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Rating:
It's difficult to talk about this album, believe me.
Without a doubt, it's a typical album in the Pink Floyd style, very beautiful and creative, happily aged, of historical and musical importance, epoch-making. But I certainly won't stop here, because there is much to say about this album, starting with "Let There Be More Light," a song with epically psychedelic tones, with Waters' incredibly calm voice and Gilmour's "angry" voice, just entered the group and already firmly integrated. The guitar, bass, and keyboards, punctuated by Mason's cymbals, seem to merge into one instrument creating an unrepeatable effect of chaos, great and strong chaos. Mind you, it's a great gem. But in the next track, "Remember A Day," a completely different atmosphere is breathed. Wright's piano navigates in calm and desolate waters, while Gilmour juggles as he has always known how to do, that is, like a master, with his precious guitar touches.
There's another change in style in "Set The Controls For The Heart," the next piece that is stubbornly psychedelic and gloomy. All four musicians blend their magical ideas into a mad creativity, and sign one of Pink Floyd's most famous pieces.
The fourth song, "Corporal Clegg," is a beautiful rock with some blues spice, played on Gilmour's guitar scans and the voice of Waters and Gilmour himself. Suddenly the track changes clothes and transforms into a cheerful mini-orchestra (I would like to call it harlequinade, it seems more appropriate) that anticipates the cheerful tones of "Jugband Blues," which closes the album.
Here's the title track, which is one of the most representative examples of Pink Floyd branded psychedelic rock. It starts with strange noises before launching into Mason's fantastic pyrotechnics, accompanied by Gilmour's slide guitar. In the end, the track changes and closes with the organ accompanied by the choir.
Now here is "See Saw," a song sung with the suave tones of Wright's voice. The song is memorable and shows in the end a great poetic lyricism. Now we have reached the end. I don't know how to talk about this song, "Jugband Blues," which perhaps is a somewhat awkward episode but is very important, because on this occasion the "mad diamond" appears. Yes, him, Syd.
It's precisely him who signs this piece, only accompanied by a sad acoustic guitar before the band bursts in. And after the piece concludes with Syd strumming his magical guitar, making us emotional and making us think of when he was still in Pink Floyd.
I'd like to think of this album as a memory, a memory of Syd Barrett and his anarchic psychedelia.
I hope you liked this review. I wanted to challenge myself, and I hope I succeeded.
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 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 orange77
"Pink Floyd released one of the most beautiful psychedelic albums in rock history."
"Set The Controls stands to Waters as Astronomy Domine stands to Syd."
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?'
