Pink Floyd (Syd Barrett) | Are Pink Floyd Killing Pop?

[@EmeraldWoodArchives]

Ah, Syd. Bless his soul. I love that the other songs he brought to the table as possible singles during that time were "Scream Thy Last Scream", "Vegetable Man", and "Jugband Blues"! EMI was like, "Eh, no thanks." Their loss.

[@L1V2P9]

Syd said in the closing of this entry "But we feel in the future, groups are going to have to offer much more than just a pop show" Even this casual comment shows how avant guarde the Floyd was. At this time few bands ever dreamed of the extravaganza that rock concerts would present to their audiences. But Syd could see it all.

[@grahampaulkendrick7845]

To be fair, they must have given some poor performances when Syd was losing it in the autumn of '67. I collect 40s-80s trade papers so I love this channel.

[@YesterdaysPapers]

Thank you, glad you enjoy it.

[@robjones2408]

A friend of mine saw Pink Floyd at Alexandria Palace in 1967. She said they were the loudest group she had heard, at that time. She also said Syd was a raging beauty and most of the women simply stared at him. She also remarked the Floyd was fantastic. No British rock group, apart from the Who matched them onstage.

[@Claytone-Records]

The gal’s have taste.

[@georgebennett3197]

I was there at the 24 hour Love In - at Alexander Palace - great gig!

[@Claytone-Records]

@@georgebennett3197 Damn. I am so very green with envy right now. I never was at any love in, not in public anyway : ). What year was that? ‘66 or ‘67?

[@sodaboj9074]

As per usual, Syd was light years ahead of everyone with his prediction of how concerts will look in the future, especially ones of Pink Floyd. As per usual as well, such a good video. Thank you Sir!

[@YesterdaysPapers]

Thank you very much. Glad you liked it. Cheers!

[@hammer44head]

In England yes, Syd and the Floyd were quite ahead, but in the states light shows were already common in San Fran and ahead of England i dont think even Floyd was anywhere near to Zappa in experimental. Though i do love the Pink.

[@tattyshoesshigure5731]

Amazing to revisit those ‘disgusted of Tunbridge Wells’ type letters complaining about the Floyd’s 1967 live act! I saw them at Windsor’s Ricky Tick club that year and was completely blown away… I absolutely loved their light show, the first of its kind I had ever seen. That gig remains imprinted on my mind, a very special event that (to me anyway) surpassed any of their later, far more sophisticated - and far more expensive - live shows without Syd. To me he was the heart & soul of Pink Floyd!

[@YesterdaysPapers]

Wow! That's amazing that you got to see them when Syd was still in the band. I'm very jealous.

[@HTJB60]

That would of been the correct place to see them... I unfortunately saw them at the Oxford Co-Op Dance hall ! What a load of RUBBISH ! The worst DANCE BAND I've ever seen !

[@thewkovacs316]

@@YesterdaysPapers me too

[@georgebennett3197]

Tattyshoes Shigure Hi! I used to go to the Ricky Tick nearly every week. I saw them when the Tic had been moved to the Thames Hotel Pub after the original Ricky Tick had been burnt down. Great days!

[@thewkovacs316]

floyd, the move and hendrix? dear lord...can someone build me a time machine?

[@David_T]

The Nice featured Keith Emerson (aka Emerson, Lake and Palmer) , an additional bonus

[@tool_fighter]

Davie O'List admitted that he only substituted for Barrett on one occasion. There are so many tall tales surrounding Barrett...Also, it was Barrett's idea to have Gimour join Floyd, way back in early '66.

[@craigkalin289]

Great historical look back at the early Syd Barrett Era of Floyd. The Floyd never intended to be a pop band, which is hysterically confirmed by Syd, with his quoted response in this piece. Shine on!

[@SuperNevile]

I'm trying to work out which one was the "educational cyberneticist" (5:45)....Shine On indeed......

