne is all major chords used in a minor sequence and it should sound terrible - but it's actually glorious!
"i am the walrus" is all major chords as well
@@visage161 I remember the first time I played it thinking ‘is this a joke?’ The coda is literally every major chord in descending order A G F E D C B(7)… over and over.
For people of my generation in England "Wind in the Willows" was part of our childhood. To me, Syd's lyrics are still absolutely hilarious. I'm sure this will be an unpopular opinion for any later Pink Floyd fans, but I much prefer Syd Barrett's quirky and eccentric lyrics to Roger Water's angst. I wish you had also played Astronomy Domine.
Writing about the human experience in honest, insightful ways that hit deep and resonate with adult listeners isn't just 'angst' (though he certainly did too much of that, esp. from Animals on). I dig the Barret era stuff a lot, but it's never going to affect me (or most Floyd fans, I'm sure) like Dark Side, WYWH. Some people can't hang with songs, lit, movies that make them feel too deeply or are just too affecting.
Not unpopular at all, Barrett’s Floyd will always be loved.
Check out the band after the same name of the book. Same time and everything.
maybe the difference in styles could also be reflected in the drugs the band were using at the time. Syd's acid erratic and colourful style versus Roger's mellow weed paranoia. and as David replaced Syd in the band the, shall we say, "light-hearted trippiness" of Syd's writing and psychosis went with him. leaving Roger as leader of the band with a new guitarist who thinks he's the better musician and subsequently tensions start to rise. Roger leaves and the style changes yet again. to something which i think sounds like a band trying to sound like Pink Floyd, with musical businessman Dave at the helm. i prefer the angsty mellow style of Waters-Era Floyd more than the formulaic corporate-product-sounding Gilmour Era Floyd or the twitchy psychedelic style of Barrett Era Floyd.
or maybe it's just me.
Syd was a proper genius, Doug. He had methods of expressing himself in ways that communicated things that are hard to get across. He was my idol and inspiration throughout my teen years. I’m 40, now, and in my early 20s, part of me actually succumbed to some of the pressures that did Syd in, and I have retreated into hermitage, but in those very early years Syd and I shared something-whether I was on acid or dead sober I got the feeling he was expressing something I wanted to, as if we’d perhaps grown up twins. When Syd (by then, Roger) passed, I sold one of mi amplifiers that I could fly out and attend his funeral from a respectful distance, as it were not meant to be a public funeral.
One of the most beautiful and misunderstood minds in rock ‘n’ roll-indeed, in all 20th Century art.
I enjoyed reading this.
Back, in 1967, they had a gig at Gyllene Cirkeln (Golden Circle) in Stockholm, Sweden. My dad’s best friend took them to Sweden. So, both my dad and I were there. At that time I was five years. I thought it was only noice. Syd Barrett asked my dad if he was allowed to give me candy. Daddy said yes.
oh
jag är riktigt avundsjuk!!
They have a much over looked classic, "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun". Watch the video were they are playing in an ancient ampitheatre in Pompeii. Stunning backdrop of the murals, statues & the stars. Very clear footage & brilliant lighting.
Pompeii is my favorite PF recording!
Classic
I just wish it wasn’t mastered a half-step fast. The KQED performance is a great one too.
Set the Controls is 🔥.
Absolutely epic Echoes.
"I think that he is showing her his clock" with that straight face - too funny. I couldn't stop laughing :D
Ahah ❤
I must admit to being in knots off laughter when Doug hit us with that classic in such a deadpan English fashion. 😂
Piper at the Gates of Dawn 1967 Syd Barrett, Astronomy Domine... The single See Emily Play was a huge hit. Extremely Experimental
I 💖 Astronomy Domine.
Astronomy Domine and See Emily Play are a MUST!
@@estefaniasucre6966
I would like Dr. Doug to hear See Emily Play, and then listen to the very end of Shine On You Crazy Diamond again, to see if he picks up Wright's final shout out to Barrett in the closing seconds of the song.
i would add Interstellar overdrive, and in the next album , "A saucerful of secrets" (particularly the Ummagumma live version) , if it has not already been mentioned.
