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It seems almost incredible that no one has yet spoken about this old Floydian collection. Certainly, the official discography offers many more points of discussion, but it's also from these archives of singles and scattered early tracks that one can discern the motivations and evolutions of artists of such historical and cultural significance.
"Masters of Rock" - released in 1974 already labeled as Vol. 1 - is a relatively known vinyl that did not achieve the success of "Relics"; perhaps because it contained already familiar tracks from "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn", perhaps due to less appealing packaging, or because it was released at a time when the band had moved far beyond the premises of those very early compositions. In my opinion, indeed, the audience of that time was too focused on the phenomenal success of "Dark Side" and on that type of sound to be motivated to delve into a past too recent. Tastes had changed rapidly, British seminal psychedelia had just died, and Barrett’s legacy was not yet experienced with the contours of a sacred exegesis.
Thus, "Masters of Rock" remained a minor catalog work that only the most radical fans consumed on the turntable.
The title track is, however, very interesting. Apart from the early singles "Arnold Layne" and "See Emily Play", apart from "Julia Dream" and "Paint Box" seen in the aforementioned "Relics", there are "Candy and a current bun", "Apples and oranges" and "It would be so nice": songs that are also early, forming the backbone of the debut disc and documenting a growth phase where producers' pressures overshadowed the musicians' real inspiration. It's no secret that these three pieces did not receive the anticipated response and today they are part of a set of transitional curiosities with a somewhat Beatles-like and certainly Barrett-like flavor. From this perspective, precisely, they are more interesting on the managerial level than on the strictly artistic one. The Floyd of "Apples and oranges" were striving not to lose pace and to keep the public's attention high. According to Mason and Waters themselves, the semi-psychedelic ballads of that period had less musical significance than some compositions appearing on the debut album.
Compositions that, as mentioned, also peep out in "Masters of Rock" and are somehow set as a stylistic benchmark; among other things, evoking the most fairy-tale and oriental atmospheres of the Barrett era, atmospheres strongly absent from a "It would be so nice" that sounded more pop and more familiar. The dreamy singing of "Chapter 24" and the Arabic mood of "Matilda Mother" provide a kind of counterbalance to the strummed choruses of the other ballads. Hence, the conviction that this heterogeneous collection is a comprehensive and exhaustive tool for understanding what the Pink Floyd were doing in those years.
A collage photograph, in short, that shows us the best and the worst of a group that between 1966 and 1968 marked a fundamental point in the history of rock, without hiding their mistakes and less noble moments.
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 Chapter 24 (03:42)
A movement is accomplished in six stages
And the seventh brings return.
The seven is the number of the young light
It forms when darkness is increased by one.
Change returns success
Going and coming without error.
Action brings good fortune.
Sunset.
The time is with the month of winter solstice
When the change is due to come.
Thunder in the other course of heaven.
Things cannot be destroyed once and for all.
Change returns success
Going and coming without error.
Action brings good fortune.
Sunset, sunrise.
A movement is accomplished in six stages
And the seventh brings return.
The seven is the number of the young light
It forms when darkness is increased by one.
Change returns success
Going and coming without error.
Action brings good fortune.
Sunset, sunrise.
03 Arnold Layne (02:55)
Arnold Layne had a strange hobby
Collecting clothes
Moonshine washing line
They suit him fine
On the wall hung a tall mirror
Distorted view, see through baby blue
Oh, Arnold Layne
It's not the same, takes two to know
Two to know, two to know
Why can't you see?
Arnold Layne, Arnold Layne, Arnold Layne, Arnold Layne
Now he's caught - a nasty sort of person
They gave him time
Doors bang - chain gang - he hates it
Oh, Arnold Layne
It's not the same, takes two to know
Two to know, two to know
Why can't you see?
Arnold Layne, Arnold Layne, Arnold Layne, Arnold Layne
Don't do it again
04 Candy and a Currant Bun (02:55)
Oh my girl sitting in the sky
Go buy candy and encouragement
I like to see you cry
Lay back
Oooh, don't talk to me
Please, just fuck with me
Please you know I'm feeling frail
Talk, talk, talk to me
Please just walk with me
Please no feeling frail
It's true sun's shining very bright
It's you I'm gonna love tonight
Ice cream tastes good in the afternoon
Ice cream tastes good if you eat it soon
Ooh, don't touch me child
Please - no !
