"And what exactly is a joke?"

"Saucerful of Secrets", the second Floyd album and the last to feature Syd Barrett, is quite hard to get into. I think it's mainly to do with the poor, muffly production, but the fact that Syd lost his mind around this time can't have helped at all.



There's a surprising amount of variety on this record, if you can get through the production. "Remember a Day" and "See Saw" have a similar dreamy sentimentality to songs from their debut, while "Let There Be More Light" (where we hear Dave Gilmour's guitar for the first time) and "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" head into spacier territory with hypnotic rhythms and evocative lyrics.



"Corporal Clegg" is probably the most light hearted track on the album, full of blaring kazoo, wailing guitar and funny voices. Next to "Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk", its the silliest thing Roger Waters ever sung. It's interesting to note that this is the first song in which Roger sings about World War II and the year 1944. This is the year and event in which his father died, and though he doesn't mention it here, you can hear his resentment of the era. It is a theme that would crop up throughout his work (The Wall, The Final Cut).



The instrumental title track is atmospheric, tense and frightening. Wailing, animal sounds, bursts of noise, tense drum beats. It's the sound of a world (or a mind) gone mad. The feel is similar to the strange middle bit of "Echoes" from their album "Meddle" (but far scarier in my opinion, best leave the lights on if you're prone to having your imagination wander).



Poor Syd Barrett had just lost his mind, but he does get a track of his own "Jugband Blues". Though its similar to his solo material, he's never done another track like it. Discordant brass section, endless "la la las", sonic mood swings. At the end, mellow and quiet, Syd sings in a soft voice to the strum of his guitar:



"And the sea isn't green

And I love the queen

And what exactly is a dream

And what exactly is a joke?"



Though his mind is addled, Syd does things in just a way to communicate his emotions exactly. It always makes me sad hearing this. I do hope he's all right, whatever he's doing these days.



The high quality booklet contains lyrics, groovy psychedelic designs and pics of the band (including one with Roger, Dave, Syd, Rick and Nick all together). I love the CD design too.



Not for the newcomer to Pink Floyd or Syd Barrett, (Try "Piper at the Gates of Dawn", or Syd's "The Madcap Laughs" if you're interested in this era), but its worth a listen. Try and get it used, or borrow it from a friend, see what you think.

4.5 Stars - A saucerful of excellence from Pink Floyd

'A Saucerful of Secrets', Pink Floyd's second studio album, released in 1968 is a capture of the band in its transitional period. Pink Floyd came onto the scene in 1967 with their weird and wonderful experimental psychedelic style in toe. Their first release, 'Piper at the Gates of Dawn' is one of the strangest, wacky but definitely thoughtful albums out there and was definitely an excellent if unorthodox album from the band. Buoyed by pretty good sales from their debut album and their two early singles ('See Emily Play' and 'Arnold Layne'), Pink Floyd returned to the recording studio to cut this album and in my opinion, proved to be an excellent, if sadly criminally underrated effort by Pink Floyd.



There are many, many people who try to put Pink Floyd and their albums down, sadly many of these people just do not give their music a chance. 'A Saucerful of Secrets' is no exception to this problem and gets an unfair share of criticism. DO NOT LISTEN to 1/2* reviews who give an unjustified criticism of Pink Floyd - this band are true music geniuses and have pioneered so much in alternative music with their unique experimental style. This album is not like their later 70's stuff, with the classic sound we hear on 'Dark Side of the Moon' but rather is more psychedelic, with plenty of experimentation which was well ahead of its time, just like 'Piper at the Gates of Dawn', even if this album is a little less off the wall! During the time of this album's recording, Pink Floyd were going through a transitional period. Syd Barratt, the band's vocalist, guitarist and chief songwriter was quite literally losing it. An uncontrollable LSD addiction led to him becoming increasingly incomprehensible and unpredicitable. During this time therefore, guitarist David Gilmour was added to the line up and thus this is the only Floyd album to feature 5 members! Still though, Syd's weird, creative and great influence is all too plain on the album, even if he only did pen the last track. He was reluctantly thrown out the band by the time of the album release but his influence lived on and he was the real pioneer behind the greatness of Pink Floyd.