@@IllumeEltaninby the way... the remastered cd version (late 90s)of Wish you were here missing seconds at the beginning when for example on the collection " A collection of great dance songs" it is not cut or rather it is not (heavily) faded in. That quick descending scale on synthesizer , by Wright, is an important feature to create atmosphere as opening of the record. Who knows why they will have decided to raise the fader so late (at least in this Italian / European edition) compared to the original version (I once had it also in cassette tapes)
You should listen to Syd Barrets album The Madcap Laughs. It is very interesting, though somewhat disturbing. The man wasn’t well. But there’s some wonderful songs on it, such as Golden Hair, a haunting and beautiful song based on a poem by James Joyce.
Madcap Laughs is an amazing album. Dark Globe never fails to get me emotional.
I agree. Doug should, listen to this alongside see Emily play and the rest of this album.
@@LockeTheCole Possibly the most heart wrenching song ever.
‘Wouldn’t you miss me at all?!’
Really hard stuff to hear but in the most beautiful way possible
The Madcap Laughs was Syd making darker music than Waters.
The early anthology "Relics" is one move my absolutely favorite psychedelic albums, favorite Pink Floyd Albums, favorite all-time albums.
So glad that you finally listened to some of Syd's songs. The way he structures songs is so weird, yet full of fun.
The music industry tried to push them into three minute "singles" when they really wanted to play long extended improvisations.
For more of these songs try See Emily Play, Matilda Mother, Lucifer Sam, Take up thy stethoscope etc.
For a Friday, one of their improvisations; My favourite is Set the controls for the heart of the sun, but Saucerful of secrets, Astronomy Domine, Interstellar Overdrive would be good (Either the original album versions or the live ones from either Pompeii or Ummagumma.
By the way, the drummer is currently touring as Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets; they play the early songs including the singles and album songs from Piper at the gates through to Medal (including a non-brass version of Atom Heart Mother. Saw them last week 😊
Yeah I saw Nick Masons Saucerful of Secret’s in Fairfield Halls Croydon last week - awesome, the live album is fantastic too.
@@alandoyle8880 Same show :)
Waaaw
Arnold Layne still gets airplay, the wonderful, bizarre, genius of Pink Floyd!
If you ever get to see Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets, absolutely go. He plays nothing be pre-Dark Side Floyd live, and he really brings it to life. You can tell he's having a blast doing it too which really makes it a fun experience. Best concert I've ever been to, and I've seen both Waters and Gilmour
Absolutely right. Saw them recently at the Royal Albert Hall. Superb evening.
I second that absolutely. What an experience. The last song "One of these days" made the whole crowd go nuts. And they didn't play like some old guys from the past, they really kicked ass. I go to a lot of metal shows, but the beginning with "Interstellar Overdrive" and "Astronomy Domine" at full volume was as metal as it gets.
Doug - As Thor said, try to go and see Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets on tour. They were to play in the US a while back but COVID caused delays so they're now playing from late September 2022 onwards! 'Set Controls To The Heart Of The Sun's stood out, as did 'Echoes'. Then add 'Nile Song', 'One Of These Days', 'Astronomy Domine', 'Childhood's End' and so much more - it's a sheer delight to witness. They really raised their game since the first tour. What a fab evening of early Floyd! (York Barbican, April 2022 and Manchester Apollo, September 2018)
I’ve watched heaps on CZcams and hope they come to Australia. They do a great job on the pre darkside stuff.
I saw them at the Roundhouse (London). The energy is ASTONISHING. Like Simon D says above it's up there with a Pantera gig. NOW I understand what Nile Song is all about.
“I think he’s showing her his clock”. This is the best line you will ever speak. Epic .
One cool footnote, in case it hasn’t been mentioned yet … The last phrase played by Rick Wright on the keyboard at the very end of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” is the verse melody from the band’s second single, “See Emily Play.”
Wind in the Willows is a much loved children's' book that is often made into TV series and films.
Syd Barrett lived in a small cul-de-sac in Cambridge where I worked in a bookies on the corner of the road. He was a total recluse. He died while I was working there and later that week someone painted an amazing mural on the wall of my workplace. Sadly my boss had the council remove it shortly afterwards.
