- CLASSIC ALBUM OF THE WEEK
- Pink Floyd "A Saucerful Of Secrets" 1968 (UK)
- We're featuring songs about outter space and flying saucers on the show this week, and perhaps the most important "space rock" band of them all was The Pink Floyd. The original lineup led by Syd Barrett was one of the leading lights of British psychedlia in 1967, but Barrett was thrown out of the band for his erratic acid-fueled misbehavior in 1968. Although there were two classic songs about "space" on their debut album (Barrett's "Astronomy Domine" and the group-composed instrumental jam "Interstellar Overdrive"), it was on this, their second LP, that Pink Floyd first made "space" the primary focus of their style. An unusual transitional album, this is the only Floyd record on which most of the lead vocals are handled by keyboardist Richard Wright (and drummer Nick Mason even sings lead on "Corporal Clegg"), and the first of a series of records in which the songwriting was evenly divided between the members. After a period where the band labored in relative obscurity figuring out their post-Barrett musical direction, the "mark II" lineup led by Roger Waters and David Gilmour eventually went on to become one of the most popular bands in the world (their classic 1973 LP Dark Side Of The Moon stayed on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart for nearly fifteen years!)
- Here are some vintage video clips of Pink Floyd in 1968, right after Barrett left and David Gilmour replaced him as the band's guitarist: "Let There Be More Light" is more typical of their early acid rock style, and "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun" points towards the atmospheric "space rock" direction they would continue to follow in the 1970's. During this period, the group also released a lot of non-LP singles, in an attempt to duplicate their earlier success with Syd Barrett's pop songs -- here's one written & sung by keyboardist Richard Wright, "Paint Box". Surprisingly, there isn't a lot of footage of the band from their peak years of popularity 1973-1977, though they did release an iconic film in 1972: Pink Floyd At Pompeii. Another classic space rock anthem featured on the show this week is "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft", originally by obscure Canadian art rockers Klaatu, but the Top 40 hit version was a remake by easy listening supergroup The Carpenters!