While the band was recording new material for their new album (to be called « A Saucerful of Secrets »), Peter Bown fell ill, leaving Syd's producer's wishes a little more room. He wanted to use the Salvation Army Orchestra on this track to fill the 6 vacant bars. However, the only instruction given to this orchestra was « to do anything »!
Peter Jenner:
Norman brought them back to us because he'd done a record with the Salvation Army (...) but it wasn't the full orchestra (...) only, I think, 5 or 8 musicians.I think Syd wanted them (...) »
« Random Precision», David Parker, 2001.
When Bown's came back, Barrett and Bown had a serious discussion about this central section. Finally, the documentation of this session shows that a track was made according to Syd's idea, but was never actually mixed into the song.
Andrew King:
« (...) Syd wanted them to play random, improvisations ... but Norman had written a chord progression for them so there was a real difference of opinion at that point. I think we recorded ... I don't know if it was ever mixed, but we recorded the improvised version ... but Norman's version won in the end (...) You know, that effect of having a kind of psychedelic sound from a ballroom orchestra in the middle of that song ... I mean ... phew!
« Random Precision», David Parker, 2001.
« Untitled Instrumental » (uncredited/1967)
Seven takes has been recorded during the recording session on 4 September 1967 at the Sound Techniques Studios
Early Morning, Henry (uncredited/1967)
A track probably written by Syd and recorded during a 7-hour session on October 23rd at De Lane Studios. Unfortunately, the master has been lost. Nevertheless, the track is present on the session sheets of the time. The EMI archives note that the track was saved on a floppy disk and taken home by N.Smith ("taken on a plastic spool by Norman Smith"). That said, this title is rather dubious, as a band recording at Abbey Road Studios at the same time as the Floyd created a track with precisely this title. Gulliver's People was managed by Norman Smith, so it's not impossible that there was some confusion between the two groups.
Tape Sheet from the 29 October 1967 recording session
Peter Jenner:
«It might have been an instrumental or something. It might have been one of thouse things they had a doodle and they liked it and called in something. The thing was you had to call it something otherwise it couldn´t be put on the sheet. So it might have been that, it might have been «Oh let´s call it Early Morning Henry»»
«Random Precision : Recording the Music of Syd Barrett 1965-1974», David Parker.
John Latham (Barrett, Mason, Water, Wright /1967)
Instrumental. John Latham was an experimental artist who made some appearances in some London's Happening in the sixties. He worked with the band for the « Music in Colour » festival in January 17th 1967. In the late October of the same year, Syd asked to the rest of the Floyd to compose a soundtrack for this silent short-film screened on stage. Once completed,
John Latham dropped it, finally. This tape produced by Norman Smith is still in the EMI's vaults. Finally released on the « Early Years » Boxset.
John A. Walker:
« On various occasions, Latham projected his film "Speak" while the band played (...) although there was no real synchronization between the images and the music. Thinking of combining film and music more systematically, Latham asked Floyd to provide a soundtrack.
The band agreed, and a recording session was arranged. The artist explained that he wanted the music to match the film's powerful rhythmic pulse. The band either couldn't or wouldn't provide a suitable soundtrack, so the partnership ended. A soundtrack was later added to a copy of "Speak": Latham placed a microphone on the floor to record the rhythm of a circular saw (...)».
« John Latham: The incidental person - The art and Ideas», John A.Walker, 1994.
Nick Mason:
«I have absolutely no memory of these sessions. When I heard the tracks, which i found intriguing, i thought that we might have done them for a multimedia event. You'll understand when you hear them, it's very free-form, as if they were recorded for a film. But I don't know where or when we did them. They're kind of weird, not really good to my view, and it's a typical example of things upon which we really questioned ourselves before publishing them »
«Interview with Nick Mason», Rock & Folk, November 2016.
Show du 17 janvier des Soft Machine, avec John Latham
portant sa pieuvre en papier appelé NOiT.
« No Title » (non-crédité/1967)
Title recorded on November 1967 at Sound Techniques Studios when the band planned to cover some tracks already on tape for the « A Saucerful of secrets » album. Phil Smee listened to tapes at EMI in 1987 containing an « unfinished backing track » that « sounded a bit like the middle bridge of See Emily play »..
« Tomorrow World Jam » (uncrédited/1967)
This title was given by the band's collectors to an improvisation the band performed in Mike Leonard's house while presenting a light-play system during a BBC program entitled « Tomorrow's World » (broadcasted on January 1968). « Tomorrow's World » was a BBC program devoted to the latest technological innovations.
See the page devoted to the group's video appearances for more information.
Green Onion (Steve Cropper, Booker T. Jones, Lewie Steinberg, Al Jackson, Jr./1967)
The Floyd played a second song for the « Tomorrow's World » TV program: a cover of Booker T & the MG's (recorded on December 17 1967, at Mike Leonard's house).
