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:: Classic Album ::

Pink Floyd, A Saucerful of Secrets (1968)

Reviewed by William Miller

Pink Floyd have sold a bazillion records over their close to 40 year career. 1973's Dark Side of the Moon stayed on the Billboard charts for over a decade. They ensnare each new generation of angst ridden teenagers with their epic song cycles of alienation and madness. And yet no other band in the history of popular music have scaled so many heights and remained virtually unknowable as personalities, as rock stars. A record executive once queried the group as to which one was "Pink?". Another occasion found George Harrison mistaking a roadie for keyboardist Rick Wright. Most everyone remembers the prism, the inflatable pig, and the wall, but would be hard pressed to name anyone in the band.

It's been this mystery which has allowed Pink Floyd to prosper over the years even while losing crucial members along the way. In other words, who is going to miss someone they never even knew was there.

The Pink Floyd who made A Saucerful of Secrets was a transitional one. Original leader Syd Barrett had been practically the sole creative force behind their debut album 1967's Pipers At The Gates Of Dawn with his exceptional skill at mixing psychedelic freakouts with catchy melodies. Unfortunately, he also had exceptional skill at taking mass quantities of LSD and the Saucerful sessions found him just a few trips short of acid casualty status. To fill the gap, the others Floyds stepped forward to take creative reins especially bassist Roger Waters. The group also added another guitarist and vocalist, Dave Gilmour.

In today's terms, a Pink Floyd lacking Syd Barrett made about as much sense as a Weezer without Rivers Cuomo, so everyone was surprised when Saucerful turned out so well. It proved the band could continue as a creative entity and also remains one of their best albums (and works greats with incense, a blacklight, and a box of Fiddle Faddle).

The trip...er...the album begins with a whirl of musical noise and then the thumbing baseline of appropriately "Let There Be Light". A very eerie track made all the more spooky by Roger Water's Jack the Ripper like vocals on the chorus. It's noteworthy to point out the similarity between the openings of Saucerful and the much more acclaimed Dark Side of the Moon- they're virtually identical.

Saucerful is hardly a hippie dippie album- it's the darkest album the Floyd ever did. Most of the songs offer much more menacing soundscapes than the whimsical anthems in vogue at the time. "Corporal Klegg", a tribute to a soldier's lost leg, is a guitar raveup with a Who influenced chorus that mixes power chords and kazoo. The title track could be the soundtrack to a child's nightmare. Even the quieter numbers "Remember a Day" and "See Saw" couple their nostalgic lyrics with ominous instrumentation. You can almost hear the buzzards circling the prey in "Remember".

Most frightening is "Jugband Blues" the only track from Syd Barret on the album and his last with the group. The line"I'm most obliged to you for making it clear that I'm not here" was a knowing wink to his fellow members who were about to oust their leader from the band he started, but could also be taken as a farewell from Syd as his brain journeyed farther away from reality. I'd have to go more with the latter as right in the middle of this conventionsl folky song, it takes a complete left turn as a Salvation Army Band plays an improvised jazz section with absolutely no relation to the rest of the song.

Although Pink Floyd wouldn't hit big internationally until the seventies, the hallmarks of classic Floyd can be found here: the trancelike bass and drums, sci-fi fantasy soundtrack leanings, and lyrical alienation. Syd Barrett wouldn't be around mentally or physically to enjoy their future success- to coin a phrase from Saurcerful- "set the controls for the heart of the sun" and never came back.