How the kazoo became a major part of a Pink Floyd classic
The late 1960s were not going to be particularly kind to Pink Floyd. Although they made one of the biggest splashes of the psychedelic movement on their debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, the pressure that comes with being a popular rock band was beginning to take its toll on Syd Barrett. Despite Barrett’s fracturing mental state, the band got back in the studio and made one of their most delightfully weird albums on A Saucerful of Secrets.
While this could easily be called the definitive Pink Floyd album due to it featuring contributions from every classic member of the band, Floyd were already expanding beyond their psychedelic roots. Outside of their normal soundscapes, songs like ‘Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun’ had a progressive bent to them, previewing where they would be going a little later in their career. The zaniness of their early years had not left them, and they brought out the big guns on the song ‘Corporal Clegg’.
Compared to the adventurous songs elsewhere on the record, this is a nice piece of satirical fun written about a corporal in war. When asked about the song, Roger Waters mentioned it being about his father. Although Waters’ father had fought in the war and lost his leg, he thought that his father was gloating about it for the wrong reasons. He said: “Corporal Clegg is about my father and his sacrifice in World War II. It’s somewhat sarcastic – the idea of the wooden leg being something you won in the war, like a trophy”.
As the song builds and we get to the high point, though, where a guitar solo would normally be entered into the fold, we are instead greeted with…kazoos. Since the entire song was meant to be a bit satirical, the name Clegg was a reference to Thaddeus Clegg, who invented the kazoo.
This wasn’t the first time that the world of psychedelic rock had even flirted with the humorous instrument. In the song ‘Crosstown Traffic’, Jimi Hendrix used the kazoo to double his guitar lick, giving an off-kilter vibe to the entire track. Outside of the kazoo, though, this number gave the rest of the band a chance to spread out.
Since there’s a slice of humorous energy running through its core, the band passed the vocal mic around a little bit, leading to drummer Nick Mason singing a handful of lines about how the corporal has “never been the same”. Though the song showcases a great deal of camaraderie amongst the band, it was only a smokescreen of what was going on below the surface.
Barrett had already started to lose his mind to psychedelics, and the rest of the band was starting to float the idea of him leaving the group. Although bringing in David Gilmour to play the guitar on the album may have been a security blanket, Gilmour became more of a necessity as Barrett spun out of control. Often showing up barely able to hold his guitar pick, the band had to break the news to Barrett that they would have to carry on without him.
While Floyd would continue to innovate and get better and better going forward, they were a much different band after Barrett left the fold. The background behind this record might have been hell, but ‘Corporal Clegg’ is a fun romp that lets the listener know it wasn’t all bad.
