A Saucerful of Secrets is the second album by rock band Pink Floyd, and arguably one of the first progressive rock albums. It was recorded at EMI Studios, Abbey Road Studios, at various dates from August 1967 to April 1968. The album was released that June and reached #9 in the UK, while remaining the only Floyd album to not chart at all in the US (The Piper at the Gates of Dawn's US substitute, entitled Pink Floyd, lingered at the bottom of the US charts some months earlier). Due to Syd Barrett's declining mental state, this would be the last Pink Floyd album that he would work on. During its difficult recording sessions, Syd became increasingly unstable and in January 1968, David Gilmour was brought in. Syd was soon phased out by early March, leaving this new incarnation of Pink Floyd to finish the album. As a result of this, A Saucerful Of Secrets is the only non-compilation Pink Floyd album on which all five band members appear. __NOTOC__

Track listing

1. "Let There Be More Light" (Waters) – 5:38
2. "Remember a Day" (Wright) – 4:33
3. "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" (Waters) – 5:28
4. "Corporal Clegg" (Waters) – 4:13
5. "A Saucerful of Secrets" (Waters, Wright, Mason, Gilmour) – 11:57
6. "See-Saw" (Wright) – 4:36
7. "Jugband Blues" (Barrett) – 3:00

Quotes

• "Was Corporal Clegg on Saucerful of Secrets a deliberate Hendrix-style sound that you were going for?"
  • "No, not really. I didn't know what the hell I was trying to play at the time to be quite honest. I'd really no idea. What I was used to playing, the style I had, didn't fit Pink Floyd at the time, and I didn't really know quite what to do." - David Gilmour - Sounds "Guitar Heroes" Magazine, May 1983
  • "It was really stressful waiting for Syd to come up with the songs for the second album. Everybody was looking at him, and he couldn't do it. Jugband Blues is a really sad song, the portrait of a nervous breakdown. The last Floyd song Syd wrote, Vegetable Man, was done for those sessions, though it never came out." - Peter Jenner

Credits

• Roger Waters - vocals on "Let There Be More Light" and "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun", bass guitar
• David Gilmour - vocals on "Corporal Clegg" and "Let There Be More Light", lead guitar on all except on "Jugband Blues".
• Richard Wright - piano, organ, mellotron, vibraphone, vocals on "Let There Be More Light", "Remember A Day" and "See-Saw"
• Nick Mason - drums, percussion, vocal on "Corporal Clegg"
• Syd Barrett - guitar and vocals on "Jugband Blues", guitars on "Remember a Day"

with:

• Norman Smith - drums and backing vocals on "Remember A Day"
• 8 members of the Salvation Army (The International Staff Band) - Ray Bowes (cornet), Terry Camsey (cornet), Mac Carter (trombone), Les Condon (Eb bass), Maurice Cooper (Euphonium), Ian Hankey (trombone), George Whittingham(Bb bass), and 1 other.

External link

• Album info and trivia

Pink Floyd albums | 1968 albums

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