In his essential book of collected rock music essays and profiles, The Dark Stuff, writer Nick Kent recounts how famed psychiatrist, R. D. Laing watched an interview tape of Pink Floyd’s genius and drug-addled leader, Syd Barrett and claimed the singer was incurable. Not long after, Kent saw the evidence for himself:
Less than five years earlier, I’d stood transfixed, watching [Syd] in all his retina scorching, dandified splendor as he’d performed with his group the Pink Floyd, silently praying that one day I might be just like him. Now, as he stood before me with his haunted eyes and fractured countenance, I was having second thoughts. I asked him about his current musical project (a short-lived trio called Stars…) as his eyes burned a hole through one of the four walls surrounding us with a stare so ominous it could strip the paint off the bonnet of a brand new car. ‘I had eggs and bacon for breakfast,’ he then intoned solemnly, as if reciting a distantly remembered mantra. I repeated my original question. ‘I’m sorry! I don’t speak French,’ he finally replied.
Perhaps Barrett just wanted to avoid the dandified Kent. Then again, when Kent “rubbed up against the likes of Syd Barrett” he astutley realized:
...these were people who’d gotten what they actually wanted, only to find out it was the last thing on earth they actually needed…
This isn’t to dismiss Barrett’s immense talent or achievements - for one, he took an average band and turned them into something quite incredible. And his importance was such that when he left, his bandmates went on to make music inspired by his absence.
The Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett Story was originally screened in 2001, as part of the BBC’s Omnibus strand as Syd Barrett - Crazy Diamond. The documentary gives a fascinating portrait of Barrett’s brilliant rise and tragic fall through a drug-induced breakdown. Contributions come from Roger Waters, Nick Mason, David Gilmour, artist Duggie Fields (who describes sharing an apartment with the Crazy Diamond), Robyn Hitchcock, and, of course, archive of Syd Barrett - who, incidentally, watched the doc, when it was first broadcast and enjoyed seeing the archive, though found the music “too loud”.
This amazing animation was originally projected behind Pink Floyd when they promoted the Animals album on their “In the Flesh” tour in 1977. It was directed by Gerald Scarfe who also worked on the album cover, tour, film and theatrical adaptation of The Wall .
Eventually the record label turned it into a music video and it can been seen from time to time on Vh1 Classics. Can you imagine what this was like to see screened back then and with this number being played live and loud by Pink Floyd?
It’s still mind-blowing. I’ve always loved this song, but this film gave me a new appreciation for it. The film is included in the new Wish You Were Here Immersion box set in a 5.1 surround mix.
In late 1973, the members of Pink Floyd, probably somewhat perplexed themselves at the massive, massive worldwide sales of Dark Side of the Moon, not to mention creatively intimidated to have to come up with a sequel, went back into the studio with the notion of recording something entirely avant garde for that album’s follow-up.
What the decided upon was to record an album of musique concrète using only sounds produced by common household items. The “Household Objects” sessions were known to yield just two, and perhaps three, recordings, before the band decided it would be easier to just use, say, a bass, instead of rubber bands attached to two tables, to get a bass guitar sound.
Nick Sedgewick: I remember I went to E.M.I. studios in the winter of ‘74, and the band were recording stuff with bottles and rubber bands… the period I’m talking about is the before your French tour in June ‘74. [Not according to the Pink Floyd Encyclopedia, the recording dates were all between October and early December of 1973]
Roger Waters: Ah! Right, yeah. Answer starts here… (great intake of breath)... Well, Nick… there was an abortive attempt to make an album not using any musical instruments. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but it didn’t come together. Probably because we needed to stop for a bit.
Nick Sedgewick: Why?
Roger Waters: Oh, just tired and bored…
Nick Sedgewick: Go on… to get off the road? ... have some breathing space?
Roger Waters: Yeah. But I don’t think it was as conscious as that really. I think it was that when Dark Side of the Moon was so successful, it was the end. It was the end of the road. We’d reached the point we’d all been aiming for ever since we were teenagers and there was really nothing more to do in terms of rock’n roll.
