Small Faces – “Itchycoo Park”

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"Itchycoo Park" (Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane) Copyright 1967 United Artists Music Limited, EMI United Partnership Limited

Small Faces are one of the all-time great British bands from the 1960’s but they never got the attention, success or respect they deserved. (Some of that was due to self-inflicted damage, but still…) Their biggest hit was “Itchycoo Park“, 2:45 of psychedelic pop perfection. All 4 members of the band shine, and engineer Glyn Johns gets to introduce the world to the sound of flanging. Feel inclined to blow your mind? Check out this episode.

“Itchycoo Park” (Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane) Copyright 1967 United Artists Music Limited, EMI United Partnership Limited

TRANSCRIPT:

Welcome, everyone, to the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast, part of the Pantheon family of podcasts. I’m your host, Brad Page, and each episode, I pick one of my favorite songs, and we listen to it together, uncovering all the little moments, those special touches that make it a great song. You don’t need to be a musical expert here, we don’t get too technical. All you need is a love for music, and you’ll fit right in here.

On this episode, we are revisiting the Small Faces, because I really do love this band, and I think they’re criminally underrated, certainly here in the US.

The mid 1960’s were an amazing time for music: lots of change, experimentation, and invention. The psychedelic sounds of this era are this perfect blend of adventure, exploration, and naivete. There’s an “Alice in Wonderland” feel to all of it. And one of the best examples of this is “Itchycoo Park” by Small Faces.

We talked about the Small Faces before on this podcast, back on episode #54, and their song “Tin Soldier”, so I won’t rehash their biography again. You can go back and listen to that episode.

But for a quick refresher, Small Faces was formed in 1965 by guitarist/vocalist Steve Marriott and bass player Ronnie Lane, with Kenny Jones on drums and Ian McLagan on keyboards. Like other British bands of the era, The Who, for example, they started by playing covers of American blues and R&B artists. But by 1966, they were writing their own songs, primarily composed by Marriott and Lane. “Itchycoo Park” was their 10th single overall, but only their second single for their new record label, Immediate Records, who allowed them a lot more freedom in the studio to experiment.

The song was released in August 1967, the height of the “Summer of Love”, and it reached number 3 on the UK charts, number 16 in the US and number 1 in Canada.

The song was written by Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane. It all started with an idea from Ronnie Lane, inspired by Oxford, England, and a park near where Marriott and Lane lived. Exactly which park is a question, because both Lane and Marriott referred to different parks over time. According to Lane, the initial musical idea came from a hymn called “God Be In My Head”.

See if you can catch how that melody influenced this song.

They structured “Itchycoo Park” as a dialogue between a normal average “straight” person and someone who was “tuned-in” and enlightened. That’s pretty much the psychedelic sixties in a nutshell.

Marriott and Lane are credited as producers on the track, with Glenn Johns as the engineer.

The song begins with an acoustic guitar in the left channel. Pretty quickly after that, Ronnie Lane’s bass joins in on the right channel, followed by the drums also on the right and the organ on the left. I think there’s a piano in there as well, but it’s pretty low in the mix. And that’s it for the intro– pretty short. The vocals come in right there.

Steve Marriott is one of the all-time great soulful belters, just one of the ballsiest singers. He influenced generations of vocalists, from Robert Plant and Paul Rogers right up through Chris Robinson of the Black Crows and beyond. He’s on my list of the all-time greatest singers. I just love his voice.  But, you know, he could also hold back and sing more gently, as he does here.

A couple of other things I want to point out before we move on: Let’s remove the vocals and listen to just the backing track here. You can hear Ian McLagan’s organ part a lot clearer and especially listen to the bass. Ronnie Lane had this really unique loping style of playing that’s really on display here.

All right, let’s get to the second part of the verse. This is the part where the dialogue between the two characters comes in, as we mentioned before, with the backing vocals from Ronnie Lane; Ronnie Lane playing the part of the straight man and Steve Marriott being, well, Steve Marriott.

That’s more of the classic Marriott vocal there. This leads us into the chorus. “It’s all too beautiful”– the ultimate vision of the sixties if only that were.

There’s this little descending keyboard lick that’s kind of central to that whole chorus.

Now this brings us to the bridge. This was Steve Marriott’s biggest writing contribution to the song. He wrote this part, but what really makes it interesting is the way it was recorded. This was one of the very first records to use the effect that would become known as “flanging”. You can hear it on the vocal and the drum track.

