Chris Moise wrote:Here I Go was definitely written in the Floyd period. It was on that solo demo tape Joe Boyd lost.
The Purple Gang's official site states that a tape with "Boon Tune" was actually given to the band ("It was on an old tape given to the band with just Syd on acoustic guitar"). I'm thinking "Boon Tune"/"Here I Go" was revised during the Madcap session, because of the "a big band is far better than you" and "forget that old band" lines... Jones recalled Syd writing lyrics for it in the studio.
Actually Jones said Here I Go was the only song that Syd didn't require a lyric sheet for. Presumably because it wasn't a new song. Jones wouldn't have known that Syd wrote it earlier. Jones' quote it below..
This song was the only one I remember him needing no cue sheet at all.
Actually the 2 July '68 takes of Clowns and Jugglers do have vocals.
Not according to Malcolm Jones in the Making of Madcap Laughs,
"....moved on to 'Clowns and Jugglers'. This was the version I had worked on with Syd, originally, on our first session together on 10/4/69, when we had overdubbed guitar and voice onto a rough guitar backing
Syd had made alone the year previously. " That previous recorded instrumental track was 7/20/68.
It seems to me that all of the stuff Barrett recorded in 1968 under the production of Peter Jenner lacked vocals, Swan Lee, Late Night, Golden Hair, Clowns and Jugglers. If any of them did have vocals no one seems to have heard them or they don't any longer. It seems they were all added by Syd and Malcolm Jones.
Those songs from '68 seem to be the most likely candidates for having been written while Barrett was in PF, being recorded so soon after his departure..
Either Jones is mistaken or they added more vocals in addition to the '68 vocals. The 2 '68 takes definitely had vocals though. The vocals and some of the guitar are even on the same track on the original 1968 4 track proving that they were recorded simultaneously at the 7/68 session.
Syd did record some vocals for Swan Lee in 1968 but that track didn't receive it's final overdubs until the Madcap sessions the next year. I don't think any of the '68 vocals can be heard on the Opel version or bootlegs.
lovescene4 wrote:Jones recalled Syd writing lyrics for it in the studio.
Actually Jones said Here I Go was the only song that Syd didn't require a lyric sheet for. Presumably because it wasn't a new song. Jones wouldn't have known that Syd wrote it earlier. Jones' quote it below..
This song was the only one I remember him needing no cue sheet at all.
It almost seems contradictory, as Jones states in the same source (The Making of 'The Madcap Laughs' p 7):
"He wrote it, I seem to remember, in a matter of minutes."
I do agree it's "Boon Tune," written earlier, but it seems likely he revised it somewhat for 'Madcap' (apparently at the session itself)...
I don't think Boon Tune was revised. The references to the band do take on a new meaning in the context of Syd Barrett's career as a musician, but I think they were meant to be a parody of the dancehall type of song he was writing, a song intended for the old-timey Purple Gang to perform. The girl in question doesn't like rock and roll bands, she likes the big bands of the old days, hence "a big band is far better than you". Her sister thinks rock and roll is just fine. Very ironic in relation to Barrett in 1969.
