Pink Floyd | How Did the British Press React to "Arnold Layne" and "See Emily Play"?
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- čas přidán 2. 08. 2024
- Pink Floyd's debut album “Piper at the Gates of Dawn” was released in August, 1967.
But prior to that, Pink Floyd released two singles: “Arnold Layne” and “See Emily Play”, both written by Syd Barrett. This is how the British press reacted to them. - Hudba
Both Arnold Layne & See Emily Play were absolutely 💯 Brilliant singles !
Both singles are out of this world thanks to Syd Barrett
"Jimi Hendrix and his diabolical disciples"
What a turn of phrase! If I were the Floyd I would have framed this.
I really love See Emily Play. It's haunting and beautiful.
Can you imagine the response if they had released Vegetable Man?
And Scream Thy Last Scream??? Wow!
@@Moonie804 It would be great!
It all happened so fast for the Floyd- probably too fast for Syd.
See Emily Play is a truly brilliant song. In my opinion, it beautifully crystallizes 1967 and psychedelia!
“There is no other day
Let’s Try it another way”
If that doesn’t sum up the LSD soaked youthful mindset of a 20 year old hippy then show me a lyric that does better??!!
Yep, it perfectly defines 67 psychedelia. Brilliant song.
@@YesterdaysPapers Perhaps for Britain; for America I would go for Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe and the Fish, H.P. Lovecraft, The Mothers, Velvet Underground. Jimi Hendrix Experience was the king and both countries can claim them!
@@389383 Great bands.
"See Emily Play" holds another distinction - when PF went into the studio to record the track in late May of 1967 - David Gilmour had been invited to stop by to see his childhood friend Syd - Gilmour said he: " was shocked by the changes in Barrett's personality" when Syd did not appear to recognize him. In later years Gilmour would say; "I'll go on record as saying, that was when he changed".
The fact that Simon " poptastic" Dee was not impressed makes me like Pink Floyd even more.
Highest paid DJ in '67, then 2 years later................puff he was gone.........
Who gives a flying f**k what Simon Dee thinks ? He was absolutely useless as a DJ and TV presenter.
I guess most people won't remember him and will have to google. I am old enough to remember him as a self-obsessed over-hyped talentless jerk. There were a few of them in the BBC at the time...
@@fatbelly27 But his mother loved him.
What a plonker!
Simon Dee proving how much of an influence he was on the Alan Partridge character there.
the bbc played with the charts
and my friend jack is one of the greatest lsd songs ever written
@@thewkovacs316 I love "My Friend Jack".
@@YesterdaysPapers i was a kid during this period. i experienced time differently then than i do now. so the massive changes in pop music didnt impact me the same way that im sure they impacted adults.
to me back then, 5 years was a lifetime.
but think about the difference in pop music from 62-67 and you are a music critic trying to wrap your head around how they went from love me do to arnold layne or my friend jack.
I love this channel so much that I can't express it.
Please always stay in the 60's. 💗
Thanks, Lola!
This is the music that Pink Floyd should be known for.
Sadly, most people think that a 1980's dystopian main stream rock album by Roger Waters is what this band was about.
RIP Syd Barrett
Not true for those of us who were old enough to listen to them before the wall came out. The entire seventies, we were loving Pink Floyd!
Kurt , couldn’t agree more!
well said
Pop gems, the pair. first of their kind and the musical landscape parted. Bless Syd.
I found a complanation of Syd’s solo albums in the seventies. I was in Central
America. I really listened to
that double album a lot. I came to States and was introduced to Piper. Later
the singles. Syd was a eye opener for me. 👍🌏🌞
🙋🏻♀️💁🏻♀️💭✌️
Key point and absolute truth here. Paul McCartney states the Pink Floyd album is a knockout. The Beatles were recording Sgt. Pepper in the next studio. Had read this sometime ago, what the Beatles or a Beatle said about you back then could make or break a singer or a band.
Piper is such a departure from the pop formula, it should have been John and Paul clamouring to meet them. And no way does it sound like Steve Cropper!
Excellent video. You know, I can actually understand why a lot of people felt compelled to speak out about how weird and outrageous this new music was -- after all this was just four years after the Beatles' 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' was at the cutting edge of pop music. And despite the first two Floyd singles (and their respective B-sides) being absolute masterpieces, they still don't sound like conventional pop records even today. They still sound ahead of their time. No wonder a lot of people didn't get it, it would've been a lot to take in.