A recording engineer named George Chkiantz is generally credited with inventing this flanging technique. He showed it to Glyn Johns, who used it on this recording. Eventually, they developed a way to do this electronically. And of course, now, like everything, you can do it digitally. I’m using a software plugin to do it to my voice right now. But back in 1967, the only way to do this was manually. Two tape machines were synchronized together, playing the same song. And by slightly slowing down one of the tapes, usually by placing your thumb on the flange of one of the tape reels, hence the name flanging, you would get this effect, which would then be recorded onto a third tape machine. There was a lot of work required to get this sound.

So we’ve been listening to the stereo version of this song because I think the stereo version provides a little better differentiation on the individual parts. But on the original mono mix of this track, I think the flanging is a little more obvious. So let’s just hear this chorus from the mono mix.

Let’s go back to the stereo version and hear the second verse. This features more of the back and forth between the lead and the backing vocals.

Let’s listen to just the vocal track.

The BBC initially banned this song because they were concerned that “I get high” was a drug reference. But the band said, “Oh, no, this song, it’s about a park. Of course, we’re talking about swinging on a swing. You know, when you’re swinging, you try to get higher and higher. That’s what we meant.” They were shocked – shocked – that you would think this song was about drugs. And the BBC bought that story.

Here’s the second time around for the bridge, and this time I think the flanging is even more prominent.

That “Ha” that Marriott puts in there. From here, they repeat the chorus until the song fades out, and they apply the flanging effect to it as well. Steve Marriott, as he always does, sounds great here.

Small Faces – “Itchycoo Park”

The small faces recorded dozens of songs that I think stand up to the best British bands of that decade. The Beatles, Stones, The Who, The Kinks… The Small Faces released stuff that was just as good, in some cases even better.

But fate just didn’t really go their way and to be honest, they never really got their act together. There was a self-destructive streak there, especially with Steve Marriott, which would only get worse throughout his life. As we’ve discussed on this podcast before, Steve Marriott died in a house fire in 1991. He was 44. Ronnie Lane was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and died in 1997, age 51. Keyboard player Ian McLagan had a long career as an in-demand session musician and sideman until he died of a stroke in 2014. Drummer Kenny Jones went on to play with The Who, and at the time of this recording, he’s still with us and continues to oversee the legacy of the Small Faces.

If you’d like to explore more Small Faces, there’s a ton of compilation albums out there. Some are better than others. My favorite is one called “The Autumn Stone”. I would start there. There’s also one called “The Ultimate Collection”. That one’s pretty good, too.

Thanks for hanging out here on this edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. As you probably know by now, new episodes of this show come out twice a month, so I’ll be back in about two weeks with a brandy new episode. If you can’t bear to wait for the next episode, you can catch up on all of our previous shows on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com or just look for us in your favorite podcast app.

And if that’s not enough, there are plenty more music-related shows that you should check out right here on the Pantheon Podcast Network. We’d love it if you’d leave a review of the show wherever it is that you listen, just post a comment there. You can also find us on Facebook, just search for the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast, you’ll find our page.

And the most important thing you can do if you’d like to support the show is to just recommend the show to your friends, because your word-of-mouth carries a lot more weight than any promotion I can do. So, as always, thanks for that.

And thanks for listening to this episode on “Itchycoo Park” by Small Faces.

Sifting Through Rubble: 1960’s Psychedelia from the UK

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A while back, we did an episode celebrating the Nuggets album, that quintessential collection of 1960’s psychedelic garage rock.  But psychedelia was an international phenomenon, and on this episode, we’re travelling across the pond to feature the long-lost psychedelic bands from the UK.  All of these selections are available on the excellent compilation albums in the Rubble series—if you like what you hear here, check those out.

TRANSCRIPT:

Welcome back to the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. I’m Brad Page, your host here on the Pantheon Podcast Network, where each episode we explore some of my favorite songs. About two years ago, I did a special edition of the podcast to celebrate the anniversary of the “Nuggets” album. One of the most important compilation albums ever released, “Nuggets” celebrated the forgotten bands from the 60’s psychedelic garage rock era. It inspired many other collections of long lost sounds from that era, when it seemed there was a teenage band on every street and all things seemed possible. There was so much music being made that “Nuggets” couldn’t possibly cover it all, even over the course of multiple volumes.