My partner and I were on holiday in London (we live in the US) when Syd died. It was surreal.
wow ...
I hope someone took a photo of the mural
I was in Cambridge one day and someone showed me the house where he grew up. If he would not have went off the edge, he would have been bigger than Pink Floyd on his own.
Did you ever see Syd in town? Did he visit your shop?
They were one of the first innovators of a mixed-media presentation using things like moving-liquid slides and such. They also had created a rudimentary quadraphonic sound system known as the 'azimuth coordinator' which used a speaker stack in each corner of the room and a joystick to move the sound around the room.
While I love Dougs commentary, I can't help but notice that he keeps missing the mark when he refers to Pink Floyd as "a mainstream act" - in fact, early Pink Floyd was very self-consciously NOT mainstream. They were an experimental underground band, who wanted to explore and expand the limits of what could be considered music. Hence, sound collages, found objects, dadaism, sound effects, indian music, english folk music, modern experimental classical, endless one-chord jams... everything could fit within this free framework.
It wasn't really until Dark Side of the Moon that they established themselves as a mainstream act, and even then it was more or less against their will: early live versions are decidedly more experimental than the more polished album. Also, the next project they wanted to tackle after Dark Side was an album made without any musical instruments at all, every sound instead produced from household objects. Only after abandoning this project did they keep cultivating their more mainstream profile.
Absolutely right, it was very DADA, that's why I love so much everything they did before The Dark Side...
@@DXolot You and me both! While there's no deniying the greatness of the 73-79 albums, there's just something extremely compelling about the preceding era, and their relentless willingness to experiment.
A great mix of early Pink Floyd is found on the album Relics. I particularly like the Richard Wright tunes Paint Box and Remember A Day. And of corse the greatest blues-rock jam of all time, Biding My Time.
Yes, Relics is great. Remember a day and Julia Dreams in particular. Those two and then The Nile song would also make a great weird wednesday.
I wish there was a TRUE early singles collection on vinyl, with Candy and the current bun and Point me at the sky. Could be just me, I'm a completest and the 45s are WAY out of my price range
@@punker-gamer-trucker-guy I know there was a bonus Early Singles CD included with the Shine On box set in the early 90s but I don't know if it was available on vinyl.
I thought Biding My Time was written by Waters.
@@JoseEchoes378 I think you're right.
As a sixteen year old I went with my friends to a tiny club beneath a shoe shop in the city centre. They didn't serve alcohol. We just laid on the floor with the lights playing, grooving to bands like Pink Floyd.
Wow, that sounds like a club I used to frequent in the late 60's in Manchester called 'The Magic Village'. Same place?.....
@@YNGWIE998 It was a place called Down Broadway in Sheffield on the High Street.
@@jeannettesimpson9778 Ah, sorry, I didn't realise you
you were in Sheffield. 😀
My all-time favorite Pink Floyd song is the 23-some minute epic "Echoes", from 1971's "Meddle" (my personal favorite PF album) :)
The opening piece "One Of These Days" is also a great listen ;)
The whole album is a delight to listen to in headphones, I first heard it in 1981 aged 18 or 19, catching up on early Floyd having only got into them in the 1970s. Especially if you are under any kind of 'influence'...it really is a trip. But also very beautiful. Syd could hear in colours, and his way of writing everything as if experiencing things for the first time, like a child, was really special.
Agree 100% with a band's ability to be so experimental with their debut album. I always love listening to the first albums and progressing through the discography. I tend to like the first albums a lot because that is when a band is always their most experimental.
Well… not always, take The Beatles ;)
...or The Stones...or The Who...
My intro to PF were: "Atom Heart Mother" and "Meddle." Rather abrupt culture shock from my folks' music at home these first albums heard at college! WOW! Yes, weird is right, but "it grew on me"!
The early albums with Syd Barrett are my favorites. They are far more interesting than the popular albums, "Darkside of the Moon", "The Wall", "Wish you were Here" etc. The albums post Barrett are great up until "Momentary Lapse of Reason", but lack the same level of experimentation the early ones had.
We asked for more Pink Floyd and you delivered, Thank you 👏🏼
My favorite Pink Floyd album.
