Tag: Roger Waters

Syd Barrett – Octopus

 I was never a huge Pink Floyd fan, but I did start liking them more and more through the years. My favorite era was the Syd Barrett era, before they became massive. Syd Barrett was a co-founder of Pink Floyd. He is credited with coming up with the band’s name, which was inspired by blues musicians Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. Their debut album has really grown on me and there are some gems on there. 

By the time this was recorded in late 1969, Syd was already something of a rock ‘n’ roll ghost story. The man who led Pink Floyd through UFO Club acid nights and their first album (The Piper at the Gates of Dawn) had flamed out under the weight of mental illness. Octopus was the lead single from his 1970 album The Madcap Laughs, his first solo album. Yes, it is worth checking out. 

A track that sounds like it was part nursery rhyme and English psychedelia mixed together into a surreal song. In just under two years since his short-lived run as Pink Floyd’s original frontman, Barrett had all but disappeared into erratic behaviour. I’m glad EMI decided to let him try again in 1969; it wasn’t out of commercial ambition because they had to know better. I like this album though, and I would recommend it. 

The sessions were chaotic. Producers came and went: Peter Jenner tried first, then Malcolm Jones. When things still weren’t gelling, Barrett’s old bandmates David Gilmour and Roger Waters were drafted in to finish the job. Between all of them, they managed to pull the album together. Uncut placed this in their 200 Greatest Albums of all time. In 2015, NME (New Musical Express) placed this album at number 7 on a list of best albums recorded at Abbey Road. 

The album peaked at #40 on the UK charts in 1970. 

Octopus

Trip to heave and ho
Up down, to and fro’
You have no word
Trip, trip to a dream dragon
Hide your wings in a ghost tower
Sails cackling at every plate we break

Was cracked by scattered needles
The little minute gong
Coughs and clears his throat
Madam you see before you stand
Hey ho, never be still
The old original favorite grand
Grasshoppers green Herbarian band
And the tune they play is “In Us Confide”

So trip to heave and ho
Up down, to and fro’
You have no word
Please, leave us here
Close our eyes to the octopus ride

Isn’t it good to be lost in the wood?
Isn’t it bad so quiet there, in the wood?
Meant even less to me than I thought
With a honey plough of yellow prickly seeds
Clover honey pots and mystic shining feed

The madcap laughed at the man on the border
Hey ho, huff the Talbot
The winds they blew and the leaves did wag
They’ll never put me in their bag
The raging seas will always seep
So high you go, so low you creep
The wind it blows in tropical heat
The drones they throng on mossy seats
The squeaking door will always squeak
Two up, two down we’ll never meet

Please, leave us here
Close our eyes to the octopus ride

Please, leave us here
Close our eyes to the octopus ride

Pink Floyd – Scarecrow

The song was the on their 1967 debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn…the song was released 2 months earlier as the B side to the single See Emily Play. I really like this early Pink Floyd. You can see the beginning and know where it went from here.

It’s more like a psychedelic folk song. Syd Barrett wrote the song. Barrett compares his own existence to that of the scarecrow, who, while sadder is also resigned to his fate.

The single, See Emily Play/Scarecrow peaked at #6 in the UK and #134 in the Billboard 100 in 1967.

From Wiki:

A promotional film for the song, made for a Pathé newsreel and filmed in early July 1967, features the band in an open field with a scarecrow, generally fooling around. It shows Roger Waters falling down as if he were shot, and Nick Mason exchanging his hat with the scarecrow’s.[5] Part of this film has been featured in Waters’ live performances of “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun”.

A second promo was filmed in 1968 in Brussels, Belgium, with David Gilmour replacing Barrett, and Waters lip-syncing while playing his Rickenbacker bass with a violin bow.

Scarecrow

The black and green scarecrow as everyone knows
Stood with a bird on his hat and straw everywhere
He didn’t care

He stood in a field where barley grows

His head did no thinking
His arms didn’t move except when the wind cut up
Rough and mice ran around on the ground

He stood in a field where barley grows

The black and green scarecrow is sadder than me
But now he’s resigned to his fate
‘Cause life’s not unkind – he doesn’t mind

He stood in a field where barley grows