One of the things about “Nuggets” is that it was very US-centric. But of course, there was psychedelic music being made in garages, basements and living rooms around the world, especially in the UK. And one of the companion series to “Nuggets” were the “Rubble” albums, collecting tons of obscure 60’s bands from the UK and Europe. Starting in 1984, there would ultimately be 20 “Rubble” albums issued. On this episode, we’ll be sampling a whole bunch of songs from the first ten volumes of “Rubble” So strap yourself in, because we’re setting the wayback machine to 1960s England.

Whether you call it psychedelic rock, garage rock, or one of the more esoteric names like pop, Psych or Freakbeat, we’re talking about bands that formed in the wake of the Big Bang that was The Beatles, when millions of teenagers and young adults went out and bought guitars and drums and formed bands of their own. Some of these bands were more professional than others, but the one thing they all have in common is that none of them had any long-term success. Although, as we’ll see, occasionally a band member would go on to find success with another group. On this episode, we’re looking at songs recorded from 1965 to around 1968, primarily from bands from the U. K. although there may be a couple from Europe in here. All of these bands are included on the “Rubble” series of compilation albums.

Let’s kick things off with a band called Fire. Fire were a three-piece band from Hounslow, West London. They were originally called Friday’s Child and recorded a couple of demos which got them some attention from Apple, The Beatles’ record label. Someone suggested they change their name to Fire, and they recorded their first single for Decca Records in March 1968. When it came time to record their second single, the record label forced them to record a song by an outside songwriter and the band didn’t even play on the single. They were not happy about any of that. And that pretty much ended their relationship with Apple and Decca. They would record one album for Pye Records in 1970, but that was it for Fire. We’re going to go back to their first single from 1968– this song they wrote and played themselves. It’s called “My Father’s Name Is Dad”, and despite the wacky title, this song actually has a great Beatle-ish guitar riff and a pretty catchy chorus.

That was Fire with “My Father’s Name Is Dad”.

Here’s a song by The Clique or The Clique depending on where you’re from. I guess The Clique were from north London. I don’t know much about this band, but this was their second single from September 1965, produced by the legendary British producer Larry Page, who produced The Kinks and The Troggs classic “Wild Thing”. This is another song with an awkward title– This one’s called “We Didn’t Kiss, Didn’t Love, But Now We Do”. Great guitar sound, though.

The Clique – “We ​Didn’t ​Kiss, ​Didn’t ​Love, ​But ​Now ​We ​Do”.

This next song is one of the most interesting stories of the British psychedelic scene in the 1960s. Follow me on this one, because it’s a bit of a long story, but worth the payoff. Zoot Money and The Big Roll Band were formed in the early 60’s featuring vocalist and keyboard player Zoot Money. They primarily played soul and R&B tunes. But when the scene began to change and the psychedelic sound was all the rage, Zoot changed the name of the band to Dantalian’s Chariot in 1967 and essentially rebranded them as an acid-tinged psychedelic rock band. They played shows with Pink Floyd and the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, performing in white robes with one of the best psychedelic light shows around. In September 1967, they released their one and only single, a psychedelic pop masterpiece called “Madman Running Through The Fields”. They went into the studio to record an album, but most of it was rejected by the record label. And when it was eventually retooled and released, it came out as a Zoot money and the Big Roll Band album– Dantalian’s Chariot was no more, having lasted only a year. For decades, it was thought that those original Dantalian’s Chariot recordings were lost. But they were eventually rediscovered and released on an album called “Chariot’s Rising” in 1996, almost 30 years after they were originally recorded. Now, if the name Zoot Money sounds at all vaguely familiar to you, it may be because you’ve heard of their guitar player. Andy Summers played guitar in Zoot Money’s band, and he followed him into Dantalian’s Chariot, co- writing many of their songs. Andy Summers would go on to play in a little band called The Police. But for now, let’s go back to 1967, when Andy Summers was wearing white robes and writing psychedelic songs like this one. This is the legendary track “Madman Running Through The Fields”

Dantalian’s Chariot “Madman Running Through The Fields”.

Next up is a band called Jason Crest. There’s nobody named Jason Crest in Jason Crest, just five guys from Kent who were originally called the Good Time Brigade and then the Good Time Losers. Before settling on Jason Crest as their name, they released five singles between 1967 and 1969. Supposedly they put on a killer live show, but it didn’t translate into record sales. Their final single was a song called “Black Mass”. Though it’s more goofy than it is scary, the record company held this one back out of concern, though it was still released before Black Sabbath recorded their first album. Here’s “Black Mass” by Jason Crest.

