Fact #105906
When:
Short story:
Pink Floyd begin recording their second single, See Emily Play, at Sound Techniques, Chelsea, London, England, UK, Europe.
Full article:
By Johnny Black, first published in MOJO magazine, August 1997
David Gilmour, guitarist for the locally popular Cambridge band Joker's Wild, was in London during May 1967. Knowing that fellow Cambridge outfit Pink Floyd were recording their second single at Sound Techniques in Chelsea, he dropped in to hang out.
Their single, ‘See Emily Play’, sounded astonishing, but Gilmour sensed immediately that something was wrong. Although they were friends of long standing, Floyd's guitarist Syd Barrett, "just looked straight through me, barely acknowledged that I was there." Gilmour didn't know it, but Barrett's controls were already set for the outer limits.
Having moved to London to pursue their career, the Floyd had also moved into the vanguard of biochemical research. Barrett in particular was consuming prodigious quantifies of that summer's psychedelic of choice, LSD, and almost as quickly, it was consuming him.
Superficially though, everything seemed to be going to plan. ‘See Emily Play’ was a resounding hit and the band moved into Studio 3 at Abbey Road to work on their debut album. Like almost everyone close to the band, co-manager Andrew King was so dazzled by Barrett's acid-enhanced musical quantum leaps that he ignored the danger signs. "It was the most intensely creative time of Syd's life. He was not like a dominant band leader so much as he was Hale-Bopp and they were dragged along in the tail. I remember watching him mixing on a 4-track desk. He played it like it was an instrument."
EMI's engineer Norman Smith was less impressed by the rest of the band. "Waters wasn't a great bass player but learnt fast enough. Wright was quietly arrogant and believed he was a better organist than he actually was. Mason was just along for the ride, waiting for the money to roll in so he could go off and play with his beloved motor cars."
Paul, George and Ringo from the band in the studio next door, took a break from working on their album, Sgt Pepper, and popped through to encourage the new lads. "Floyd were so naive," remembers rock journalist Miles. "They were saying, 'Can you hear me?' because of the sound-proof glass, not realising that the mics were on. It was complete innocence, very touching really. And Paul was patting them on the back, saying they were great and were going to do fine."
It didn't seem quite so fine to Norman Smith. Working with Syd was sheer hell and there are no pleasant memories. "I don't think I left a single Floyd session without a splitting headache. Syd never seemed to have any enthusiasm for anything. He would be singing a song and I'd call him into the control room to give a few instructions, then he'd go back out and not even sing the first part the same, let alone the bit I'd been talking about. Sometimes he even changed the words – he just had no discipline. Trying to talk to him was like talking to a brick wall because his face was so expressionless."
King also saw stirrings of a musical rift. "Roger and Syd were already working at a tangent to each other. I remember watching Roger do his strange vocal parts on ‘Pow R Toc H’ and being slightly worried because it was so far removed from Syd's more lyrical stuff."
However unhinged Barrett was becoming, and however difficult to work with, the album he created was a milestone in rock history. "What stunned me most," remembers King, "was that on-stage the Floyd were very rambling and shambolic, but in the studio Syd constructed things like ‘Chapter 24’, which was not just beautifully shaped and elegant but also startlingly original."
Joe Boyd, who had produced the first Floyd single, ‘Arnold Layne’, in the spring of 1967, ran into Barrett at the UFO club as the album was nearing completion. Boyd had always been struck by the glint in Syd's eye, an impish twinkle that spoke of an alert and agile mind. That night, however, "I looked right in his eye and there was no twinkle. No glint. It was like somebody had pulled the blinds, you know? Nobody home."
The album, The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, a title taken from Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind In The Willows, was released on August 5, 1967.
© Johnny Black, 1997
--------------------------------------------------------
Rick Wright (Pink Floyd] : 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, though, was speeded-up! John Woods, the engineer, just upped the whole thing about an octave. On stage, we have to cut that particular bit out, but then I don't think the audience minds if our reproduction isn't 100% accurate... When I first heard the playback in the studio, I had a feeling it would go higher than it did, but I'm not complaining.
David Gilmour : I don't know at quite at what point Syd started to go very strange, but I know I came back from France and I called Syd up while I was there and he said, "Why don't you come down?" They were doing a recording session and he told me the studio. And I went down to the studio and he didn't even recognize me, and that was when - the day they were making See Emily Play.