Nick Sedgewick: A matter of money?
Roger Waters: Yes. Money and adulation… well, those kinds of sales are every rock’n roll band’s dream. Some bands pretend they’re not, of course. Recently I was reading an article, or an interview, by one of the guys who’s in Genesis, now that Peter Gabriel’s left, and he mentioned Pink Floyd. in it. There was a whole bunch of stuff about how if you’re listening to a Genesis album you really have to sit down and LISTEN, its not just wallpaper, not just high class Muzak like Pink Floyd or Tubular Bells, and I thought, yeah, I remember all that years ago when nobody was buying what we were doing. We were all heavily into the notion that it was good music, good with a capital G, and of course people weren’t buying it because people don’t buy good music. I may be quite wrong but my theory is that if Genesis ever start selling large quantities of albums now that Peter Gabriel their Syd Barrett, if you like, has left, the young man who gave this interview will realize he’s reached some kind of end in terms of whatever he was striving for and all that stuff about good music is a load of fucking bollocks. That’s my feeling anyway. And Wish You Were Here came about by us going on in spite of the fact we’d finished.
Oi, talk about brutally honest, there, Roger!
In his book, Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd, Nick Mason wrote:
“Almost everything we’ve ever recorded in a studio has been extracted by someone at some point and subsequently bootlegged. However, no such recordings exist of the ‘Household Objects’ tapes for the simple reason that we never managed to produce any actual music. All the time we devoted to the project was spent exploring the non-musical sounds, and the most we ever achieved was a small number of tentative rhythm tracks.”
These tapes, two of them, at least, have now been released for the very first time on the new Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here “Immersion” box sets. “The Hard Way” sounds more realized to me that just a mere rhythm track, whereas the “singing bowl” sound of “Wine Glasses” was used two years after it was recorded for the opening of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond.”
This is a perplexing product to get your head around. It really is. I like it, or at least I like parts of it, quite a lot. Other aspects of the set I could do without completely. Some of it’s just plain useless.
One CD of the original album, newly remastered in 2011
One CD of DSOTM performed live all the way through at Wembley Arena in 1974
A DVD-A of the 2003 5.1 surround mix, Alan Parson’s original quadraphonic mix from 1973 in 4.0 surround, a LPCM version of the 2011 stereo remaster, and 640 kbps versions of both surround mixes
A regular DVD that has two live numbers filmed in Brighton, 1972, an EPK from 2003 and the films that were projected behind the band onstage during British, French and North American tours in 1974/1975 synched to the same 5.1 audio heard on the previous disc.
A Blu-ray with uncompressed, high resolution versions of the stereo mix, the quad Parsons mix, the 2003 5.1 surround mix, the concert films, the live clips from Brighton, the EPK and the original 1973 stereo mix.
A CD of an earlier DSOTM mix from 1972 by Alan Parsons, a demo of “Us and Them” by Rick Wright, a demo of “Money” by Waters on an acoustic guitar, some unreleased live audio from the Brighton show, a studio rarity and—praise the gods—“The Hard Way,” one of the two completed tracks from the aborted follow-up to DSOTM known as Household Objects, an album that was to be recorded using only, you guessed it, household items as instruments (This is pretty fucking cool, I must admit).
Also included in the slick, glossy box designed by Storm Thorgerson’s StormStudios: Two books, one of tour photographs and ephemera, one with lyrics; “cards” and other supposedly “collectible” ephemera such as an art print of the album cover as rendered either by, or in the style of (it doesn’t say), Roy Lichtenstein; some DSOTM marbles (wha?); some DSOTM drink coasters (trade ‘em with your friends!) and some other stuff that I don’t think there was a single Pink Floyd fan on planet Earth clamoring for.
The worst item that comes with the set—and it’s really and truly groan-worthy—is the DSOTM scarf. Tom Baker’s incarnation of Doctor Who would be ashamed to wear it… WHAT were they thinking? (Then again Pink Floyd did license their DSOTM trademark to Target for pajamas, didn’t they?).
