Pink Floyd - Apples & Oranges

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Haha my mum was just playing this song, it's so beautiful! It sounded really tinny and fuzzy on her stereo and kind of crowded like there's a million different noises going off at once but somehow it maintains this gorgeous melody. And the bit in the middle where it all breaks down and then all this really terrible high pitched singing and a huge lush organ and walking bass join in, really floaty and pastoral like the bit at the start of Lord Of The Rings where Gandalf and Bilbo Baggins blow smoke rings, but Gandalf's is a big pirate ship that sails purple and pink. I was close to tears. Then the lyrics: 'Thought you might like to know! I'm your lorry driver man' (i imagine an implicit :) at the end of that line, dunno how u vocalise emoticons)... It's like NORE or E40 or summat!

Anyway, who else likes this song?

― scg, Thursday, 22 April 2004 20:10 (twenty-two years ago)

It totally looks like i'm ripping off William Wiggins in that post. I'm just kinda excited.

― scg, Thursday, 22 April 2004 20:11 (twenty-two years ago)

I like it, but I don't think it was as good as their first two singles ("Arnold Layne" and "See Emily Play"). To me, that record sort of marks the descent of Syd's Floyd-period writing from the beauty of the first two singles and Piper at the Gates of Dawn to the wackiness of that tune and his other later Floyd tunes ("Jugband Blues," "Vegetable Man," and "Scream Thy Last Scream").

― Tim Ellison, Thursday, 22 April 2004 20:50 (twenty-two years ago)

No way, it's awesome.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Thursday, 22 April 2004 21:07 (twenty-two years ago)

I do like it. You don't agree with my characterization, though?

― Tim Ellison, Thursday, 22 April 2004 21:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh, I'd say it's just as beautiful as the earlier stuff. Maybe moreso. It's perhaps more sing-songy, but it is really great. Scg, you have a very hip mom. I like what you wrote about the song, especially that middle part with the helium voices and whatnot. It's one of the all-time great "false-endings", I think. Also try to scare up a copy of the other rare Barrett-era single "Candy and A Currant Bun". It's not as good as "Apples & Oranges" but it's pretty cool.

― Broheems (diamond), Thursday, 22 April 2004 21:15 (twenty-two years ago)

It's jaunty.

― Tim Ellison, Thursday, 22 April 2004 21:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, I'm not sure it's quite on par with the first two singles. But I actually like it a bit more than much of Piper. What do you think of his solo records?

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Thursday, 22 April 2004 21:28 (twenty-two years ago)

What I want to know about the solo records is which songs were written earlier, even before the Pink Floyd. One of the Floyd guys who produced one of those albums--can't remember if it was Roger or Dave--once said something along the lines of "Well, Syd had actually just written a lot of those songs long ago." Was it a lot of them, though? I also remember just reading someone saying that "Effervescing Elephant" had been written when Syd was younger.

I think some of the songs on the solo albums are very beautiful--more so than his wacky later-period Floyd tunes. I also think that the second album is way better than the first. Everyone ALMOST ALWAYS SEEMS TO SAY THE OPPOSITE!! Madcap Laughs is a shambles--you don't record a guy like Syd playing guitar and singing the songs and then overdub the backings, including the drums! There are great songs on Madcap Laughs, but I LOVE the Barrett LP.

― Tim Ellison, Thursday, 22 April 2004 21:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Every song Syd ever released was written before '67. The only exceptions to this are "Scream Thy Last Scream," "Bob Dylan's Blues," and "Have You Got It Yet?". That's why the Floyd sacked him, because the new stuff he was writing was unrecordable. And when he made his solo albums he just resurrected some old songs the Floyd never used.

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Thursday, 22 April 2004 21:39 (twenty-two years ago)

So, wait, though..."See Emily Play," with its "games for May" line was written before '67?

And, really? EVERYTHING on the solo albums? It just seems like there's a style of writing on the solo albums that's very different than the style of his solo songs--the density of words, the abstractness.

Also, what about "Apples and Oranges," "Jugband Blues," and "Vegetable Man?" I know "Vegetable Man" was written around that time. Maybe you just left that out.

― Tim Ellison, Thursday, 22 April 2004 21:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Oops. I meant before OR DURING '67. Up until summer '67 I believe. He was definitely out of the band by autumn, wasn't he?

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Thursday, 22 April 2004 21:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Urgh I think you're right. I really need to check my Floyd book at home. I'll get back to ya later on this.

