Taking a turn away from Floyd's complex layered psychedelia, Barrett's solo debut, MADCAP LAUGHS, revealed the singer/songwriter to be a somewhat gentle, reflective poet. Aside from being Floyd's primary songwriter, singer, and guitarist, Barrett had already developed the reputation for being a twisted child prodigy.
THE MADCAP LAUGHS FULL
Word Salad Lyrics: Barrett's lyrics tend to be quite surreal.When Syd Barrett departed Pink Floyd for a solo career after (minimally) contributing to A SAUCER FULL OF SECRETS in 1969, expectations naturally ran high.Ur-Example: The album might be one of the earliest examples of "Lo-fi" in terms of production.Malcolm Jones was horrified when he heard it. Nearly all the tracks produced by Waters and Gilmour features studio chatter, which they lazily left in. The producers speaking to Barrett are David Gilmour and Roger Waters, with the latter saying "Syd, what about tuning your guitar down?".After some responses from the studio he starts over, but sings even more out of tune than before. Halfway through "If It's In You" he suddenly interrupts and says he wants to start over again. The studio engineer then says "Take One". Near the end of "She Took A Long Cold Look" Barrett mumbles: "That's short".Stop and Go: During the opening track Barrett is heard saying "O.K.", whereupon the music briefly interrupts, then goes again.Spoken Word in Music: Barrett starts mumbling during the performance of "No Man's Land".Special Guest: Willie Wilson from David Gilmour ( Pink Floyd)'s old band Jokers Wild and Robert Wyatt ( Soft Machine) contribute to the album.Well, oh, baby, my hair's on end about you. In "She Took A Long Cold Look" we can him hear pausing for a brief moment to turn pages from his lyric sheets. During songs like "Dark Globe" he even sings out of tune. Barrett's lyrics are bizarre and he is sometimes heard stumbling over his lines or playing. Outsider Music: Irwin Chusid calls this one of the earliest albums in the genre.One-Word Title: "Terrapin", "Octopus" and "Feel".Non-Appearing Title: "Terrapin", although the title does fit the song's mood of underwater fantasy.Fanservice: The naked woman on the back cover was an acquaintance of Barrett, nicknamed "Iggy the Eskimo". "She Took A Long Cold Look" is even Cut Short at the 1:55 mark. Miniscule Rocking: Most songs are only two to three minutes long, except for "Terrapin" (5:04) and "Octopus" (3:47).He attempts to win her back by writing her a song, but when he goes to her house to show it to her, he instead finds himself falling in love with her sister.
The song tells the story in which the narrator's girlfriend leaves him because "a big band is far better" than himself. Yes I'm Thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnking But there is an overall charm to the innocent fantasies he describes in his lyrics and the absence of too much Executive Meddling gives the music actually a genuine authenticity and spontaneity lacking in many other Psychedelic Rock recordings of the time. Barrett also didn't allow the musicians to rehearse or re-record their overdubs, which explains why a lot of tracks sound improvised, full of amateurish mistakes and moments where Barrett is out of tune. As a result the recordings crept on for over a year. His musicians would ask him questions to which he gave little to no helpful responses. Barrett's mental problems were so bad that he had to be persuaded at times to work on his own album. The Troubled Production behind the album was colourful enough that an entire book has been written about it: The Making Of The Madcap Laughs (2003) by Malcolm Jones. Gilmour also played bass, guitar and (on "Octopus") drums. Apart from Barrett, the album went through four different producers: Peter Jenner (Barrett's manager) for the 1968 sessions, Harvest label head Malcolm Jones for the early-to-mid 1969 sessions and former band-mates Roger Waters and David Gilmour for the mid-1969 sessions. Recording commenced immediately after Barrett's departure from Pink Floyd in 1968, lasting for well over a year. The Madcap Laughs is the debut studio album by Syd Barrett, released on Harvest Records in 1970.
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