Pink Floyd - Jugband Blues

This is from Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd. Syd's the one looking like a windswept q-tip on tranquilizers in the video.

This song was Barrett's last recorded appearance on a Pink Floyd record - he made it to their second album before he and the band parted ways due to Barrett's emotional problems. He would go on to record two solo albums, the second of which, titled Barrett, is one of my favorites and is the source of the song Dominoes, for which song I share Robyn Hitchcock's love.

Like a lot of Barrett's songs, Jugband Blues sounds like a collage of fragments. It meanders from section to section in a seemingly random way that coheres to make a lovely whole. Compare with fellow acid casualty Brian Wilson, particularly Good Vibrations. Also, the Beatles' A Day in the Life, off of Sgt. Pepper, which was recorded at the same time and in the same studio as Pink Floyd's first and Barrett-dominated record, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. For a more modern take on this sort of song, I like Chapter 8-Seashore and Horizon by Cornelius (featuring the Apples in Stereo).

late update - Another soundmix of Jugband Blues with the same visuals here.