1/21/2024 0 Comments Madcap laughsThe album had a chequered recording history, with work beginning in mid-1968, but the bulk of the sessions taking place between April and July 1969, for which five different producers were credited − including Barrett, Peter Jenner (1968 sessions), Malcolm Jones (early-to-mid-1969 sessions), and fellow Pink Floyd members David Gilmour and Roger Waters (mid-1969 sessions).Īmong the guest musicians are Willie Wilson from Gilmour’s old band Jokers Wild and several members of Soft Machine. It was recorded after Barrett had left Pink Floyd in April 1968. (The take of "Dark Globe" used on the album also featured out-of-time acoustic guitar playing and an unappealing vocal from Barrett the take that appeared on Opel is generally considered to be far superior.The Madcap Laughs is the debut solo album by the English singer-songwriter Syd Barrett. Most of the songs on the album are held in high regard, with the exception of "Feel", "She Took a Long Cold Look", and "If It's In You" all of which are disjointed and sung in a near-scream from Barrett. It reached #40 in the UK at the time and was fairly well-reviewed, though many critics have since pointed out the nakedness of some of songs, such as "Dark Globe" and "Feel", to be somewhat despairing and reflecting Barrett's anguished mental state at the time. "Octopus" was released as a single in November 1969 and the album itself followed in January 1970.After several months of intermittent recording, the album was finally deemed complete. Even worse, Syd would not allow the musicians to rehearse or re-record their overdubs, insisting that they sounded fine. This was all much to the frustration of the session musicians a close listen to several tracks will reveal the backing band hovering uncertainly here, or being caught off-guard by a chord change there. Unfortunately, Syd's playing and singing were highly erratic and unpredictable-he skipped or added beats seemingly at random, or otherwise he would strum on a single note for a long time before unexpectedly reverting to the main portion of the song. The album featured a rather unorthodox recording process, in which Syd would provide a backing track of his own singing accompanied by acoustic guitar, over which the session musicians would overdub the rest of the arrangement.Roger Waters and David Gilmour were in the process of completing Pink Floyd's ambitious Ummagumma album when they got involved with The Madcap Laughs that July and helped Barrett finish his album.His working style, which was often unfocused, proved to exasperate the production team, and after several sporadic sessions, two more producers - well known to Barrett - were called in to help. Session musicians, namely, members of The Soft Machine, as well as Humble Pie drummer Jerry Shirley were also called in to augment Barrett's songs. In April 1969, Malcolm Jones took over the project and Barrett began working on newer material, while reworking the 1968 recordings.Although the sessions were brief, and they produced some fine material, the project was abandoned for almost a year while Barrett spent much of the year as a recluse.
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