Syd Barrett – Boogie Party (1974) Album Edit & New Version of Took Some Blues (1972) (Take 1)

For those not in the know, fan albums are the attempts of me and many others to take songs and put them on an album, typically they’re made to improve upon something, such as an existing album or to take non-album tracks and put them on an album.

This was an interesting one! My plan was to group the last of the 1969-1970 recordings and the two Steve Took-Syd Barrett songs into an album and then the last one would be the 1972-1974 tunes. Upon listening to all these recordings, a problem was discovered. All the 1974 songs are instrumental only and are very demo-sounding. There’s only guitar on every song, bass on a few, and barely any percussion. The 1972 tracks that were supposed to be married to the ‘74 songs have a full band and vocals. Thus, I’ll have to reorganize everything so it all makes sense. It’s just unfortunate that I’ve already released the 1969-1970 set and now I have to redo it. It took only about an hour to have to redo Took Some Blues (1972).

It’s fitting that the last Syd Barrett recording session would consist of simplistic instrumentals. Pink Floyd did a lot of complex instrumentals, which Syd used to do. His severe mental health problem for whatever reason made his songs more “basic”. That being said, Syd’s solo career is very good. Personally, I like all Syd songs, but these last two sets of recordings are not approachable to newcomers due to how bizarre they are and not in a way that works exceptionally well, though there are many redeemable parts that a Syd fan can appreciate. The lack of focus makes these the weakest Syd cuts in my book.

The change to Took Some Blues is the subtraction of “Rhamadam” and the addition of three live tracks recorded by the “Last Minute Put Together Boogie Band”. Their one album mostly lacks Syd, but he plays guitar on three songs. Those three songs are included. I ripped my hair out trying to figure out where to place them. I wanted the two Took-Barrett songs at the end and two connected tracks, “Number Nine” and “Gotta Be A Reason”, right next to each other with “Drinkin’ That Wine” somewhere before the two tracks. That didn’t work out as the weirdly-lengthed songs made it so one side was ten or more minutes longer than the other or the tracklisting was bad. Ultimately, it seemed they couldn’t be next to each other. “Number Nine” stopping suddenly and being continued a few songs later seemed like an interesting concept that I think works despite initially thinking it wouldn’t. This new version of the album has a lot of different types of songs which hopefully coexist nicely. It’s also a happy accident that barring one track, every solo Syd song with someone else on lead vocals is here.

The man of the hour is the last Syd album, Boogie Party. Just like an earlier Syd album constructed by me, Lights, this one is a bunch of weird, avant-garde instrumentals, also a fitting way to end things. I’m curious if these tracks were intended to have vocals. There were three recording sessions planned, but only one happened and the resulting tunes sound incomplete mostly. They’re even all formally unnamed except for, “If You Go, Don’t Be Slow”. The other tracks were named by bootleggers. I wanted the names to have a sense to them, so some were changed. A track listed as “Unfinished ballad” is now “Ballad Of The Unfinished”. “Slow Boogie” is now “Boogie Down”. “Fast Boogie” is “Boogie Up”. Some bootlegs of “Boogie #2” include the phrase “more echo”. I suspect that’s referring to the nature of the song, but it seemed fitting enough to call the song “Boogie #2 – More Echo”. “Boogie #3” is now called “Boogie #3 – Resolution” because I like the sound of it. The amount of tracks that are boogie-esque led me to name the album after that.

The tracks were ordered here to make it seem like they’re supposed to fit together as one big twenty minutes song and that’s why individually they’re incomplete sounding. Admittedly, there is something to be desired, such as fuller sounds with more than one instrument, but it’s still fun and tells you about Syd’s mindspace. They’re followed by an actual twenty minute instrumental. “Rhamadam” was to end the previous album before I made it the opener. Seeing as it’s the most polished production here, it makes sense at the end. If Syd could map out his career, I’d think he’d want to end the album run with a twenty minute instrumental.

Rhamadam ends on a poignant note, seeing as you’ve gone through ten albums of this weird guy whose health progressively decreased. In the beginning, Syd and his band of friends performed 50’s-esque pop songs, then the psychedelic style came and revolutionized their sound, resulting in some excellent, excellent music. For reasons that we don’t really know, Syd melted away slowly. The first recordings with him having problems are still intricate and developed like the music before, but then next album it’s all stripped back to more acoustic sounds and personal lyrics. Eventually, as Syd felt more depressed and out of key with the world, he lost that voice, with most of these tracks having others lead the charge. He could still manage to create, with more attention being focused on his paintings. The paintings continue to express himself, as well as his music. That’s why these two album’s covers are of his paintings.

While he probably didn’t get what was so great about himself, we the fans see it. The impassioned lyrics, the ahead of the time sounds. Even with a little guitar on someone else’s song, he can still make you feel something and consider what music and life is. He did so much in so little time. At least ten albums of material were created by him in under ten years and each song has punch and feeling. Thus, I thank you Roger K. Barrett for creating sounds which continue to inspire and make people like me want to become musicians or artists or whatever need be. I’m thankful that you could capture my essence and many other’s in such a small number of works and smaller amount of time. 