“Black Mass” by Jason Crest.

Everybody knows “Magic Bus” by The Who, but did you know that they were not the first ones to release it? Pete Townsend wrote the song, but gave it to a band called The Pudding, who released it in April 1967. The Who didn’t release it until July 1968. Here’s the version by The Pudding.

“Magic Bus” by The Pudding.

Here’s a song by a band called Turquoise. They were from Muswell Hill, a, suburb of London. Muswell Hill was also home to The Kinks. And you can definitely hear, uh, a Kinks influence on this song: “Tales Of Flossy Fillet”, one of only two singles released by Turquoise.

“Tales Of Flossy Fillet” by Turquoise.

If I say the name Dream Police to you, you’re going to think of the song or the album by Cheap Trick, right? But ten years before Cheap Trick released that song, there was a band from Scotland called the Dream Police. Formed in 1967, they released three singles before disbanding. Guitarist and singer Hamish Stewart would go on to form the Average White Band and spend a chunk of the 90’s in Paul McCartney’s band. Here’s a song by the Dream Police called “Living Is Easy”.

Dream Police with “Living Is Easy”.

One thing you don’t see too often with these psychedelic bands, neither here or on the “Nuggets” albums unfortunately, are groups fronted by women. Not too many female voices to be heard. But here’s one. Sharon Tandy was originally from South Africa, moving to the UK in 1964. She actually recorded some tracks at Stax Studios in Memphis and was the opening act on the legendary Stax Volt tour of Europe in 1967. She cut two singles with the band Floor de Lis. Here’s one of those tracks a nice riffy rocker called “Hold On”.

Sharon Tandy and Fleur de Lis with “Hold On”.

This next group was originally called the Silvertone Set. Playing mostly soul and R & B influenced songs, they changed their name to “The Elastic Band” and released one album and a couple of singles, none of which were hits. Their guitar player, Andy Scott, would later become a member of the quintessential glam band, Sweet. Here’s a song he co wrote for The Elastic Band called “Eight And A Half Hours Of Paradise”.

“Eight And ​A Half ​Hours ​Of ​Paradise” by The Elastic Band

The Dakotas were from Manchester, England. They first came to fame as the backing band for Billy J. Kramer in 1964. Mick Green joined them as their guitarist. He’d made a name for himself with Johnny Kidd and the Pirates. The Dakotas released a few singles on their own. This is a particularly tasty b-side featuring a great guitar riff from Mick Green. It’s called “The Spider & The Fly”.

“The Spider & The Fly” by The Dakotas.

For the next couple of tracks, we’re going to cheat a little bit and go outside of the UK. We’re going to take a side trip to the Netherlands and listen to a song by a band called Group 1850. This track is one of the loopiest psychedelic tracks I’ve ever heard. Manic drumming, spoken word chanting, trippy guitar work and a flute. Folks, this one’s got it all. It’s called “Mother No Head”.

“Mother No Head” by Group 1850.

Here’s another Dutch band, Dragonfly. These guys never had a hit outside of their home country, but they did manage to release two singles. Dragonfly was wearing face makeup years before Kiss came up with it. You can find some clips on YouTube if you look for them. Here’s a song by Dragonfly.

“Celestial Empire” by Dragonfly

Back in the British Isles, The Flies were making a stir in London. Apparently, they dumped 800 bags of flour on their audience at one show. Here are the flies covering The Monkees. They slow “I’m Not Your Stepping Stone” down and bring out the nasty edge in this classic song.

The Flies with their version of “I’m Not Your Stepping Stone”

Birmingham was the birthplace of a bunch of great British bands, enough that they coined their own term for the Birmingham sound: Brumbeat. The Knight Riders were purveyors of the Brumbeat sound before changing their name to The Idle Race. They’re mostly remembered for launching the career of first Roy Wood, then Jeff Lynne. Both would get together in The Move and eventually form the Electric Light Orchestra. Here’s an Idle Race song called “Knocking Nails Into My House” that shows that Jeff Lynne had something going on right from the start.

