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Early non-album Pink Floyd tracks
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Stressed Cheese View Drop Down
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    Posted: February 10 2023 at 07:57
I've been listening to a lot of early Floyd lately, and I've finally taken the time/money/"effort" to gather together some of the tracks I was still missing, namely some non-album songs. Little refresher about these tracks, :

-Single: Arnold Layne (Barrett)
-Its B-side: Candy and a Currant Bun (Barrett)
-Single: See Emily Play (Barrett)
-Single: Apples and Oranges (Barrett)
-Its B-side: Paint Box (Wright)
-Single: It Would be so Nice (Wright)
-Its B-side: Julia Dream (Waters)
-Single: Point me at the Sky (Gilmour/Waters)
-Its B-side: Careful With that Axe, Eugene (Gilmour/Mason/Waters/Wright)
-From the "Picnic" compilation: Embryo (Waters)
-From "Relics": Biding my Time (Waters)

I'd be interested to hear what people think of these, and if they have any favorites, or ones that they hate.

As for me, I think See Emily Play and Careful are the highlights. Even though I was already familiar with the Ummagumma version of Careful, I appreciate that it's quite different. It's quite progressive to put this out as a single in 1968, even if it's just the B-side. And See Emily Play is just an instant classic. The piano(?) lines in the chorus is great and dreamy, and I like how these early Barrett singles sound a bit distinct from Piper. I mean, I love Piper, but they definitely feel like singles, if you know what I mean. Too bad these early Barret ones are only available in mono.

There's some other interesting stuff that sheds some light on that weird post-Barrett, pre-Meddle era of the band. Julia Dream would've been a good fit for Saucerful (they should've gotten rid of Corporal Clegg, which doesn't fit on the album at all). Paint Box is interesting as Wright's first solo credit. He definitely had some of the more contemplative/downer PF songs early on (like his two songs on Saucerful). So it's weird to see him have a go at whatever It Would Be So Nice is supposed to be. Which the band hated, but IMO it's not much worse than Point Me At The Sky.
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Pink Floyd song-writing credits are so weird, how is Embryo a Waters song when Gilmour dominates the song, plenty of guitar work. Same with Julia Dream which I always thought it was a Richard Wright song. Some interesting keyboard work on that song, or is it that Waters rarely shares writing credits... I don't know. Confused








Edited by Cristi - February 10 2023 at 09:45
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Careful With That Axe, Eugene showed what could have been for Floyd. It was a group piece, utterly magnificent, and maybe the present nonsense would not have manifested itself if there had been more like this.
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  Rick Wright's IT WOULD BE SO NICE has always been a favourite.  first picked it up on a Dutch EMI vinyl release in the early 70s.
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Really like all of the early Pink Floyd, that is my favorite version of the band, everything up to Dark Side.
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I always liked the relics album and there was also one called works that had some of that early stuff on it (kind of rare these days I think). Imo, you aren't really a Pink Floyd fan unless you know the early (pre DS) stuff.
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These are all good to very good.  You have the two hit singles, Arnold Layne and See Emily Play, and a concert fav in Careful with that Axe, Eugene.  Biding My Time stands out for me as there isn't much like it in their catalog.  Richard Wright tracks always work for me too.
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Love them all, let's add to the list the 2 famous never-to-be-singles from the Barrett era, well known from bootlegs for decades and finally available on the early years box set : "Scream thy last scream" & "Vegetable man".

Edited by Gramonster - February 11 2023 at 02:22
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Originally posted by AFlowerKingCrimson AFlowerKingCrimson wrote:

I always liked the relics album and there was also one called works that had some of that early stuff on it (kind of rare these days I think). Imo, you aren't really a Pink Floyd fan unless you know the early (pre DS) stuff.

In fact Relics was the second Pink Floyd album I came across in the very early days of my music listener life, so I knew these before almost all their other work and >99% of the prog music I know now. Some great ones there, although I wasn't necessarily keen on all of them and some of those I haven't listened to in ages.


Edited by Lewian - February 11 2023 at 03:48
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The Embryo is quite an epic, that's my fav.
I remember taht the b-side of Point me at the Sky was Crumbling Land, am I wrong?

Anyway, Crumbling Land if present, would be the worst in the lot. I like all the others.
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Originally posted by octopus-4 octopus-4 wrote:

The Embryo is quite an epic, that's my fav.
I remember taht the b-side of Point me at the Sky was Crumbling Land, am I wrong?

Anyway, Crumbling Land if present, would be the worst in the lot. I like all the others.

Wasn't Crumbling Land on the Zabriskie Point soundtrack?
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Indeed there are many hidden gems within the Pink Floyd discography. As for me, some of my favourites that didn't make it into an album are:
- I'm a King Bee.
- Lucy Leave.
- Arnold Layne.
- Julia Dream.
- Careful with that Axe Eugene (live version).
- Crumbling Land.
- Country song.
- Embryo (live version).
- Give birth to a Smile (a Roger Waters solo song that, if I understand correctly, actually features all of the band playing with him anyway).
- And I might add, from The Final Cut, the more complete version of The Hero's Return including parts 1 AND 2 (since I really like that song, but as it is in the album, it's way too short).
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Paint Box is one of my favourite Floyd tracks ever
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Originally posted by octopus-4 octopus-4 wrote:

The Embryo is quite an epic, that's my fav.
I remember taht the b-side of Point me at the Sky was Crumbling Land, am I wrong?