Have you got it yet ? (Barrett/1968)
The band rehearsed with newcomer Gilmour at a school in West London from January 6 to 9, 1968. The chorus was a game between Barrett, who sang the eponymous phrase, and the band, arranged in a circle around him, who had to answer "No! no! no!" (Waters actually hummed it on the Barrett DVD). Barrett took the opportunity to introduce a new song.
Every time the song reached the chorus, Barrett would change the rest of the song, which was taken by the rest of the band as an act of bad faith.
Nick Mason:
« We were teaching Dave the numbers with the idea we were going to be a five piece. But Syd came in with some new material. The song went Have you got it yet ? and he kept changing it so that no one could learn it »
«Pink Floyd», Zigzag 32, March 1973
Roger Waters:
«It was a real act of mad genius. The interesting thing about it was that I didn't suss it out at all. I stood there for about an hour while he was singing 'Have you got it yet?' trying to explain that he was changing it all the time so I couldn't follow it. He'd sing « Have you got it yet ? » and I'd sing « No, no ». Terrific! »
Nick Mason:
« « Have You Got It Yet ? » was around this time. probably a little bit later. Funnily enough, that's the only song that I remember Syd playing to us ever - it's unforgettable, really. We Just spent an hour or two hours learning nothing. Just nonsense. It was intentional. I think - a Joke, but who knows ?»
« Dark Globe », Uncut, May 2020
Incarceration of a Flower Child (Waters/1968)
A demo developed by Waters at the time of « A Saucerful of Secrets », but eventually given to Marianne Faithful 33 years later. Some stances are similar to the « Final Cut » track The post war dream.
Do you remember me? How we used to be helpless and happy and blind?
Sunk without hope in a haze of good dope and cheap wine?
Laying on the living-room floor on those Indian tapestry cushions you made
Thinking of calling our first born Jasmine or Jade
Don't do it, don't do it, don't do it to me
Don't think about it, don't think about it, don't think about it, don't think about what it might be
Don't get up to open the door, just stay with me here on the floor
It's gonna get cold in the 1970s
You wouldn't listen, you thought you knew better, you just to had to speak to that man
Please believe me, I'll visit whenever I can
Laying in your little white room with no windows and three square sedations a day
You plead with the doctor who's running the show
"Please don't take Jasmine away and leave me alone."
Don't do it, don't do it, don't do it, don't do it to me
Don't think about it, don't think about it, don't think about it, don't think about what it might be
Don't get up to open the door, just stay with me here on the floor
It's gonna get cold in the 1970s
Do you remember me? How we used to be helpless and happy and blind?
Sunk without hope in a haze of good dope and cheap wine?
Now in your little white room with no windows and three square sedations a day
You plead with the doctor who's running the show
"Please don't take Jasmine away and leave me alone."
Corporal Clegg (Waters/1968)
There is a version with a different ending broadcast during their Belgian TV appearance in February 1968 (recorded on January 31st at EMI studios). This is because the band were in the middle of recording the album when they filmed for TV. They therefore used an alternative take. For more information, see the video appearances page.
Nick Mason:
«Well, we've got a new single that we hope to have out in about three weeks, which we thought we'd finished last week and we listened to it again and all changed our minds, so we're going back next week to re-record it, I think. It's called Corporal Clegg. It's a Roger Waters composition »
« Top Gear », BBC Radio, 25 June 1968
Boppin' Sound (uncredited/1968)
Nothing is known about this track (also entitled The Bobbin' Sound), except that it was developed on the night of February 12-13 1968 by the band, who only did one take.
« The Sound of Changes » (Gilmour, Mason, Waters, Wright/1968)
This track, recorded at the BBC on March 26, 1968, comes from a BBC documentary devoted to Pop music. After interviews with Mick Jagger, Bill Haley and Pete Townshend, the finale features a performance by the Floyd in a tent lit by psychedelic lights. This instrumental is unknown (and so is the title), but it sounds like the middle of Nick's Boogie; it's possible, in fact, that the band is playing on the track's playback. This track was shown to the public at the Warm-up preceding the Knebworth set in 1990. Since then, the track has featured in many of the band's unofficial videos. The track was finally released on the "Early Years" box set.
Pictures taken during this session. Photographies by Wolfgang HEILEMANN
There's some confusion about this track, recorded in May 1968, for two reasons. Some think it's the improvisation played in January 1967 and featured in the film "Tonight, let's all male love in London". For others, it's the drum part in A Saucerful of Secrets called A Syncopated Pandemonium. If it's hard to imagine the band returning to one of their improvisations (which, by definition, has not been transcribed), the second solution seems to be the right one.
