“It Would Be So Nice” begins with the refrain. The sound is pop and rock with a hint of Tamla Motown. Rick Wright’s singing is supported by backing vocals from David Gilmour and Roger Waters, while Nick Mason relaxes with some nicely felt rolls on his toms. The verse brings a surprise: Waters’s Rickenbacker pumps out a rhythm that is reminiscent, in a generic way, of children’s television shows (an impression reinforced by a vocal sound effect at 0:55). Wright plays a variety of keyboards including an acoustic piano, his Farfisa organ, and not particularly tasteful counterpoint on the Mellotron. (Listen at 0:37.) It also seems to be the songwriter playing the recorder (2:01) as he had on “Jugband Blues,” and also on the vibes. Gilmour, who had been recording with the Floyd for only a short while, gives the impression of having little idea how to tackle his part. He can be heard playing acoustic in the verses and arpeggios on electric in the bridges, delivering tremolo (1:18) or wah-wah (2:10) effects as the piece demands. Moreover, he is playing his Telecaster and distorting it with his Fuzz Face, particularly in the coda, where he takes a solo once more influenced by Hendrix (right at the end of the song, from 3:41). Nick Mason, for his part, delivers some very good drums, alternating the different moods through his judicious and efficient playing. He also accompanies the verses with a percussion instrument that sounds like a glass bottle struck with a drumstick.
The group had to return to the studio on April 1 because of a problem with the words. The original lyrics referenced the daily newspaper the Evening Standard. As British radio stations were not allowed to provide free advertising, they could not broadcast this title. Wright was required to alter his words and the group to rerecord. The Evening Standard was therefore changed to the Daily Standard. Phil McDonald was given the job of doing the definitive edit on April 2 and 3.
“It Would Be So Nice” is the story of Pink Floyd’s desire for a record release to help them get over Syd’s departure. The pinnacle of folly was perhaps reached with the improvised gospel vocal in the coda from 3:22. However, we must not fail to emphasize the excellent production work (in particular on the backing vocals) of Norman Smith, who must have found the song not too remote in spirit from those he was to record as a solo artist under the name Hurricane Smith.
COVERS
Captain Sensible, the singer and guitarist of the Damned, paid homage to Rick Wright’s song by covering it on his solo album The Power of Love in 1983.
SPOT THE ERROR!
The cover of the Swedish version of the single, released in 1968, features a picture of the group without David Gilmour but with Syd Barrett, who by that time was no longer a member of Pink Floyd…
Julia Dream
Roger Waters / 2:28 (Relics version 2:37)
Musicians
David Gilmour: vocals, acoustic guitar, electric lead guitar
Rick Wright: Mellotron, organ, backing vocals
Roger Waters: bass, backing vocals (?)
Nick Mason: percussion
Recorded
Abbey Road Studios, London: February 13, March 25, April 3, 1968 (Studios Two and Three, Room 25)
Technical Team
Producer: Norman Smith
Sound Engineers: Peter Bown (?), Ken Scott, Phil McDonald
Assistant Sound Engineers: John Smith, John Barrett
Genesis
“Julia Dream” marks an important stage in Pink Floyd’s career. It was the first song to be recorded without the involvement of Syd Barrett (although he was still officially a member of the group), the first with David Gilmour singing the lead vocal, and the second to be written by Roger Waters alone. Probably a little under Barrett’s influence still, Waters gives us a glimpse into a “different” world. But this is where any comparison with the group’s former songwriter ends. Whereas Barrett set to music nursery rhymes, Waters goes beyond mere anxiety to express real anguish in this song. Things start well, but before long, up surges the misty master, causing the narrator to wonder whether he is dying. The language belongs more to the lexicon of the nightmare than to that of the daydream: Every night I turn the light out, waiting for the velvet bride/Will the scaly armadillo find me where I’m hiding? Thank goodness for Julia, the queen of all my dreams, whose role seems to be to alleviate these fears…
“Julia Dream” is a psychedelic folk song and easily could have been performed by the Incredible String Band (or Nick Drake, a little later). This British B-side of Pink Floyd’s fourth single would later be included on the compilations The Best of Pink Floyd (1970), Relics (1971), Masters of Rock (1974), and the Early Singles bonus disc in the box set Shine On (1992).
