The album ends with the only Barrett composition on the album, called Jugband Blues. Likewise, Corporal Clegg can seem like a whimsical tune on the surface, but can also be viewed as Roger Waters’ first attempt at dabbling in the topics of politics and war, which culminated in The Wall and The Final Cut, where the former being arguably one of the most famous works of the Pink Floyd. While some songs such as the opening track Let There Be More Light and Remember a Day are reminiscent of the whimsy of the earlier era, the sound on Saucerful of Secrets is much darker, with the title track being a sinister, brooding soundtrack for a battle with each section representing the different parts of the battle: Something Else representing the preparations for the battle, Syncopated Pandemonium representing the chaotic combat of the battle itself, Storm Signal representing the empty battlefield, and Celestial Voices representing the mourning of the dead. The album has only one track written by Barrett and the rest written by the rest of the band. I find this album interesting, as it marks the departure of Barrett and the beginning of Pink Floyd’s search for a new sound after their principal writer was out of the picture. My father and his friend did not play anything from this album during the presentation, but mentioned that the album were released together with Piper at the Gates of Dawn on the compilation album A Nice Pair.
Somewhat the same but at the same time entirely different is the next album Saucerful of Secrets, which marks the tragic departure of Syd Barrett, whose growing mental health issues meant that his band mates unceremoniously replaced him with their common friend David Gilmour, whose distinct playing style and guitar sound later became a defining fixture of Pink Floyd. Piper At The Gates of Dawn album art - picture from Wikipedia To me, this era culminated in Bike, the last song on Piper at the Gates of Dawn, that features Barrett’s song writing at its peak with whimsical lyrics loaded with imagery and the psychedelic, poppy sound of the early Pink Floyd. During the Barrett era, even the harder, edgier tunes such as the lengthy jam session Interstellar Overdrive felt like very light-hearted and whimsical, like an intense, yet happy dream. They started from the beginning (because it is a very good place to start) with the Syd Barrett era of Pink Floyd from where they played the two first singles See Emily Play and Arnold Layne, both of which are not actually on the first Pink Floyd album Piper at the Gates of Dawn, but are interesting and representative musical pieces of late sixties London psychedelic rock in general and the Syd Barrett-led era of Pink Floyd in particular.īoth sound and lyrics have a whimsical, garish and playful with the psychedelic bent that the early Pink Floyd would become known for. The event took place in a small café on the shopping street and spanned an entire evening from 6:30 PM to around midnight, and consisted of the music of the different eras of Pink Floyd interspersed with commentary and anecdotes provided by the presenters, my father and his friend. While I moved away from the countryside after graduating high school in order to pursue a university degree, I have always paid regular visits back to the town, where I lived out my teenage years and where my parents still lives, and when my father invited me to come and see him and his friend give a presentation on Pink Floyd, a band that is such a large part of our common musical consciousness that I knew I could not refuse. Last Friday, I watched my father give a presentation of the works of my absolute all-time favourite band Pink Floyd in a café in my old home town.