It is the song’s bridge that presented the biggest difficulties. With its vocal harmonies halfway between the Kinks and the Beach Boys, and Rick’s organ solo, it was difficult to get right. As the excellent David Parker points out in his book Random Precision,10 the annotations on the master tape box indicate some confusion over the number of takes (around eight), and also reveal that Rick’s solo was the subject of a separate take. Careful listening bears this out: this section is slightly faster than that which precedes it, and Roger’s bass sound is no longer exactly the same. The join occurs at precisely 1:31. Finally, the track is enhanced by snare drum effects played through the Binson Echorec (listen from 1:21).
Although a date of January 29 is recorded for the production, another session was required for the mixing, either January 31 or February 1, as Joe Boyd confirms: “I recall ‘Arnold Layne’ taking a day (to record) and another day to mix.” And this mixing was not exactly straightforward. Boyd continues: “I remember Roger and I working the faders together on tricky cues, particularly the soaring organ level at the beginning of the solo.”10 Today only a mono mix of “Arnold Layne” is available.
“Arnold Layne” reveals the ability of Syd Barrett, whose approach in terms of both the words and music is unique, deviating considerably from the norm, and indicative of exceptional talent.
For Pink Floyd Addicts
“Arnold Layne” seems to have been a powerful inspiration on other musicians, least of all Queen, with “Now I’m Here” on their 1974 album Sheer Heart Attack.
For Pink Floyd Addicts
A promotional disc of the single was released on March 10, 1967, mainly for radio stations and—to the delight of collectors—strictly not for sale! A number of copies, however, are said to have had the date of March 8 printed on them. The treasure hunt is on…
There is a second promotional film of “Arnold Layne” that was shot in front of Saint Michael’s Church in Highgate (Camden, North London). In it, Syd Barrett can be seen lip-synching. The initial effects of hallucinogenic drugs on his health are already in evidence.
COVERS
During the “On an Island” tour (2006) with Rick Wright, David Gilmour played “Arnold Layne” several times. There is also a version recorded with David Bowie on May 29, 2006, at the Royal Albert Hall, which was released as a single on December 26 of the same year. Among other covers, it is worth mentioning those of the Boomtown Rats and, in France, Étienne Daho.
Candy And A Currant Bun
Syd Barrett / 2:48
SINGLE
Arnold Layne / Candy and a Currant Bun
RELEASE DATE
United Kingdom: March 11, 1967
LABEL: COLUMBIA RECORDS
RECORD NUMBER: DB 8156
Musicians
Syd Barrett: vocals, backing vocals (?), rhythm and lead guitar
Roger Waters: bass, backing vocals (?)
Rick Wright: organ
Nick Mason: drums
Recorded
Sound Techniques, London: January 29, 31 (?), February 1 (?), 1967
Technical Team
Producer: Joe Boyd
Sound Engineer: John Wood
Genesis
In this song, Syd Barrett acts as a chronicler of his society, while at the same time lifting a corner of the veil on his inner world. He certainly captures the spirit of the times—the psychedelic revolution that insisted on waking up from the “long ontological sleep” (in the words of Timothy Leary, champion of the US counterculture) through the consumption of hallucinogenic drugs. “Candy and a Currant Bun” was initially named “Let’s Roll Another One,” a title that could not be more explicit. For the release of the single, EMI insisted that Pink Floyd change the song title along with the words of certain verses. As a result, curls of marijuana smoke are transformed into the aforementioned sweet treats, and the line I’m high, don’t try to spoil my fun has disappeared altogether.
The story goes that Syd Barrett was very unhappy to discover that his references to drugs had been censored, but that Roger Waters dissuaded him from entering into open conflict with EMI over it. According to Mike Watkinson and Pete Anderson, “Waters disapproved of dope smoking in the studio, while Syd was naturally all for it. He often told friends that his fellow band members were ‘dead straight.’”2 However, if Peter Jenner is to be believed, Roger was not the only one to have assumed this responsibility: “I would suspect that it was self-censorship, that we all realised that it was… I wouldn’t be surprised if Joe would have raised that, because Joe had a bit more knowledge of the industry and business and what you could get away with.”10 One cannot help wondering whether, in spite of all this, the currant bun might not have possessed certain peculiar virtues, just like the Ice cream, [which] tastes good if you eat it soon. That is to say erotic virtues. Hence the choice of this song as the B-side of Pink Floyd’s first single!