The Idle Race “Knocking Nails Into My House”

All the bands we’ve been talking about here slipped into obscurity pretty quickly, never to be heard again. But let’s hear from one band that did make an impact. Though they never had big hits in the US, they were very influential in the UK. The Pretty Things formed in 1963. Initially they played bluesy R & B influenced stuff like the Yardbirds or the Rolling Stones, but by the time they signed with EMI in 1967, they were a full-on on psychedelic band. They released a couple of singles, including “Talking About The Good Times”, one of the all-time time greatest psychedelic tracks, and then released the album “SF Sorrow”, which is acknowledged as being the very first rock opera, beating The Who’s “Tommy” by over a year. They released a dozen albums over their career and are still referenced today as an influence. So let’s go back to February 1968 and listen to “Talking About The Good Times”.

“Talking About The Good Times” by The Pretty Things

Let’s hear one more. The Onyx came from Cornwall, originally named Dick and The Hayseeds, but changed their name to The Onyx around 1966 and signed to Pye Records. They were known for doing great cover versions, but released a handful of self-penned penned singles, including “You Got To Be With Me” their first single in 1968, which is super catchy and features a very ​McCartney-esque ​bass ​part.

The Onyx “You Gotta Be With Me”

Well, I hope you enjoyed this trip through the sounds of psychedelia from 1960’s UK. As I said, all of these tracks can be found on the first ten volumes in the “Rubble” series. There is a box set that contains all 10 CDs. If you really dug this episode, it might be worth seeking out that collection. I recommend it.

New episodes of this podcast come out on the 1st and the 15th of every month, so I’ll be back in your ears soon. You can catch up on all the episodes you missed on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com, or just look for us in your favorite podcast app. And while you’re there, leave a review of the show. I always hear that reviews are the number one thing that the algorithms use to determine how shows get ranked, and who gets exposed to the podcast. So if you can leave even a short review, that’d be great.

Thanks for taking the time to listen to this episode. I’m going to leave you with one more clip. You may remember the band Golden Earring for their hits “Radar Love” and “Twilight Zone”, but these guys have been together since 1961. They’re another Dutch band, and in 1966, they recorded a commercial for Coca Cola. It was released on a single that was apparently only available at one Dutch grocery store. The band didn’t particularly like doing it, but they needed the money to buy a new van. Such are the artistic compromises you make in the music business. So I’ll leave you with “Things Go Better With Coke” from 1966 by Golden Earring.

Pink Floyd – “See Emily Play”

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Pink Floyd "See Emily Play" (Syd Barrett) Copyright 1967 Westminister Music Limited

“See Emily Play” was only Pink Floyd’s 2nd single, but it was a watershed moment in psychedelic rock history. Though Syd Barrett’s body of work was relatively small, he left behind a huge legacy that’s still influencing people today. This song is one of the highlights of his short and tragic career.

“See Emily Play” (Syd Barrett) Copyright 1967 Westminster Music Limited

TRANSCRIPT:

It’s time to hop on your bike and pedal into interstellar overdrive, because on this edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast, we are swinging by for a visit with Sid Barrett and Pink Floyd.

I’m your host, Brad Page, and you’re joining me here on the Pantheon Podcast Network, where each show, I pick a favorite song and we explore it together, listening to all the elements that make it a great song. If you’ve been listening to this show, or any of the podcasts on the Pantheon Network, then you know we’ve been on board with Nick Mason and his “Saucer Full of Secrets” tour this year. Nick is, of course, the drummer for Pink Floyd; he’s played on every Pink Floyd album. In fact, he’s the only member of Pink Floyd who’s played on every single Pink Floyd album. There’s a trivia question for you. With his “Saucer Full of Secrets” project, he performs all the early Pink Floyd material. These are the songs that the other guys just don’t play, in particular the Sid Barrett-era stuff. So these concerts, they’re really something special. I just got back from seeing two shows on this tour in Boston, MA, and Providence, Rhode Island, and it was great. It inspired me to dig into one of the songs he’s playing on this tour, one of the earliest Pink Floyd recordings and one of Sid Barrett’s classics– a song called “See Emily Play”.

[Music]

Nick Mason was born on January 20, 1944 in Birmingham, England, though his family moved to London when he was pretty young. When he was twelve years old, he would spend all night listening to “Rockin’ to Dreamland” on the radio and fell in love with rock and roll. He picked up the drums, and while a student at Regent Street Polytechnic, he met two other budding musicians: Roger Waters and Richard Wright.