[@SophieLovesSunsets]

"Couldn't care less" You tell em Syd! 😂❤️ This just goes to show there has always been sticks in the mud type folks who don't embrace change. Pink Floyd revolutionised music and for the better. I think it's safe to say that band who were once branded "The worst group ever to appear in Cornwall" (lol) have cemented their place in Rock history 🎸 I love these videos :)

[@wolfgangdevries127]

Gee, if he did not care.. I wonder why Syd used "See My Friends" by the Kinks for "Arnold Layne" then..

[@amtlpaul]

@@wolfgangdevries127 not the same song

[@kevinquinn4499]

So cool! Very little Syd interview clips exist out there so clippings like this share so much light. More Syd if you can find it and great footage, btw!

[@billbarrett89]

"...they'll have to offer a well presented theater show" Damn, the rest of the Floyd really followed Syd's idea.

[@knickd1979]

As a person who has spent many hours (probably hundreds unfortunately) trying to figure out Syd's story and make some sense of what happened, I don't think he was capable of handling the pressure that came with pop stardom in mid-late 60s. Back then there was tremendous pressure to produce successful singles as you mentioned, basically they wanted one every 5-6 months! And by the time Apples and Oranges, Scream Thy Last Scream, & Veggie Man failed by Xmas of '67, it was just too heavy on his sensitive psyche. I could be waaay off, but I think his lyrics in Jugband Blues reveals something of where his mind was. "What exactly is a dream and what exactly is a joke?", as an example, could perhaps be his way of saying, "this dream of being a successful pop band and maintaining mainstream success is just a far-out dream, in fact its a joke, unrealistic so let's fess up". I've yet to see any great interpretation of that closing line, so if anyone has one I'm all ears?? Despite my fondness for LSD based on personal experiences, I can't imagine taking it too often or in large doses in such a set of circumstances with record company pressure and all the attention of the London underground, the media, fans and family. Some feel the drugs are a bit of a red herring in Syd's story, but I for one came come to the belief that acid + mandrax certainly hurt the young artist and robbed him of any ability to anchor his self/thoughts when the cold wind blew. I think the most telling evidence in Syd's story is the drastic, drastic difference in his speech from early '67 to late '67. Although there's not a ton of examples, there are enough interviews and recorded bits to see that his thoughts were fogged, far ranging, and ultra self-conscious compared to '66-early '67. this specific interview reveals a lot of his fears at the time if you listen closely, except that he addresses them in a positive way to mask them. For example, he speaks positively of the tour in the US which was a nightmare according to everyone else and he was sent to treatment upon return. He speaks about not being "depressed" or confused while he obviously is displaying paranoid/scared behaviors on that very afternoon. He talks about his feeling that he has "not been left behind" by the music scene while it is clearly weighing on him to some degree. the saddest part of his case is that the majority of attention Syd gets today focuses on the dark Syd instead of the Peter Pan Syd that shined so bright in the early Floyd days which were truly magical and fun. A haunting character is that Barrett fella.

[@familydogg1234]

What music is being played please? Could it be Saucerful of Secrets LP?

[@michaelwilson2340]

If Syd could have pulled himself out of his problems I could see him working with Bowie and Bolan in the 70's.

[@jetteroheller]

This channel is awesome. Wish I had found it sooner.

[@garrettramirez428]

There has to be at least one member of Floyd that has this article framed and mounted in their living room.

[@soarornor]

This was a great looking video. The way you brought color into bits of black and white footage was outstanding. Did you run into much additional information on the making of the Jugband Blues video? It’s a real work of genius but nothing much exists as to who directed it, did the lighting and sets for it etc.

[@YesterdaysPapers]

There was no additional information on the making of the Jugband Blues video. It is indeed a great video.

[@tylerthompson1842]

I wonder what a Syd Barrett/Brian Wilson calaboration would've been like.

