- Format: DVD
cd1: MPEG burned as DVD
cd2: MPEG and info
His third attempt at a single surfaced during a session in October at De Lane Lea Studios. Recording this new song caused problems thanks to Syds' insistence that the song featured not just a Salvation Army brass band, but that they played whatever they liked in the middle of the song! Producer Norman Smith had to step in and save the session. Syd walked out whilst Smith helped record a strange scored marching piece which was to be inserted in the middle of the new song. This song was called "Jugband Blues" and mixed down into a mono master... would this be the overdue single?
No chance. There was a belief within the organisation that Syd was deliberately sabotaging the bands career and direction. On stage he was becoming impossible, largely standing motionless and playing very little. Syds' 4th attempt at a single came with "Apples and Oranges" which they hurriedly recorded for release... Then came a disasterous American tour which ended up being aborted after various bizarre incidents that proved that Syd was drifting further away from reality altogether.
Meanwhile, "Apples and Oranges" had flopped. Syd cheerfully remarked that he "couldn't care less" about it being a failure. By now, the bands' managers began to realise that things couldn't continue. Whats more, they and Roger Waters in particular were rather disturbed by "Jugband Blues" and what Syd was saying in the song. It is now regarded as a lyrical portrait of a man cracking up. What made it all the more chilling was the fact that Syd was writing about what was happening to him inside... he knew he was falling apart but also knew there was nothing he could do about it.
"Jugband Blues" is indeed a very unique song thats rather typically Syd in that he disposes of the traditional pop song conventions. There are several odd time changes in it simply because what Syd did was write lyrics with irregular lengthed lines and then fit the music round the lyrics, so there would be extra bars or he'd miss half a bar and so on, which made playing along with him almost impossible. In comes the brass band who take over the song and it goes into a strange avant garde bit of noise with the band happily marching away. It suddenly grinds to a halt and softly and slowly Syd returns alone with his acoustic guitar to sing the final lines. "And what exactly is a dream? / And what exactly is a joke?" and the song vanishes into thin air.
In a nutshell what happened next was in January 1968, David Gilmour was brought in as a 5th member to help cover for Syd onstage. This 5 piece line up did 5 or 6 gigs in all before they decided not to bother anymore collecting Syd and then in March came an announcement that Syd had left the band. The Floyd continued work on their second album "A Saucerful Of Secrets". When they came to edit the album together, "Scream" and "Vegetable Man" were rejected because they were too dark and surreal, but they did choose "Jugband Blues" because "its just a good song" says Dave Gilmour and placed it at the end of the album, an eerie "goodbye" from Syd to the Floyd. The Floyd still regard the song highly and used it on their "Echoes" compilation summarising their entire career in 2001.
However, there was another strange story involving "Jugband Blues". Sometime in November 1967 when "Apples" had flopped, the Floyd were commisioned to make a promo film for the "Ministry Of Information". The motives were unknown, never mind what the film would be used for. The Floyd did indeed make this film and the song they chose was "Jugband Blues"!
This became a bit of a legend over the years since virtually nobody had ever seen it and it was presumed missing and lost. The very idea of a film performance of this song was mind boggling and many of us presumed it could well be a jokey rumour. Then, in 1999 a copy of the film turned up in Manchester!
It was in a rough battered state, the soundtrack was virtually non-existent, but the pictures were watchable. Whoever found it took it upon himself to redub the film and chose the version they recorded for the BBC in December 1967.