True, those singles still sound unique and different.
YES, those who weathered the onslaught of the British Invasion of a few years earlier were by this time faced with another major challenge, the onslaught of Psychedelia, giving them another bitter pill to have to swallow (Roy Orbison, Gene Pitney). But this was the ever changing world of the sixties when musical trends were shifting fast and furious. Read my comment above. My reply to New Falconer Records.
I think on the newspaper article: “Pink Floyd: Freak out comes to town” , they mix Syd and Rick photos…
yep, i saw it too!.. and before i read your comment :)
i’m from argentina. unless traveling there, this kind of magazines are impossible to get here, even buying it on ebay (in our national mail steals it or surprisingly they charges it with crappy taxes). so naturally i’m a huge fan of your channel, the way you put all this incredible stuff on video. you’re my hero.
Thank you, glad you enjoy the videos!
Awesome
Awesome
Awesome
More Syd’s Floyd please and thank you!!!
Love it, another great video from YP! So fascinating, the regressive attitudes around Floyd, causing mag writers and deejays to wonder if Englebert Humperdink ballads would restore "sanity" to the pop scene. (Because I'm sure Swinging Sixties London was concerned about "sanity"!) Funny that 4 or 5 years later the Kinks would have a worldwide smash with "Lola". :) Arnold was too early, evidently!
Engelbert Humperdinck makes me insane!
I've always been a fan of early Pink Floyd. Thanks for the video YP. Also, a big thumbs up 👍 to Elaine Kilburn.
Elaine Kilburn ruled!
How amazing to sit here today and look how this press guys couldn’t imagine where the Floyd would go.
Between the buttons,fifth dimension, and Da capo are three of my favorite albums. Syd had great taste! Seems there was a lot of moral trepidation toward both singles. Great work again yesterdays papers.
Thank you, f.w. Love those three albums, too. Syd definitely had good taste
“An awful din” sounds like it should be the title of a Floyd song.
One of the best channels on youtube
Thanks!
Arnold is one of my favs from 67. Along with Paper Sun, Strawberry Fields Forever, I'm a Man, Shadows and Reflections, Waterloo Sunset, Pictures of Lily, Purple Haze, Time of the Season and Tin Soldier to name just a few.
That's a great list of perfect singles from 1967. What a year!
@@YesterdaysPapers A fantastic year but how on earth did I forget We Love You?
@@maurice8607 Unforgivable!
@@YesterdaysPapers Totally. A slap on the wrist.
Great tracks Maurice! I'll add Alone Again Or too.
YES!..Syd dug Between the Buttons, that's so cool, one of my favorite Stones albums...
Someone has mentioned this before somewhere.. The Beatles recording Sgt Pepper in one studio at Abbey Road and Pink Floyd recording their first album at the same venue , same time.. McCartney nipping in to see what Syd and the lads were getting up to.Paul always seemed to be on the lookout for new sounds, new ideas. I wonder did Lennon say, get in there Paul , see what these new guys are up to😀
I read that Paul saw Pink Floyd live in October, 1966. He was always very aware of what was going on musically so I'm sure that the emerging psychedelic scene in London influenced Sgt Peppers.
@@YesterdaysPapers I think both John and Paul would have been well aware of them . John was at that Alexandra Palace April 1967 , The 14 Hour Technicolour Dream event, that you reported on some months back.
actually the reception the Floyd members got from Lennon when they peaked in on Lovely Rita sessions was distant and frosty. Norman Smith was producing Pipers and had also co-engineered some early Beatle tracks so asked Emerick if they could drop in.
@@plasteredbastard They were yet to be be released , but with the sound, subject matter and everything else about those two great singles Lennon, Paul and the others must have been well impressed. They still sound fantastic. They are perfect .
Just for the record: Beatles in studio 2 and PF in studio 3. Studio 1 was the biggest one and used for orchestral recordings. Probably used for A Day In The Life for the orchestral parts, and possibly for the broadcasting of All You Need Is Love - not sure about this, I should consult the Beatles Recordings book...
