Nights At The Roundtable - Pink Floyd - 1967
(Pink Floyd in 1967 - The world was never ready for Syd)
Pink Floyd is one of those bands that have spanned the decades, picking up new fans along the way. I think each generation that has sprung up since 1967 can lay claim to having at least one Pink Floyd song or album embedded in their psyche, defining them to a specific place and time.
For me, it will always be Pink Floyd during the Syd Barrett period. No question Syd was the driving force behind the experimenting that became who they are today. I often wonder just what kind of band Pink Floyd would have been had there not been a Syd Barrett - maybe it wouldn't have happened at all and maybe it would have been someone else.
No matter - for the brief period of time Syd was with the band they made some amazing music and it set them up for the events that were to come later.
Apples and Oranges comes from their third single, released in 1967. After achieving somewhat notorious notoriety with their first two singles (Arnold Layne being a song about a cross-dresser and See Emily Play about masturbation), Apples and Oranges seemed pretty tame by comparison. But it was loaded with Syd's skewed and engaging view of the world.
A view that many shared and openly felt at home with. Syd just freed everything up.
I would not forgive Pink Floyd for a long time for not pulling Syd Barrett through his problems. I still like the Syd Barrett albums over the "new" stuff.
Thanks for the post.
I agree with you on that. I think the whole subject of Syd has been a painful one for the band for years, and certainly the source of a lot of dissension within the band. It doesn't however excuse the fact they are sitting on a lot of Syd's material they can release officially as opposed to having umpteen bootlegs out. I don't know what's been stopping them and I've never gotten any coherent answers from the EMI folks. Some day.
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