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Pink Floyd - ”A Nice Pair” (1973)

A Nice Pair is a double album consisting of Pink Floyd's first two albums, The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn (1967) and A Saucerful of Secrets (1968). These albums show to some extent a different side of PF than the one we might associate with records like Dark Side Of The Moon or Wish You Were Here. Instead of the later sweeping concept albums, we here find a psychedelic playfulness, especially on the first LP. The sound on these albums are also less timeless – you here that you visit the 60s.

The cover was created by Hipgnosis and is made up by a total of 18 small images of proposed, but unused, cover images to the album.

The Piper At the Gates of Dawn may well be described as Syd Barrett's high point in his career. On this record, he has written all of the songs except one, usually alone, sometimes together with the others. He is also the lead singer on almost all of the songs, some would go as far as to call this a Syd Barrett album.

The music on this album can not be called anything but psychedelic, and I experience it as a psychedelia with a dark vibe. If that is because of the sound, the harmonies, the lyrics or the knowledge of Syd's subsequent fate, I can not answer. An acquaintance of mine who was a heavy user of cannabis described this as his favorite album to listen to while under the influence of the drug. He used the term "unconscious music" as he felt that the music to some extent opened the door to that forbidden part of the brain. Now, you might want to believe him or not, but I am inclined to agree with him. These are not songs about peace, love & understanding with druggy bluesfueled jam sessions, instead they are typical Syd Barrett songs with lyrics that may be viewed as playful or, as in my and my friends' case, dark and strange. The sound is also darker than the usual 60s psychedelia which on the whole provides a record that somehow gets into your head. My acquaintance was convinced that PF knowingly created such music in some inscrutable purpose, personally, I am not as convinced.

The recording took place in Studio 3 at EMI Studios while the Beatles were there and recorded Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. Producer was Norman Smith, who had been studioengineer at all the Beatles recordings up to Rubber Soul. PF's drummer Nick Mason describes that the recording of the album went smoothly and was very effective. Norman Smith on the other hand, remembers the recording as "a hell", and this was aimed at both the recording itself and the band members' musical talents.

On the album there are a few examples of PF's early fondness of strange musical journeys and / or experiments. These are strange sounds (noises) in a relatively unstructured form that might be fun to create but not so fun to listen to. Instellar Overdrive is an example of this. If I had the records on CD, I would click "Skip" when you got to this and similar songs.

The songs on the album, however, are overall really good, with a few exceptions, and every one has its own unique characteristics. But I can’t escape the feeling that there is something strange with the record, even a playful song like Bike ("I've got a bike, you can ride it if you like, it's got a basket, a bell that rings and things to make it look good ...") has some sort of dark vibe. This makes the LP both fascinating and leaves some kind of wonder, a wonder about why it leaves you wondering. Don’t ask me to elaborate on this, it’s hard to put the finger on it and my subconscious doesn’t easily turn into the form of written words.

Allmusic.com writes about music: ”...giving the impression of chaos and confusion lurking beneath the bright surface. The Piper at the Gates of Dawn successfully captures both sides of psychedelic experimentation -- the pleasures of expanding one's mind and perception, and an underlying threat of mental disorder and even lunacy.”

On the second album, A Saucerful Of Secrets, the band seems to have matured. The songs have become more serious with a different tone. Syd's mental health had deteriorated dramatically and he contributed only with one song, the closing song Jugband Blues. PF had because of his increasingly confused and difficult behavior picked up a new member of the band, David Gilmour. This man was to become an important part of PF's future creations. For various reasons the band had not gotten around to get rid of Syd, despite all the difficulties he created. This means that this is the only album with PF where all five members took part. There are many stories about Syd concerning strange interviews, bizarre stage performances or sudden physical (or mental) absence from this time. The ones interested can Google his name to share his story.

The title track of A Saucerful Of Secrets is again one of these long instrumental songs that maybe should be called sound art. But I notice a difference from the similar projects of the first album, the tone and the mood feels more controlled and the band seems to have an idea what they want with these sound experiments. They seem to have some sort of goal.

Rick Wright has contributed with a couple of songs of which I find Remember a day the finest. He also sings lead vocals on four of the LPs eleven tracks, and does backing vocals on the title track, making it the only PF album where he sings on more songs than anyone else. The Roger Waters creation Corporal Clegg, is a song many people believe is an attempt to imitate Syd Barrett's more playful way of creating songs, but a failed one. Personally, I have always liked this song as it is more classic psychedelia than many other things they did. Believe it or not, but Nick Mason sings on this track which makes this the only album where all five members contribute with vocals (even if all members, then four, contributed with their voices on Meddle). Waters also contributes on this album with the classic Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun, a favorite of mine that still holds true. This track is also the only song that all five members take part in, which makes it unique in the PF catalogue. I have always liked Syd's song contribution, Jugband Blues, a song that leaves you somewhat sad from knowing that this was the last thing he contributed to Pink Floyd. After this it just went downhill for him.

Just like on their first album, most of the songs have a dark side that makes me want to use the term "unconscious music" again. And yes, my acquaintance also played this album a lot when he used cannabis and has described the dark inner journeys he made. But unlike their first album there are songs here, or parts of songs, which lack this dark vibration, such as Corporal Clegg or the Rick Wright song See-Saw. If this is good or bad thing I don’t know.

Pink Floyd had from the start put a heavy focus on their stage shows which usually offered a lot of visual stimuli. Their light show was always evocative, and were made with lamps, spotlights and projectors. Large parts of their audience of course made the experiences even more thrilling with the help of drugs, but the members themselves were never very fond of these substances (except for Syd). Drummer Nick Mason describes in his autobiography Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd, that in addition to a joint from time to time at leisure time (“which everyone smoked in those days "), they used no drugs. And certainly not during a concert. According to Nick the members of the band always identified themselves more as musicians than as hippies or spokesmen for the psychedelic movement.

In conclusion, I have always liked these records and they have been played a lot in my home and best of all - they are still great. The reader may wonder why I bought this double album instead of the two separate records. The truth is that I didn’t really know so much of PFs earlier creations at the time of the purchase (I was 18, I think) and simply didn’t know that this record was actually two.

Favorite Songs

Matilda Mother

Remember a Day

Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun

Tracklist