PS this is very interesting being able to hear real-time reactions . Thanks 😃
Jimi Hendrix & His Diabolical Disciples!!!
That would have been a better band name than Jimi Hendrix Experience! "Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Jimi Hendrix & His Diabolical Disciples".
both of these songs changed my life, sounds extreme but they got me into music and the 60s (the best Era imo) Love this channel😍
I had the good fortune to be in England when the good ship Caroline was broadcasting and I heard it first there. Alas "Beat Wave" did not beat the bullys, but I really dug "Emily" from the first time I heard it. I was a US government dependant in Germany, so we'd go to Britain in summer and Christmas time. I remember that Stars & Stripes had tried the contraversy bit by asking teens whether they preferred Psychedelic or Soul, but despite some taking side most said "both". Britain tends to go for that approach a bit more than the US.
As a 'teen' of that period, Yes, a question like this would get that answer. So much music, ALL DIFFERENT and ALL "Before it's time" LOL.... "asking teens whether they preferred Psychedelic or Soul, but despite some taking side most said "both".
@@docsavage8640 ???????????? Your answer makes no sense ! Where you a 'teen' during that period ?
Syd era was the best era, his solo work is incredible. So much better than anything the Floyd released after.
Best episode yet!
Awesome video!!
Thank you!
This was recorded in January and February 1967 Syd Barrett and Richard Wright on vocals this was recorded in Chelsea not Abbey Road
Strange, I was just playing “Shine on” when I saw this. Love Syd and love The Floyd.
I was thrilled to find the "Piper" album in an American department store record bin around 1968, and became a huge fan of the early Floyd sound. Curiously, I didn't get to hear "Arnold Layne" until decades had passed because it wasn't on the album. By the way, I'm continually amazed at the background sound that you use on these videos - always reminiscent of the band under discussion, but not actually a recording. Kind of faux-Pink Floyd here, and faux-Animals in a previous video and so on. Maybe one day you'll make a long video of just these faux- sounds ?
Thank you, Anna Maria. Glad you enjoy the music!
Despite the early 'Floyd stuff not charting over here, I remember "See Emily Play" being played fairly often on the "free form" FM stations that boomed after the FCC banned simulcasts in 1967. Arnold Layne seemed to have gotten less exposure, mostly on college stations, from what I remember. If only radio were anywhere near as innovative today as it was then.
I first heard piper when I found the double album package A Nice Pair Quickly became a huge Syd aficionado and purchased Madcap, Barrett and a think Opel came out a few years later, the guys a genius and is a massively underrated songwriter.
I remember Arnold Layne getting repeatedly played on Radio Caroline. But Radio London banned it because they felt it had drug referances in the lyrics.
Great job you did again.
Great video 🤩
I'm not surprised that Syd Barrett listened to Da Capo a lot. While they're very different to Floyd, there's a whimsical feel to both.
Love this channel. Like The Floyd, you're doing something different.
Happy to see the Pink Floyd got off to a good start. ... See Emily play was my favorite of the 2 singles, one of Syd's finest.
Notice at 6:16 they've transposed the captions to Syd and Rick's photos!! That had me confused for years till I finally realised what must have happened.
Has it been commented around 6:15 the NME got the pics mismatched - wrong names?
amazing how influential love was without even touring
steve cropper is a guitar god
it's clear that arnold layne was very influential on bowie's early sound
as the who had already come out with "im a boy"...not sure why arnold layne was so shocking to some
always wonder what floyd wouldve sounded like had syd not had his breakdown
the concert tech didnt catch up to the floyd until the early 70s...so that their live sound came close to what it was on the albums
Excellent point about 'I'm A Boy'.
There's a book by Rob Chapman called A Very Irregular Head about Syd and its probably the best book on Syd you'll ever read. A must for any fan of Syd and early Pink Floyd 💗 💕
Syd's Floyd is for me the best version of the Floyd......
Thanks for this. At the time I only had the music. Intellectual criticism did not exist in my world. I knew what I liked and grew to be a buyer of the band's LPs.
" What sort of taste do they have in attending concerts to hear Jimi Hendrix and his diabolical disciples like the Pink Floyd and Soft Machine when their only claim to musical ability is to make a goddamn awful din." Best laugh I've had all day. And some of the other critics' comments are priceless too. And then we have the downright stupidity of some of the comments regarding songs recorded in the studio and then played live. You'd think music critics would have a clue, but I guess not. (Big thanks for this vid, mate)
Thanks, Willie! Glad you enjoyed it.
