Emily Tries But Misunderstands?
It would appear that the legendary Pink Floyd song from Relics “See Emily Play” was written about a young lady – at the time – called Emily Young.
Emily is now an accomplished 51 year-old sculptor whose pieces include Angel Head, Dancing Green Torso, and Crouching Angel. She comes from a family of artists, writers and politicians and was brought up in London, Rome and Wiltshire.
The song written by Barrett portrays Emily as somebody trying to be something they are not: not understanding the music of Floyd. Just a rich kid trying to be trendy.
According to Emily herself though, “My friend and I used to go dancing on a Friday night, and the band was this thing called The Pink Floyd Sound. I didn’t pay that much attention to them because I was sort of dancing around and chatting – there was a bunch of crazy people in Notting Hill in those days, lots of poets and beatnik types. Somebody wrote a biography of Syd Barrett the other day and they said that I was a fan and that’s why I was there. And I have to say that I really wasn’t – I barely paid attention to the band because I was far more interested in these beat poets.”
She continued to say “But apparently Syd saw me and my friend, and they knew we were ‘well-born’ and for some reason, he decided to write this song.
“Maybe we shared a joint…” She shrugs almost dismissively. “It’s not like it was a love song or anything”. That may be so, but she keeps a copy on her studio wall – well, wouldn’t you?
Source:
Additional Resources/Links
- Visit Emily’s website and see a brief biography