[@Micolash_is_behind_you]

drool

[@76-UVB]

The last 20 seconds contain wisdom from Syd that would make you think he had a crystal ball and could see in to the next decade.

[@davidpennington1948]

love these old Floyd articles

[@TheChadTI]

4:12 And I finally understand what happened to Sid. 4 months later, sounded fine at the time. You cannot under any circumstances challenge the beast, especially while in it's belly.

[@bobwallace9814]

When we were 15 and 16 yrs old, the guys would get together on Saturday nights to get ready for the clubs. We always smoked weed with an army gas mask, drank plenty of beers and listened to music loud. The final songs before hitting the bars were always Ummagumma, Moon Age Daydream and then the Stooges TV Eye. Out we went. I've been to 4 Pink Floyd concerts from those days forward. It was a theatrical production, each one always way ahead of it's time.

[@YesterdaysPapers]

That's a really cool selection of songs.

[@richsackett3423]

That magazine smack-down was on-point.

[@Christopher.Marshall]

I love the music that is used in your videos. Like you take a motif from Interstellar Overdrive and make a whole new song out of it that sounds like Pink Floyd. I've noticed in another video you had a song that borrowed the motif from Under My Thumb and generally sounded like the Stones. But these little bits that you take from the original song would go unnoticed by viewers unless they really knew the original song deeply. They may just think "oh yeah that music sounds Pink Floyd-ish in a video about Pink Floyd". Do you write these pieces?

[@YesterdaysPapers]

Thank you. Yes, I write and record these pieces. Glad you enjoy them!

[@deepeddyrecords5933]

@@YesterdaysPapers You should post them to KZbin without the videos so we can listen. The video and song combinations are great, but I would also love to hear your songs by themselves.

[@Claytone-Records]

I was going to ask about the music as well. Lovely stuff. As Deep Eddy Records suggested, you may wish to post them and other music of yours to YT on a separate channel. Or naught. Good stuff and great videos. Hmmm, Deep Eddy Records, Austin?

[@deepeddyrecords5933]

@@Claytone-Records Yes, indeed!

[@Claytone-Records]

@@deepeddyrecords5933 I thought so. Used to live down the street from D.E. Pool, across from the Lions Municipal golf course. Early 90’s. Anyway, I dug that Nematoad tune about the Urban Sombrero getting spun out in some south side garage or some such. Gonna have to dig it up again. Clayton, still in Austin. ClaytoneRecords

[@alanogy]

This is so interesting in light of their future success, but I'm mystified by what a different world I lived in, in the US, at the time. I was only 13 in 1967 and was just an avid record collector and music fan, not a concertgoer for another few years. But I literally never heard a Pink Floyd song or album until we were all listening to Dark Side of the Moon in 1973. And not for a lack of bingeing on FM radio and buying a rock album a week for decades. It's interesting that they had this much attention in the UK, however silly the pop-killing idea may be.

[@amtlpaul]

Yes, however experimental Pink Floyd were, each of their studio albums made the top 10 in the UK, and "Atom Heart Mother" was their first chart topper in 1970 (Dark Side only made it to #2!). In the US their first LP to make the top 50 was "Obscured by Clouds" in 1972! Which is one reason why they left Capitol Records after "Dark Side". Piper at the Gates of Dawn barely charted at all in the US in 1967.

[@thewkovacs316]

the band, like so many others from the uk, got terrible promotion here in the states for example, they go on bandstand and play apples and oranges instead of a see emily play

[@pcno2832]

I remember hearing "See Emily Play" fairly often on various FM radio stations (which had taken over more than half the market by then) in the year after Dark Side of the Moon came out. We were sort of playing catch-up when it came to Pink Floyd.

[@Methilde]

In France they were very well received by english rock generation since their beginings.

[@bugeanuflorin1531]

Fabulous, excellent work, excellent video, good time for you

[@Treaxvour]

They were spot on about light shows.

