The Madcap Laughs

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The Madcap Laughs is an album by British singer/songwriter Syd Barrett, released on 3 January 1970. It was his first solo album after being replaced in the band Pink Floyd by his old school friend David Gilmour.

History

After leaving the group, Barrett began recording sessions with former Pink Floyd turned Syd Barrett manager Peter Jenner in May 1968. The sessions were brief, as the project was abandoned for almost a year which Barrett spent as a recluse. In April 1969, Malcolm Jones took over the project and Barrett began working on newer material, while reworking the 1968 recordings. 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. It is still a mystery why Jones abandoned production responsibilities, at the end of May, so soon after having assumed them. Jones' recollections of the sessions are that he and Barrett got on well together and had in fact completed half of the album before the new producers took over.

Roger Waters and David Gilmour were in the process of completing Pink Floyd's Ummagumma album when they got involved with The Madcap Laughs that July and helped Barrett finish his album, "in a two-day sprint" according to Rick Sanders, author of Pink Floyd (Futura Publications, 1976).

[Sessions] were pretty tortuous and very rushed. We had very little time, particularly with The Madcap Laughs. Syd was very difficult, we got that very frustrated feeling: Look, its your fucking career, mate. Why don't you get your finger out and do something? The guy was in trouble, and was a close friend for many years before then, so it really was the least one could do."

— David Gilmour,

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. However, Syd's playing and singing were highly erratic and unpredictable—he skipped or added beats and bars seemingly at random, or otherwise he would strum on a single chord for a long time before unexpectedly reverting back to the main portion of the song. This was all much to the frustration of the session musicians; a close listen to several tracks [in particular "No Good Trying" and "Love You"] will reveal the backing band hovering uncertainly here, or being caught off-guard by a chord change there (during an interview, Robert Wyatt recounted that musicians would ask "What key is that in, Syd?" and Barrett would reply "Yeah", or "That's funny"). Syd would not allow the musicians to rehearse or re-record their overdubs, insisting that they sounded fine. After several months of intermittent recording, the album was finally deemed complete.

... I liked what came out, only it was released far too long after it was done. I wanted it to be a whole thing that people would listen to all the way through with everything related and balanced, the tempos and moods offsetting each other, and I hope that's what it sounds like, I've got it at home, but I don't listen to it much now.

— Syd Barrett,

Cover

The cover shows Syd Barrett in his living room. The nude woman appearing on the backside of the record sleeve was an acquaintance of his known as "Iggy the Eskimo". Photographer Mick Rock says, "When I arrived for 'The Madcap Laughs' photo session, Syd was still in his underpants .. His lady friend of two weeks, 'Iggy the Eskimo', was naked in the kitchen ..". In October 2010 she was interviewed, revealing her name is Evelyn and she is of an Anglo-Pakistani background.

Single

"Octopus" was released as a single in November 1969 and the album itself followed in January 1970. It reached #40 in the UK at the time and was fairly well-reviewed.

Later release

As part of Harvest Records's "Harvest Heritage" series of reissues—and to capitalise on the breakthrough commercial success of Pink Floyd—The Madcap Laughs was re-released in September 1974 as record one of a double album, record two being Barrett's second and last solo album, Barrett.

Slowdive covered "Golden Hair", which was used in the opening of the film Mysterious Skin.

Track listing

All songs by Syd Barrett, except where noted.

Side one

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Terrapin Take 1, recorded 11 April 1969, overdubs added 4 May Produced by Malcolm Jones"	5:04
2.	"No Good Trying Take 3, recorded 11 April 1969, overdubs added 3/4 May Produced by Malcolm Jones"	3:26
3.	"Love You Take 4, recorded 11 April 1969, overdubs added 3 May Produced by Malcolm Jones"	2:30
4.	"No Man's Land Take 5, recorded 17 April 1969, overdubs added 4 May Produced by Malcolm Jones"	3:03
5.	"Dark Globe Take 1, recorded 5 August 1969 Produced by David Gilmour and Roger Waters"	2:02
6.	"Here I Go Take 5, recorded 17 April 1969 Produced by Malcolm Jones"	3:11

Side two

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Octopus Take 11, recorded 12 June 1969, overdubs added 13 June Produced by Syd Barrett and David Gilmour"	3:47
2.	"Golden Hair" (Barrett, Joyce) Take 11, recorded 12 June 1969 Produced by Syd Barrett and David Gilmour"	1:59
3.	"Long Gone Take 1, recorded 26 July 1969 Produced by David Gilmour and Roger Waters"	2:50
4.	"She Took a Long Cold Look Take 5, recorded 26 July 1969 Produced by David Gilmour and Roger Waters"	1:55
5.	"Feel Take 1, recorded 26 July 1969 Produced by David Gilmour and Roger Waters"	2:17
6.	"If It's in You Take 5, recorded 26 April 1969 Produced by Malcolm Jones"	2:26
7.	"Late Night Take 2, recorded 28 May 1968, overdubs added 11 April 1969 Produced by Pete Jenner, Malcolm Jones (overdubs)"	3:10

• In 1993, The Madcap Laughs was reissued with several bonus tracks of alternate takes. See Crazy Diamond for track details.

Personnel

• Syd Barrett – guitar, vocals
• David Gilmour – bass, 12-string acoustic guitar, drums (on "Octopus"), production
• Roger Waters – production
• Jerry Shirley – drums
• John Wilson – drums
• Vic Saywell – horn
• Robert Wyatt – drums on 2 and 3 (from Soft Machine)
• Hugh Hopper – bass on 2 and 3 (from Soft Machine)
• Mike Ratledge – keyboards on 2 and 3 (from Soft Machine)

Production personnel

• Tony Clark – engineer
• Storm Thorgerson – photography
• Hipgnosis – cover design
• Jeff Jarratt – engineer
• Peter Jenner – producer
• Malcolm Jones – producer on 1, 2, 3, 6 and 13
• Phil McDonald – engineer
• Peter Mew – engineer
• Mike Sheady – engineer

External links

• The Making of The Madcap Laughs, by Malcolm Jones