It's true that the title track of the second album is an assemblage of different parts. In fact, the eponymous title never appears as such in the track sheets of the recording sessions. On the other hand, we know for a fact that the title Richard's Rave Up, recorded on February 12, 1968, corresponds to the last part, Celestial Voices. The fact that a part of this song is identified by the name of the person who composed it seems to indicate that it was a solo project for a later collage. The only thing that could raise doubts is the instrumental's designation as 3 distinct movements. These three movements could in fact correspond to the first three parts of A Saucerful of Secrets (Something else / Syncopated Pandemonium/ Storm Signal ) or to three movements that can be distinguished within Syncopated itself: the drum loop, the mallets and the arrival of the organ. But the most peculiar clue
Silas lane (Barrett/1968) At the end of the May 6, 1968 session (at Studio 3, Abbey Road), Syd decided to record two new pieces. The first was a take of Silace Lang (that's how the title was written on the tape case). This piece had been proposed to his ex-colleagues with the idea of recording it with a sax and banjo player! Taken up by Barrett under the name Swan Lee during his first solo session on May 6, 1968.
« The Committee Soundtrack » (Barrett's Version) (Barrett/1968)
A rumour circulating in fan circles seems to lend credence to the theory that the Floyd had returned to help Barrett honour the commitment he had made with Max Steuer, writer and producer of the experimental film "The Committee". This would mean that the band would have reformed as a 5-piece in April 1968. However, this version is false: the new Floyd recorded this tape without Syd's help.
It is true, however, that Syd did work on the tape before the band took over the project. The session took place on January 30, 1968 at Sound Technique Studios in London. This has been confirmed by David Parker's book, who found the session-sheet showing the date January 30, 1968, on which it is stated that "Syd was the only one present". The session was rescheduled from January 30 to February 7, 1968.
Peter Jenner:
« We didn't know what was going to happen, we didn't know where we were going. We didn't know if it was going to be new Floyd material or if it was going to be a Barrett thing. Initially I think the intention was certainly to keep working on the Floyd material and maybe have some new songs».
The Nice's drummer Brian Davidson and Steve Peregrine Took were called in to record the twenty-minute session. The next day and the days that followed, Barrett went missing and Waters, alerted by the numerous phone calls from the studio employee to Peter Jenner, decided to involve the band (who had previously declined the offer) again.
Max Steuer :
«I knew Pink Floyd through their first manager, who I'd known since the London School of Economics, and I really liked what they were doing musically.
At the time, I thought it might be very interesting to have someone provide the soundtrack and I always thought Syd was very, very charming and I liked ... the ambiguity ... with which he expressed himself; it was quite remarkable. I think he was one of those musicians who dug his furrow through pure creativity, because he wasn't a great guitar virtuoso but had an incredible vision of music. I discussed the story with him for a long time and he read my original story: he was on the same wavelength as me, which I thought was a big advantage. He agreed to do it and everything seemed to be ready. It could have been late December 1967 or early January 1968. I'm not really sure, but it was during the winter. I think he'd already left Pink Floyd by then. Peter Sykes, the director, had booked a 10-hour session in a fairly expensive studio here in London, although the music budget for "The Committee" wasn't particularly impressive.
But when it came time to record, Syd was already an hour late. Finally he arrived, without his guitar but with a sandwich. He began by sitting down and eating it, telling us that he "wanted to soak up this place »
«Interview with Max Steuer», Fanzine "Late Night" N°5.
Interviewer:« In our group we discussed the sessions Syd Barrett recorded for the film The Committee, and it was said that you were in possession of those tapes. Is this true ?»
Peter Jenner:« As far as I know I am not in possession of these tapes, I might have been given a copy, but I surely not the masters (…) It was indeed Max Steuer, and he may have given us the tapes. But I do not remember them. But many things disappeared with the sudden collapse of Blackhill. My recollection is that they were less than amazing. However if I come across anything I will let you know
«An innerview with Peter Jenner», Birdie Hop Website, 25 April 2014.
Bernard White (famous Pink Floyd’s collector & searcher):
« The man I am talking about is the author and the producer of the film, Max Steuer. He is the man who actually worked with Syd Barrett. The director was Peter Sykes, but it’s Max Steuer who worked with Syd Barrett. He was the man who actually recorded, arranged for Syd Barrett to record the Committee soundtrack. That was more or less the last thing he [Syd] did, because what happened was that they weren’t happy with.
So really, that was the last thing Syd Barrett did as a member of the Pink Floyd. None of the other members were involved with the session *he* did. So that was late December 1967 or early 68. So obviously they must have thought it [the recording] was faulty or something.
The point about that session was because even he can’t remember himself, either. What happened was they left him alone in the studio and the man asked him if they could hear a playback and Syd Barrett said, he had the engineer string the tape backwards. He’d done that deliberately, deciding that it sounded better that way. The annoying thing was he said, the only person he gave the recording of twenty minutes of Syd Barrett was Peter Jenner, the only person who has that recording. ».