Richard Wright was born July 28, 1943. He learned piano and trumpet, and taught himself how to play guitar, and studied at the Eric Gilder School of Music in London. But then he switched to architecture, and that’s how he ended up at the Regent Street School.

George Roger Waters was born September 6, 1943. His father was killed in World War II when Roger was only five years old; his mother moved the family to Cambridge, where he became friends with a young lad named Sid Barrett.

Roger Keith Sid Barrett was born in Cambridge on January 6, 1946. His father, Dr. Barrett, worked at the university and was also a musician, and he encouraged all five of his children to play, but Dr. Barrett died from cancer when Sid was about 15. Around that time, Sid started playing guitar and formed his first band.

Roger Waters, Richard Wright and Nick Mason began playing together and formed a band called Tea Set. They moved into a house owned by Mike Leonard, and they were joined by another resident of that house, a guitar player named Bob Close. Shortly after that, Sid Barrett would join the band.

So now the band known as Tea Set included Sid Barrett on guitars and vocals, Bob Close on guitar, Rick Wright on keyboards, Roger Waters on bass and Nick Mason on drums. Tea Set recorded a few demos, including a cover of the Slim Harpo song “I’m a King Bee”:

[Music]

That’s Sid singing the lead vocals on both of those tracks. By the middle of 1965, Bob Close had left, and the remaining four– Barrett, Waters, Wright and Mason– renamed themselves the Pink Floyd Sound. Sid came up with the band name by combining the names of two blues musicians, Pink Anderson and Floyd Counsel.

The Pink Floyd Sound began playing these events known as “Happenings” in 1966. It was at one of these Happenings that they caught the attention of Peter Jenner. Amongst many things, Jenner had set up a small record company called DNA Productions. One of their productions was a band called AMM, who were avant-garde pioneers. They released an album in 1966 called AMM Music, one of the earliest experimental rock albums.

[Music]

You can imagine how those sounds would influence a band like Pink Floyd.

Peter Jenner was knocked out by what Pink Floyd was doing, and along with his friend, Andrew King, they signed on as Pink Floyd’s first managers. Jenner and King started getting them bigger and better gigs, including at the legendary UFO or UFO Club, which Pink Floyd played for the first time on December 23, 1966. This is where they began working with a psychedelic light show.

At the UFO Club, they met a producer named Joe Boyd who wanted to sign them to Electra Records. But Electra wasn’t interested. But Joe Boyd did end up producing Pink Floyd’s first single, Arnold Lane.

[Music]

In February 1967, Pink Floyd finally signed a contract with EMI.  “Arnold Lane” could have been a big hit, but it was banned by the BBC because of its lyrics about a cross-dressing underwear thief.

The next single, “See Emily Play”, would fare a little better. Recorded in May 1967 and released as a single in June, “See Emily Play” was written by Sid Barrett, and features Sid on guitar and lead vocals, Richard Wright on keyboards, Roger Waters on bass and Nick Mason on drums. It was produced by Norman Smith.

Norman was a house producer and engineer at EMI. With a pretty impressive resume including work with the Beatles, he was the perfect choice to capture Pink Floyd’s psychedelic visions on tape.

The song opens with Rick Wright’s Farfisa organ, Roger Waters playing alternating notes an octave apart on his bass, and some trippy sound effects, most likely created by Sid messing around with his Binson Echorec on his guitar sound. Back in the day, the way you created an echo sound on stage or in the studio was to use a mechanical device like a tape loop, or in the case of the Binson Echorec, a magnetic drum. Binson was an Italian company that pioneered the magnetic drum recorder for producing echoes. The Echorec had a record head and four playback heads arranged around a rotating drum. Every echo device– the EchoPlex, the Fender Dimension Four, the Watkins Copycat, Roland Space Echo and the Binson Echorec– Each has a unique sound. The Binson Echorec became an essential element in the Pink Floyd sound. Sid Barrett, Rick Wright and Roger Waters would all use it, as would David Gilmour when he joined the band later that year.

Let’s go back and listen to just Sid’s guitar sound with that Binson Echorec. Rick plays a short organ solo while Roger plays a prominent bass riff pretty forward in the mix.

[Music]

The intro has been hanging around an A chord, but once the verse begins, it’s going to shift down to a G, which changes the mood a little bit.

[Music]

So, who is Emily? The character in the song could have been inspired by Emily Young, daughter of Lord Kennet, who was a frequent guest at the UFO club, and she would become a famous sculptor. It could be Anna Murray, a friend of Sid’s, or probably most likely just a product of Sid’s imagination.