[@wyliesmith4244]

I seem to be repeating myself, but I love the footage. None of this showed up in the States as far as I know - or at least knew back then. It is great to see images, particularly moving images, when I used to seeing nothing but what was pictured on the album. And I have failed to praise you for the background music, but the music for this episode really appealed to me.

[@YesterdaysPapers]

Cheers!

[@Micolash_is_behind_you]

1:12 wow i haven't seen some of this Syd footage. Also he's very well thought and spoken considering the stories about him at this time

[@amtlpaul]

Ah, people arguing about music- same as it ever was.

[@pcno2832]

6:10 I don't think light shows are automatically bad, but the fact that the lights are seldom well synchronized with the music usually renders them more annoying than anything else. .

[@familydogg1234]

The Nice and Eerie Apparent( whom Hendrix produced) were on that tour.

[@Peter7966]

Boy, Pink Floyd sure turned into a major psychedelic flop of a band. They killed the whole "pop scene". Thankfully bands like Herman's Hermits were there to right things. Long live Lu Lu.

[@SuperNevile]

Yeah, bet Lulu and Herman's Hermits were really "dug" in Cornwall, and I would even wager that they weren't "unpredictable even to themselves"...... unlike the Pink Floyd......

[@amosungar5248]

Never forget: "Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane" was held off the top of the of the UK charts by Engelbert Humperdinck. People are fucking stupid.

[@SuperNevile]

@@amosungar5248 The "Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields" single sold considerably more copies than "Please Release Me", but was held off the No.1 spot because it was a double A side, a 'chart protocol' which halved the counts. This was something George Martin regretted, but the Beatles were pleased with because it took the pressure off. It still got to number 1 in the massive US market

[@amosungar5248]

@@SuperNevile damn. There goes my go-to "quality vs quantity" fact

[@spacealienjesus709]

Some call Syd the Grandfather of Punk. I can easily see that..

[@spacealienjesus709]

@@vuzkoth absolutely . He was a rule breaker from clothes to music.. It's not about the sound , it's about the attitude Get out of here..

[@spacealienjesus709]

@@vuzkoth I wont disagree with that ... There were lots playing buy their own rules.. Look at John Tate .. He took common household items and made albums. But Syd had the look and wrote songs like Arnold Layne and the famous Have You Got It Yet , which was the last thing he done with them and the chords kept changing.. Every time the song was different .. That pushed the other members to say enough..

[@dvdly]

@@vuzkoth Except punk is a reference to a reaction to the staleness of rock, not classical. But if you wanna call Igor a punk classicist, I don't think you gotta have your tongue in cheek to do it.

[@dvdly]

@@vuzkoth It's not reductionist to extend a metaphor to contextualize previous incarnations of the same attitude toward the same general direction of the music industry, it's edifying. The act of breaking with tradition with a brash attitude came to be known as punk in the rock milieu because rock and roll from the outset was a brazen embrace by a younger generation of something new and exciting that upset those with more conservative tastes. Hence, punk rock, as it came to be understood, represented a return to those roots. In light of what Syd has to say here, along with cheeky approach to song writing and his behaviour in refusing to mime his own music on the pop shows, it is not a stretch to call it reminiscent of what would come a decade later. It comes off as pearl clutching to suggest people cannot recognise the context in which such metaphors are used.

[@fredzep01]

I would love to be able to hear what these people's opinions are about Floyd now.

[@dhollsynthmusic]

haha love the undiplomatic communication

[@TroglodyteDiner]

I wonder if Syd and the Pink Floyd ever saw The Exploding Plastic Inevitable? Today, Warhol's multi-media collaboration with the Velvets is considered visionary.

[@YesterdaysPapers]

I don't think they did. I think they did the light show because they had heard of all those bands from San Francisco who had psychedelic lights on their shows. I guess they did their own version of what they imagined those psychedelic light shows were like in Frisco.

[@radiomindchatter7994]

Syd foresaw Indie..