The main problem with this box set is that it doesn’t know who it’s supposed to be for. Obviously it’s for the Pink Floyd super-fan and/or for someone who has a deep emotional connection to the music of Dark Side of the Moon, but my question is, why would this theoretical Pink Floyd super-fan, who presumably has not just one, but several different versions of DSOTM in their collection, already, need a Blu-ray, a DVD, a DVDA disc, and three CDs (plus all the pointless collectibles crap) when all of it would have fit on just the Blu-ray? If you’ve got the Blu-ray, then why would you want to own the regular CD version that is markedly inferior to the Blu-ray version?
Obviously this is probably the very, very last time that Pink Floyd’s albums are ever going to be released on any sort of disc, but had they split this set up along the lines of formats, instead of forcing the public to shell out over $100 for multiple formats/versions of the same material, in the end, I think EMI would have maxed out on sales, perhaps several times over. Most people would be happy with just the Blu-ray, a 2 DVD version or a 3 CD set or whatever, but WHO would want, or need all of them? No one, that’s who. EMI’s super ultra mega deluxe box sets like this one and the one for David Bowie’s Station to Station album try to be all things to all people and don’t really succeed in satisfying anyone, I’m afraid. (The biggest missed opportunity here, and one that fans would have actually cared about, is they didn’t reproduce the iconic posters that came with the original album! I’d have gladly traded the marbles, drink coasters and the hideous scarf for the poster of the green pyramids, but alas they didn’t even reproduce either poster in the booklets! Why not?)
Even if it is mostly marketing and accounting personnel who are running the major labels these days, I still can’t help but to think that if they’d have come out with separate versions in CD, DVD and Blu-ray editions, and catered to what the public who still buy discs actually want, they’ve have far sold more copies in the end. I’m guessing they’ll sell 20,000 copies of this set. Even if the sell all of them at $108 a pop, this approach seems shortsighted to me, when sales figures for the 2003 James Guthrie mixed 5.1 surround version of DSOTM on SACD—a nearly dead format now—sold north of 800,000 units.
Let me be clear, though: The music, as heard here, is superb. The extras are great, especially “The Hard Way” and the absolutely incredible 1972 live show that comprises disc two. Having said that, I’d have been happier with just a Blu-ray of everything, price point of $35, tops (I already own the 2003 5.1 surround version on SACD, and a regular stereo CD version for that matter).
At least they didn’t include vinyl. Find me the guy who wants both the record and the Blu-ray (I use the male gender here because what woman is stupid enough to care about such things?) and I will show you a music nerd who should have been strangled in the bloody crib!
Below, Pink Floyd, live at Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands (Radio Hilversum: September 17, 1969). This has been bootlegged for 40 years under various names like “The Massed Gadgets of Auximenies” or “The Man and The Journey”—this will be one of the best Pink Floyd shows you’ll ever hear or your money back!
Below, “Careful With That Axe, Eugene,” live in Brighton, 1972:
I’m sure most Dangerous Minds readers are familiar with how well The Wizard of Oz syncs up with Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album. However, I dig Jeff Yorkes’ take even better. Yorke paired up The Wiz with Floyd’s “Brain Damage” and “Eclipse.” It’s a new spin.
Below, Dark Side of the Moon synced with Wizard of Oz.
Light show pioneer Mike Leonard worked closely with Pink Floyd in the mid-1960s when they were known as Leonard’s Lodgers (they lived in Leonard’s home) and later The Pink Floyd Sound. Working with colored cellophane and glass attached to rotating wheels and various prisms and lenses through which light was projected, Leonard managed to create lysergic effects that complimented Floyd’s psychedelic sound. While similar lighting experiments were soon to start taking place in San Francisco and New York, Leonard operated within his own orbit and by the time light shows had become a standard part of many a bands’ stage show Leonard was no longer in the business.
This video was shot in Leonard’s home in 1967 for BBC television program “Tomorrow’s World” and ends with some footage of Pink Floyd in an improvisational mood. Various sources claim this is Syd Barrett’s last filmed performance with the band.