Production
Syd Barrett was almost certainly aiming for the charts with “Candy and a Currant Bun”: the song has a catchy tune, it is as psychedelic as one could hope for, and it is also highly original—in terms of both structure and harmony. All of which makes it a rollicking little pop song that perhaps deserved better than to be hidden away on the back of a single. Launched by a slightly distorted G from Wright on his Farfisa, it is Barrett who gets the track properly under way, firing off a very good overdubbed solo intro (possibly using a Selmer Buzz Tone pedal). He also plays a clearer-sounding rhythm guitar. Waters and Mason provide efficient support on bass and drums respectively. Wright, who maintains a discreet presence on the organ, launches into a fine solo at 1:20, giving Mason an opportunity to express himself with some passion, thereby demonstrating how impressed he was with his recent discovery of Ginger Baker, the towering drummer of Cream. Barrett follows with a lead part played haphazardly rather than textbook-style, and in which he seems to favor feeling over technique (with much use of electronic effects from his Binson Echorec). He also seems to use his Zippo as a kind of bottleneck during this solo part on his rhythm guitar. After another sung section, the song moves toward a pretty frenzied coda (from 2:19) culminating in various effects that are not exactly easy to identify, although again generated using the Binson Echorec, and concluding with Barrett’s guitar. Vocally, Syd gives an excellent performance, alternating his range with a more intimate style of delivery. Throughout the song a second voice can be heard accompanying Syd with some highly psychedelic oohs sustained by means of plentiful reverb. This is probably Waters, adding to the surrealistic feel of the track. “Candy and a Currant Bun” is a very good song that demonstrates the extent to which, even at this early stage in their career, Pink Floyd possessed an originality and a power that EMI would effectively harness and render productive.
TO SHOCK OR NOT TO SHOCK?
Questions might be asked about EMI’s consistency. While it rejected any explicit references to drugs on “Candy and a Currant Bun,” the major had nothing to say about the line Please just fuck with me, containing a word that was still strictly banned on record as well as on air!
IN YOUR HEADPHONES
It is almost certainly Nick Mason who utters the phrase Drive me wild at precisely 1:00.
1967
See Emily Play
Scarecrow
SINGLE
RELEASE DATE
United Kingdom: June 16, 1967
Label: Columbia Records
RECORD NUMBER: DB 8214
See Emily Play
Syd Barrett / 2:54
Musicians
Syd Barrett: vocals, electric rhythm guitar, lead guitar, backing vocals (?)
Roger Waters: bass, backing vocals (?)
Rick Wright: keyboards, backing vocals (?)
Nick Mason: drums
Recorded
Sound Techniques, London: May 18 or 20–21, 1967
Technical Team
Producer: Norman Smith
Sound Engineer: John Wood
Assistant Sound Engi
neer: Jeff Jarrett
Genesis
On May 12, 1967, Pink Floyd played a concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. Known as “Games for May” and billed as a moment of “space age relaxation for the climax of Spring—Electronic compositions, colour and image projections, girls, and the Pink Floyd,” this gig had been organized by Peter Jenner and Andrew King with the blessing of the classical music promoter Christopher Hunt. “Games for May” marked a crucial stage in the group’s development. Not only did it enable the group to get itself known beyond underground circles (the Queen Elizabeth Hall having been the preserve of classical music up to then), it also allowed it to test out its new compositions using the quadraphonic sound system specially designed by EMI’s engineers (which was stolen after the concert). According to Nick Mason, this was “one of the most significant shows we have ever performed, since the concert contained elements that became part of our performances for the next thirty years.”5 In the absence of a first part, the Floyd created stage effects to their own taste, taking into account the fact that the crowd would be seated, which was relatively unusual at a rock concert.