[@saifonlawrence2044]

Those far out cats in The Pink Floyd sure made a lot of bread man...I dig them baby !

[@luiscardenas930]

Is the background music played by you?

[@YesterdaysPapers]

Yep.

[@adrianamatlack532]

Should be noted that the Hendrix tour was known to have some very awful performances where Syd would just stand there and not even play guitar, so some of these bad reviews could very well be a result. That being said they got jeered and booed even when they were playing absolutely brilliantly. Their best audiences where typically in London, such as UFO. Outside of London they were playing ballrooms for people who wanted to hear their top 40 hits and Wilson Picket. No wonder Syd got fed up with it all.

[@CoreyW6292]

Syd was a hell of a songwriter. However, I think Apples and Oranges was crap and Jugband Blues was freaking brilliant. Just my opinion. Thank you for releasing this video and all your time and effort!

[@thewkovacs316]

i see apples and oranges as very very english i like the tune

[@EmeraldWoodArchives]

It's got a great guitar solo, though, and pretty funny. He's basically just creeping on some chick around town.

[@SuperNevile]

'Jugland Blues' was Syd's swansong, a 'signing out'. "What exactly is a dream, and what exactly is a joke"........

[@richsackett3423]

@@SuperNevile Almost too sad to watch.

[@Claytone-Records]

Short answer: Yes, please.

[@fredzep01]

Back then music was in ridged little boxes, Floyd almost single-handedly smashed the granny out of those boxes. Although back then, Floyd took no shit, it must have still been so hard for them, with all the pop naysayers on their backs...

[@matheuscoccosn]

What is the name of the music?

[@dvdly]

When you're at a gig to see bands you can dance to, a mostly improvised set by the Floyd is gonna be hit or miss to the nth degree. And still, for it to hit, you have to be willing to go there. The more I hear about their history, the more it seems Syd's breakdown was in large part fueled by his perception of the industry that he knew he wanted no part of. Everything from refusing to mime to his hits to de-tuning his guitar on stage would be seen as the antics of an iconoclast were it not for the legendary space drama.

[@jeperstone]

Barrett was a drug casualty at this point so I'm not surprised. The 'management' blaming the fans is a tried and tested formula. Sad

[@SirGamestop]

Laughing hysterically listening to all of these people getting filtered by early Pink Floyd.

[@paulw6057]

Blues and Country Rock, etc, killed pop. It was temporarily revived by New Wave but it was killed again by the Power Balladeers of the mid to late Eighties.

[@nodiggity9472]

I hate the facile "Poor mad Syd" mythology. Total bollocks story made up by Waters. Waters' was a complete control freak even back then. He'd signed them up for a US Tour and another album, (without running it past the rest of the band) and Syd was worn out after the previous tour. And as songwriter, he'd be writing as they toured, and he quite simply didn't want to do it. He refused. The implications and consequences of simply backing out of a contract would have been disastrous for Waters' vision of the band, so the story about Syd breaking down, going loopy, and being too mental to work was pretty much a fabricated exercise in damage control by Waters. Which meant Syd had to go. Waters thought with "Piper" in the bag, and the songs they'd laid down since, they could rattle off another album, and salvage the tour, and Syd just wasn't down with that workload. Waters wanted to keep Syd around to write, so Syd said "bollocks to this" and walked out. PF managed to put "Saucerful" together, then rolled out the "Poor mad Syd" story. You only have to listen to "Jugband Blues" to see how "mad" Syd wasn't. He managed to completely burn Waters with that track. 'Poor mad Syd' somehow managed to pull two unique and seminal albums out of his arse, while Waters was floundering about doing nothing remarkable. Syd walked away from PF and went off, did exactly what he wanted to do. And Roger Waters is still a massive twat.