Documentary on Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett after the jump…
Charlie Gilmour, the adopted son of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, admitted violent disorder in court today in London, after joining thousands of students demonstrating in London’s Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square last year.
During the riots, Gilmour was seen hanging from a Union Jack flag on the Cenotaph memorial for Britain’s war dead. He was also seen leaping on to the hood of a Jaguar that formed part of a royal escort convoy and throwing a garbage can at the car. Gilmour was one of approximately 100 students who attacked a convoy escorting the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall during last year’s student riots. The Prince and his wife were on their way to the Royal Variety Performance at the London Palladium theater when the mob surrounded their car shouting “off with their heads,” “Tory scum” and “give us some money.”
The Royal vehicle’s back window was smashed and lime green paint was thrown on the car, although there is no evidence that Gilmour had anything to do with that. He was, however, also photographed attempting to start a fire outside the Supreme Court by lighting a bunch of newspapers on fire.
Gilmour, a 21-year-old Cambridge University student, was told he must serve half of his 16-month jail term behind bars. From The Telegraph:
Shouting slogans such as “you broke the moral law, we are going to break all the laws”, the 21-year-old son of the multi-millionaire pop star went on the rampage during a day of extreme violence in central London.
Video captured by police officers outside the Houses of Parliament showed Gilmour, from Billingshurst, West Sussex, waving a red flag and shouting political slogans. The judge watched one clip in which he was shouted: “Let them eat cake, let them eat cake, they say. We won’t eat cake, we will eat fire, ice and destruction, because we are angry, very f———angry.”
As the clip was shown in court on Thursday, Gilmour sat in the dock giggling and covering his face with his hands in embarrassment.
On another occasion he could be seen urging the crowd to “storm Parliament” and shouting “arson”.
In addition to attacking the Royal cars, he was also part of a mob that smashed the windows at Oxford Street’s Top Shop as staff and customers cowered inside.
What most of the reporting on this matter wants to remind you is that young Mr. Gilmour is the son of a multi-millionaire pop star. Fair enough, we wouldn’t be reading about him if he wasn’t, but from reading this article and some of the others—his swinging from the Cenotaph aside—I couldn’t help feel that his actions a) took guts and b) the students were right.
I don’t think Gilmour should feel like he has to hang his head in shame at all. It’s the job of intelligent young people to behave this way from time to time, if you ask me!
Something that’s often getting left out of this story is that Gilmour’s biological father is none other than anarchist poet, actor, playwright and graffiti polemicist, Heathcote Williams. Williams, who once served as the anarchist “Albion free state” of Frestonia’s ambassador to the UK, is a rabble-rouser of the first rank. His grandmother was a Major in Mao’s Red Army. Rebellion is in this kid’s DNA. Although he and his son are supposed to be estranged, given his own past, surely Williams must feel some paternal pride in his son’s anti-establishment hijinks?
The Pink Floyd performing in the ancient (and empty) Roman amphitheatre in Pompeii, Italy in October of 1971, right before Meddle came out. There are three different versions of Live at Pompeii: the one embedded here, which is the original; a 1974 version that inserted “fake” studio sessions for the by-then already completed Dark Side of the Moon; and the expanded “director’s cut” of Live at Pompeii that came out on DVD in 2003. It’s a pretty spectacular performance, I think you’ll agree. Listen LOUD.
1. “Intro Song”
2. “Echoes, Part 1”
3. “Careful with That Axe, Eugene”
4. “A Saucerful of Secrets”
5. “One of These Days”
6. “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun”
7. “Mademoiselle Nobs”
8. “Echoes, Part 2”
There was a terrific, moving documentary last week on BBC Radio 4, “The Twilight World of Syd Barrett.” Featuring Barrett’s caretaker/sister Rosemary, original Floyd manager Peter Jenner, David Gilmour, Nick Mason and one of the last interviews with Rick Wright:
Five years after his death, Syd Barrett lives on freeze framed, still young and a striking lost soul of the sixties whose brief moment of creativity outshines those long years of solitude shut away in a terraced house in his home town of Cambridge.