Production
For all “It Would Be So Nice” gives the impression that Pink Floyd was getting bogged down and losing their own identity, “Julia Dream” displays a new musical direction, one they would pursue a little later, on the album More in 1969. The pop feel of the A-side gives way to a darker, dreamlike atmosphere on the predominantly acoustic B-side.
Just two takes were needed to lay down the base track of “Doreen Dream” (the working title of “Julia Dream”) on February 13. The first was selected as the best, and the vocals were added on March 25. This makes it the first song on which David Gilmour sang lead vocal by himself, having shared lead with Rick Wright on “Let There Be More Light,” on which work had started on January 18 and continued at this same March 25 session. His voice is infinitely gentle, similar to Rick Wright’s, and this was to prove one of the keys to the Floyd’s success. Wright helps out on backing vocals, a combination of voices that would have its apotheosis in the awe-inspiring “Echoes” of 1971. As well as singing, Gilmour delivers an acoustic guitar part, most likely on his Levin LT 18. He also picks up his Fender Telecaster, playing it chiefly for the sake of the psychedelic effects that could be obtained with his Binson Echorec, the whole thing swamped in long and heavy reverb. Gilmour mainly uses a bottleneck to slide over the strings, as can be heard especially at the end of the song, from 2:18. Like Gilmour, Wright is omnipresent, creating a flute tone on his Mellotron MK2. He literally floods the song with this sound, but instead of being intrusive, it lends the music an almost medieval color. He can also be heard reinforcing the dreamlike atmosphere of the song with pads on the Hammond M-102. Nick Mason’s contribution is limited to striking a percussion instrument—probably bongos—with a drumstick under heavy reverb. Roger Waters is presumably playing his Rickenbacker 4001, although it sounds more like an upright than an electric bass. It is most likely the bassist who is also responsible for the vocal effects, for example at 1:52 and 2:00.
“Julia Dream” was mixed at this same session on March 25 and then mastered by Phil McDonald in Room 25 at EMI Studios on April 3, ready for the pressing of Pink Floyd’s next single.
For Pink Floyd Addicts
Released as a B-side in the United Kingdom, “Julia Dream” was chosen as the A-side for Japan in 1970, with “Summer ’68” as the flip side.
1968
Point Me
At The Sky / Careful
With That Axe,
Eugene
SINGLE
RELEASE DATE
United Kingdom: December 6, 1968
Label: Columbia Records
RECORD NUMBER: DB 8511
Point Me At The Sky
Roger Waters, David Gilmour / 3:34
Musicians
David Gilmour: vocals, electric rhythm and lead guitar, backing vocals
Roger Waters: vocals, bass, backing vocals (?)
Rick Wright: organ, piano, vibraphone, harpsichord (?), Mellotron, backing vocals
Nick Mason: drums, maracas
Unidentified musician: cello (?)
Recorded
Abbey Road Studios, London: October 22–23, 28–30, November 4–5, 1968 (Studios Two and Three, Room 70)
Technical Team
Producer: Norman Smith
Sound Engineer: Peter Mew
Assistant Sound Engineers: Neil Richmond, Anthony Clarke, Graham Kirkby, Alan Parsons
Genesis
In a BBC documentary broadcast in December 2007, Roger Waters (lyricist and co-composer) and David Gilmour (co-composer) explained that they wrote “Point Me at the Sky” at the urgent request of EMI, which wanted to release a single along the lines of the preceding ones. Although Syd Barrett was no longer a part of Pink Floyd when “Point Me at the Sky” was recorded (October and November 1968), he still cast a shadow over the group, and in particular over Roger Waters. Waters takes up the atmosphere of the nursery rhymes that Barrett was so fond of to tell us about a talented, and not a little insane, inventor. Henry McClean has built a cosmic glider and asks his friend Eugene to fly with him to the sky. The final words clearly announce the tragic end that awaits them: And all we’ve got to say to you is good-bye, followed by Crash, crash, crash, crash, good-bye, inevitably evoking the Icarus of Greek mythology who died as a result of flying too close to the sun…
The end of “Point Me at the Sky” may be sad, but the song’s message is in perfect harmony with the happy philosophy of the flower children of the second half of the sixties. This is a heroic ode to the act of self-transcendence, to the discovery of new experiences, whether psychedelic or not, in short an indictment of the modern world with its mundanity and alienation. In spite of the sad ending, the musical atmosphere of this composition by Waters and Gilmour is reasonably cheerful, carried by a good dose of psychedelia that owes as much to Syd Barrett as it does to the Beatles (John Lennon in particular).