[@fatbelly27]

Floyd were in difficulties at that point. Syd was falling apart and there was no other natural leader. Bootleg recordings showed problems with sound balance, with vocals being inaudible. Floyd were never really 'pop.' Syd was increasingly becoming disenchanted with commercialism at the same time as going downhill mentally. If Syd had stayed well, he was carving out a genre of his own, which would have been interesting.

[@HTJB60]

I'm not sure the date when I saw The Pink Floyd BUT I can understand the controversy.... I unfortunately saw them at the Oxford Co-Op Dance hall ! What a load of RUBBISH ! The worst DANCE BAND I've ever seen ! Most Group's at that time, had a hit record, went on the dance hall circuit and normally played a mish-mash of Current Chart Hit's, R&B standard's, Bo Diddly - Chuck Berry, etc. etc. The Floyd however, didn't. Just played Arnold Lane and a load of inappropriate music for a Dance Venue. I left early for the first time ever at a Dance !

[@kentclark6420]

What jack as-'-es, saying that (the) Pink Floyd killed pop!

[@antonioyeru535]

4:14 Syd bien Punk jeje.

[@lillopaci3722]

December 1967 ?, no,December, 1966

[@YesterdaysPapers]

All those articles are from December 1967. In December 1966 Pink Floyd hadn't even released their first single. Their first single "Arnold Layne" was released in March, 1967.

[@lillopaci3722]

@@YesterdaysPapers nel dicembre del 1966, i Pink floyd suonavano al ufo clab, prima di essere igaggiati dalla emi, queste immagini sono tratte da serate all'ufo che risalgono alla fine del 1966 e inizio 1967

[@sayeager5559]

They became pop in the mid 80's. Ironic?

[@ustheserfs]

these Floyd hating mobs couldn't have said the same about Beatles evolution out of pop and into the unknown?

[@paulwallis7586]

😁

[@myname-ss5qm]

pink floyd were pretty awful when jamming and not performing structured songs, but then so are most rock musicians.

[@hankwedelmusic9965]

Punk Floyd, eh?

[@LordKenebutch]

Those critics should of smoked some good grass or did some LSD. :)

[@terryenglish7132]

Right, that was the problem. I noticed that after the Grateful Dead became more popular and moved from 15,000 seat hockey rinks to 75,000 seat stadiums you got people drinking beer rather than tripping and it negatively impacted the vibe of the audience, which was one of the cool things about the Dead. If he couldn't have grooved to the long jams he should have just fucked off and kept his letter to himself.

[@spudwas]

No.....Rap did it.

[@wayneholness3472]

Na, rap been going for 45 years other music just run out of steam

[@spudwas]

@@wayneholness3472 Sorry Bud...Rap and hip hop totally took over. The balance between different genre's of music on the Top 40 was wiped out by the public that did not have any interest in listening the multiple music genre's. The self inflicted wound of Rock was Heavy Metal and Death Metal. Also the dumbing down of the general public.

[@aidanjones2318]

Rap is garbage now

[@neilfriedman]

The best group ever, until Dave Gilmour hijacked the name for the sake of money

[@2Uahoj]

As a youth, I loved Pink Floyd ; now I think they were one of the most overrated bands in pop/rock history; their 60s stuff is pretty horrible - the reviewer from Glasgow was exactly right; their best period was obviously the mid 70s, and after that, well ...

[@princesshassim6009]

Pink Floyd were good for the scene and just right for their times beginning around 1966, when dance music was everywhere but there was little room for further expression. They fell into a different category and were brave enough to go for it. Syd by the end of '67 was K.O'ed on drugs and wasn't largely responsible for much of what he said or did, much i suspect he didn't even realise at the time or afterwards. But regarding their revues from touring, it was always the same, the mainstream who only ever expected one kind of thing always slammed Pink Floyd because it was just something they never expected or knew how to handle. In the end it was their own narrow-mindedness they were reflecting, but it wasn't just the Floyd, there were other artistes at the time starting to fall into the same frame and they got the same kinda abuse.