Never realised that Simon Dee was such a square until now.
@@maurice8607 Like many at the time and just before, the pop scene for him was just a stepping-stone to a "proper" TV/showbiz gig. (The notion that you could develop and build a whole career within pop hadn't quite caught on yet.) So he didn't want to be seen doing anything that might disrupt that progression. Disruption of course came later on, mainly via what seems to have been a massively overrated opinion of himself and his capabilities.
@@Krzyszczynski Like Las Vegas Elvis P?
My friend jack is such a great tune and so are early floyd singles
both were awesome
YP, I loved that you followed the Gary Brooker new music review with this. Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion (except Simon Dee?), so I can't fault Gary for criticizing the Floyd's organ sound, but I loved hearing that organist Steve Winwood liked Rick Wright's playing.
They probably said, hey, which one is Pink?
Fantastic!
6:43 Oops 😬 ! - They Got Syd right , but Barratt ! C'mon Man 😆
Great music of you, love the mellotron
Thank you!
I think I might start saying 'Scene' a lot
This vid reminded me of reviews for Court Of The Crimson King. Many were gobsmacked like some of the reviewers for the Floyd's early singles were but some wrote off Crimso as a 2nd rate Moody Blues or (Gilmour era) Pink Floyd. I think the folks that dissed the Floyd 45's pretty much hated psychedelic and acid rock as a whole and were not the proper people to ask their opinion such as the two reviewers that preferred 'rock and roll' (Elvis) and adult pop (Tom Jones, Englebert). It's good to have varying schools of thought but it has to start with a reviewer that knows and appreciates the genre/style of music being evaluated and could thus compare Floyd to other competing bands in that same style (ie. Traffic, Jimi Hendrix etc)
Really curious about how you engineer/create those pastiche Beatles-psychedelic background musical bits. Not that I'm asking you to reveal your secrets. I'm only pondering it because I'm impressed, not the least for the fact that it completely undermines CZcams's heinous copyright robots.
He writes and records these himself he told me in earlier comments
Totally agree
He plays his own music that sounds like the bands he is featuring. I think.
No big secret there, Outher Galaxy Lounge. Clayton got it right. I just need a few instruments, a computer to record them and I try to come up with little songs that sound like the bands I'm featuring. I guess I always wanted to be a member of The Rutles!
@@YesterdaysPapers Great job doing so.
Fantastic, great idea….
It’s smooth sailing with the highly successful sound of wonderful Radio London!!!
Floyd seems tame compared to the stuff they let on the air nowadays.
I know I must just be a sucker for this whole scene and this entire period, because whenever I hear stories of guys saying they'd had songs foisted upon them by a producer and/or the record label which they considered "too pop" (and therefore unserious), I always think to myself "But I LOVE that song!" This applies to both THESE singles, to the radio-friendly hits the Yardbirds did (causing Clapton first to fret, then to leave), or Hi Ho Silver Lining, which Jeff Beck always hated Mickey Most apparently shoving on him in hopes of scoring a hit. But I ALWAYS like these tunes, whether or not they're "heavy enough" for the guys. I mean, if I could have begged Steve Marriott to make Humble Pie a side project while continuing to lead the Small Faces I would have stood outside his flat every day in the sucky English weather just to make the case to him he should still produce those "mere" pop songs Small Faces were putting out. I think they're pretty much all brilliant.
First record I ever remember hearing - was probably about 3 at the time as my oldest bruv played it consistently 😎👍
Oh Simon Dee, you were such a square. Honestly.
"My friend Jack eats sugar lumps" 😁
From Simon Dee's Wikipedia entry. This is hilarious:
COURT APPEARANCES
"Simon Dee had several court appearances and in 1974 served 28 days in Pentonville Prison for non-payment of rates on his former Chelsea home. Every time he left his cell the prisoners on his wing shouted, "It's Siiiiiimon Dee!" He was so shocked by prison that he swore he would never get into debt again. On another occasion he was jailed for vandalising a lavatory seat with Petula Clark's face painted on it, which he thought was disrespectful to her."
