"You Got It NoW" Discussion And Appreciation Thread

All discussion related to Roger Keith (Syd) Barrett.
Jimi Dean Barrett
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"You Got It NoW" Discussion And Appreciation Thread

Post by Jimi Dean Barrett »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZljXK05 ... re=related

Unreleased songs from Syd Barrett, 1.Boogie #1 2.Boogie #2 3.Boogie #3 4.If You Can Go #1 5.Ballad(Unfinished) 6. Chooka-Chooka Chug Chug 7.If You Go #2 8.Untitled 9. Slow Boogie 10.John Lee Hooker 11.Fast Boogie, 8-12-1974

I'd heard some of these, but not in this context. Leave it on another window and it's a pleasant 20 minutes to go about the internet. Maybe a couple of fade outs and ins here and there as well. Ballad (Unfinished) is beautiful.
Of course, Syd could never have eclipsed Dark Side Of The Moon, but this wouldn't have been a worthless album if it had been released.
So I think it deserves a thread. 8)
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Re: "You Got It NoW" Discussion And Appreciation Thread

Post by rememberaday »

They're nice and relaxing tunes. Not the kind of stuff people may associate with Piper, though.
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Re: "You Got It NoW" Discussion And Appreciation Thread

Post by Jimi Dean Barrett »

I think 8.55 is the best thing he's done. At one stage near the end it almost sounds like Interstellar Overdrive.
I think he's been listening to Soft Machine more than the Floyd though!
Pity the best bits didn't get put on Opel.
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Re: "You Got It NoW" Discussion And Appreciation Thread

Post by my breakfast. »

I guess this is culled from the 1974 material. It shows Syd actually going backwards into the world of trad jazz, skiffle and early blues. Really crude material, and Syd has clearly left the spacerock behind. Curious to see that no lyrics are to be heard.
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Re: "You Got It NoW" Discussion And Appreciation Thread

Post by danielcaux »

Syd's last studio session from August 12 1974 -- exactly 38 years ago today actually. Yeah, it's interesting how he seems to be musically retracing his steps and playing the kind of music that originally influenced him when he was a child/teenager. I wonder if a similar process was in a way what was going on in his mind at that time, you know, going backwards to an early life, looking for the safety of something he once called home. Very relaxed and spontaneous vibe there. You can hear that at that point in his life he really didn't give much of a fuck about his music career, just going back to basics and playing the first thing that came to mind, I suppose, sounds like it. The fact that despite of this set of mind the results of these mostly first takes were quite melodic is very remarkable though, compared with his rambling sessions from 1969-1970. There you could hear his inner struggle in order to get his ideas out into the world. Here I don't feel any struggle at all, there's a sort of inner peace vibe instead. I guess that's what you get when you don't give a fuck about something.

Not much substance here, but still it's nice music to hear while you just let the time drift away. It has a sort of appealing non entity-ness about it, inducing a kind of zen-like state in your mind; and yeah, some nice psychedelic touches hear and there.
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Re: "You Got It NoW" Discussion And Appreciation Thread

Post by my breakfast. »

Maybe they could have dragged more out of Syd on those sessions. To me the Syd stuff was treated almost like a lab experiment. The tape was rolling for Syd then they tried and added musicians afterwards. This sounds especially bad when trying to add drums to a track where no click-track was added.

If you got Syd in the studio with talented jazz or folk musicians it might have done him good. Kevin Ayers did something similar with his band, adding to the richness of his basic song ideas. Sitting Syd down with his effects pedals and letting him limply vamp away whilst the tape rolls is not the best idea to get creative juices flowing.
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Re: "You Got It NoW" Discussion And Appreciation Thread

Post by Jimi Dean Barrett »

my breakfast. wrote: If you got Syd in the studio with talented jazz or folk musicians it might have done him good. Kevin Ayers did something similar with his band, adding to the richness of his basic song ideas. Sitting Syd down with his effects pedals and letting him limply vamp away whilst the tape rolls is not the best idea to get creative juices flowing.
There's a good chance he was too busy but I always wondered why they never bought people Syd had worked with before like Jerry Shirley? Even Twink! Imagine the recordings with either of those. That would have given greater from Syd, even it did go down in history as "Predictable instrumental Syd Barrett", I hopefully speak for the other viewing who would have LOVED an average (By his song writing standards) instrumental Syd Barrett album!

I wonder how these sessions were sold to Syd? Does anybody know who paid for them? See, I'm worried if the "Go along and coax stuff out of him to see if he's still got it" thinking that was given to his first solo sessions in 1968, was repeated for these sessions. If I worked for EMI Harvest, I would have at least have kept an eye on someone, who had released two albums for the label I'd work for, turning up in the music press at the "Stars" gig, around 1972. That would have caused some interest. Would of at least arranged a meeting with other Harvest people. Even if I worked for another record company in the 70's, the fact an ex-Harvest employee was back on the scene after two albums from 1970, I would have investigated on behalf of Polydor etc...

It's No Good thinking too hard about this "album" as it's been done. He isn't here to change it. And as far as I know no cassette recordings of Syd playing guitar have turned up in the wake of his death.

The one good thing about this, is it shows Syd wasn't the full on acid casualty he gets so easily dismissed as. The guitar playing is actually finer than half of Side 2 of TML.
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Re: "You Got It NoW" Discussion And Appreciation Thread

Post by rememberaday »

I never felt satisfied with the way Syd was portrayed on his solo albums. It seems like its a deliberate, attempt that goes in the lines of "Hey look! This guy is fucking different from us, he's crazy, and people like crazy loonies, so why don't we show his ultra-lunatic side and gain more capital!"

The Madcap Laughs's eccentricity was esssential for DSOTM and WYWH, in order for people to buy in the "Tributes to Syd" dross.

The 1974 sessions are a beautiful contrast, and once you listen to them, you have a feeling that Syd, although different, was not so off the rails as it seems.
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Re: "You Got It NoW" Discussion And Appreciation Thread

Post by dgsyd1 »

"Boogie #2" and "If You Go #1" are quite nice, but there's nothing else there that's anything even close to releasable. It seems to me that by this point Syd's heart just wasn't in it anymore, and he playing more out of obligation, than any creative desire to make new music.
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Re: "You Got It NoW" Discussion And Appreciation Thread

Post by flippikat »

dgsyd1 wrote:"Boogie #2" and "If You Go #1" are quite nice, but there's nothing else there that's anything even close to releasable. It seems to me that by this point Syd's heart just wasn't in it anymore, and he playing more out of obligation, than any creative desire to make new music.
I think the results are a product of a well-intentioned, but painstaking strategy.
(The idea of having Syd "build-up" compositions track by track - playing a guitar track, then hoping to add bass, vocals, drums etc later on.)

An alternate way of working that MAY have produced more usable results would've been to put Syd in a room with other musicians and just jam, then edit-down whatever's on tape. No expectations of "songs", just jamming.

I think part of what made Syd so tough to play with was that the other musicians were thinking more of the final product (ie the song) rather than just playing for playing's sake.

Well, at least that's the impression get whenever I read interviews with the other Pink Floyd members talking about late 1967 rehearsals.. and you can hear the tempo & rhythm changes on Syd's solo albums that threw the band out there too.

HOWEVER, you can still see great scope for jamming on things like Rhamadan, Lanky etc..