I'd love to see Doug react to the Syd Barrett solo albums, specifically Dark Globe, Octopus, Effervescing Elephant, Feel, Love You and/or Baby Lemonade. But honestly, anything from the solo albums is great...
I love the tracks Two of a Kind and Bob Dylan Blues, and agree with your choices too
Baby Lemonade, Feel, Opal, Maisie...
The works of a fragmented genius.
According to Nick Masons autobiography, the Abbey Road studios had a huge collection of sound effects on tape for radio dramas. So they made intensive use of those, which they kept during their career. It was inspired by the musique concrete.
I'll never forget my first hearing of this album. The outro to bike had me and and my mate in stitches.
Syd Barrett broke many moulds. Sadly missed. Piper at the Gates of Dawn is my favourite Pink Floyd album.
FWIW, when this album came out, we pronounced power toc h. As “power Tokage” which had its own meaning in those college days, which we wholeheartedly supported!
Syd was a genius. His inflence on the entire scene was incomparable.
This era pf is unlistenable ..
@@chancewilkins3320 to each his own. the only era that's unlistenable to me is after Roger left.
Settle down, Beavis. That word gets tossed around far to liberally. Not everyone you like is a genius.
@@kevinlakeman5043 Still a genius...
Pow R. Toc H. was the army signallers code for TH, for the Talbot House, a club where officers and enlisted men were equals.
As a kid, I always thought it was "power touch"
Toc H is a Christian organisation which, among other things, has hostels in many parts of the world. When my wife and I visited Berlin in the 70s we stayed at the Toc H hostel.
It's "power toke".
@@punker-gamer-trucker-guy My dad had the saying "As dim as a Toc H lamp" reserved for really stupid people.
@@Richard_Ashton Yep, I remember that saying too - it was quite a common saying in the 60s and probably before. Toc H lamps were dimly glowing oil lamps as used in Talbot House, Poperinghe, France - in the First World War. Toc was soldiers' slang for the letter T. So Toc.H just meant T H, short for Talbot House. Talbot House (Toc H) was a like a club and a place of respite from the war for all ranks. After the war .they then set up in various towns and cities in Britain and the Empire.
The Wind in the Willows is a classic British children's book, which has been animated several times. The characters are animals - Ratty, Toad, Badger and so on. The chapter with Pan actually stands out as the weird one, with a much more mysterious tone than the rest of the book.
One of my favourite books. I read it every couple of years. It inspired the children's TV series Tales From the Riverbank.
I was amazed that Cosgrove Hall animations actually did that chapter in one of the stop-motion episodes of their Wind in the Wind Willows TV series. It's doors of perception stuff.
I remember reading it is as a child and being completely bewildered by the 'piper' chapter.
Debbie Harry's first group was called 'The Wind in the Willows'
Mid 70's middle school exposure to this release helped warp me in a good way.
Syd’s music (especially Piper) is great but you can’t have a “Weird Wednesday” until you do Captain Beefheart’s “Trout Mask Replica”!
Jesus Christ please 🙏🙏🙏
Yes! This!
This is right proper Pink Floyd Music. Doug, Please do See Emily Play .
See Emily Play is also older than their first album, I believe, so older than Arnold Layne.
@@russellflagg8519 See Emily Play was the second single, Arnold Layne the first.
@@richardsinger01 right on, just figured out that I had misremembered which one was first but not on Piper.
Proper Pink Floyd is ALL OF PINK FLOYD. Artists and bands have phases.
@@carlossaraiva8213 I haft’agree wit U, all Floydian work is Pink guys, in its own way…
I love the sense of humor of Bike. At the moment Doug raises his arm is the funniest moment where the pompous "boom! boom!" slows the song to a comedic pace and the wind-down begins (presumably because by this point we're laughing so hard). The song played randomly at my home about a month ago and it made me laugh when it got to that point. Funny, funny stuff. And am I the only one who hears the Stones and the Kinks in this?
i really like the first song on Piper; Astronomy Dominé. There are kinda 2 sides to early Floyd, Syd's quirky pop tunes, and those long space jams. i think Interstellar Overdrive is a better space jam than Pow R Toc H. Somehow Astronomy Dominé sits between the quirky pop and the space jams.
