Pink Floyd
Relics

The first official collection of Pink Floyd was released on May 14, 1971, by EMI and produced by Norman Smith.

"Relics" includes 5 tracks already appeared on LP and 5 singles released only on 45s, plus an unreleased track, and is extremely useful for fans who were increasingly multiplying to delve deeper into the "Pink Floyd" world.
From the gospel according to Nick Mason: >>To fill the gap while we were working on Meddle, we fell back on an old record industry formula: a compilation of singles and other marginal tracks. Relics—"A Bizarre Collection of Antiques and Curios"—contained only one new track, Roger's "Biding My Time", where Rick finally inflicted us with the sound of his trombone. Relics was released in May, just before we played at the Crystal Palace Garden Party<<

Eleven tracks: let's examine them in a historical-musical journey.

1) ARNOLD LAYNE - written by Barrett in 1967, already released on 45. This was the first single released by Pink Floyd, marketed on March 11 with "Candy and a currant bun" on the b-side, and once released, it achieved enormous success, reaching the twentieth position in the British charts, even though some radios refused to broadcast it due to the lyrics, where the protagonist had the hobby of collecting (or rather stealing) women's clothes. Already from here, the band's originality is evident: the keyboard and guitar design something absolutely new and never heard before and have nothing to do with the prevailing beat fashion of that period, much less the lyrics. The lead voice is Barrett's, but Waters and Wright also intervene. The recording of the song occurred on a four-track recorder for mono reproduction; bass and drums were recorded on one track, guitar and "Farsifa Duo" keyboard on two others. All effects, such as the doubling of the drums, were added when these three tracks were combined onto the fourth, and the vocals and guitar solos were added as overdubs; a final mix of the song was then mastered onto a mono tape. Interestingly, before sending the 45 tapes to EMI in February 1967, Pink Floyd recorded the piece twice, even though there was no improvement. The tapes reached EMI on February 27, 1967, but the recordings were made on February 1 at Sound Techniques studios located in the Chelsea area, the very day of signing the contract with EMI. An interesting anecdote regards the promotional video of the song, shot along the Sussex coast: the four had just finished the shooting, which saw them playing with a mannequin dressed in various ways when a policeman approached asking if they had seen anything strange, and they innocently responded no, promising to alert him if they noticed anything suspicious; the law probably hoped for a raid since the already famous Keith Richards lived nearby, evidently not new to oddities; luckily they didn't check the car, in which there was the mannequin with a policeman helmet!

2) INTERSTELLAR OVERDRIVE - written by Barrett, Mason, Wright, and Waters in 1967, taken from "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn". Entirely instrumental, it is characterized by a raw riff, among the most frightening in the history of rock; a splendid psychedelic vision, as well as a space journey of Barrett's imagination, a rather unimaginable work for the times (and probably even for today). The track, like the whole album "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn", was recorded at Abbey Road studios. It was one of the early Pink Floyd's battle horses, but when played live, it was not subject to length limits and was composed of improvised sections, as it was often played with different elements, though in the same order; in practice, everything was based on Barrett's riff, and at least one instrument had to follow a certain rhythm, leaving the rest to improvisation. Reformulating this song to make it shorter (even half of when it was performed live) and render it capable of sustaining listener engagement, needing to be recorded on disc, was not easy: the song was cut, and the solos were reduced, not without Syd's discontent. The track, as we can hear it today, lasts 9.41 minutes and is the emblem of an Artist ended too soon, leaving us with this illustrious manifesto of genius and fantasy, a cornerstone of psychedelia, a milestone of rock.

3) SEE EMILY PLAY - written by Barrett in 1967, already released on 45. A track with freak-psychedelic flavors, with a peculiar atypical interlude by Wright. It is a revisitation of a previous band piece, "Games For May", which was written and performed specifically for the concert at Queen Elizabeth Hall on May 12, 1967, during the "Free Games For May" evening, precisely. Besides, that very evening, an entirely innovative device was used for this piece: the Azimuth Coordinator, operated by Wright; it was formed by two channels, each with a control bar, one for his Farsifa organ and one for sound effects. If the bar was vertical, the sound was centered, but moving it diagonally would send the sound to the speaker in the corresponding corner of the room. This way, Wright could rotate the keyboard sound within the auditorium or make footstep noises seem to move side to side. We remember again that this was 1967, and no musician of that time could ever conceive such an idea. The four tried recording the single at Abbey Road but, failing to reproduce the "Arnold Layne" sound, returned to Sound Techniques Studios to recreate the magic formula. It is said that during the piece's recording session, on May 21, 1967, Gilmour visited his friend Barrett in the studios just as Syd was using his favorite effect, a Zippo lighter on guitar strings, as if it were a slide effect. The single was released on July 14 and reached number seventeen on the British charts, thus enabling the group to perform at Top of the Pops.

4) REMEMBER A DAY - written by Wright in 1967, drawn from "A Saucerful of Secrets". A track with almost anti-Floyd arrangement, so much so that because it had a different drum sound from their usual battering style, Mason entrusted its execution to Norman Smith, the producer, as he would only have been needlessly anguished trying to achieve such a result; Smith's voice is also highlighted in the choirs. "Remember a Day" was initially recorded under the name "Sunshine" for the previous album but was discarded during the assembly. It should be noted that Barrett plays the acoustic guitar on this track, even though it was completed after his departure from the band. The track clearly shows Wright's excellent compositional skills as well as still stable psychedelic cries. The album was released on June 29, 1968, the same day the Pink Floyd played at the first free concert at Hyde Park together with Roy Harper and Jethro Tull.

