‘A Saucerful Of Secrets’: The Pink Floyd song their producer wanted to erase
Most bands that are still wet behind the ears are usually at the mercy of their producer. Even for a band that would scale to the massive heights that The Beatles did, they had George Martin acting as the voice of reason when a song wasn’t coming together or when things were divulging into chaos. For a band that was in the process of falling apart like Pink Floyd was in the late 1960s, Richard Wright remembered their producer having serious pushback when they brought this song to the table.
Because, really, what the hell were they supposed to do once Syd Barrett left? He had played everything that the band had put out, written most of the songs, and served as the group’s frontman, so when he suddenly disappeared into the recesses of his own mind, there was no rulebook for what should happen next.
And it’s not like A Saucerful of Secrets showed the band at their absolute best without him. Aside from Barrett’s final appearances on songs like ‘Jug Band Blues’, tunes like ‘Remember a Day’ are still a bit spotty compared to everything they had made. And when tunes are actually ready for primetime like ‘Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun’, it’s clear that the production isn’t doing them any favours.
If all of their new material felt off the wall, though, most weren’t ready for what the title track was going to bring. The whole point behind the track was to make something that no one had ever heard before, but the avant-garde approach to the tune as well as the meandering pieces of melody that stick out feel like the band is making half of it up as they go along and aren’t completely convinced of themselves.
Especially since ‘See Emily Play’ was their last tune, this was practically a disaster. The main foothold that the group had in the mainstream was their sense of whimsy, and hearing this song felt like all of the madness that had come with Barrett’s departure, somehow seeping into the music and becoming more and more discordant by the second.
Although the band had a clear idea of what they wanted it to be, their producer pulled back on them releasing it, with Wright recalling, “I did the title track, and I remember Norman saying, You just can’t do this, it’s too long. You have to write three-minute songs. We were pretty cocky by now and told him, If you don’t wanna produce it, just go away.”
But if he did leave the group to their own devices, the final track does sound like a band that has no real idea of what it wants to be. However, if this discordant bit of noise was too much for some people, the song would get a second wind once they started performing it live at their classic Pompeii gigs.
Compared to the studio, the band found the groove and managed to make the strange noises sound otherworldly, especially when Waters comes in with the final piece and starts hitting the gong. Somewhere in between those few years, the old Floyd was dead, and in its place was one of the biggest names in progressive music.
