Pink Floyd - A Saucerful of Secrets (Columbia 1968)
Genre: Psychedelic Rock
This is not a proper review, there are plenty out there (perhaps too many) it is a memory, an act of love towards a truly legendary album. I placed it back on the (virtual) turntable of my stereo, slowly I savored again its wonder and grandeur, and mentally recalled its passages and inventions. Yes, it's true, the dark experiments of the first album have softened and the sounds are beginning to have that sweet flavor that will characterize their future production, but the magic is the same and some tracks will remain among the most beautiful ever created by the band.
Syd Barrett, the great master of their debut, took a cursed and hallucinated path, appears on only one track, David Gilmour, with his still timid guitar, slowly takes his place, ferrying Barrett's surrealism into a softer and less edgy territory.
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?".
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 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.'