5) PAINTBOX - written by Wright in 1967, already released on 45. Recorded on November 15 at Abbey Road studios, it wasn't quite a success, perhaps due to the poor recording quality. Besides, Pink Floyd had just returned from a series of concerts in America, two days earlier they had played in the Netherlands, and the night before the "Jimi Hendrix Tour" in London had started (with Hendrix himself and his Experience, the Nice, the Move and other bands), which was a "one nighter tour" (consisting of playing each night in a different city) and on the day of these single recordings, they were to leave for Hampshire where they would play at 18.10, so it's possible that the excessive workload during that period negatively influenced the recordings. The song, still in Barrett's style, resonates with Beatles influences; it's the anecdote of a guy who gets drunk and tries to forget his girl's disapprovals. It was published on November 18 on the b-side of "Apples and Oranges".

6) JULIA DREAM - written by Waters in 1968, already released on 45. One of the most beautiful songs ever written by Waters, an acoustic, dreamy ballad, with very sweet lyrics. It's recorded at Abbey Roads Studios first on February 13 under the provisional title "Doren's Dream", and then on February 23 with the definitive title "Julia Dream", with Gilmour on guitar. Curiously, when the single was released on April 12, as a b-side to "It Would Be So Nice", Barrett was still depicted on the cover.

7) CAREFUL WITH THAT AXE, EUGENE – written by Gilmour, Mason, Waters, and Wright in 1968, already released on 45 and also present on "Ummagumma-Live Album" live recorded at the College of Commerce in Manchester, as well as in "Live At Pompeii". It is very likely the first track composed with Gilmour in the lineup. Hallucinatory. Waters' inhuman scream introduces a dark, boundless atmosphere, to say the least, enveloping. The rhythm overall conveys a bidimensional sonic macrocosm: on one side a heterophonic infrastructural texture, on the other a stereophonic effect of spatial depth; undoubtedly, the studio version enjoys excellent instrumental balance and is far superior to the live one, less choral and refined. Instrumental, still evolving, it was presented for the very first time titled "Keep Smiling People" at Paradiso in Amsterdam on May 23, 1968, and was recorded on November 4 at Abbey Road Studios with Norman Smith's production; afterward, during a live recording session at BBC Maida Vale Studios on December 2, it was announced as "Baby Blue Shuffle In D Major". It was finally published on December 17 with the definitive title "Careful with that Axe, Eugene" as the b-side of the more commercially appealing "Point Me at the Sky". Performed on March 19, 1969, at the Royal Festival Hall in London during two concept shows called "The Man" and "The Journey" under the title "Beset by Creatures of Deep" and later reworked in a shorter version for John Peel's Top Gear Radio Show on June 25 titled "Murderistic Woman", it is also featured in the soundtrack of "Zabriskie Point" by Michelangelo Antonioni in 1970 in a slightly different version titled "Come in Number 51, Your Time is Up".

8) CIRRUS MINOR – written by Waters in 1968, drawn from "More". An acoustic ballad introduced by birdsong, with Gilmour's voice describing lunar atmospheres, is performed without drums and ends with the organ similar to "Celestial Voices" in "A Saucerful of Secrets". The entire "More" album, the soundtrack for the film of the same name, was composed in just eight days over Christmas 1968. Director Barbet Schroeder offered £600 to each band member.

9) THE NILE SONG – written by Waters in 1968, drawn from "More". It is perhaps the closest to hard-rock ever recorded by Pink Floyd, with Gilmour's powerful and rugged voice. The lyrics are the dream vision of a child who, along the Nile's banks, sees a woman lift off into the sun. Raw and touching. "More" was released on July 27, 1969.

10) BIDING MY TIME – written by Waters in 1969, unreleased. Performed under the title "Work" during the concept presentations "The Man" and "The Journey" for the first time on April 14, 1969, and subsequently in the related tour. Recorded at Abbey Road Studios on July 9, 1969, produced by Norman Smith, under the title "Biding My Time", it was performed live only twice, on January 18, 1970, at Fairfield Halls in Croydon and five days later at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris. It is a slow blues, with the peculiarity of the final trombone played by Wright. Traces of blues will only be detectable in "Seamus" henceforth. Perhaps the lyrics partly refer to Norwegian Wood by the Beatles.

11) BIKE – written by Barrett in 1967, drawn from "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn". A cheerful freak-song apparently nonsensical, it was performed for the first and only time live on May 12, 1967, at South Bank Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, under the provisional title "Bicycle". The clocks at the finale were contained in Abbey Road's collection of instruments and sound effects, skillfully harnessed by Pink Floyd under Norman Smith's guidance; the same finale heavily resembles "A Day in the Life" by the Beatles. Waters' voice is placed in a fade-out. The lyrics are directed at a girl, and in its purity it may seem childlike (but this is not a criticism, rather the opposite). As in "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn", it's also chosen as the eleventh and final track here.

The absence of tracks from "Ummagumma-Studio Album" and "Atom Heart Mother" can be explained by considering these records as concept albums: extracting pieces from the original context would have somehow diminished the value of the pieces themselves. (this is just a hypothesis).
The cover is a drawing by Nick Mason reworked by Storm Thorgenson (remember Mason was an architecture student). From "Inside Out": >>When we changed the graphics for the digital version of Relics, Storm chose the original image I had drawn for the album, a fantasy tribute to Heat Robinson and Rowland Hemmet, and commissioned a three-dimensional model to see what that object would have looked like if it ever existed<<

This record, far from being a simple collection, should first and foremost be considered as a tribute to the genius of Syd Barrett, as if to say: "Without you, we wouldn't exist, thank you again, Mad Diamond!"