1967-November

Jugband Blues Promo (MPEG) w/ CORRECTED Soundtrack


Jugband Blues		3.08


Notes that came with this recording:

One of my all time heroes is Roger Keith Barrett... better known 
to the world as Syd Barrett. A truly remarkable talent - a singer, 
songwriter, guitarist and artist - his musical career didn't last 
very long but despite his small legacy, its influence has been 
widespread and his presence has forever loomed over Pink Floyd and 
Roger Waters' work over the decades.

He was the man largely behind "The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn", 
for many - myself included - the crowning moment of British 
Psychedelia. An album split between way out acid rock workouts and 
eccentric childlike songs written by Syd, it sounded unlike anything 
else and in many ways, it still does. It retains its freshness and 
spirit of adventure and experimentalism today and is an album I never 
tire of listening to.

Sadly, the week the album was released, it was also announced that 
Syd was suffering from "nervous exhaustion". Up till that point in 
August 1967, it had been a manic year for Syd and the Floyd... 
a constant stream of gigs, signing with EMI, recording their debut 
album and 2 killer singles plus radio and TV appearances. All of this 
on top of being expected to write new material as well as a fondness 
for acid finally got to Syd in late July when the band were to perform 
for the third time on "Top Of The Pops". Syd hated the experience of 
appearing on the show and argued that if John Lennon didn't have to 
do the show, then why should he?

The next day the Floyd were due at the BBC to record a radio session. 
Syd failed to show, but he did show up for a gig that night which by 
all accounts was a harrowing affair with Syd largely incapacitated 
and freaking out. He then vanished for the weekend and as organist 
Rick Wright has often said over the years "When Syd came back, he 
was a completely different person".

The Floyd and Syd took a months break whilst "Piper" was unleashed. 
The only group activity was paying a visit to Abbey Road to record 
two new songs... the start of recording sessions for both a new album and single. They started work on Roger Waters' "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun" and a new Syd number called "Scream Thy Last Scream". One of the last songs Syd had brought in for "Piper" was the immortal "Bike" and Roger Waters and Dave Gilmour have both stated that this was the beginning of a new era in Syds' writing in that from then on, his contributions were much darker and stranger than ever before.

September 1967 saw them back on the road and recording a new session 
for the BBC which is a real delight with Syd on great form, but his 
overall behaviour and attitude was causing serious problems. Syd had 
written "Scream" as the follow up single to the big hit 
"See Emily Play". There was no way it could even be considered as a 
single, so Syd went off and tried again and came back with 
"Vegetable Man", a bizarre stomper in which the lyrics simply 
described what Syd was wearing that day interspersed with the chilling 
chorus, "Vegetable Man where are you?" In the middle eight Syd wrote 
and sang "I've been looking all over the place for a place for me, 
it just aint anywhere"... it was a clear insight into what was going 
on in Syds' mind.

There was no way "Vegetable Man" could be a single either... it was 
simply too strange and dark. By now, the Floyd organisation went into 
a panic as they realised Syd was losing his grip. The problem was, 
Syd was the main writer and so everyone was depending on him for a new 
single in order for there to be money to pay everyone. Of course this 
put even more pressure on Syd.

His third attempt at a single surfaced during a session in October at 
De Lane Lea Studios. 
Recording this new song caused problems thanks to Syds' insistence 
that the song featured not just a Salvation Army brass band, but that 
they played whatever they liked in the middle of the song! Producer 
Norman Smith had to step in and save the session. Syd walked out whilst 
Smith helped record a strange scored marching piece which was to be 
inserted in the middle of the new song. This song was called 
"Jugband Blues" and mixed down into a mono master... would this be 
the overdue single?

No chance. There was a belief within the organisation that Syd was 
deliberately sabotaging the bands career and direction. On stage he 
was becoming impossible, largely standing motionless and playing 
very little. Syds' 4th attempt at a single came with "Apples and 
Oranges" which they hurriedly recorded for release... Then came a 
disasterous American tour which ended up being aborted after various 
bizarre incidents that proved that Syd was drifting further away 
from reality altogether.