This revealing programme hears how his band Pink Floyd (and family) coped with Barrett’s mental breakdown and explores the hurriedly arranged holiday to the Spanish island of Formentera - where the star unravelled. In the programme we also hear about Barrett’s pioneering brand of English psychedelic pop typified on early Pink Floyd recordings ‘Arnold Layne’, ‘See Emily Play’ and the strange songs on Pink Floyd’s impressive debut album ‘The Piper At the Gates of Dawn’.
Undoubtedly Barrett’s experimentation with the drug LSD affected him mentally and the band members reveal how concerned they were when he began to go catatonic on-stage, playing music that had little to do with their material, or not playing at all. By Spring 1968 Barrett was out of the group and after a brief period of hibernation, he re-emerged in 1970 with a pair of albums, ‘The Madcap Laughs’ and ‘Barrett’, but they failed to chart and Barrett retired to a hermit life existence under the watchful gaze of his caring sister Rosemary (featured in the programme)
Below, “Rhamadan,” a sprawling, 20-minute-long instrumental jam recorded during The Madcap Laughs sessions with Tyrannosaurus Rex bongo player Steve Peregrine Took. This comes only as a free download for people who bought An Introduction to Syd Barrett on iTunes or the physical CD. As someon\e who owns more Syd Barrett bootlegs than is perhaps necessary, it’s great to be able to finally hear this quasi-legendary track.
It’s worth noting that the new stereo remixes done by David Gilmour are especially nice-sounding. I thought they were a huge improvement myself. If you have any doubts, have a quick listen to “Octopus.” Not an insignificant upgrade in the audio fidelity department, I think you’ll agree:
One question for EMI, though: Where are “Scream Thy Last Scream” and “Vegetable Man” anyway??? WHEN will these tracks be given a proper release?
Our friends at Mod Cinema have scored again with their latest release, Surprise Partie which was basically French television’s equivalent to New Year’s Rockin Eve” minus Dick Clark and chock full of fashionable Parisian pretty people:
This 3 1/2 hour New Years Eve party was broadcast on French television in 1968. Featuring fashionably dressed partygoers dancing, swinging, and casually sitting on every inch of space of a stylishly decorated set. However, the best thing about this party is the long guestlist of musical performers that show up. Featuring rarely seen footage of Davy Jones, Marie Laforet, The Troggs, Jacques Dutronc, Joe Cocker, Françoise Hardy, Aphrodite’s Child, Antoine, Johnny Hallyday, Fleetwood Mac, The Who, Hugues Auffray, The Small Faces, Herbert Leonard, P.P. Arnold, Booker T & The MGs, Eric Charden, Freddy, Nicoletta, The Irresistibles, Pink Floyd, The Equals, and Les Variations. In full color and ORTF “stereo technique” sound!
Buy a copy of the amazing 2-DVD set of Surprise Partie at Mod Cinema.
The insanely gorgeous P.P. Arnold doing one of her best known numbers. “If You Think You’re Groovy.”
Below, Pink Floyd do “Let There Be More Light”
And one more musical morsel from “Surprise Partie”—it’s The Equals (featuring a young Eddy Grant with blonde hair) performing “Softly, Softly.”
An original painting done by the late Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett that was stolen from a London art gallery over the weekend has been returned, according to The Wire magazine.
Below, Syd Barrett and Roger Waters try to remain polite in the face of ridiculously uptight classical music critic Hans Keller, after the band play “Astronomy Domine” on BBC’s Look of the Week.
Here’s a great collection of live performance clips, programmed by one of today’s foremost experts in the field of electronic music, Keith Fullerton Whitman via the appropriately named Network Awesome:
1. Laurie Spiegel “Improvisations on a Concerto Generator” live at Bell Labs, 1977. Here Laurie is manipulating the Bell Labs Digital Synthesizer, aka the “Alles Machine” (or just “Alice”) in real time. I love how baroque this is ; the pulverizing 16th-note motorik starts to blur together until all you hear are the lovely arpeggiated chord-shapes.
