“I’d no idea”: The Pink Floyd song David Gilmour wasn’t comfortable with
When David Gilmour joined Pink Floyd in late 1967, he had a mountain to climb. Not only was he drafted in to help his friends circumvent the astounding collapse in the mental health of their leader, Syd Barrett, but within just a few months, he’d be required to replace his old friend. Gilmour had played in bands before, but supplanting such a revered titan of the psychedelic trend was a different matter entirely.
After a period of cutting their teeth at London’s UFO Club, which saw Barrett and the group hone their incongruous psychedelic style, they released their debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, in August 1967. Blending Barrett’s take on pop with an improvisational spirit, rock and pioneering use of studio effects, it was profoundly psychedelic but also something else. The record was as if Barrett had opened a tiny door in the back of his mind, allowing the listener to sample his surreal LSD-coated otherworld within. It was like a planet from the hit sci-fi series Star Trek with the surreal features of Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland.
Despite such an acclaimed and influential record, Barrett’s mental health would sadly plummet not long after its release, and by April of the following year, the band had ejected him. They simply could not go on with a frontman who was so erratic and inconsistent. They were left to finish their highly-anticipated second album, A Saucerful of Secrets, without him.
Naturally, A Saucerful of Secrets has always been regarded as an oddity in Pink Floyd’s back catalogue, featuring a young group with a new lineup trying to find a way forward after Barrett’s departure. This saw bassist Roger Waters step up as the band’s leader, and each member shared songwriting duties to alleviate the burden.
Because of this transitional nature, A Saucerful of Secrets has also long been deemed one of the band’s worst efforts. However, it does contain great moments that point to where they would head now that Waters was in control and Gilmour was impressing himself on proceedings.
One of these is ‘Corporal Clegg’. Written by Waters, it tapped into the oddity of Barrett’s work with Gilmour’s noir-esque guitar line at the start, the over-pronounced English accent, and strange backing vocals. It’s also significant as it saw Gilmour sing the majority of the lead vocals, and the serene moments of release, “Mrs Clegg, you must be proud of him…”, sonically evoke the later grandeur of their work on the likes of The Dark Side of the Moon.
Despite ‘Corporal Clegg’ being a crucial moment for Gilmour and Pink Floyd, speaking to Guitar Heroes in 1983, he explained how uncomfortable the song made him feel at the time. Responding to the suggestion that he was trying to sound like Jimi Hendrix on it, he soberingly conceded that he had no clue what he was doing at the time. He was still forming his now-iconic approach to the six-string
Recalling how uncomfortable working on the song was, he said: “No, not really. I didn’t know what the hell I was trying to play at the time to be quite honest. I’d really no idea. What I was used to playing, the style I had, didn’t fit Pink Floyd at the time, and I didn’t really know quite what to do. Gradually, over the years, my style changed to fit Pink Floyd, and Pink Floyd changed to fit my style.”
When asked to characterise his style back then, the frank Gilmour replied: “I don’t think I had one really.”