You drive me wild
Please you know I'm feeling frail
Don't try another cat
Don't go where other you must know why
Ver very very frail
Oh my girl sitting in the sun
Go buy candy and a currant bun
I like to see you run
Like that...
05 The Scarecrow (02:09)
The black and green scarecrow as ev'ryone knows
Stood with a bird on his hat and straw everywhere
He didn't care...
He stood in a field where barley grows
His head did no thinking his arms didn't move
Except when the wind cut up rough
And mice ran around on the ground
He stood in a field where barley grows
The black and green scarecrow is sadder than me
But now he's resigned to his fate
'Cause life's not unkind
He doesn't mind
He stood in a field where barley grows
06 Apples and Oranges (03:05)
Got a flip-top pack of cigarettes in her pocket
Feeling good at the top
Shopping in sharp shoes
Walking in the sunshine town feeling very cool
But the butchers and the bakers in the supermarket stores
Getting everything she wants from the supermarket stores
Apples and oranges
Apples and oranges
Cornering neatly she trips up sweetly
To meet the people
She's on time again
And then
I catch her by the eye then I stop and have to think
What a funny thing to do 'cause I'm feeling very pink
Apples and oranges
Apples and oranges
I love she
She loves me
See you
See you
Thought you might to know
I'm the lorry driver man
She's on the run
Down by the river side
Feeding ducks by the afternoon tide
(Quack quack)
Apples and oranges
Apples and oranges
Apples and oranges
07 It Would Be So Nice (03:45)
It would be so nice
It would be so nice
It would be so nice
To meet, sometime
Everybody wakes, and in the morning
Hot tea and can't stop yawning
Pass the butter please
Have you ever read the Daily Standard?
Reading all about the plane that's landed
Upside down?
And no one knows what I did today
There can be no other way
But I would just like to say
It would be so nice
It would be so nice
It would be so nice
To meet sometime
It would be so nice
It would be so nice
It would be so nice
To meet sometime
Everybody cares about the weather
And everybody should know better
What a waste of time
Everybody lives beneath the ceiling
Living out a dream that sends them reeling
To a distant place
But no one knows what I did today
There can be no other way
But I would just like to say
It would be so nice
It would be so nice
It would be so nice
To meet sometime
It would be so nice
It would be so nice
It would be so nice
To meet sometime
It would be so nice
It would be so nice
It would be so nice
To meet sometime
08 Paint Box (03:29)
Last night I had too much to drink
Sitting in a club with so many fools
Playing to rules
Trying to impress but feeling rather empty
I had another drink
Drink - a - drink - a - drink - a - drink
What a way to spend that evening
They all turn up with their friends
Playing the game
But in the scene I should have been
Far away
Away - away - away - away - away
Getting up, I feel as if I'm remembering this scene before
I open the door to an empty room
Then I forget
The telephone rings and someone speaks
She would very much like to go out to a show
So what can I do - I can't think what to say
She sees through anyway
Away - away - away - away - away
Out of the front door I go
Traffic's moving rather slow
Arriving late, there she waits
Looking very angry, as cross as she can be
Be - a - be - a - be - a - be - a - be
Getting up, I feel as if I'm remembering this scene before
I open the door to an empty room
Then I forget
10 See Emily Play (02:54)
Emily tries but misunderstands, ah ooh
She often inclined to borrow somebody's dreams till tomorrow
There is no other day
Let's try it another way
You'll lose your mind and play
Free games for may
See Emily play
Soon after dark Emily cries, ah ooh
Gazing through trees in sorrow hardly a sound till tomorrow
There is no other day
Let's try it another way
You'll lose your mind and play
Free games for may
See Emily play
Put on a gown that touches the ground, ah ooh
Float on a river forever and ever, Emily
There is no other day
Let's try it another way
You'll lose your mind and play
Free games for may
See Emily play
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