ARNOLD LAYNE

"Arnold Layne" / "Candy and a Currant Bun" is the first of three non-album singles Pink Floyd released prior to the addition of David Gilmour and the departure of Syd Barrett. "Arnold Layne" is one of the better of these six sides, later collected on 1967: The First Three Singles.

Arnold is a cross-dresser who steals garments from clotheslines, discovering while wearing the purloined articles that "it's not the same / it takes two to know." Going unanswered are such questions as The same as what? and What does it take two to know? At the end of the song Barrett implores, "Arnold Layne, don't do it again!" It's not clear what the takeaway is, or whether there is one. This is almost as close as the band got to radio-friendly psychedelic pop;* it's said that Barrett, who wrote and sang both sides of this single, developed a distaste for commercialism during this period, but that's not evident here in the melody or the production of "Arnold Layne." In fact, the song borders on sunshine pop; I can picture the two-measure "why can't you see" part being repeated three or four times to good effect. Of course, the subject matter may have reduced the song's chart prospects while likely increasing interest among the group's target audience.

A detached Barrett delivers "Arnold Layne" in the same way he sings "Astronomy Domine," despite the fact that only the latter arguably calls for detachment. (And come to think of it, the descending chords underlying the verses of "Arnold Layne" - - i.e., as he sings "on the wall hung a tall mirror / distorted view?" - - is very similar to those on "Astronomy Domine.") Anyway, I suppose that in 1967, it made sense for a singer to distance himself from someone like Arnold, and that the disinterested vocal might've been a way to achieve this. Furthermore, it doesn't seem unlikely that Barrett was influenced by John Lennon's dispassionate delivery of "Strawberry Fields Forever," which was released a few weeks before "Arnold Layne" was completed.

Barrett's singing is a bit more lively - - just a bit - - on the other side. "Candy and a Currant Bun" is a song about? ah, I'm not sure what it's about, but it's psychedelia; maybe that absolves it of requiring meaning. It's easy to say in cases like this that the song must be about drugs, and yet that seems as likely as any other explanation. Whatever it's about, "don't do it again" does not apply here; the opening and closing verses, being nearly identical, imply an enjoyable repetition: "oh my girl sitting in the sky / go buy candy and a currant bun / I like to see you run." But I can't quote the lyrics without relating this couplet, which gives a good indication of song's sophistication: "don't touch me child / please know you drive me wild." The freaky fifteen-second breakdown beginning around 1:06 clarifies that for all of its poppiness, "Candy and a Currant Bun" was not designed for radio airplay, and was probably predestined for the flip side.

Today, Pink Floyd's first single might seem interchangeable with the dozens of other British psychedelic 45s released the same year. But while most of the late-1960s psychedelic pop we remember today was safe and groovy, "Arnold Layne" / "Candy and a Currant Bun" was a bit darker and more daring. However, as a pop or rock single, it's nothing to get hung about. [2 stars on the 4-star scale for singles - - see review page for scale]

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*Their next single, "See Emily Play," is the closest, in my opinion.