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Thursday, 22 April 2004 21:49 (twenty-two years ago)

(x-post) I'm forgetting now. December maybe? There's a really good timeline on some Floyd web site that I've seen a couple of times that has the date of every gig and pinpoints the exact gig for which they didn't go pick him up!

Obviously, I meant to say that the style of writing on the solo albums (in general) seems different than his FLOYD stuff above.

I'm still very curious about whether he wrote any of the songs on the solo albums in the time after he was out of the band, though?

― Tim Ellison, Thursday, 22 April 2004 21:56 (twenty-two years ago)

official date of leaving floyd was 68, I had that Miles book and had memorized it, I think it may have been "officially" March 2nd of 68, that's what comes to my mind. That's not to say he didn't spend the proceeding months living in a cupboard with the elves or whatever.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Thursday, 22 April 2004 22:29 (twenty-two years ago)

btw, Tim, where you paying attention when I did my 'Richard Wright, forgotten songwriting genius' thread? If not, please search it out.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Thursday, 22 April 2004 22:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Every song Syd ever released was written before '67. The only exceptions to this are "Scream Thy Last Scream," "Bob Dylan's Blues," and "Have You Got It Yet?".

Is this fact? I've heard Peter Jenner say something similar but the solo songs and the Floyd songs are so dissimilar, lyrically, that I find it hard to believe they date from the same period. Also, there's a few solo songs (not many admittedly) that seem to refer to Syd's disintegrating mental state - tho of course these could date from the latter stages of the Floyd.

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 23 April 2004 08:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Have you seen the 'video' for this song? Roger Waters miming, being wacky and smiling a lot. verra stange.

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 23 April 2004 08:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Roger Waters smiling? Shurely shome mishtake etc

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 23 April 2004 09:10 (twenty-two years ago)

smiling, shaking head, standing way close to the camera, crouched, the works!

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 23 April 2004 09:13 (twenty-two years ago)

(while playing guitar, I should have added there)

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 23 April 2004 09:13 (twenty-two years ago)

I take it Syd's not in the video?

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 23 April 2004 09:14 (twenty-two years ago)

It's filmed in such 'close up' that it seems like they are trying not to film someone 'over there'. He probably wasn;t there at all.

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 23 April 2004 09:29 (twenty-two years ago)

In more senses than one

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 23 April 2004 10:20 (twenty-two years ago)

I find it hard to believe Syd didn't write anything after summer '67. I've certainly read that Effervescing Elephant and Golden Hair were very early, written when he was a teenager, and no doubt many of the more whimsical songs were written earlier. But songs like Rats or Wolfpack - hard to imagine they were very early songs, the style is just too different.

― Jonathan Z. (Joanthan Z.), Friday, 23 April 2004 10:47 (twenty-two years ago)

And 'here we go' was written on the spot.

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 23 April 2004 10:51 (twenty-two years ago)

No way!

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 23 April 2004 10:52 (twenty-two years ago)

Why not?

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 23 April 2004 10:55 (twenty-two years ago)

'Cos it's too good to have been made up on the spot by a man characterised at the time as a drooling dribbling basket case

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 23 April 2004 10:56 (twenty-two years ago)

I've just thought of something too - in this song he talks about his "old band", and he's obviously referring to Pink Floyd

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 23 April 2004 10:57 (twenty-two years ago)

He could actually write songs and play guitar you know...

By all accounts, he wasn't totally spaced out when he did those albums. Dislocated, certainly.

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 23 April 2004 10:58 (twenty-two years ago)

That's what I've always thought but then neither of us were there and Dave Gilmour's descriptions of the process... well actually he generally doesn't like to talk about it

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 23 April 2004 11:01 (twenty-two years ago)

I imagine quite a few of the songs were mere fragments that were built up into a song at the last moment in the studio. And I too wonder just how much of a drooling dribbling basket case he really was then - you need a fair amount of focus to get anything at all going in a studio. I think Jenner said he was pretty together for Madcap Laughs at least.

― Jonathan Z. (Joanthan Z.), Friday, 23 April 2004 11:02 (twenty-two years ago)

On "Barrett" he was apparently heavily sedated most of the time - which I think you can tell

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 23 April 2004 11:06 (twenty-two years ago)

from a 1971 interview:

How's the guitar playing?
S.B.: I always write with guitar. I've got this big room and I just go in and do the work. I like to do the words and music
simultaniously, so when I go into the studio I've got the words on one side and my music on the other. I suppose I could do
with some practice.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 23 April 2004 11:06 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.pink-floyd.org/artint/syd2.htm

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 23 April 2004 11:07 (twenty-two years ago)

from 1970:

'During the past six months there have been some very good things released. The best things I've bought are the new Taj
Mahal album, Captain Beefheart and the Band. I don't think any of them have influenced my writing though. I've been writing
in all sorts of funny places.'

