The Pink Floyd song Richard Wright called “appalling”
Every single member of Pink Floyd was pivotal to making the band what they were. While it’s easy to say that Syd Barrett was responsible for all the goodwill the band had in the beginning before passing the torch to Roger Waters and David Gilmour, the massive amount of remarkable moments to come out of Nick Mason and Richard Wright can’t be overlooked. Although they created a rich tapestry of sound together, Wright wasn’t exactly proud of every record he made.
When the band were first starting, where the song ended up would have been anybody’s guess. Born out of the counterculture movement going on in the 1960s, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn was the result of anything coming out of Barrett’s head, featuring massive thought experiments on tracks like ‘Bike’ and ‘Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk’. Although the band were on an even keel for most of that decade, the wheels began to fall out shortly after the band started to tour.
Throughout the time on the road, Barrett began to lose his battle with mental health, often feeling strained when playing live and struggling even to hold his guitar pick straight whenever he played in rehearsals. Though the band weren’t willing to turn their back on their friend, A Saucerful of Secrets would be the final album featuring Barrett’s contributions.
Bringing in replacement guitarist David Gilmour, much of the album features a democratic approach to songwriting, with every band member trying to write tracks for the album. Although Waters would eventually be the clear standout on songs like ‘Set The Controls For the Heart of the Sun’, Wright said that he would never want to listen back to his tracks ‘Remember a Day’ and ‘See-Saw’.
From their initial psychedelic period, Wright’s knowledge of a good hook and surrealistic images fit into the band’s aesthetic. When looking back to what he had done, though, Wright was appalled, saying in A Saucerful of Secrets, “They’re sort of an embarrassment. I don’t think I’ve listened to them ever since we recorded them. It was a learning process. Through writing these songs, I learned that I’m not a lyric writer, for example. But you have to try it before you find out. The lyrics are appalling, terrible, but so were a lot of lyrics in those days”.
Despite not being proud of the lyrics, Wright wouldn’t have to worry about being the main lyricist of the band for long. Standing behind his keyboard, Wright would do most of his talking through his fingers, making the greatest Pink Floyd songs that much better by using different textures across albums like Dark Side of the Moon and Animals.
As the band began to find their style at the end of the 1970s, though, Wright did have some trouble even articulating his musical ideas, eventually being fired from the band during sessions for The Wall and subsequently rehired as a session musician. Although Wright’s talents behind the keyboard can never be equalled in prog rock, it wasn’t an easy journey to go from terrible lyrics to musical genius.