Anyway, Crumbling Land if present, would be the worst in the lot. I like all the others.

Crumbling Land! that was the one I was missing... and like indeed, sort of nº 3-ish.

I remember when with my proggy buddies in the 90's the cool thing was to delve into these kind of material. 'See Emily Play' was the fave at first.. I think the video clip was even circling in some program/channel by that time..

But since long, Arnold Layne has taken over that place.

I'm also very keen of Wright songs.. the two on 'Saucerful...' must be of my favorites in that album and beyond.. especially 'See Saw'; so lately my favorite of the bunch is 'Paint Box'.
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Originally posted by Cristi Cristi wrote:

Originally posted by octopus-4 octopus-4 wrote:

The Embryo is quite an epic, that's my fav.
I remember taht the b-side of Point me at the Sky was Crumbling Land, am I wrong?

Anyway, Crumbling Land if present, would be the worst in the lot. I like all the others.

Wasn't Crumbling Land on the Zabriskie Point soundtrack?



The b-side of 'Point Me at the Sky' was the studio version of 'Careful with that Axe, Eugene'.

And yes Crumbling Land is from Zabriskie Point - a fun little jaunty song, not dissimilar in feel to 'Free Four' from 'Obscured by Clouds'.
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And as for 'Embryo' - the band claimed the studio version was never finished (at the very least it is missing some lead guitar) and requested that 'Picnic' be withdrawn, tho the track was a very popular live number in the pre-DSotM days.
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These songs were more interesting to me quite a bit when I was younger. I was still listening to a lot of music from my parents generation which was the 1960’s. I’ve grown out of The Beatles since then and mostly listen to Prog, Fusion, and have a much greater appreciation for Jazz and Classical. Btw my mother is a classical pianist and my dad played the trumpet and listened to Jazz.

I thought of these songs as possibly more advanced than what The Beatles were doing at the time. Not as advanced or experimental as the album tracks from the first two albums during the time period these tracks listed were released. They were more interesting than the typical singles released during that time period. More off the wall and trying to sound futuristic in any way possible.

1969 was an experimental phase that went all over the place. The following decade Pink Floyd created masterpieces. These early songs sound really poppy and primitive compared to what was to come. At the same time they were more ambitious than what was out there. The spacy beginning of See Emily Play is probably the most memorable moment out of any of these tracks. You can even hear some Jazz influences touch base in the early years which would dominate later. I know recording these songs caused some frustration and I can see why. Perhaps it caused the band to go more full experimental.
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Originally posted by Stressed Cheese Stressed Cheese wrote:

I've been listening to a lot of early Floyd lately, and I've finally taken the time/money/"effort" to gather together some of the tracks I was still missing, namely some non-album songs. Little refresher about these tracks, :

-Single: Arnold Layne (Barrett)
-Its B-side: Candy and a Currant Bun (Barrett)
-Single: See Emily Play (Barrett)
-Single: Apples and Oranges (Barrett)
-Its B-side: Paint Box (Wright)
-Single: It Would be so Nice (Wright)
-Its B-side: Julia Dream (Waters)
-Single: Point me at the Sky (Gilmour/Waters)
-Its B-side: Careful With that Axe, Eugene (Gilmour/Mason/Waters/Wright)
-From the "Picnic" compilation: Embryo (Waters)
-From "Relics": Biding my Time (Waters)

I'd be interested to hear what people think of these, and if they have any favorites, or ones that they hate.

As for me, I think See Emily Play and Careful are the highlights. Even though I was already familiar with the Ummagumma version of Careful, I appreciate that it's quite different. It's quite progressive to put this out as a single in 1968, even if it's just the B-side. And See Emily Play is just an instant classic. The piano(?) lines in the chorus is great and dreamy, and I like how these early Barrett singles sound a bit distinct from Piper. I mean, I love Piper, but they definitely feel like singles, if you know what I mean. Too bad these early Barret ones are only available in mono.

There's some other interesting stuff that sheds some light on that weird post-Barrett, pre-Meddle era of the band. Julia Dream would've been a good fit for Saucerful (they should've gotten rid of Corporal Clegg, which doesn't fit on the album at all). Paint Box is interesting as Wright's first solo credit. He definitely had some of the more contemplative/downer PF songs early on (like his two songs on Saucerful). So it's weird to see him have a go at whatever It Would Be So Nice is supposed to be. Which the band hated, but IMO it's not much worse than Point Me At The Sky.


The first 9 songs you mention are on "The Early Singles" plus "The Scarecrow" is also on there. I picked this one up used in a record store years ago. It's taken me a lot of time to appreciate the Barrett era, but I do value Piper at the Gates... and these singles very much these days. I have Embryo on a non-official cd plus some others.
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Points: 13489 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Mellotron Storm Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 26 2023 at 11:01
I see why you didn't mention Scarecrow because it's on the debut and the only song on The Early Singles that is an album track.
Paintbox is one of my favourites of the non-album tracks along with the more popular See Emily Play, Arnold Layne and Careful With That Axe Eugene.

Edited by Mellotron Storm - February 26 2023 at 11:04
"The wind is slowly tearing her apart"

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for some reason I could never find celestial voices on the streaming services. I know it was originally released on Saucerful of Secrets, but where did it go?
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