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 23 April 2004 11:11 (twenty-two years ago)

don't believe all the drooling idiot stuff.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 23 April 2004 11:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Well I think he did have drooling idiot phases but who amongst, hand on heart, can that not be said about? My favourite Syd quote is from one of his last interviews: "I'm just full of dust and old guitars" or sumthin' like that

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 23 April 2004 11:19 (twenty-two years ago)

another one from 1971:

'I spent a year relaxing,' he says, 'and another getting the LP together. It's been very slow, like looking back over a long time
and playing very little. When I went I felt the progress the group could have made. But it made none, none at all, except in
the sense that it was continuing. To make my album was a challenge as I didn't have anything to follow.'

Now Syd is looking to form his own band, which he hoped he will have going within a year. 'This is the most interesting thing to
do now, to see whether it would have been possible to retain the 'Emily' sort of things that were there and on maybe two tracks
of the first album.'

'I've been writing consistently for two years now and I have lots of undeveloped things lying around. I'm still basically like I've
always been, sitting round with an acoustic getting it done. I never get worried about my writing.'

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 23 April 2004 11:52 (twenty-two years ago)

Syd Barret in Sanest Man On ILM shockah!

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 23 April 2004 11:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Look, I'm not saying he didn't have problems, but I think they've been blown out of proportion since the 60's. And the members of Pink Floyd are partially to blame for that. There is a great interview with Meic Stevens in the last issue of Ugly Things and he talks about hanging out with Syd and how he wasn't out of it at all at a time when he was supposed to be completely bonkers! A lot of it is myth.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 23 April 2004 12:00 (twenty-two years ago)

And I'm agreeing with you Scott - honest.

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 23 April 2004 12:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Assuming that Syd suffered from schizophrenia partially triggered by drug use, then I knew someone similar (who sadly committed suicide), and he had his very out-of-it periods and his completely together periods, which could last for weeks and months on end.

― Jonathan Z. (Joanthan Z.), Friday, 23 April 2004 12:18 (twenty-two years ago)

That assumption may be wrong of course...

― Jonathan Z. (Joanthan Z.), Friday, 23 April 2004 12:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Ok, I think it's kind of a myth/wishful-thinking-on-the-part-of-fans that Syd WASN'T a drooling idiot by this time. While I'll admit Roger and Dave aren't exactly without ulterior motives, the guy just sounds like he completely fell apart and ain't coming back. I say this as a Brian Wilson fan who has engaged in the the same sort of armchair psychoanalysis for years...

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Friday, 23 April 2004 14:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Did anything at all emerge from his very last studio sessions, in 1974 or 5 or thereabouts?

― thing of thing, Friday, 23 April 2004 14:56 (twenty-two years ago)

I've been writing in all sorts of funny places.'

Like under the cupboard!

There are several tracks of guitar plink-plonk from the 74 sessions I have on a bootleg. Really, barely even mildly interesting, not a song, not even a "feel" really. I umm, paid 100 dollars for a 6 CD Syd Barrett bootleg at Rockit Scientist in NYC during a moment of Syd-esque insanity. Actually, probably more of a brian wilson moment. It just had so much different stuff, from the Lucy Leave/King Bee session to the 74 stuff, multiple mixes of Veg Man/Scream Thy Last Scream etc, old BBC radio features, all kinds of stuff.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 23 April 2004 15:09 (twenty-two years ago)

That's funny — I always thought you looked like you combed your hair with Mandrax.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Friday, 23 April 2004 15:14 (twenty-two years ago)

c'mon matt, we had many electronic music classes in college together, you should know I never combed my hair! Too busy playing with the ribbon controller like Keith Emerson and the Effectron. Never forget the Effectron II.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 23 April 2004 15:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Good point — the Effectron I was a PIECE OF SHIT compared to the majesty of the Effectron II.

Which reminds me: have you ever seen ELP's Pictures At An Exhibition video where Keith very tastefully rubs the ribbon controller on his gold lame-d ass? I'm guessing not, but it's nothing if not HIGH ART.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Friday, 23 April 2004 15:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Anyway, Apples and Oranges. Good track. And I'm guessing it was written in late-67 at the earliest, since it has that "Thought you might like to know!" nod to the Fabbo's...

