Syd Barrett - The Madcap Laughs

[Keith Jordan]

This thread is to discuss Syd Barrett - The Madcap Laughs and is linked to from the Pink Floyd Discography section.

Feel free to discuss the album!



01. Terrapin
02. No Good Trying
03. Love You
04. No Man's Land
05. Dark Globe
06. Here I Go
07. Octopus
08. Golden Hair
09. Long Gone
10. She Took A Long Cold Look
11. Feel
12. If It's In You
13. Late Night

[Real Pink in the Inside]

He was probably mad...

[David Smith]

Brilliant album from start to end. Very passionate, intense and moving. Feel and Dark Globe sound particularly desperate and Lte Night is a beautiful finale

[Hudini]

I gave this one only 3.

It's not that I don't like it, but I can hardly find myself listening to it from start to end, mainly because of the oscillations of tempo within certain songs that almost hurt my ears. Was it that difficult to have Syd playing on a metronome?

[mandy35353535353]

I love this cd. I listen to it all zee time. It's like so good during certain times of the month.

Mmm. Here I Go. Delicious.

[Hudini]

...

[PublicImage]

Brilliant album from start to end. Very passionate, intense and moving. Feel and Dark Globe sound particularly desperate and Lte Night is a beautiful finale

I can agree with this post. I gave it 4/5.

[drafsack]

Starts good - a bit shakey in the middle but has a good ending

[zag]

5/5, even with Gilmour & Waters so called "producting".

[J Ed]

I been listening to this one the last couple of nights
I think Roger and Dave (I suspect mostly Roger) sabotaged Syds songs by choosing to include embarassing false starts to some of them, would Roger ever include such flubs on one of his own solo albums?
one thing thats more conspicuous on vinyl: all but one song on side 1 is produced by Malcolm Jones (from the 1968 sessions?)
and all but the last song on side 2 are produced by Roger and Dave
which may explain Drafsacks observation on the drop in quality partway through

[Real Pink in the Inside]

I been listening to this one the last couple of nights
I think Roger and Dave (I suspect mostly Roger) sabotaged Syds songs by choosing to include embarassing false starts to some of them

That was probably Syd's call. It is a Syd Barrett album, you know, and the man was not all there at the time of its recording. Let's not forget he is the writer of "Have You Got it Yet"

[Idisaffect]

I been listening to this one the last couple of nights
I think Roger and Dave (I suspect mostly Roger) sabotaged Syds songs by choosing to include embarassing false starts to some of them...

I always thought it was good insight into how Syd recorded at that point. One-take music. As raw as anything I've heard. Punk.

It made it obvious that even Syd didn't really know how the song was gonna go. I love it when you hear him turn the page on Long cold look. That is so stripped down it's brilliant. He doesn't know his own lyrics and he is actually recording the LP "take" knowing that he'll have to stop and strum an open chord while he turns the page over. The nerve! Who else does that? Talk about GREATEST MOMENTS IN R&R HISTORY!

I give the album 5/5. My favorites: Terrapin, no mans land, love you, dark globe, long cold look, late night, octopus

I have the double LP vinyl that has Madcap and Barrett. The matchbox, orange, is it a plum? cover. It's in very good shape. People are selling them for 80 bucks on Ebay. I don't wanna sell it. I only have about 30 titles on vinyl. 2 are PATGOD &SFOS 6000 series. They look new! But I'm sliding off topic....

[J Ed]

yeh thats the version I have too, the Barrett reissue
I havent even seen the original vinyls of those two albums for years and Ive been looking...
_________
EDIT: the 2lp reissue is called Syd Barrett
Barrett is of course the title of the 2nd solo album

[2066]

The one I have on vinyl is a British copy with a collage of newspaper clippings and photographs of Syd in the fold-open. Great album, by the way. Syd was a really "heart on the sleeve" kinda guy it seems. Endearingly original and timeless.

[J Ed]

come to think of it I did see the original vinyl of Madcap on sale recently
I think it was Zap Records in Cobourg Ontario and they wanted more than $100-, if anybody wants to spend mad money
and at least 4 years ago I saw Barrett on sale at Cosmos Records on Queen West in Toronto for $80-
based on my experience in Seattle in 2001, Im expecting the asking prices for a lot of these types of collectibles are going to come down in the near future
young people with good jobs drive these prices up as they have a lot of disposable income and no concept of future debts, when they lose their jobs they suddenly need to liquidate their records and comic book collections and theres a glut on the market

another point about the music on this record: Soft Machine are on two tracks
No Good Trying, especially, features a prominent Ratledgian keyboard solo and crazy Wyatt drumming
theyre also on Love You but I dont notice their style so much on that one