On the set list for the Queen Elizabeth Hall show were ten or so songs plus a number of tape recordings. Syd Barrett composed a song especially for the event. This he named, naturally enough, “Games for May.” It was this song that contained the seeds of “See Emily Play.”
Andrew King, who at that time shared a flat with Rick Wright, recalls this period: “[…] I think Syd probably wrote ‘See Emily Play’ in that flat, because we had like a sort of… what you’d call a demo studio set up there in the living room […] and he wrote it there as a sort of theme song for that concert.”10 It seems, however, again according to King, that the words had been written some time before, during the London Free School era.
Who is the Emily being observed at play by the song’s narrator? It could be Emily Tacita Young, a famous sculptor in the making, who in 1966 never missed an evening at the London Free School or the UFO Club. It is also possible that this person who tries but misunderstands, who is often inclined to borrow somebody’s dreams and who cries soon after dark was a product of Syd Barrett’s fertile imagination—a young woman who appeared to him among the trees during an acid trip. Jenny Spires, a former girlfriend, has revealed that Emily was Syd’s favorite first name, the name he would choose if he had a daughter one day. Finally, for Roger Waters, “Emily could be anyone. She’s just a hung-up chick, that’s all.”12 Although ignorant of Emily’s identity, Waters claims to “know which woods Syd’s talking about in ‘See Emily Play.’ We all used to go to these woods as kids. It’s a very specific area—one specific wood on the road to the Gog Magog Hills [southwest of Cambridge].”1
Pink Floyd’s second single was released on June 16, 1967, with the slogan: “Straight to Heaven in ’67.” While not quite attaining hit parade nirvana, “See Emily Play” nonetheless reached number 6 in the United Kingdom on July 29, just behind other hymns of the “Summer of Love” such as The Beatles’ “All You Need Is Love” and Scott McKenzie’s “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair).” The song was to play an important role in the Floyd’s career by opening the doors of the radio and television stations, which had hitherto ignored them. Praised to the skies by the media, “See Emily Play” was championed by Radio London and Radio Caroline, and on July 6 Pink Floyd were invited to appear on the BBC show Top of the Pops for the first time to perform the hit. They would make return appearances on the thirteenth and twenty-seventh of that month. Barrett’s composition has since been included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s list of five hundred songs that have shaped rock ’n’ roll.
Production
Pink Floyd recorded “See Emily Play” and “Scarecrow” during the sessions for The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, and “Bike” in particular. Not having been able to obtain the sound they wanted at Abbey Road, Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, Rick Wright, and Nick Mason went back to John Wood at Sound Techniques, where they had immortalized “Arnold Layne,” this time with Norman Smith as producer. The real reasons for turning their backs on the EMI studios remain unknown, as John Wood explains: “Whether they couldn’t book the time at Abbey Road or had tried recording it and couldn’t get the sound, or whether it was just the ‘vibe’ of having done a successful single there (at Sound Techniques) before, I don’t know.”10 Whatever the problem was, they poached Jeff Jarratt, whom they liked, from Abbey Road: “[…] and they asked me to go across to Sound Techniques studio with them, to be the tape op over there on those sessions,”10 confirms Jarratt. The session dates are not known for certain, but according to Jarratt, the recordings took place during a May weekend, either Saturday the twentieth or Sunday the twenty-first. The date of May 18, 1967, has also been suggested, but remains unconfirmed.
When the group got down to work, the song was still more than seven minutes long (again according to Jarratt), as per Floyd’s habit of playing extra-long versions of their numbers live. John Wood recalls a lot of work being done on the master tape in order to cut it down to single format.
