Disc #18 MP3 CDRom Syd / Pink Floyd OOPS (Out Of Phase Stereo) Mixes- HYGIY #18 -random notes- It's damn near impossible to assemble the definitive comp of Syd covers, so we didn't try. What we have here is a wide selection of faves and obscuros for every taste. We have the Okey-Pokey Band (first Syd cover EVER) ripping through "See Emily Play" and we have Three To One ripping off the Okey-Pokey band years later. We have a half- accidental live cover from Tangerine Dream. We have Area Code emptying out a half-empty Buffalo dive with "Astronomy Domine." There's a cover of "Echoes," included because... well, they covered *Echoes*...! (There were *two* covers of "Echoes" to choose from, in fact. Count your blessings.) You'll appreciate some, you'll hate some, you'll ignore a lot of them. Fine. This is the do-it-yourself volume of HYGIY. Take what you like, load it onto your MP3 player, burn your own CD, whatever. Most songs are by Syd. Others are about him. Others are early Floyd. We're not fussy; this is Casual Day. Here are comments on a few of the songs, when we could think of something to say. More notes can be found in individual folders elsewhere on the disc. Enjoy. ACID CASUALTIES: This California band somehow considered Roger Waters to be a kindred spirit; they opened their 1985 album "Panic Station" with this excellent cover of "Point Me At The Sky." Features Arthur Barrow (ex-Zappa) on keyboards. No obvious Syd connection but a fine cover nonetheless. AREA CODE: An early-1980s "real music" band from Buffalo, NY, playing "Astronomy Domine" at the now-defunct McVan's on 4/20/81. McVan's had been the first rock club in the city, premiering such diverse talents as Little Richard, Foreigner (as Black Sheep), Hendrix (pre-Experience), Frank Sinatra, John Cale, the B-52s. At this point it was a punk dive on the skids. This is the last known instance of "Astronomy Domine" being played there. DAVID BOWIE: This isn't quite on the level of Pat Boone covering Little Richard, but only because Syd saw a lot of money from it, enabling him to move to London's fabulous Chelsea Cloisters. I'm glad this exists, and it's too historic to omit, but the track hasn't aged very well. It appeared on "Pinups," Bowie's oldies-remake album of 1973. MARIANNE FAITHFULL: It turns out Marianne is old friends with Roger Waters of all people. In 1999, she finally got around to asking if he'd care to donate a song to her new album. He eventually came up with "Incarceration Of A Flower Child," supposedly written in 1968 and his first-ever song about Syd. Both the music and the lyrics suggest he revised it afterward. Rewriting songs about Syd is something of a hobby with him. ;) FLAMING LIPS: America's premier psychedelic band (on a major label anyway), they've been playing the occasional Syd cover for years. The earliest we're aware of is their rendition of "Opel" from 1994. It had been intended for this collection, but they stretch out the coda for eight minutes... that's great if you're already a fan, but it wouldn't win them any new ones. Here they are doing "Lucifer Sam." All well and good, but what you really want is to run out and buy one of their albums. Any album from 1993 onward will do. Go ahead: buy a Flaming Lips album. All things will be revealed unto you. We'll wait right here until you get back. RON GEESIN: >From the 1973 "As He Stands" album, this is another of those no-Syd-but-oh-well. Geesin didn't rate Syd at all but he thought highly of Waters, enough to record "To Roger Waters, Wherever You Are." It was too much fun to leave out, so here 'tis. LaMARQUE JAUNE: I can't even remember where this came from. I believe somebody emailed it to me, but it was some time ago. Another fine version of "Lucifer Sam," more laid-back than many (semi- acoustic), but retaining that "Secret Agent Man" feel. He has a track on HYGIY15 as well. MARC & THE MAMBAS This is the singer from Soft Cell. His "Terrapin" imagines it's Burt Bacharach on Mars. Surprisingly it works--for maybe four minutes. This goes on for 4:18. NEIL THE HIPPIE: >From "Neil's Heavy Concept Album," this version of "The Gnome" is everything one could hope for after having read the liner notes. (I could never get through them, but dig those horns!) The OKEY-POKEY BAND & SINGERS: Their "Flower Power" album was the sort of thing you'd see in the bargain bin for $1.99 in the drugstore. A concept album: anonymous session musicians recreate recent chart hits. The liner notes go out of their way to reassure us there really is a place for this sort of album. (Would YOU buy an album whose liner notes are half-apologetic about its very existence?) All kidding aside, it's reasonably well done. This sort of LP would do quite well in countries like Paraguay, where kids couldn't tell the difference. However, this was aimed at the American market, which makes "Emily" a curious selection. (Whoever compiled it may have been connected with Tower Records on some level?) It's notable for being THE very first known cover of a Syd or Pink Floyd song. All the tunes on the LP charted in mid-1967, so this would have been produced a month or two after