When it was released as a single on December 7, 1968, “Point Me at the Sky” failed to find its audience (any more than the B-side, “Careful with That Axe, Eugene,” did). “That was the last of the unknown singles,” the ever-perceptive Roger Waters would later comment, adding “I don’t know why we did it. It was a constructed attempt and it didn’t happen.”36
Production
“Point Me at the Sky” required multiple sessions. Two takes from October 23 were used as the basis for the overdubs: the third for the first part of the song and the fifth for the second part. The track proved difficult to get right, with the various moods requiring fairly systematic production input. David Gilmour comes straight in with the vocal line, against a background of Hammond organ, vibes, and pedal-board bass notes, all played by Rick Wright. Gilmour’s voice is gentle and the atmosphere serene. He also plays electric slide guitar for some very mellow sounds obtained with the Binson Echorec and reverb. This is followed by a rock sequence sung by Roger Waters, who is also excellent on bass, supported by the imperturbable Nick Mason, who works his Premier kit with considerable energy. This in turn develops into a refrain vaguely reminiscent of the Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” with Gilmour back on lead vocal supported by harmonies from his colleagues. According to the session records at Abbey Road, and also Glenn Povey’s book The Complete Pink Floyd, a cello and a harpsichord were also recorded on October 29. If so, both instruments are totally inaudible, presumably buried in the mix. This may have been in order to avoid sounding too Beatles-like… “Point Me at the Sky” is a good pop-rock song from a band and its producer who were clearly looking for a hit, with Gilmour adding some guitar overdubs and a solo distorted with wah-wah, Wright an acoustic piano and Mellotron effects, and Mason some maracas. However, it is first and foremost the vocal arrangements that grab the attention, not least as a result of the group devoting part of the sessions on October 28, 29, 30 and November 4 to them. As a result, the refrains and, in particular, the bridge with its ethereal climax were enhanced with harmonies worthy of, well… Norman Smith.
Although well made, this single did not meet with the anticipated success, leading Pink Floyd to give up its quest for hit singles, written specifically for this purpose rather than for inclusion on an album. When the group returned to the charts more than eleven years later, it would be in the number 1 spot with “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2,” taken from the 1979 album The Wall.
For Pink Floyd Addicts
A video was shot for “Point Me at the Sky.” It shows images of each member of the Floyd (except Roger Waters) sitting peacefully in a living room, and then Nick Mason and presumably David Gilmour in pilot’s garb, flying in two different biplanes. The first aircraft to be shown is a De Havilland DH.82A Tiger Moth, registration G-ANKB, while the second is an AVRO 504N, registration G-ADBO. At the end of the song we see Gilmour waving a handkerchief and running after a train as it pulls out of a station.
Among the assistant sound engineers on this song was Alan Parsons, who began his career with the Floyd. Parsons would contribute to the group’s biggest success as the sound engineer on The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), the third-best-selling album in the history of music.
Some foreign and promotional editions of the single have an error in the title, reading “Point Me to the Sky.”
Careful With That Axe Eugene
Roger Waters, Rick Wright, Nick Mason, David Gilmour / 5:45
Musicians
David Gilmour: vocals, electric rhythm and lead guitar, vocal effects
Rick Wright: organ, vibraphone, vocal effects (?)
Roger Waters: bass, voice and various vocal effects, gong (?)
