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Rating:
Yet another, perhaps unnecessary, review of a Pink Floyd album.
After PIPER, the 5 Floyds found themselves on the brink of the end of it all. Their latest singles didn't even come close to touching the UK charts. "Apples And Oranges," in my opinion Barrett's most genius track, didn't do well. And neither did It Would Be So Nice. We all know that Testamatta's condition led to the entrance of Gilmour as the "fifth" member. They did a few concerts (and only God knows how much a collector would pay to listen to one of the 5 concerts done by the 5 Floyds together). But then no one bothered to pick up Syd before a show. It was the end. Or the beginning.
Syd would go to watch Floyd's concerts from the audience, making his friend Gilmour uncomfortable. He waited hours at the EMI reception to be invited to the sessions of the new album. Incredibly, Richard Wright declared that if Syd recovered, he would leave the Floyds to form a new band with him. It's nice to imagine the "epic" variations that history would have had if just one of these things had come true. But it didn't. And perhaps it was for the best.
Syd was given many opportunities to "recover." He was helped, during the making of UMMAGUMMA, to produce two epochal albums. But it wasn't enough.
In all this chaos (including almost complete distrust from producer Peter Jenner), Pink Floyd released one of the most beautiful psychedelic albums in rock history. Second only to Piper. But even that could be debated at length. Piper is an album that shows innocence and genius. Saucerful is already a mature album.
Despite its lack of homogeneity.
After the incredible "Let There Be More Light," one of the most beautiful psychedelic songs ever, there's the first slump. "Remember a Day" suffers from the Barrettian slide-guitars, unsure over Wright's precise piano, over Mason's pre-Pompei timpani.
"Set the Controls" opens up a new universe for the Floyd. Barrett was still around when Waters started performing it live, with Syd on bass playing Waters' parts. On the record, the track opens up a new universe in contemporary music. It invented "space-rock" (a term I don't love). It defined the band until the birth of Dark Side. Countless live performances of this masterpiece. The only pre-70 track sung by Waters in the 2000 tours. "SET THE CONTROLS" stands to Waters as "ASTRONOMY DOMINE" stands to Syd.
Next is "CORPORAL CLEGG," an attempt to evoke the atmospheres of PIPER. Beautiful Gilmour's voice and the Hendrix-like guitar parts.
The track that gives the album its title is an evolution of "SET THE CONTROLS FOR THE HEART OF THE SUN." Not much to say. It's pointless to try and understand the boundary between progressive and psychedelia. It's pure avant-garde. In live at Pompei its ultimate expression.
"SEE SAW" is a melancholic song. Dreamlike. Considered the worst song in the entire catalog. Personally, I don't think so. Its exotic tones combined with the Moody Blues-style choruses in the background, in my opinion, make the track one of the absolute masterpieces of the acid season, now coming to an end.
I have been an absolute Barrettian. I bought everything of Barrett, even a correspondence with those who met him in person. This doesn't entitle me to say what is good about Syd or not. But I consider "Jugband Blues" the weak point of the album. A jumble of sounds and more or less random insights. The lyrics are extraordinary. A true "goodbye." One of the most painful songs ever composed. But musically out of theme with the majesty of the entire album.
The album sold well. Luckily for many.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Let There Be More Light (05:38)
Far, far, far away - way
People heard him say - say
I will find a way - way
There will come a day - day
Something will be done.
Then at last the mighty ship
Descending on a point of flame
Made contact with the human race
at Mildenhall
Now, now, now is the time - time
Time to be - be - be aware
Carter's father saw him there and
Knew the road revealed to him
The living soul of of Hereward the Wake
Oh, my, something in my eye - eye
Something in the sky - sky
Waiting there for me
The outer lock rolled slowly back
The service men were heard to sigh
For there revealed in glowing robes
Was Lucy in the sky
Oh - oh - did you ever know - know
Never ever will they
I cannot say
Summoning his cosmic powers
And glowing slightly from his toes
His psychic emanations flowed
03 Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun (05:27)
Little by little the night turns around
Counting the leaves which tremble at dawn
Lotuses lean on each other in yearning
Under the eaves a swallow is resting
Set the controls for the heart of the sun
Over the mountain watching the watcher
Breaking the darkness waking the grapevine
One inch of love is one inch of shadow
Love is the chateau that ripens the wine
Set the controls for the heart of the sun
The heart of the sun...
Witness the man who raves at the wall
Making the shape of his question to heaven
Whether the sun will fall in the evening
Will he remember the lesson of giving?
Set the controls for the heart of the sun
The heart of the sun...
04 Corporal Clegg (04:12)
Corporal Clegg had a wooden leg
He won it in the war, in 1944.
Corporal Clegg had a medal too
In orange, red, and blue
He found it in the zoo.
Dear, dear were they really sad for me?
Dear, dear will they really laugh at me?
Mrs. Clegg, you must be proud of him.
Mrs. Clegg, another drop of gin.
Corporal Clegg umbrella in the rain
He's never been the same
No one is to blame
Corporal Clegg received his medal in a dream
From Her Majesty the queen
His boots were very clean.
Mrs. Clegg, you must be proud of him
Mrs. Clegg, another drop of gin.
06 See-Saw (04:36)
Marigolds are very much in love, but he doesn't mind
Picking up his sister, he makes his way to See-Saw Land
All the way she smiles
She goes up while he goes down, down
Sits on a snake in the river
Laughter in his sleep
Sister's throwing stones, hoping for a hit
He doesn't know so then
She goes up while he goes down, down
Another time, another day
A brother's way to leave
Another time, another day
She'll be selling plastic flowers on a Sunday afternoon
Picking up weeds, she hasn't got the time to care
All can see he's not there
She grows up for another man, and he's down
Another time, another day
A brother's way to leave
Another time, another day
Another time, another day
A brother's way to leave
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Other reviews
By Antonino91
It’s difficult to talk about this album, believe me.
I’d like to think of this album as a memory, a memory of Syd Barrett and his anarchic psychedelia.
By rebel1
This is an album to be savored in the dark, as you must not see anything but the imagination that 'A Saucerful Of Secrets' provides you.
If you’re seeking a high, listen to this album, and you’ll enjoy an hour of pure ecstasy!!
By insolito
Impossible to deem it obsolete. Listen to the title-track.
In religious silence, in the darkness of a small, tender, lovingly seasoned room with all your fears.
By VinnySparrow
'A Saucerful Of Secrets' is an immortal piece, one of the highest moments of music written by the band.
Syd flies away from the Floyd, and for the Floyd, Syd becomes a ghost who will never stop 'haunting them.'
By Embal
I placed it back on the (virtual) turntable of my stereo, slowly I savored again its wonder and grandeur.
If someone asked me: 'So do you prefer the first or the second Pink Floyd album?' it would bring back to mind that absurd question they used to ask me as a child: 'Do you love mom or dad more?'