Just to remind people, Stereo was not common when this was recorded. To get a stereo album was very rare in 1967, some such as Sgt Pepper were released in Mono and Stereo: there were some false stereo manufactured albums, but stereo recording was in its' infancy. Recently saw Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets at the Royal Albert Hall. They play Pink Floyd early stuff up to Dark Side. Brilliant! Music at this time was in transition from formulaic to experimental and the realisation that anything was possible and becoming VERY interesting. It was a great time to be alive and listening to the radio (all radio was mono!)
What a coincidence! This afternoon was randomly singing Bike, then wondered what would have happened with the band if Sid had not got involved with the drugs.
That led to same thoughts about Peter Green.
he was already knee deep.
Arnold Layne was included on a album a couple years later. Relics, a bizarre collection of antiques and curios. Interstellar Overdrive, See Emily Play, Careful With That Axe Eugene, and Bike as the last track
Those first six albums are lightyears from Dark Side and what followed. Some bands take a while to find their sound. That being said, once they found it, the rest is history. And you're right, the history of the band is often just as interesting as the music: influences, direction, genres, etc.
Agree. Personally, I don't listen to the early albums too often, but as a fan, you go through them finding a lot of oddities and niceties along the way. Good stuff.
Syd was actually a wildly original songwriter - you should definitely try such gems as Astronomy Domine, Scream Thy Last Scream, Flaming, Octopus, Jugband Blues.
I had the pleasure of seeing Nick Mason and his band play both Arnold Layne and Bike at the Royal Albert Hall in London a month ago. Great stuff! Catch them if you can.
Same. This show was awesome! He's playing Echoes this time around.
I saw them in 2019. Best concert in decades. I highly recommend it also.
Pink Floyd is my favorite band all-time but it kills me that so many don't know how important Rick Wright was to this band. Massively important. The album Wish You Were Here was his moment in the sun.
My favorite PF album
Thanks Doug for always making this channel a collaboration with your community. Appreciate your insight, passion, and kindness!
Pass the sick bag, buddy...........
Interstellar Overdrive from same album is a psychedelic masterpiece with a great opening riff and "weird" bits in the middle (most of song actually). It would be a great addition to a Weird Wednesday. Doug, next, I recommend you digging into the next album and last one recorded with Syd, "Saucerful of Secrets." It's really two different records, the more psychedelic/prog instrumental writings of the band with Dave Gilmour, and a few songs from Syd. There are two tracks that never made it onto an original LP but I believe are available on the remaster, both written by Syd, "Scream Thy Last Scream" and "Vegetable Man." (maybe about himself?) The difference between 1966-67 Syd and 1968 Syd is that humor is gone and insanity seems to be setting in. Still brilliant but VERY weird.
my wife and i named our oldest son Barrett, after Syd, obviously. totally under-rated songwriter.
I gave my 2nd son two middle names...Syd Barrett
This is why Pink Floyd was so diffferent from the other bands, including the progressive, they didn`t have problem of experimenting new sounds, or simply different things in their songs... just amazing...
Syd's always meant so much to me. I think the band took a long time to find themselves after his leaving.
It would probably be impossible for me to adequately express how much I love Syd’s music. A true, charismatic original, and I’ll just leave it at that.
Thanks Doug! Enjoyed your reaction to classic Floyd. I’d recommend Astronomy Domine, Set the controls for the Heart of the Sun, and Careful with that Axe, Eugene as well from their next couple albums. Also Cymbaline and Fat Old Sun are favs of mine from that era also. Granchester Meadows off Ummagumma is really cool as well.
Completely agree excellent choices and the best of that period. UMMAGUMMA still a favourite album
It was 1981. I was 13yo and in Catholic boarding school. The only teacher who wasn't an asshole was Herr Gerum, a Hippie. He was my arts teacher. One day, he overheard us talking about Pink Floyd's The Wall and told us that he had some old albums of them. I asked him if could make me a copy on cassette tape and hie did. It was The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and A Saucerful of Secrets. My life was instantly and forever changed.