SYD BARRETT – TOOK SOME BLUES

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “Drinkin’ That Wine” (?)
2. “Dolly Rocker” (Syd Barrett)
3. “Let’s Split” (Syd Barrett)
4. “Number Nine” (?)

SIDE B

1. “Bob Dylan Blues” (Syd Barrett)
2. “Word Song” (Syd Barrett)
3. “Gotta Be A Reason” (?)
4. “Molecular Lucky Charm” (? (probably Steve Took and/or Syd Barrett))
5. “Syd’s Wine” (? (probably Steve Took and/or Syd Barrett))

BONUS TRACKS

1. “Dolly Rocker (With Studio Chatter)”
2. “Let’s Split (With Session Chatter)”
3. “Word Song (With Studio Chatter)”
4. “Word Song (Peter Jenner 1974 Mix)”
5. “Words (Alternate Version)”
6. “Untitled Words (Alternate Version Of Word Song)”
7. “Sea Cruise (Cambridge Corn Exchange January 27th 1972)”
8. “L.A To London Boogie (Cambridge Corn Exchange January 27th 1972)”
9. “Ice (Cambridge Corn Exchange January 27th 1972)”
10. “Nadine (Cambridge Corn Exchange January 27th 1972)”
11. “Drinkin’ That Wine (With Chatter) (Cambridge Corn Exchange January 27th 1972)”
12. “Number Nine (With Chatter) (Cambridge Corn Exchange January 27th 1972)”
13. “Let’s Roll (Cambridge Corn Exchange January 27th 1972)”
14. “Sweet Little Angel (Cambridge Corn Exchange January 27th 1972)”

PERSONNEL

• Syd Barrett – guitar (tracks 1-9 (possibly not 8-9)), lead vocals (tracks 2-3, 5-6), possible vocals on tracks 8-9
• Steve Took – unknown role, probably vocal and instrumental (tracks 8-9)
• Bruce Paine – vocals (tracks 1, 7)
• Jack Monck – bass (tracks 1, 4, 7)
• Twink – drums (tracks 1, 4, 7)
• Fred Frith – guitar (tracks 1, 4, 7)
• There’s certainly more people involved and roles filled by Barrett and Took, but there’s sadly a lack of information.

SYD BARRETT – BOOGIE PARTY

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “Boogie #1” (? (probably Syd Barrett))
2. “If You Go, Don’t Be Slow #1” (? (probably Syd Barrett))
3. “Chooka-Chooka Chug Chug” (? (probably Syd Barrett))
4. “Ballad Of The Unfinished” (? (probably Syd Barrett))
5. “Boogie Down” (? (probably Syd Barrett))
6. “Untitled” (? (probably Syd Barrett))
7. “Boogie Up” (? (probably Syd Barrett))
8. “John Lee Hooker” (? (probably Syd Barrett))
9. “If You Go, Don’t Be Slow #2” (? (probably Syd Barrett))
10. “Boogie #2 – More Echo” (? (probably Syd Barrett))
11. “Boogie #3 – Resolution” (? (probably Syd Barrett))

SIDE B

1. “Rhamadam” (Syd Barrett)

BONUS TRACKS

1. “Ballad Of The Unfinished (Sounds Different)”
2. “Ballad Of The Unfinished (22 Second Version)”
3. “Ballad Of The Unfinished (With Studio Chatter)”
4. “Boogie Down (With Studio Chatter)”
5. “John Lee Hooker (Shorter Version)”
6. “If You Go, Don’t Be Slow #2 (With Studio Chatter)”
7. “Boogie #2 – More Echo Fragment (Bernard White 94 Mix)”
8. “Was That Okay”
9. “Rhamadam (With Studio Chatter)”
10. “Lanky Part 2 (Partial Backing Track To Rhamadam)”

PERSONNEL

• Syd Barrett – guitar (tracks 1-12)
• Steve Took – possibly plays congas on track 12
• Peter Jenner – producer (track 12)
• More people, but again, there’s a lack of info

LINKS

Here’s the ten Syd Barrett albums. I’ve ranked them from best to least.

1. Syd Barrett & Pink Floyd – The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn (1967) – YouTube, Spotify, Archive.org
2. Syd Barrett – Barrett (1970) – Spotify, YouTube
3. Syd Barrett – Two Of A Kind (1970) – Archive.org, YouTube
4. Syd Barrett & Pink Floyd – Projection (1967) – Archive.org
5. Syd Barrett & Pink Floyd – Early Morning Sunshine (1968) – Archive.org, YouTube
6. Syd Barrett – The Madcap Laughs (1970) – Spotify, YouTube
7. Syd Barrett & Pink Floyd – The King Bees (1967) – Archive.org, YouTube
8. Syd Barrett & Pink Floyd – Lights (1968) – Archive.org, YouTube
9. Syd Barrett – Took Some Blues (1972) – Archive.org
10. Syd Barrett – Boogie Party (1974) – Archive.org

This is a passion of mine and if one person likes what I do, I’ll feel honored. I like suggestions on what artist to cover next, so if you know of one you’d like me to look at, feel free to suggest ‘em!