Unknown source
Some Floyd historians initially thought that the soundtrack was produced by Barrett in collaboration with Waters.
Max Steuer:
« Roger was not involved at all in that first try with Syd. Syd read the story and said he would do the film. This seemed fine by me »
Max Steuer Documentary, Committee DVD.
Interviewer: « Regarding your accounts of the 1968 solo «The Committee» session, was it an accident that Syd’s solo Committee soundtrack was played backwards or was there more sinister motive ?»
Bernard White: « No, Syd Barrett did that himself. It was meant to be backwards. I have an interview with the director of the film. That’s what he said, the annoying thing was he said, the only person he gave the recording of twenty minutes of Syd Barrett was Peter Jenner, The only person who has that recording. Max Steuer, who wrote The Committee and produced the film. He was the man who actually recorded, arranged for Syd Barrett to record the Committee soundtrack.That was more or less the last thing he [Syd] did, because what happened was that they weren’t happy with, obviously, they didn’t quite realize the monumental blunder they made there.
(...) So really, that was the last thing Syd Barrett did as a member of the Pink Floyd. None of the other members were involved with the session he did. So that was late December or early ’68. So obviously they must have thought it [the recording] was faulty or something »
« Interview with Bernard White », Syd Barrett Appreciation group (unpublished), 2003.
After Barrett's failed attempt, the Floyd was forced to palliate Syd for this contract. There are eight rather informal pieces of music recorded in May in London at 3 Belsize Square. Only the central instrumental theme (recorded in slow and fast versions) is of any interest (it appears on the final screen of the film's credits). Note that a pre-version (or even a proto-version) of Careful with that Axe, Eugène appears on this project. The soundtrack taken directly from the film is featured on the "Early Years" box set. The band has confirmed that there was no recording other than what was done live at the film screening.
Max Steuer (Director):
« Anyway, there we were with a finished film and no soundtrack. Fortunately, not long after that, Roger Waters called me and told me that Pink Floyd were available to do it if I was interested, which I was. Working with them was a totally different experience. For one thing, they were very disciplined in their approach to recording and everything was worked out in advance and well laid out. I had a big room in my apartment, and we spent a long time getting things right before recording the final version in a large, equipped studio in London (probably De Lane Leo). I remember those rehearsals very well and it was really quite incredible because at 8:30 in the morning their van pulled up outside my door and their managers started unloading their equipment to set them up. Five minutes later, Roger Waters arrived, and five minutes after him the rest of the band showed up! By 9 o'clock everything was ready and we spent the next 10 hours exploring ideas, looking at what worked and what didn't, putting things together. They knew what they were going to play, and when it came time to record the actual soundtrack, we even projected the film in the studio so they could play on it. Everything on the master tape was done in sync with the corresponding parts of the film, and it all came together in the end »
« The Committee », Late Night Fanzine, 5
Nick Mason:
«Nous avons fait la musique de«The Committee», un film de Paul Jones. Elle a été bouclée en une matinée et comme ca n’était pas suffisamment convaincant, elle n’a jamais été enregistrée»
«Pink Floyd», Jean-Marie Leduc, 1977.
Max Steuer:
«We started by working with Syd Barrett. Alas, this was not a viable option. Roger Waters heard about these efforts, and suggested the Floyd could do the job. I am so glad he did. It was absolutely wonderful working with them, and the outcome could not be better».
Max Steuer Documentary, Committee DVD
Song 1 aka INSTRUMENTAL (Unknow/1968)
Another track recorded on Capitol Studios
Lady divine, I hear on the grapevine
Gabriel came to the stable last night
Lady divine, I hear on the grapevine
Gabriel came to the stable last night
Song 2 aka Roger’s boogie (Unknow/1968)
Six takes were done of this track during a show at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles on August 22, 1968. It includes elements developed for the future Cirrus Minor.
Peter Jenner:
« Nous étions en tournée aux États-Unis, et quelqu'un a suggéré qu'on essaie d'enregistrer. Alors nous sommes allés à la Capitol Tower, dans un studio fantastique, sauf qu'on n'avait rien de particulier à enregistrer. On n'avait qu'une journée, donc peu de chances de terminer quoique ce soit. Alors on a jammé, et c'est ce qui en est sorti».
« Pink Floyd: tout est là, et même plus », Rock&Folk, Novembre 2016.
Keep smiling people (Gilmour, Mason, Waters, Wright/1968)
An instrumental based on the same pattern thanCareful with that Axe, Eugène, played at the BBC sessions in 1968 telle que jouée à la BBC en 1968.
David Gilmour:
«Au commencement, c’était une improvisation. La basse jouait le gimmick. Richard et moi, on improvisait … c’est devenu un morceau. La première version est sortie sur un simple en Angleterre en 1969».
