It's a very intriguing situation: your lead singer, guitar
player, and primary motivating artistic force, is suffering from accelerating
debilitation, brought on by overuse of psychotropic drugs, and extreme
creative pressure. Your band wants to continue its recording career,
but must consider phasing out this man. Though he is your only proven marketable
feature, you believe that your group has the potential to succeed without
him. That will require all the current band members to take on additional
roles, and you will be forced to find a new lead guitarist. Pink
Floyd decided to resolve their problems by nudging Syd
Barrett out the door, bringing in David
Gilmour to take over lead guitar, and having Roger
Waters take on lyric-writing, singing, and organizational leadership.
Though the band here is largely searching for its post-Syd identity, the
final track confirms that Syd is gone, just as Set the Controls...
and Saucerful... herald the dawn of a new Floyd.
Among Floydomaniacs this album has a certain cult
status, but is probably generally underrated. It is a very uneven
collection, as might be expected, considering the state of flux in which
the band found itself. Still, two of the pieces are absolute musts
for any Floyd collection, and each track tells a story (though not all
the stories are good ones). There are generally fewer ambient
sounds in this album than we might expect, but that's OK, considering
that so much of the music is sufficiently experimental to keep us intrigued.
Let There Be More Light
kicks off the set, and we see right away that Roger has changed greatly
as a songwriter. Lyrically, the song is rather obtuse, and seems
designed to perpetuate the band's reputation as a "space group", but the
active
listener will have to wonder if the references to people and places
has significance.{CPFS}
Without being overly analytical, I think it's logical to imagine that somehow
the title refers to the effects of LSD.
If the chemical causes people to believe that they have seen "more" (or
at least, a new kind) of light, that helps explain the title. The
mention of "Lucy in the Sky" cannot be coincidental. Musically, there
are several interesting overtones here. The beginning reminds me
of the start of The Doors' L.A. Woman; I know the chord pattern
is generally the same, and I am tempted to play both simultaneously just
to see what happens. That segues into a section that sounds somewhat
like Argent's Hold Your Head Up, albeit with the usual Pink Floyd
twists. Roger is moving away from the need to write songs
here, but there's still enough structure (ABABABAB)
to be a 60's sound.
Remember a Day is a Rick
Wright contribution, and really doesn't carry the same weight as some
other pieces on the album because he seems unwilling to leave the 60's
style that got bands played on the radio, and move on with the band into
a musical future. Part of this is evident when the center section
echoes the mouth-made ambient sounds {CPFS}
from Pow R Toc H on PIPER.
Syd plays slide guitar on this one, and
you'll never get better evidence of how much better the band is with David
Gilmour taking that role.{CPFS}
Lyrically, the piece is harmless, and Nick
does some spiffy drumwork.
Set The Controls For The
Heart of The Sun is, to me, easily the best piece on the album, and
it owes that distinction to several factors. Dave Gilmour takes most
of the guitar parts here, and sets a mood that has subtle effects {CPFS}
on the development of the music. Nick continues to do nifty drumming,
and Rick adds the perfect strange organ effects. Roger took the title
from a William S. Burroughs novel that he was intrigued by, and most of
the lyrics are from a book of Chinese poetry he had read. Even if
you claim that these influences override Roger's creativity, you have to
be interested in the resulting combination. The music here reminds
me somewhat of an Alice Cooper piece called Black JuJu, but once
again, the effects are quite different.
Corporal Clegg is very
out of place on this album. It is quite different from anything else
here, but bears an eerie similarity in its conception to songs that would
later appear on THE WALL
and THE FINAL CUT{CPFS}.
It is likely that Roger actually knew someone who was similar to the character
in this song. You can easily see the song as a group of kids taunting
this man, who has returned from the war decidedly "changed". The
use of kazoos symbolizes the worsening insanity.{CPFS}
It's a little like Paul McCartney's Admiral Halsey, but with a lot
more bite to it.
A Saucerful of Secrets
is a three-part piece that Dave says was the first element that led to
DARK
SIDE OF THE MOON. The band seemed proud of having actually
thought this piece out to the extent that they made a "map" of where they
wanted it to go. It's the longest piece on the album, and you
may have a hard time not simply seeing it as a collection of musical "noises"
that have only a little bit in common. It may be easier to appreciate
if you interpret it as a Flying Saucer Full of Secrets. It
is supposedly divided into 3 distinct parts: Tension (fear); War; and Requiem.
(Maybe this is their "War of the Worlds") The first part definitely
can create some tension, due to its free-form nature and unusual sounds.
The second part begins, logically, with pounding drums, and uses pounding
piano chords and guitar squeals to achieve its effects. The finale
is fairly pedestrian when it comes to requiems, but a pretty nice example
of things people think rock bands can't do. It would make a nice
piece to play at your funeral, considering that is has rapturous organ
chords and choral effects. It also proves that the guys knew a little
bit about Classical music.
See-Saw is another Rick
Wright piece, and makes you realize that it's a good thing that he didn't
write too many more. Even the band considered it boring. It
is very much like
Remember a Day in style and structure, and may
(possibly) (might) (could) be a sentimental idea about an older brother
watching his sister grow up. It might also be a serious glimpse at
manic depression, but I'm probably over-thinking that. I wonder if
Rick was overly effected by Syd on this album, because both of his songs
have these disconnected interludes in them that seem to reflect Syd's state
of mind at the time.
Jugband Blues is all
that's left of Syd, and it's not really easy to take. It seems that
he knew it was going to be the last song on the album, almost an afterthought,
and he's not taking it well. Surely he knew that the band was leaving
him behind at this point (or that he was leaving them in the "normal" world).
It's very much like 4 or 5 parts of songs (ABCDEF),
smushed all together into an odd farewell. When he says "I'm almost
obliged to you for making it clear that I'm not here", you can't help but
be sad that he's realized that writing/recording/touring are over for him
(at least temporarily), but the music also sends you the message that
we really aren't missing that much. Obviously, you can tell that
I am not among those who think of Syd as the tragic genius without whom
Pink Floyd lost their guiding light. In fact, I can't imagine that
the band could have ever done their best work with Syd along for the ride,
even if he'd stayed mentally healthy.