Arnold Lane and See Emily Play are the best things the Floyd ever turned out: it's interesting Waters says they couldn't necessarily play them all on stage, as with the Beatles and they're turning out their best singles when they gave up touring. The Beatles would be hard pressed to do say Penny Lane or say Strawberry Fields Forever too. Syd was like the grit in the oyster of Floyd's music, the
creative germ( cf his Madcap and Opel albums too). After his demise, the Floyd were the creative shadow cast by his creative genius, never to really equal the inspiration of Barret's talent.
So Pepper, The 1st PF LP and S.F. Sorrow by the Pretty Things were all recorded at Abbey Road during '67.....unreal
And engineer, then producer Norman Smith really helped those bands in the studio. At least the Pretty Things thought so.
It’s great to hear contemporary reviews of your favourite songs. Floyd’s first two singles represent a high water mark in music’s progression. These early reviews reflect the buzz that surrounded one of the most influential and important bands ever.
In my view, See Emily Play is better than the brilliant Penny Lane and Waterloo Sunset. So much so, I named my youngest daughter after it
I agree. See Emily Play is the perfect pop song. What a beautiful name for your daughter!
Going to like this. Will watch later 👍
Really well put together. I love the outrage over, of all things, pop music. It's so indignant, as if a song they don't like is a personal insult. Having said this, I always felt that Brotherhood Of Man were specifically designed to offend me 😬.
Also good to see Marriott and Winwood doing more reviews - hopefully these will be future episodes. I see Marriott already has one up but more would be welcome. Keep up the good work.
@@alihart Thank you!
SYD BARRETT R.I,P! x
Interesting that in the first couple years of their career they were known as THE Pink Floyd. But I noticed in Great Britain the journalists there will attach “the” to the front of any band name whether it’s part of their name or not. They even called ABBA “the ABBA” back in the early 70s.
The New Musical Express (6:17) got Syd & Rick’s pictures backwards!
I think that error inspired the comment 'Which one's Pink'?
It was Disc and Music Echo, not the NME. I remember the piece very well.
Disc printed a lot of good stuff about the Floyd that year, including one hilarious account of how they toiled all the way up to Elgin in northern Scotland to play a gig at the Red Shoes Ballroom (does it still exist??). It must have been one they'd committed to long before hitting the big time. One audience member reputedly commented: "I cuid sing better in ma wee bath".
El Pink Floyd de Syd Barrett me sacó de la Beatlemanía, eso es todo lo que puedo decir.
I loved "disgusted of Nottingham" and his tirade against psychedelic cacophony. That Jimi Hendrix, no future for him.
Can you make video on the press/public reaction to the Beatles 1963 albums and singles?
I saw Pink Floyd at the Albert Hall either in late 1967 or early 1968. I think both Syd Barrett and Dave Gilmour were in the band at this time. The sound experimentation I recall as being very interesting - sound experimentation seems a better description than music. There was also an ambitious light show - doubtless today it would be regarded as mundane. Pink Floyd's later work was unrecognisable when compared to their early sound.
MY FREIND JACK ! THE SMOKE!!? yes
Have you got it yet
good length
I've a persistent but possibly mistaken memory that "Emily" was once played on that hopelessly mainstream record-request programme Two-Way Family Favourites. Goodness knows what Jean Metcalfe made of it. (Or was it Judith Chalmers by then?)
LOL went to see PINK FLOYD at the CooP Ballroom in Oxford when one or both 'singles' were released. "WHAT were they doing playing that scene" ???? A total disaster. Everyone went to DANCE not to be in total darkness with weired light's and ever stranger music.... Wrong Group - Wrong Place. I loved both 'single's', had 2 or 3 Mother's LP's, Jefferson Airplane & LOVE but hated my night out. I'd gone out to DANCE.....
4:47 There's a few other pictures of Hendrix from that time; some in which he appears as a celestial doughtnut and a few in which he appears as the usual six-foot plus love god to writhing legions of groovellettes.
I have dim memories of seeing him in persona few times but the celestial doughnut was always something I never saw. I remember rumblings of overbooking in Europe, figures.