The early stuff in the '60s with Syd was perfect for the Psychedelic era. Their sound became more refined and with more cohesiveness when David Gilmore joined
I've loved Bike for 50 years now. It holds a special place in my heart. Early Floyd, middle Floyd - wonderful. Not too big on post-Wall.
Hooray for Weird Wednesday! (also, yay early Pink Floyd)
Just one year before that, Zappa's Freak Out was released and it is said to have a big influence on various british bands. Maybe the fourth side (with "Return of the Son of Monster Magnet (Unfinished Ballet in Two Tableaux)", " Ritual Dance of the Child-Killer" and "Nullis Pretii (No Commercial Potential)") was some kind of revelation for some of them (And would be perfect for a Weird Wednesday).
love syd period，so excited to watch.
For scrutinising three songs from this amazing album (one of my all-time favourites), I would have chosen Flaming, Interstellar Overdrive, and Chapter 24. Syd's imagination was incredible, and wonderfully supported by Rick Wright on keyboards.
Chapter 24 is a masterpiece!
Syd is the soul of PInk Floyd and Rick the sound of PInk Floyd.
Early Floyd is some of my favorite music to this day.
Early Floyd sucked
I've never owned this particular Floyd album, and its not a particular favourite of mine from the period, but I've heard it several times, and in 1967 I remember those duck noises coming out of my older brother's bedroom. They brought a smile to my face then, as they do now. My brother loved this album and played it all the time. I also remember my Father coming out of the bathroom, hearing it and muttering to himself, 'what a bloody noise.' At the height of the counter culture, this was probably a substantial reason for liking this album, it contained few conventional songs, but sounds that nobody had heard before and had an amazing sense of adventure, performed with a great pre-Python sense of humour, and there was definitely an element of, if you were into all of that, then it signalled to other youths that each of you were both young and hip. However, this album is also an influential precurser to prog and to Pink Floyd's later career, and made those Genesis and Yes albums possible.
Despite the fact that Doug is a classical composer, his taste here is closer to that of my plain and four square, non musical Father, than English youth of 1967. I've just been on to Wikipedia to see if this album has subsequently garnered the soubriquet "weird" in the last few years, but apparently not. Wikipedia goes to the opposite extreme of over lauding it. Im reminded of the PF manager's remarks about how badly they thought this album had gone down with their American distributors, by assuming they thought: "what's this latest bit of rubbish from England". I think Doug is from this school of thought.
Its difficult when a man from a subsequent generation hears music for the first time, without the cultural references and context that contemporaries had, and critically without the previews that he wisely allowed himself on some Genesis reactions, to better understand or interpret what he's listening to, before having to find something constructive to say, but this album is a lot more important than the virtual mockery that Doug signs his reaction off with............
edit: grammar.
love your insights and musical nuggets - thank you !
The reason for the strange audio delay in your phones is probably because the original LP was mastered in mono
The Floyd produced some great stuff but for me they never topped this
Sid was a genius
The vocalizations on Pow.R.Toc.H are the seeds for the vocals in Atom Heart Mother. You were very perceptive to reference Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict. Their experimentations with sound effects and tape loops were quite prevalent in the early albums. I was inspired by them to engineer a composition of various dogs barking on tape loops, processed through reverb and ring modulation. The dogs were recorded at the local city pound. The name of the piece was Doggy Dachau.
Arnold Layne versión LIVE with David Bowie on vocals is the GREATEST VERSIÓN!! AWESOME!!
"I think I have to think about this for a little bit and figure out what I just listened to." I suspect that's among the highest praise that could be given.
"It's a weird Wednesday, do I not deliver? Common y'all!" xD The music is sooo good. It is so typically british, I love it.
Bike was the final track on the second side of the album. It was actually a looping outro... the duck quacks would just keep playing until you got up and turned off the record player.
Listening to this album for the first time back in 1984ish was a revelation. I'd got into the 70's era stuff first and, much like you, had no idea this stuff existed... a friend loaned me his cassette version and that was it... life time PF fan especially of the Syd Barrett era. Discovered at the perfect time for me.
That's awesome. I'd never heard that the vinyl copy ended in a closed loop. Makes me want one now
Actually, the "duck quacks" if I remember correctly, is them laughing looped in reverse at 2x speed.