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Friday, 23 April 2004 15:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Meic Stevens

I was tempted by that Rhino Handmade thing. Worth it?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 23 April 2004 16:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes, it's wonderful. Although i'll be really annoying and say that I love the demos from that period that 10th planet put out even more. But the rhino thing is well worth the 20 bucks.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 23 April 2004 16:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Good, good...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 23 April 2004 16:29 (twenty-two years ago)

everyone's got the Kevin Ayers Joy of a Toy reissue CD with the Syd guitar playing, right? The version of Kevin's Singing a Song in the Morning that appeared on many Syd boots actually doesn't have syd, but has Kevin playing guitar Syd style. The orig, unreleased version of the song has Syd on it though. Kevin played a long then wiped syd's take from the single release! The whole story is in the liner notes to Joy of a Toy.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 23 April 2004 16:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Is the track good though? The version with Syd that is. Because that's the only thing that would make me consider upgrading from my Joy of A Toy lp. If it's just sub-par than I won't bother.

― Broheems (diamond), Friday, 23 April 2004 17:00 (twenty-two years ago)

While we're on the topic here: does anyone do promos at Rhino Handmade? Or, for that matter, does anyone answer questions there?

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Friday, 23 April 2004 17:07 (twenty-two years ago)

It is good, but I prefer the single version better, the orig version w/ syd is longer but doesn't have the female singers, and Kevin's solo on the official version is totally cool in a Syd way, but even wilder. I love the song though. The CD does have a bunch of extras though, 3 takes of Religious Experiance/Singing a Song in the Morning, 2 more versions of The Lady Rachel that are very different(1 is, at least) and a song called Soon Soon Soon which is wonderful. Not a cheap CD in america at least, though.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 23 April 2004 17:14 (twenty-two years ago)

does anyone do promos at Rhino Handmade?

No, they are not going to give you a copy of the Beefheart book.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 23 April 2004 17:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, "Soon Soon Soon" was on that Odd Ditties collection ... see, I love Kevin Ayers but I hate having to spend money just for a few alternates. But man, I love "Lady Rachel" and I want to hear those alternate takes ... tough call. Could just try to download I suppose.

God, I want that Beefheart thing.

― Broheems (diamond), Friday, 23 April 2004 17:21 (twenty-two years ago)

"Soon Soon Soon" is an old Soft Machine song of course

― Dadaismus (Dada), Sunday, 25 April 2004 07:51 (twenty-two years ago)

eight years pass...

Revive in that it's 2013, streaming services exost and these early singles are nowhere to be found.

― Naive Teen Idol, Saturday, 23 March 2013 14:56 (thirteen years ago)

it's weird to me how hard it is to find these singles. why isn't this on Relics, for example?

― Poliopolice, Saturday, 23 March 2013 15:10 (thirteen years ago)

Guitar sound on this is great, is he using a wah wah? "Hope You Feel OK" from the first Gong album has a similar sound - but then Daevid Allen apparently used to stick a photo of Syd up in the studio when he was recording

― Step not on a loose unforgiving stone on a pyramid to paradise (Tom D.), Saturday, 23 March 2013 15:14 (thirteen years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbx4qKHPlMQ

― yellow jacket (spazzmatazz), Sunday, 24 March 2013 07:39 (thirteen years ago)

why God why

― not feeling those lighters (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Sunday, 24 March 2013 09:57 (thirteen years ago)

You can get 'Apples and Oranges' on the An Introduction to Syd Barrett comp (which is up on iTunes/Amazon) but none of the other non-Relics early singles are on there unfortunately.

― Gavin, Leeds, Sunday, 24 March 2013 10:04 (thirteen years ago)

There is an "early singles" compilation ep..

― Mark G, Sunday, 24 March 2013 11:51 (thirteen years ago)

.. plus the 3cd Deluxe edition of "Piper" has the stereo mix of "Apples and Oranges"

― Mark G, Sunday, 24 March 2013 11:53 (thirteen years ago)

My copy of the early singles on cd went missing and it just kills me.

― Trip Maker, Sunday, 24 March 2013 14:50 (thirteen years ago)

y'all need this bootleg LP:

http://farm1.staticflickr.com/149/348143225_e4e3d30e8d_m.jpg

― sleeve, Sunday, 24 March 2013 20:06 (thirteen years ago)

PS it rules

― sleeve, Sunday, 24 March 2013 20:06 (thirteen years ago)

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