Nick Mason: drums
Recorded
Abbey Road Studios, London: November 4, 1968 (Studio Two)
Technical Team
Producer: Norman Smith
Sound Engineer: Peter Mew
Assistant Sound Engineer: Neil Richmond
Genesis
“Careful with That Axe, Eugene” was the culmination of a long creative process that had its origins in a collective work the group had begun performing in spring 1968 under the title “Keep Smiling People.” It was already, at this stage, composed of three sections. The first was even recorded for use in The Committee (1968), an underground film noir by Peter Sykes with Paul Jones (the Manfred Mann singer) in the lead role. A few months later, the basics of “Keep Smiling People” reemerged in the suite The Man and the Journey, now named “Beset by Creatures of the Deep,” then in abbreviated form (without the scream) in “Green Is the Colour” (on the More soundtrack), and again in a version entitled “Murderistic Women” (or “Murderotic Women”), which was played on John Peel’s Top Gear sessions (1968). “‘Careful with That Axe, Eugene’ is basically one chord,” explains David Gilmour. “We were just creating textures and moods over the top of it, taking it up and down; not very subtle stuff. There was a sort of rule book of our own that we were trying to play to—and it was largely about dynamics.”36
How should the title of the song “Careful with That Axe, Eugene” be interpreted? Should we see the song as a kind of musical illustration of a horror story? The tale of a serial killer who goes on the rampage with an axe? Perhaps, but for Rick Wright there is no hidden meaning: “It’s not a huge message to the world, you know. We often pick titles that have nothing really to do with the songs.”36 All the same, it is worth noting that “Point Me at the Sky,” the A-side of the single, also begins with the phrase: Hey Eugene, this is Henry McClean/And I’ve finished my beautiful flying machine. As for the scream emitted by Roger Waters, if this is indeed a primal scream, it takes us down another path, that of primal therapy, a psychotherapy developed by Arthur Janov in 1967 whereby patients liberate themselves from their neuroses and profound discontent by regressing to the primal period (from birth to nine months) and the scream.
Live Versions
“Careful with That Axe, Eugene” was released as the B-side of this single on December 7, 1968 (sinking without a trace), and again in 1971 on the compilation Relics. From 1969 to 1973 the group regularly performed it onstage, generally preceded by “Green Is the Colour.” Furthermore, it was when performed live that the piece would assume its full theatrical dimensions, as can be seen from the Pompeii (Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii, 1972), or Ummagumma versions, which are far superior to the studio recording, mainly as a result of their dramatically constructed crescendos and the manifestly cathartic scream emitte
d by Waters. Yet another version exists (without the whispering), recorded under the title “Come in Number 51, Your Time Is Up” for the soundtrack of Michelangelo Antonioni’s movie Zabriskie Point (1970).
Production
When Pink Floyd entered EMI’s Studio Two on November 4, 1968, to work on “Careful with That Axe, Eugene,” it was actually the second time they had undertaken to record it. The first was during their second United States tour, when the four Englishmen stopped off in Los Angeles on August 22 for long enough to get down six takes of an instrumental that was actually a very first version of this same piece. The LA version remained unfinished, however. It was therefore on November 4 that the group recorded the definitive rhythm track in two takes, the first being selected as the best. It is Roger Waters’s Rickenbacker 4001 that is the real backbone of “Careful with That Axe, Eugene.” His alternating octave Ds form a common thread through these five minutes and forty-five seconds of improvised, unclassifiable, harrowing, space-inspired, hypnotic, indefinable music. As Nick Mason has pointed out, this was a complex piece that could be summed up as “quiet, loud, quiet, loud again”5—in actual fact just quiet, loud, quiet.
The work starts with a simultaneously serene and tense atmosphere, Waters’s bass setting the tone from the first two bars. Rick Wright introduces a gentle, mellow vibraphone sonority before teasing some oriental-sounding improvisations from his Hammond organ. David Gilmour is on electric guitar, most probably his new white Fender Stratocaster. He employs a violining effect (obtained with either his guitar’s potentiometer or a volume pedal), and can also be heard singing in a falsetto voice drenched in heavy reverb, thereby accentuating the dreamlike character of the piece. Nick Mason embroiders rhythmic patterns on his ride cymbals before gradually picking up the pace and stressing the beat with a heavier stroke. The tension inevitably mounts and Waters whispers a menacing, oppressive Careful with that axe, Eugene, before letting out an initial scream that launches the second half of the track. Gilmour accompanies him with arpeggios and plays a distorted solo that he doubles with his voice. The effect is powerful and is the signal for his bandmates to really let it rip. The unflappable Waters keeps his bass riff going while continuing to scream into his mic. He also seems to set a gong vibrating at around 2:54. Calm is restored toward 4:10, and the vibraphone once again imposes its ethereal sonority. From this point on, Mason plays mainly his toms, at the end of the song leaving Waters and Gilmour to abandon themselves to numerous vocal effects, including chewing, sucking, and various other curious noises.
Pink Floyd All the Songs Page 16