2. Speaking of motorik ; Can “Paperhouse” live in 1972, at the peak of their powers ... You often think of Can as this freak-out group, but here they sound as restrained & musical as ever ... of course Jaki is on fire throughout, but I’m more impressed by Holger’s timekeeping in this clip !!! One of Damo’s best performances to boot, perfect Karoli guitar tone ; I could watch this on repeat, all day, every day ...
3. Seeselberg “Synthetik-1” , ca. 1975 c/o WDR. Seeselberg were two brothers (“Eckhardt” & “Wolf-J”) who issued a lone LP in 1973 of some of the most bewitching, non-denominational electronic music ever committed to tape. This feature-ette shows them jamming in front of a small gallery crowd, then at home in the studio ; cut with some rather Brakhage-esque direct-film experiments ... Sounds like a million bucks !!!
4. Bembeya Jazz National “Petit Sekou” live at the RTG studios in 1979. Slays me every time. Top-notch interplay, jagged but never showy guitar ... Love the VHS / helical scan wobble in the intro as well ...
5. Short film of Céleste Boursier-Mougenot’s commission for The Curve at the Barbican Center in London, 2010 ; Incredible idea, gorgeously executed ...
6. Great clip of Moroder actually performing “The Chase” from “Midnight Express” on a MiniMoog in 1979 ; proper synth freakout in there as well ...
7. Harry Bertoia Sound Sculptures, performed by his son, Val in 2001. About 5 years before this was filmed, I made the pilgrimage out to rural Bally, PA to witness these for myself ... since Harry’s passing in 1978, the sculptures have been standing in a barn, largely untouched, for the last 30 years; this is a rare document of their majestic forms / sounds ...
8. Pink Floyd “Echoes Part II” ; never was a big Gilmour fan, but I’ll rate this as the best bit from the later “Stadium” Floyd’s reign ...
9. Erkki Kurreniemi “Computer Music” ... mid-60’s film showing Erkki’s process for composing with computers. Typewriter? Check. Scads of jumbled up paper tape? Check. Composer falls asleep, dreams of psychedelic spinning landscape, rife with paranoid overtones? All there. As close as you’ll get to a valid “performance film” of early Computer Music ...
10. The Voice Crack trio of Norbert Möslang, Andy Guhl, and Knut Remond performing a set of their trademark “Cracked Everyday Electronics” in a gallery in their hometown of St. Gallen, Switzerland, 1989 ... I hear this not only as the blueprint for every “pedal noise” performance of the 90s / 00s, but as the invention of a few different languages that make up a large part of our current experimental music vocabulary. These guys are VISIONARIES ...
Anthony Stern’s San Francisco is a seminal work of British experimental and avant-garde cinema and one of the few art films to actually capture a little bit of the vibe of the hippie era. Stern describes the inspiration behind the film:
San Francisco was a response to hearing “Interstellar Overdrive” by Pink Floyd. It was my desire to make permanent the Pink Floyd lightshows created at the UFO club by Peter Wynne Wilson. The LSD-triggered psychedelic experience found its ultimate expression in this fusion of sight and sound, which achieved a visceral effect on the audience. San Francisco is ‘painting with light’ as well as a saturated archive of day to day life in the 1960’s. New rhythms were created in the language of film, in using single-frame exposures and freeze-frame techniques.”
Stern developed a friendship with Syd Barret while both were living in Cambridge, England. It was a relationship that would prove artistically productive, later evolving into a collaboration with Peter Whitehead on sixties pop culture documentary Tonite, Let’s All Make Love In London.
Here for your viewing and listening pleasure is Anthony Stern’s mindbending San Francisco:
Pink Floyd’s ‘Echoes” synchronized with the final 23 minutes of 2001:A Space Odyssey is good for the mind and soul.
Over the years rumors had it that Pink Floyd created “Echoes” as an unofficial soundtrack for the last segment of 2001 ( “Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite”). It’s a nice thought, but not true. That the song and film work so nicely together is just a happy accident.
While videos of the Floyd/Kubrick mashup have been around for awhile, this version is the best I’ve seen. Enjoy it in all of its widescreen glory.