Aged 15 in early 1980 us fairly uneducated fellows had discovered Pot & were making the obligatory musical adventure through what had come before the ska mod revival , new wave Punk & familiar pop & wanky metal of the day. Posh Richard appeared with the LP copy of Relics & we duly got immersed in the album. After Arnold & the epic trip of set the controls , I couldn’t believe hearing something totally familiar from when I was an infant being exited by big sisters’ daily radio of the late 60s before she’d left home at 19 in 1971 - I hadn’t heard “ see Emily play “ since it’s time in the “ hit parade “ & hadn’t a clue it was by the band now famous as. being the famous Prog dinosaurs ( this was before The Wall was released & PF meant little to my age group whom were nearly too old to be ‘real ‘ original punks ‘ )….🫥😵💫❤️
i saw the first performance of Atom Heart Mother. Floyd played psychedelic pop until Dark Side of the Moon.
After that the long-form Gilmore tracks were the best of Floyd.
What is the name of the melody that plays at the beginning and throughout the video while you narrate?
The rock and roll dinosaurs never got it. I was very much into the pirates, I also listened to VoA, the middle of the night programmes had some of the up and coming American groups.
Not connected but sad news about Gary Brooker. RIP
Great loss, fantastic singer.
I liked their singles from this era better than their dark, depressing and often monotonous work from the 1970s. But I have a feeling that if I had sat through one of their concerts with long stretches of weird noises for the sake of weird noises, I'd have lost patience with that sort of crap. It's one thing to not be able to re-create the sound of a track in concert; everyone understands that, but who wants to pay to watch bands indulge themselves with half-baked sonic experiments?
Lmfao Syd is hilarious " women's clothing " I love his sense of humor man
Viper at the Gates of Dawn!
I actually like this title for a punk band or LA club where celebrities can OD on wokeness
It is amazing how conservative the tastes of some of the supposedly fashionable people about town were back then. Simon Dee claimed to be the inspiration for Austin Powers. yet he preferred Engelbert to Syd.
I am surprised radio London banned Arnold lane its the sort of record the BBC would have banned but they played it
The mainstream radio stations were pushing Jim Reeves and the other balladeers.. I was listening to the pirates and luckily there was an independent music shop in the town that got in the more obscure records, including imports
Jim Reeves died in '64. I guess record pluggers knew that he would never change his style again. American charts were bad, but seeing Jim Reeves and Eddy Arnold on the brit charts always made me American top 40 a bit more.
Apparently Emily Young is the same Emily Young who is one of Britain's greatest living sculptures:
"The song was reportedly about a girl named Emily, who Barrett claimed to have seen while sleeping in the woods after taking a psychedelic drug. According to A Saucerful of Secrets: The Pink Floyd Odyssey, by Nicholas Schaffner, Emily is the Honourable Emily Young,[9][10] daughter of Wayland Young, 2nd Baron Kennet and nicknamed "the psychedelic schoolgirl" at the UFO Club.[11] Bassist Roger Waters later said the woods mentioned in the song were based next to the Gog Magog Hills near Cambridge.[1]
Emily Young FRBS (born 1951) is a sculptor,[1] who has been called "Britain's greatest living stone sculptor".[2] She was born in London into a family of artists, writers and politicians. She currently divides her time between studios in London and Italy.[3]"
Wikipedia
This was at a new time when these new Psychedelic bands were risking these daring new sounds for single releases, rather than sticking to the more obvious commercial style format. Some got away with it (Pink Floyd, Traffic, Procol Harum, and the revamped Moody Blues, while others didn't. But those who succeeded out-fashioned most of the great sounds from the mid sixties British Invasion era.
But Psychedelia exploded from both sides of the Atlantic. The West Coast scene changed accordingly with groups like The Beach Boys and The Byrds getting replaced by The Doors and Jefferson Airplane.
My Friend Jack is a cool song. The DJ was wrong!
All the papers switch rick and syd lol
See Emily Play: 💯🎶🎵
Really love your channel. Was shocked to see The Monkees on the chart with a song I'd never even heard of. Pretty awful song. Anyway keep going please.
Its called Alternate Title because the record company said no to Randy Scouse Git , the songs actual name.
Never heard of Aternate Title? Where have you been?
I love see Emily play.. Quirky, psychedelic!
interesting vid could be how psychedelic acts saw the monkees, underrated in my opinion