And I have the vinyl of Piper and actually the end fades out after a while, don't know if there are some copies that loop until you take the needle off.
@@trainguy7276 yeah I only heard the looping ending once myself, on an original pressing, all the versions I’ve ever owned since 1984 have had a fade. I suppose it’s possible the one I heard had a scratch or something and it was just skipping… though I was told it was an actual feature of the original release at the time.
It fades out on every version. Atom Heart Mother was the only Floyd record that looped forever.
@@chebghobbi Many record decks of the early '70s were autochangers, so they would lift the stylus anyway. I don't recall it fading out on my copy, but I'm not going digging in the loft for my record deck to prove it.
I was 14 years old when I listened to this album for the very first time - 40 years ago. It's one of my favorite albums of all time, and it doesn't sound weird anymore...
"I'm glad Gerald is a Good Mouse!" Fabulous! haha! Some of my favorite music in the world.
I am loving watching you take the Pink Floyd journey that I (and many here) did years ago - starting with the “later” albums like Dark Side and such and THEN listening to this album and having all Pink Floyd expectations (and mind) totally blown!
Astronomy Domine is the first song on the album, and it’s great. A bit weird but also very Floyd. I might also recommend Jugband Blues. The last song on the second album when Syd was mostly gone and Dave was trying to find his place in the band. It was said to be Syd’s last song with the until years when some unreleased demos started to come to light.
+1 for Astronomy Domine. It's the one early song that really influenced their later stuff.
"And what exactly is dream, and what exactly is a joke"? is up there with "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make" for Great "sign outs". Oh, and both Syd and Paul sang they loved the Queen In their outros.
if you want some heavy Pink Floyd for Metal Monday try "Interstellar Overdrive" and "The Nile Song"
"One of These Days" We always called it the Freddy Krueger song...
Especially one of the ‘long’ versions.
The Nile Song is amazing.
@@lynncampbell962 It's proto-punk... But on the other side of the rainbow, Cirrus Minor is cool too... I love "More". I even got the movie in VHS :).
@@garryiglesias4074 Free Four is a personal favorite
For me the history shows the genious of every part of their soul bound creativity that no onemszün
last part sounds like a duck caller. I'm becoming a Doug addict
"I know a mouse, and he hasn't got a house, I don't know why I call him Gerald."
Great version of Arnold Layne with Bowie singing from one of Dave's solo shows.
Do check out Syd Barrett's 2 solo albums. Flawed but wonderful at the same time. Syd Barrett is definitely the biggest case of "what might have been" in rock music. Syd was a very literate man.
That first album is an album I've listened to hundreds of times but yet I keep finding new things every single time I hear it. It's so good. "Lucifer Sam" is one of my all-time favorite songs!
I always interpreted the ending of Bike as the woman laughing at him after he tries to court her. Keeping Syd's mental state in mind, I think that makes sense. The last track on Saucerful of Secrets, Jugband Blues, kind of continues that lore. Amazing stuff! Check out Syd's solo output also. Dark Globe is one of my very favs
On the original vinyl, the end of Bike went on into an endless loop around the label, so the album never ends at all.
It didn't. Atom Heart Mother did that, but no other Floyd album did.
@@chebghobbi there's someone else saying the same thing in the comments, so it seems like it really happened
@@FeelingShred That's because lots of people have heard the same false story and are going round repeating it. It was actually very difficult to get a neverending loop on a run-out groove in 1967.
I bought this album when it came out. For me the stand out tracks were, Astronomy Domine and Interstellar Overdrive, they give a hint as to where Floyd were going musically. As many comments have said this trend was developed much further in Saucer Full of Secrets, their next album. I continued to buy their albums to Wish You Were Here released in 1975, after that, their concept albums didn’t do much for me, as I had moved to listening to Fusion jazz. Great reaction, thank you.
Thanks for continuing to feature Pink Floyd on the channel
Hey Doug, fun fact, Pink Floyd recorded The Piper at the Gates of Dawn at Abbey Road studio upstairs while The Beatles were recording their Sgt.Pepper album. They would visit each other at times while recording. I heard that Paul's contribution to A Day In the Life where he sings "I went upstairs and had a smoke" references that.