Thursday, December 30, 2010

"Love You" (S. Barrett)


I have been listening to "An introduction to Syd Barrett" this Christmas, and it´s an OK collection, with some  Pink Floyd songs and solo material from "The Madcap Laughs" and "Barrett" (and "Bob Dylan Blues"too) . The Barret fans will have to decide if the remixed songs are great or not.

As usual I´m looking for  Robert Wyatt clues. My vinyl and CD copies of "The Madcap Laughs" are placed among my Wyatt records,  as it is well known that Soft Machine did a session for Barrett in 1969.  The ultimate Wyatt discography list "Love You" (a song also found on this new collection) and "No Good Trying".
In Michael King´s "Wrong Movements. A Robert Wyatt History" (SAF 1994) it is written:
"May 3 - Abbey Road, sessions for Syd Barrett "The Macap Laughs" lp
released Jan/70 (Harvest SHVL 765)
a) "No Good Trying" b) "Love You" c) "Clowns and jugglers".
Syd Barret, guitars, vocals; Mike Ratledge, organ/piano (b); Hugh Hopper, bass; RW, drums, tambourine (c).
c) appears on the "Opel" compilation lp of Syd´s outtakes. Released Oct/88 (Harvest SHSP 4126)".
Here it may look like Robert Wyatt is on "Clowns and jugglers" only? Hey, this is an important question!

In Graham Bennet´s biography "Soft Machine. Out-Bloody Rageous" (SAF 2005) we can read that Soft Machine did "Sessions for Syd Barret´s album The Madcap Laughs. Produced by Malcolm Jones, David Gilmour and Roger Waters.
"No Good Trying" and "Love You" originally released on The Madcap Laughs in January 1970".

And while fixing up the post on my Norwegian blog, a guy sent me a link to  Malcolm Jones´ detailed description of the recording of "The Madcap Laughs"! These are words from the track by track description:

* 2. NO GOOD TRYING 
April 11th '69 take 3. Guitar and voice 
May 3rd., '69 Organ, bass, drums overdubbed (Soft Machine) 
May 4th., '69 Syd's backwards guitar par overdubbed. 

* 3. LOVE YOU 
April 11th '69 take 4. Guitar and voice 
May 3rd '69 Piano, bass, drums, overdubbed (Soft Machine) "

Let´s hear Graham Coxon perform Syd Barret´s "Love You" right now!

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