Freaking out
with the
Pink Floyd
BBEING ASKED TO INTERVIEW THE PINK FLOYD - IS AN
ORDEAL I WOULD HAVE WISHED ONLY TO MY WORST ENEMIES. I WAS SHAKING LIKE A LEAF AN
HOUR BEFORE OUR FIRST
The Thought of havingto
talk to a psychedelic group brought me out in sugar-cube shaped goose pimples.
What language do these musical Martians speak ? Would
they hallucinatory gaze turn me into an orange ? What
would be the horrible consequences of freaking out with a bunch of
transvestites in Cambridge Circus ?
Pre-conceptions flooded my already
busting mind. This was going to be sixteen hours of terrifying, heart-halting
experiences.
OMINOUS
Nervously I tiptoed to the door of lead guitarist Syd
Barrett's house just off busy Cambridge Circus in the middle of
The font door was painted an ominous
purple. Why wasn't I being paid danger money ? Was
this one trip on which all expenses weren't going to be paid
? Oh, to be golf correspondent on International Times and forget these
blasted astronomic, hippie rebels.
Syd Barrett tumbled out of his bed and donned
his socks. I peeked around the small attic room looking for women's clothing
that the Pink Floyd say Arnold Layne tries on in front of the mirror. Instead
his girlfriend materialised at the door and brought
in a cup of coffee.
Well so far there was little evidence
of the terrible Arnold Layne being in the vicinity -- the Pink Floyd were covering up well.
"Syd, why did you
write such a dirty, filthy smutty immoral and degrading son as "Arnold
Layne"?
Syd blinked blankly: "Well I just wrote it.
I thought "Arnold Layne" was a nice name, and it fitted very well
into the music I had already composed".
SMUTTY
"But isn't it true," said I, "that Radio London, quite
rightly, banned the record because they thought it was
"smutty"?"
Instead of reeling into the wardrobe and revealing a cupboard full of
feminine clobber, Syd began to explain: "I was
at
"Arnold Layne" just happens
to dig dressing up in women's clothing. A lot of people do - so let's face up
to reality. About the only other lyric anybody could object to, is the bit
about, "It takes two to know" and there's nothing "smutty"
about that!"
CANCEL
"But then if more people like them dislike us, more people like the
underground lot are going to dig us, so we hope they'll cancel each other
out."
Organist Rick Wright walked in said : "I
think the record was banned not because of the lyrics, because there's nothing
there you can really object to - but because they’re against us as a group and
against what we stand for."
It's only a business-like commercial insult anyway," thought Syd, "It doesn't affect us personally."
Roger the bass, and Nick
Mason the drummer joined the happy throng. "Maybe they were the evil
people," I thought.
"Let's face it," said Roger seriously, 2the pirate stations
play records that are much more "smutty" than "Arnold
Layne" will ever be. In fact, it's only Radio London that have banned the record. The BBC and everybody else plays it. I think it's just different policies -- not
anything against us."
That sounds like sense. Syd got up and moved
stealthily to the tape recorder. Ah-hah, they're going to try subliminal
brainwashing. They're going to lock me in a revolving echo chamber full of
laughing gas and pipe Stockhausen through the portholes while Suzy Creamcheese writhes on the transparent roof in a "Matey" bubble bath, being watched intensely by the
inmates of the Asylum of Clarentoe under the
direction of the Marquis de Sade.
HUSTLE
Syd put on one of the new Pink
Floyd album tracks instead. And, Gadzooks, it's foot
tapping stuff. Quite interesting pop music actually.
"Avant garde" I
think it's called.
Warming to the Floyd's tape of numbers like "interstellar" and
"Flaming'", I began to think that maybe I was wrong -- maybe beneath
the hustle and bustle of the in-crowders and the
newspapers reports, here was a group not quite as weird as everyone makes out.
BEER
"Let's go for a drink," they said. A drink ?
surely hippies don't drink ? But sure enough there we
were in the pub dowing good old fashioned brown beer.
And another, and another.
And then it was off to EMI studios for the group's
recording session. Quite a normal affair. No
kaleidoscopic lighting, no happening or freaking -- just a lot of hard work.
Where does the group think they fit in the pop music structure
?
"We would like to think we're part of the creative half in that we
write our own material and don't just record other people's numbers or copy
American demo discs", said Nick Mason.
Our albums shows
parts of the Pink Floyd that haven’t been heard yet."
"There's part we haven't even heard yet" chipped in
Roger.
It's bringing into flower many of the fruits that
remained dormant for so long" added Nick. "It all comes straight out
of our heads" says Syd, "and it's not to far out to understand. If we play well on stage I think
most people understand that what we play isn't just a noise. Most audiences
respond to a good set."
And despite those terrifying premonitions and the misinterpreted facts,
and the blown-up rumours, interviewing this so-called
"psychedelic" group was an enjoyable experience. They were
very
normal people.