The purpose of this thread is simply to draw attention to this recording in hopes that it will one day be considered for release. I think this might be the most obscure Pink Floyd recording of all. As far as I know none of the members of Pink Floyd have even mentioned this recording in interviews. A little back-story...John Latham was one of the more controversial conceptual artists in the 1960's (think Yoko Ono, Fluxus, etc). Some of Latham's films, most notably Speak, were projected behind the Floyd's live set at the International Times launch at the Roundhouse in October '66 and later at similar venues in early 1967. Speak was an 11 minute animated film known for it's intense flicker/strobe effect at the London psychedelic ballrooms and Latham thought the Floyd would be a good match for the soundtrack. Near the end of the 10/67 De Lane Lea sessions (which produced Jugband Blues, Remember a Day, Vegetable Man and In The Beechwoods) the Syd led Floyd set aside some time to take a stab at recording a soundtrack for the film. A recording was completed and submitted to Latham but he rejected it.* Unfortunately neither the film nor the Floyd's soundtrack have circulated. The soundtrack does survive on a 1/2" 4 track reel and is stored with the rest of Pink Floyd's early recordings and is logged as "John Latham"**. Norman Smith produced and one M. Cooper was the engineer. Nothing has been done with the reel since 1967. I think it would be neat if they released it as a bonus with a deluxe Saucerful but that's just me. *Latham ended up using the sounds of a motor driving a circular saw while being used to saw up books for the soundtrack **This comes from the Pink Floyd Music Co approved book Random Precision: Recording The Music Of Syd Barrett so please don't delete my thread
Has 'The Committee' soundtrack survived as well, and is it in the vaults because that two would be great on a deluxe version of Saucerful?
That would indeed be cool! In fact, I doubt I would buy another SOS unless it had some extra goodies like that...
This era Floyd is the most interesting to me. Their first album could be compared to the day and the second album (IF Syd had stayed) imo would've been closer to nighttime. Lots of brooding and darker songs they were recording. If any of this came out it would be splendid, oh yes and of course Pro Audio quality of their 12/67 BBC session. . .sigh.
I'm not that Chris but, I do have the Random Precision book in front of me. The session dates from Friday, Oct. 20, 1967. The author notes that the tape is marked with the tracks Intremental (take 1), In the Beechwoods (takes 2 - 5) and John Latham (takes unknown). He says, "I did not attempt to get permission to listen to any Pink Floyd tapes, so the musical nature of the contents will have to remain a complete mystery." He does follow up with interview quotes from John Leckie, Peter Jenner and Andrew King... none of whom can shed any light on the sessions. Cheers, Chris
This year was the 40th Anniversary of the release of "A Saucerful of Secrets", but with David Gilmour's live CD/DVD set coming out, it's unlikely he'll permit competition from Pink Floyd product. And there was never any certainty that Pink Floyd ever intended to permit any further Deluxe Editions beyond "Piper at The Gates of Dawn".
What kinda sucks is that no surviving band members seem to care too much about The Floyd's recorded history, especially anything pre-Meddle. Perhaps if you got either Nick Mason or Rick Wright to go through EMI's tape library with a knowledgeable Floyd scholar, then something might occur, but Waters & Gilmour seem pretty much done with The Floyd's audio history.
Hey Chris, a minor point but the John Latam recording is on it's own reel. The other reel from the session has the In The Beechwoods takes and the 10 minute Intremental (presumably the engineer misspelled 'Instrumental'). During his first solo session in May '68 Syd had Beechwoods (as well as No Title, and 2 versions of Veg Man) transferred to 1" 4 track tape at EMI during so that further work could be done on the tracks (De Lane Lea and Sound Techniques were 1/2" 4 track). Nothing was done with them as Syd decided to work on Swan Lee and Late Night instead. John Latham wasn't among the tapes transferred. Interesting that Pink Floyd apparently had no problem with Syd continuing to work on his unissued Pink Floyd work as a solo artist.
Good question. I never thought about it but that would be a good fit for a Saucerful DE. I don't think the raw Committee tapes are held at Abbey Rd but they may be in the bands archive. The film was officially released on DVD a few years ago. Just 4 days after he was famously not picked up Syd (with session musicians) recorded a 15 minute soundtrack for The Committee film at Sound Techniques as a solo artist. I think Syd was asked to supply the soundtrack while he was in Pink Floyd but I may be wrong about that. In any event Syd was in somewhat poor shape at the session and he insisted that the soundtrack he recorded be played backwards and the filmmakers decided to use the Gilmour Floyd. Here is a screen cap from the Committie DVD.
I originally had the same thought that Intremental was a misspelling. I wonder if perhaps it is not! Unfortunately, Syd's not around to tell us. I wish that David Parker would have actually listened to those tapes. Cheers, Chris
I know. I don't think he asked permission to listen to them. I imagine he didn't want to push his luck after the Pink Floyd office approved his research of the Floyd tape vault at Abbey Rd. FWIW David Parker told me he met Rick Wright backstage at a Gilmour show and Wright said he was almost finished with Random Precision and that he though "it's really good that this book has been written"..
Cool! Yeah, I really like the book. Essential reading. I have another book that is less essential called Embryo: A Pink Floyd Chronology 1966 - 1971. The guys who wrote it (Rick Hodges and Jan Priston) just seem to be a couple of big PF fans with a lot of info regarding concerts taken from a large collection of <ahem> unreleased recordings. Cheers, Chris
I like how you put that. I'm (obviously) a little obsessed about this period in the Floyd's history. I think they were well on their way to completing a classic dark psychedelic second album with Syd. The 9/67 and 12/67 BBC sessions survive in excellent quality. The Top Gear producer kept pro quality airchecks of both sessions. The BBC aired 3 tracks from the 9/67 session during their John Peel tribute a few years back. Unfortunately the broadcast was very lossy but this gives you an idea of what they sound like. Here's 37 seconds of Reaction in G. http://www.sendspace.com/file/8pxvw5 And here is 40 seconds of Reaction in G from some unknown 1967 Floyd performance. Oddly this audio was used underneath an April 1969 Beat Club News segment. Here it is without the voiceover. http://www.sendspace.com/file/v8ywd4
http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/dvds-videos/the-committee-with-pink-floyd-soundtrack.html The above link gives more information about the DVD and the soundtrack. Best Wishes David
At least Rick shows some interest. Maybe he can put a bug in the rest of the bands ear to consider the material in the vaults for a future release. I'm not getting my hopes up though! Anthony
If this still exists, they would only need the permission from the Barrett family and not the other Floyders.
True. Syd's family has always given archival projects the green light. Unfortunately Syd's attempt at the The Committee soundtrack is thought to be lost. Peter Jenner has said he lost it ages ago.
I think some of Rick's best early work is on Beechwoods. Check out the fantastic organ solo at the end. The audio is taken from a 1969 Nick Mason interview. Nick brought a reel of unreleased 1967 tracks and played them for the interviewer and this is a generated copy of that interview. That's Nick's voice at the start. Rick is on piano and organ, Syd guitar, Waters bass and (of course) Mason on drums. I've often wondered why this wasn't the A side of the 3rd single. Maybe Syd never finished the lyrics? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KnxgLsa2vM