The early Pink Floyd songs that only feature Roger Waters
It seemed pretty clear that Pink Floyd had no idea what they were doing in 1969. Fresh off the heels of splitting with frontman and main songwriter Syd Barrett, the rest of the band had already recruited new guitarist/singer David Gilmour and recorded most of their second LP, A Saucerful of Secrets, without Barrett. Going back out on the road was a comfortable haven, with the band’s live shows evolving into a spectacle of lights, smoke, and space rock. But the studio was a more confusing place.
While searching for their new identity, it was decided that the best way to move forward was to emphasise the live part of the band’s sound. 1969’s Ummagumma would be half live and half studio album, with the first half being a collection of the band’s headiest and most intense live selections. Tracks like ‘Astronomy Domine’ and ‘Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun’ were established favourites that would help fill in the gaps as the rest of the members tried to figure out how to write songs in the shadow of Barrett’s compositions.
With an “adapt or die” attitude, Pink Floyd divided the responsibilities evenly: each member would get a quarter of the second LP for themselves. In essence, it would be four mini-solo albums pushed together. It was a bold choice, especially for a band whose members were novices when it came to songwriting. Richard Wright contributed the quasi-classical suite ‘Sisyphus, Pts. 1-4’, while Gilmour crafted the folk-tinged quasi-sci-fi three-part epic ‘The Narrow Way’. Nick Mason composed ‘The Grand Vizier’s Garden Party’, an extended drum solo bookended by short flute passages performed by his wife, Lindy.
Roger Waters’ compositions would kick off the second LP. Like the rest of the members, Waters recorded his songs alone and completely solo. With a focus on pastoral nature, Waters crafted ‘Grantchester Meadows’, an acoustic piece featuring chirping birds and honking geese. After seven minutes, Waters’ acoustic guitar drops out, replaced by the incessant buzzing of a bee. When footsteps approach, the bee gets killed, segueing directly into Waters’ second solo composition on the album.
‘Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict’ isn’t so much a song as it is a collection of noises. Fulfilling the song’s ludicrously lengthy title, ‘Several Species’ is an experimental piece that would be a precursor to the Floyd’s most out-there compositions, including the following year’s ‘Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast’ from Atom Heart Mother. “It’s not actually anything, it’s a bit of concrete poetry,” Waters recalled in 1970. “Those were sounds that I made, the voice and the hand slapping were all human-generated – no musical instruments.” Waters’ exaggerated Scottish brogue would also be reprised as the voice of the headmaster on 1980’s The Wall.
Check out ‘Grantchester Meadows’ and ‘Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict’ down below.