that. SHOCKABILLY The problem with assembling a comp like this is that everybody does "Lucifer Sam." Even so, nobody does it like Shockabilly. Nobody ever will. Recorded in 1984, now it belongs to the ages. TANGERINE DREAM: "Monolight" (conclusion), from the LP "Encore." Live in North America, March/April 1977. The piece takes up an LP side, and this is the end--after the usual festivites, a piano takes up the main four-chord theme of "Celestial Voices." The band picks it up from there, for a pleasant two or three minutes. They don't get any further than those four chords, but we could count it as a cover version nonetheless. Homage. The liner notes to their first LP ("Electronic Meditation," 1969) mention "Saucerful Of Secrets" as an influence. THREE TO ONE What's this??? We thought nobody else even *knew* about the Okey-Pokey Band. We were wrong. Three To One not only copped the same crappy album, they stole... errr, they sampled? they appropriated the Okey-Pokey version of "See Emily Play" and made it their own. (Just barely.) HYGIY 18 contents: 360s - Long Gone Acid Casualties - Point Me At The Sky Architectural Metaphor - Echoes Area Code - Astronomy Domine (4/20 1981 McVan's, Buffalo NY) At The Drive-in - Take Up Thy Stethoscope And Walk Awaken - Left Alone (Ballad Of Syd Barrett) Kevin Ayers - Oh! Wot A Dream David Bowie - See Emily Play (1973) Chandeen - Apples and Oranges Changelings - See Emily Play Cleaners From Venus - Song For Syd Barrett (1984) Damned - Arnold Layne Doglegs & Feet - Effervescing Elephant Eden - Jugband Blues Electric Hellfire Club - Lucifer Sam Elevator Through - No Good Trying Marianne Faithfull - Incarceration of a Flower Child (1968 Waters song about Syd) Faraday Cage - Set The Controls/Storm Matthew Fischer - Octopus Flaming Lips - Lucifer Sam (London 22Jan03) John Frusciante - Jugband Blues (live Paradiso) Ron Geesin - To Roger Waters Wherever You Are Grapes Of Wrath - See Emily Play Half Japanese - Candy and a Currant Bun The Iditarod + Drekka, Ring & Peter Scion - Julia Dream In the Woods - If it's in You LaMarque Jaune - Lucifer Sam Jeff the Hobo - Feel Jesus and Mary Chain - Vegetable Man Lightning Seeds - Lucifer Sam Livid - Love Song Los Planetas - Baby Lemonade Lost & Profound - Dark Globe Love & Rockets - Lucifer Sam Mandra Gora Lightshow Society - Point Me At the Sky Marc & the Mambas - Terrapin Mike McInnis - Effervescing Elephant Melting Euphoria - Point Me At The Sky Melvins - Interstellar Overdrive Minimal Compact - Late Night Moonboy - Matilda Mother Neil the Hippie - The Gnome Okey-Pokey Band - See Emily Play (1st Syd cover version, 1967) Pearl Jam - Interstellar Overdrive Peter Principle - No Man's Land Placebo - Dark Globe Primal Scream - Vanishing Point - Burning Wheel Quasimojo - Late Night Replicants - No Good Trying Ritalin - Scarecrow Shockabilly - Lucifer Sam (1984) Skullflower - Golden Hair Slowdive - Golden Hair Smashing Pumpkins - Terrapin Smell of Incense - (Smell Of) Interstellar Overdrive Soundgarden - Dark Globe Sprout & The Orange - Set The Controls St.Hubbins - 9 Miles High - Light Globe (Syd tribute) Tangerine Dream - Monolight, concl - live Spr77 (Celestial Voices) This Mortal Coil - Late Night Three To One - See Emily Play Wellwater Conspiracy - Lucy Leave Widespread Panic - Astronomy Domine Jam (incomplete) Wondermints - Arnold Layne Worms - A Tribute to Syd CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN: Interstellar Overdrive (1986) Interstellar Overdrive (1986 outtake) Interstellar Overdrive--> Porpoise Mouth (Davis, CA 10Jun87) DAVID GILMOUR: Dominoes - 18Jan02 Terrapin - 22Jun01 MONKS OF DOOM: Let's Split Let's Split (live Austin 1992) PHISH: Love You (unknown show) Love You (10May91 3rd gen sbrd) PSYCHIC TV: A Star Too Far (A Lullaby for Syd Barrett) A Star Too Far (1994, Space Daze compilation) Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun R.E.M.: Dark Globe Dark Globe (live in Italy) RED TEMPLE SPIRITS: Nile Song Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun SOFT BOYS/ROBYN HITCHCOCK: Astronomy Domine (Mar80 London "Two Halves") Vegetable Man (Maxwell's, Hoboken NJ, 06Sep80) Astronomy Domine (Maxwell's, Hoboken NJ, 06Sep80) Gigolo Aunt (live 1980) Vegetable Man (studio) ROBYN HITCHCOCK: 1974 Arnold Layne Chapter 24 (live) Dark Globe (live) Dominoes 1 Dominoes 2 Long Gone Surgery The Man Who Invented Himself (1981 mix with horns) Wolfpack SPIRAL REALMS: Interstellar Overdrive Interstellar Overdrive (Boulder, CO 30Jul95) TELEVISION PERSONALITIES: Bike (live) I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives (live) I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives (original) I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives Matilda Mother (live) Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun THE THREE O'CLOCK: Lucifer Sam Afterinbetweentime (fanclub flexidisc, first release as 3 O'Clock) TRUE WEST: Lucifer Sam maS reficuL (rare 1983 single, 500 made) TWINK: Psychedelic Punkaroo Psychedelic Punkaroo (live w/Plasticland, 22Oct88 Chicago) You Reached For The Stars VOIVOD: Astronomy Domine Astronomy Domine (Stockholm 14Oct99) The Nile Song