Meanwhile, "Apples and Oranges" had flopped. Syd cheerfully remarked 
that he "couldn't care less" about it being a failure. By now, the 
bands' managers began to realise that things couldn't continue. 
Whats more, they and Roger Waters in particular were rather 
disturbed by "Jugband Blues" and what Syd was saying in the song. 
It is now regarded as a lyrical portrait of a man cracking up. What 
made it all the more chilling was the fact that Syd was writing about 
what was happening to him inside... he knew he was falling apart but 
also knew there was nothing he could do about it.

"Jugband Blues" is indeed a very unique song thats rather typically 
Syd in that he disposes of the traditional pop song conventions. 
There are several odd time changes in it simply because what Syd did 
was write lyrics with irregular lengthed lines and then fit the music 
round the lyrics, so there would be extra bars or he'd miss half a 
bar and so on, which made playing along with him almost impossible. 
In comes the brass band who take over the song and it goes into a 
strange avant garde bit of noise with the band happily marching away. 
It suddenly grinds to a halt and softly and slowly Syd returns alone 
with his acoustic guitar to sing the final lines. "And what exactly 
is a dream? / And what exactly is a joke?" and the song vanishes 
into thin air.

I could write a book about the lyrics to this one song, but I'm gonna 
have to avoid going into any further detail or else I'll be typing 
for the next three days. In a nutshell what happened next was in 
January 1968, David Gilmour was brought in as a 5th member to help 
cover for Syd onstage. This 5 piece line up did 5 or 6 gigs in all 
before they decided not to bother anymore collecting Syd and then in 
March came an announcement that Syd had left the band. The Floyd 
continued work on their second album "A Saucerful Of Secrets". When 
they came to edit the album together, "Scream" and "Vegetable Man" 
were rejected because they were too dark and surreal, but they did 
choose "Jugband Blues" because "its just a good song" 
says Dave Gilmour and placed it at the end of the album, an eerie 
"goodbye" from Syd to the Floyd. The Floyd still regard the song highly 
and used it on their "Echoes" compilation summarising their entire career 
in 2001.

However, there was another strange story involving "Jugband Blues". 
Sometime in November 1967 when "Apples" had flopped, the Floyd were 
commisioned to make a promo film for the "Ministry Of Information". 
The motives were unknown, never mind what the film would be used for. 
The Floyd did indeed make this film and the song they chose was 
"Jugband Blues"!

This became a bit of a legend over the years since virtually nobody had 
ever seen it and it was presumed missing and lost. The very idea of a 
film performance of this song was mind boggling and many of us presumed 
it could well be a jokey rumour. Then, in 1999 a copy of the film 
turned up in Manchester!

It was in a rough battered state, the soundtrack was virtually 
non-existent, but the pictures were watchable. Whoever found it 
took it upon himself to redub the film and chose the version they 
recorded for the BBC in December 1967. I finally got a copy of it 
last year and it immediately bugged me because the soundtrack didn't 
exactly fit at all well.

So, I took it upon myself to try and resolve this issue. First, the 
film was shot before the BBC session, so there was no way that could 
have been the soundtrack. Then I did some research into their 
recording sessions and discovered that it had already been mixed into 
mono, which was still the main format for the time. The mono mix of 
the song is slightly longer and since there was no way it would have 
used the stereo mix, the mono mix HAD to be the original soundtrack, 
but when I tried to synch it up, it didn't quite work.

I carefully looked at the film again and did some experiments. I 
found a rather stray shot in the chaotic section. I found that this 
brief shot actually was the beginning of an earlier shot where the 
camera pans down onto Syd. So, I cut this shot out and put it back 
into its rightful place and then tried synching it up again. To my 
astonishment, it fit perfectly! Now, Syds lips were actually in 
synch as well as all the camera cuts! But there was still the problem 
of the first 20 seconds which wouldn't synch at all. For this, I had 
to use pitch shifting to get it into place... (this explains the 
slightly peculiar sound in the first section) I was stunned when I 
finally played it back and a shiver went up my spine seeing Syd 
miming perfectly to those killer final lines and turns away from the 
camera.

So now I had a new master of this film. I have checked around and 
noticed that all copies in circulation are still using the wrong 
soundtrack... it seems nobody else had actually taken the time and 
trouble with it like I had!

So, here it is, for the very first time as far as I know, the 
promo film of Pink Floyds' "Jugband Blues" with its proper soundtrack 
in place. A great film and a fascinating slice of Floyd history that 
deserves a better fate... see what you think!