'A Saucerful of Secrets' has a moody and in parts dreamy approach. 'Let There Be More Light' is a great opener. Theres some pretty dramatic sounding vocals and the track finishes with some excellent guitar playing from David Gilmour. 'Remember a Day' is a stroke of creative genius from Rick Wright (in my opinion the underrated songwriter in the group) - the keyboard presence and gentle drumming makes this a really captivating track. 'Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun' is, in my opinion, the crowning glory of the album. Theres plenty of effects (listen out for the bird sounds blending in at the end) to go with a great bass line and whispery vocals. 'Corporal Clegg' is more brighter sounding with pipes even being incorporated in parts, some experimental guitar riffs over lyrics about a war veteran (war issues were a major theme in Roger Waters' songwriting). 'A Saucerful of Secrets', the title track is a 12 minute serving of pure experimentation - you can see the Floyd building towards their Echoes epic with this track. Its the least accessible track on the album but after a number of listens I began to enjoy it much more for what it is. 'See'Saw' is another great song from Rick Wright, again very dreamy in style with lots of innovative stuff on the keyboards. 'Jugband Blues' is a powerful statement to finish the album. This song belongs to Barratt and when you listen to it you cant help but feel sad about how things went dramatically downhill in his life. His final line 'And what exactly is a joke?' is one of the most revealing finishes you could have on an album.



So, even before they reached their heights with 'Dark Side of the Moon', Pink Floyd were making excellent, if alternative and experimental music. 'A Saucerful of Secrets' is an unfairly criticised second album from Pink Floyd and is definitely one of their more overlooked music works. I wouldn't recommend this to any Pink Floyd newbie, stuff like Dark Side or the Wall is much more appropriate (or the 'Echoes best of' compiliation). However, any Pink Floyd fan will love this album and enjoy another work of genius from the band.

An Overlooked gem of an album

Rating: A

Though some would argue that the departure of frontman Syd Barret would cause the decline of one of the most experimental, and influential rock bands of the late 60's, it was actually the genius artists departure that fueled the fire for most of Floyd's remaining catalog of music. Released in 1968, Saucerful of Secrets, dabbles in dynamics and sounds much in the same way as the previous effort The Piper at the Gates of Dawn did, creating a slightly whimsical, but overtly dark and foreboding prescence in each of the songs. As the band became more popular, Barrets "problems" became more and more apparent, leading to his steady decline of his mental structure, along with any resemblence of the friend that the band once knew. After basically deciding just to not pick up Syd on the way to one of their shows, thus kicking the man behind the music out of the band, Floyd followed up their surrealistic masterpiece, with a tour de force of an album.

Starting with Let There be Light, the album opens to let you know that even though the man and the mystery has departed, the band is still in tune with its amazing distortions and manipulations of sound. All the songs have a playful, melancholy feel to them, with the exception being the title track interspersed at the middle of the album, taking center stage, as a dynamic voyage through sound and a trip through the imagination of these aspiring and developing songwriters. Basically if you enjoyed PatGoD you will enjoy this album, as long as you can understand the mythos of Floyd, and the magic behind their music. 'Tis a shame that some bash this album as a "sophmore jinx" as truly, this album is as experimental as their previous effort, but with Barret nixed down to only one track at the end of the album, it might be a downer to some. Perhaps Jugband Blues, was Floyd's early ode to their original frontman, and the beginning of his legacy, which would climax with one of the greatest albums of all time with Wish You Were Here. The musicianship of this album is auspicious, and masterful as the landscapes of music are a dense apparation of ones mind, and this is one album that should not be overlooked in the Floyd catalog. Have fun listening, later.

s saucerfull of secrets revisited

listend to the stuff a long time ago. Hear the base line in Corporal Clegg, it is like a nightmare. Also let there be more light is in wispering mode to your mind. This is music you never forget once you heard it.

As we know Pink Floyd is here on a turning point, because some recordings on this Album are with syd barret others are with davic gilmoure. The threw barret, because he could not play on stage anymore.