Right from the intro, the listener is taken by surprise by a glissando effect, perhaps obtained by Syd playing bottleneck on his Fender Esquire and altering the sound with heavy use of the Binson Echorec. Rick accompanies him from the very first bar with a short solo on his Farfisa organ. The rhythm section is efficient, with Nick playing his Premier kit (probably with two bass drums) in a style that is simultaneously pop and rock, and Roger, on his Rickenbacker bass, finding patterns that are somewhat unusual in this style of music. Syd, who also plays rhythm (his Esquire again), delivers an excellent lead vocal, supported by securely held harmonies courtesy of Roger and/or Rick. In the verses, an acoustic piano lick can be heard that also receives the inevitable Echorec treatment. The effect is resolutely pop and highly characteristic of English record production of the day. The Floyd’s keyboard player takes a second organ solo at 1:29, launched by Syd’s distorted guitar, the lead man not hesitating to accompany him using his Zippo to obtain highly psychedelic effects.
The song is of such striking clarity that it was inevitable it should be released as a single. “‘See Emily Play’ is full of weird oscillations, reverberations, electronic vibrations, fuzzy rumblings, and appealing harmonies,”12 wrote the New Musical Express (NME). During an interview for Top of the Pops, Rick Wright looks back at the recording: “Although it sounds a bit gimmicky, hardly any special effects were used. Take that ‘Hawaiian’ bit at the end of each verse, that was just Syd using a bottleneck through echo. The part that sounds speeded up, John Woods, the engineer, just upped the whole thing about an octave.”9 In creating this “Hawaiian” effect, Syd was actually inspired—according to Andrew King—by the guitarist Keith Rowe of the group AMM, who used a plastic ruler as a bottleneck! As for the famous accelerated section at 0:50, Rick can be heard playing two bars of piano that had been recorded at half the standard speed, the effect of which is to sound like a tack piano when played back at normal speed. This may have been a legacy from George Martin, who had used the same procedure with the Beatles on “In My Life” in 1965. All this was done under the watchful eye of Norman Smith, who had thoroughly assimilated the technique… The song ends with a fade-out during which Roger plays a two-note motif on his Rickenbacker, which he was to return to on “Careful with That Axe, Eugene” in 1968.
The A-side of this single is an excellent pop song that reveals the true scope of Syd Barrett’s talent. The influence of the Beatles is in evidence here, with that combination of melody and innovation of all kinds that characterized the Fab Four in 1967. Norman Smith was able to subtly impose his vision as producer, without curbing the creativity and enthusiasm of his protégés. The result is a happy marriage of two musical and artistic visions. A marriage that was still, to say the least, a considerable way from what Pink Floyd would become in the seventies.
In a sense, “See Emily Play” marked the beginning of the end for Barrett with
Pink Floyd. David Gilmour, then a member of Jokers Wild, took advantage of a brief trip to London to visit him while he was in the middle of recording “See Emily Play” with the Floyd. He recalls the shock of seeing his friend: “Syd didn’t seem to recognise me and just stared back. […] He was a different person. I assumed he’d had too much of the old substances, which is what everyone else thought.”2 A little while later, Gilmour would be called upon to help out a Syd Barrett who had fallen into steady decline.
The sleeve of the single “See Emily Play” depicts a locomotive with children on board. This illustration is by Syd Barrett.
COVERS
“See Emily Play” has been covered by All About Eve and Martha Wainwright, among other artists. However, the best-known version is surely David Bowie’s, recorded during the Pin Ups sessions (1973).
For Pink Floyd Addicts
On February 18 and 19, 1968, Pink Floyd shot a promo for “See Emily Play” for Belgian television. It is not Syd Barrett but David Gilmour singing and playing guitar with the group as he makes his first appearance with Pink Floyd on film. Syd has already2 dropped out of the picture…
Norman Smith, Rock’s Alchemist
For a number of years, Pink Floyd’s name was closely associated at EMI with one of the very best producer–sound engineers on the English rock scene: Norman Smith, who had recorded every Beatles album up to and including Rubber Soul in 1965. Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, Rick Wright, and Nick Mason could not have found a better partner with whom to set out on their recording career—one who would help them to realize their ideas and express their extraordinary, fertile imaginations.
Pink Floyd All the Songs Page 4