Tweet this Fact
David Gilmour, guitarist for the locally popular Cambridge band Joker's Wild, was in London during May 1967. Knowing that fellow Cambridge outfit Pink Floyd were recording their second single at Sound Techniques in Chelsea, he dropped in to hang out.
Their single, ‘See Emily Play’, sounded astonishing, but Gilmour sensed immediately that something was wrong. Although they were friends of long standing, Floyd's guitarist Syd Barrett, "just looked straight through me, barely acknowledged that I was there." Gilmour didn't know it, but Barrett's controls were already set for the outer limits.
Having moved to London to pursue their career, the Floyd had also moved into the vanguard of biochemical research. Barrett in particular was consuming prodigious quantifies of that summer's psychedelic of choice, LSD, and almost as quickly, it was consuming him.
Superficially though, everything seemed to be going to plan. ‘See Emily Play’ was a resounding hit and the band moved into Studio 3 at Abbey Road to work on their debut album. Like almost everyone close to the band, co-manager Andrew King was so dazzled by Barrett's acid-enhanced musical quantum leaps that he ignored the danger signs. "It was the most intensely creative time of Syd's life. He was not like a dominant band leader so much as he was Hale-Bopp and they were dragged along in the tail. I remember watching him mixing on a 4-track desk. He played it like it was an instrument."
EMI's engineer Norman Smith was less impressed by the rest of the band. "Waters wasn't a great bass player but learnt fast enough. Wright was quietly arrogant and believed he was a better organist than he actually was. Mason was just along for the ride, waiting for the money to roll in so he could go off and play with his beloved motor cars."
Paul, George and Ringo from the band in the studio next door, took a break from working on their album, Sgt Pepper, and popped through to encourage the new lads. "Floyd were so naive," remembers rock journalist Miles. "They were saying, 'Can you hear me?' because of the sound-proof glass, not realising that the mics were on. It was complete innocence, very touching really. And Paul was patting them on the back, saying they were great and were going to do fine."
It didn't seem quite so fine to Norman Smith. Working with Syd was sheer hell and there are no pleasant memories. "I don't think I left a single Floyd session without a splitting headache. Syd never seemed to have any enthusiasm for anything. He would be singing a song and I'd call him into the control room to give a few instructions, then he'd go back out and not even sing the first part the same, let alone the bit I'd been talking about. Sometimes he even changed the words – he just had no discipline. Trying to talk to him was like talking to a brick wall because his face was so expressionless."
King also saw stirrings of a musical rift. "Roger and Syd were already working at a tangent to each other. I remember watching Roger do his strange vocal parts on ‘Pow R Toc H’ and being slightly worried because it was so far removed from Syd's more lyrical stuff."
However unhinged Barrett was becoming, and however difficult to work with, the album he created was a milestone in rock history. "What stunned me most," remembers King, "was that on-stage the Floyd were very rambling and shambolic, but in the studio Syd constructed things like ‘Chapter 24’, which was not just beautifully shaped and elegant but also startlingly original."
Joe Boyd, who had produced the first Floyd single, ‘Arnold Layne’, in the spring of 1967, ran into Barrett at the UFO club as the album was nearing completion. Boyd had always been struck by the glint in Syd's eye, an impish twinkle that spoke of an alert and agile mind. That night, however, "I looked right in his eye and there was no twinkle. No glint. It was like somebody had pulled the blinds, you know? Nobody home."
The album, The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, a title taken from Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind In The Willows, was released on August 5, 1967.
© Johnny Black, 1997
--------------------------------------------------------
Rick Wright (Pink Floyd] : 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, though, was speeded-up! John Woods, the engineer, just upped the whole thing about an octave. On stage, we have to cut that particular bit out, but then I don't think the audience minds if our reproduction isn't 100% accurate... When I first heard the playback in the studio, I had a feeling it would go higher than it did, but I'm not complaining.
David Gilmour : I don't know at quite at what point Syd started to go very strange, but I know I came back from France and I called Syd up while I was there and he said, "Why don't you come down?" They were doing a recording session and he told me the studio. And I went down to the studio and he didn't even recognize me, and that was when - the day they were making See Emily Play.