Let’s listen to the vocals which are doubled with some backing vocals, probably overdubbed by Sid and Rick.

[Music]

That brings us to the chorus. It’s a pretty short verse. Notice the little piano fills in the chorus. They have a quick echo effect on them. Once again, that’s the Binson Echorec.

[Music]

The last line of that chorus is “free games for May, see Emily play”. Earlier that same month, May 1967, Pink Floyd played a special concert in London called “Games for May”. It was billed as “Space Age Relaxation for the climax of spring”. Sid wrote a song especially for the occasion, which he called “Games for May”. That song would quickly evolve into “See Emily Play”. Let’s listen to the vocals for this chorus.

[Music]

At the end of the chorus, there’s a sound like a rocket or an engine taking off that was created by Sid using a metal slide, or maybe his Zippo lighter, and sliding it up the guitar strings. With plenty of that echo, of course.

Then there’s a short section where the track speeds up for a few bars. So for that part, Rick Wright’s piano, along with a little bit of guitar and drums, were recorded at half speed, so that when the tape was played back at normal speed, the part was twice as fast. So let’s slow that down to get an idea of what that might have sounded like originally:

[Music]

And here’s how it sounds again after it was speeded up and edited back into the song:

[Music]

The more subtle but interesting thing is the way Nick Mason’s drum beat shifts between regular time and double time throughout the whole song. Let’s hear his drums during that verse.

[Music]

And that verse leads us to the second chorus. So let’s let that play through.

[Music]

Let’s go back and listen to the backing tracks for this chorus. Listen specifically for the sharp, staccato chords that Sid is playing on his guitar, and to that piano with the echo effect. That chorus ends with a blast of fuzz-tone guitar. And then we’re into the solo section. Rick Wright takes the lead on keyboards, but Sid is doing some fun stuff in the background on his guitar.

[Music]

Let’s see if we can hear more of Sid’s guitar at the end there. Again, he’s using some kind of a metal slide, probably his Zippo lighter, high up the strings with that Binson echo to create those chirping sounds.

That brings us to the final verse. Sounds to me like there might be some timpani drums overdubbed at the beginning of the verse. Let’s listen to that verse.

[Music]

I’d like to hear those vocals at the end again. Here’s the last chorus.

[Music]

And let’s go back and listen to those harmony vocals.

[Music]

And rather than a big finale at the end, the song fades out on a two-note phrase played on the bass by Roger Waters, leaving the song somewhat unresolved at the end.

“See Emily Play” by Pink Floyd.

The song was released as a single on June 16, 1967 in the UK; I don’t think it was released in the US. Pink Floyd’s first album, “Piper at the Gates of Dawn”, was released two months later. This song is not on the UK version of the album, but the record company did stick it on the American version for the US market. The song has also been included on numerous compilation albums, and it’s on the deluxe 3-CD reissue of “Piper at the Gates of Dawn”, which I highly recommend. And that’s the version that I used here, which is in mono, by the way. With all those psychedelic effects, you don’t even notice that it’s not in stereo.

I got to thank Nick Mason for working with Pantheon on the tour. I know all of the podcasts that participated were really grateful for the opportunity to go and see the shows, and to talk to Nick and the guys in the band.

We’ll be back in two weeks with another new episode of the “I’m In Love With That Song podcast. I’m especially looking forward to the next episode, as it’s a fun one and a great follow-on from this episode.

You can find all of our previous shows on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com, or just look for them in your favorite podcast player. You can leave a review on podchaser.com or share your thoughts and feedback with us on our Facebook page– just look for the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast on Facebook and you’ll find us.

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Thanks for listening to this episode on Pink Floyd and “See Emily Play”.

[Music]

Before you move on, I just wanted to make a couple of recommendations: If you enjoyed this episode, you should check out a few of our other shows. We’ve done multiple episodes on the Rolling Stones, the Kinks and The Who. We’ve discussed songs by Todd Rungren, Yes, Aerosmith, The Beach Boys, Led Zeppelin and Queen. We’ve done deep dives into songs by Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, Al Green and Stevie Wonder. And of course, we’ve discussed John Lennon, George Harrison and a few McCartney songs. So there’s plenty of other shows for you– I hope you give them a listen. Thank you for being a part of the “I’m in Love With That Song” podcast.