Track Listing

1. Let There Be More Light
2. Remember A Day
3. Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
4. Corporal Clegg
5. Saucerful Of Secrets
6. See Saw
7. Jugband Blues

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1983 in Music
• Released on: 1994-07-25
• Number of discs: 1

CD Description
Pink Floyd's second album is a hesitant transition from thebaroque acid whimsy of PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN into the futuristic space rock the group would refine through DARK SIDE OF THE MOON. Recorded as Syd Barrett was messily leaving the band (Barrett contributes one track, the cacophonous "Jugband Blues", though rumours persist that he plays on at least a couple of others), the album finds the remaining members, including new guitarist Dave Gilmour, exploring their newroles in public.
Keyboardist Richard Wright contributes two lovely, pastoral tracks, "Remember a Day" and "See Saw",that echo Barrett's familiar childlike whimsy, while bassist Roger Waters's contributions, along with the band-composed12-minute title track, map out the pulsating throb and lengthy instrumental sections that would soon become Floyd's sonic trademark. Another key track is the satiric "Corporal Clegg", Waters' first exploration of antiwar themes.

Customer Reviews

Space rock meets psychedelia
With Syd Barrett (Pink Floyd's original frontsman) becoming more and more unstable, Pink Floyd seemed on the verge of collapse. After all, he had penned all their singles and all but one song from their debut album, 'The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn'. So, when he 'left' (read sacked) in April 1968, it wouldn't have been unreasonable to think that they wouldn't last long. How wrong they were.

'A Saucerful Of Secrets' did indeed reveal secrets; Roger Waters and Rick Wright could write songs! And great songs, too. Hypnotic beats and bizarre lyrics showcased in one heck of an album, which does feature one Barrett composition, 'Jugband Blues'. New guitarist David Gilmour doesn't contribute any material here, bar a little on the title-track, so you could argue that this is the most disjointed Pink Floyd album, as Barrett, Waters, Gilmour, Wright and Mason can all be heard; the only Pink Floyd album that can boast that.

Let There Be More Light - space rock riff, weird lyrics, great song
Remember A Day - brilliant. Probably the best song on here
Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun - a mouthful and-a-half! But another great song
Corporal Clegg - Decent song, not bad, not great
A Saucerful Of Secrets - actually, this is the best song on here. Betters 'Interstellar Overdrive' as far as I'm concerned.
See Saw - good song, perhaps best appreciated in a cloud of incense and blue smoke
Jugband Blues - goodbye Syd. Very good song with haunting last line ('And what exactly is a joke?')

Not so much for the casual listener as the Floydian. However, 'A Saucerful Of Secrets' delivers everything its cover promises.

Great second album
I listened to this CD this morning on the way to work during a foggy drive with the sun only just starting to get above the horizon, and it was the perfect CD for the journey! It is a slice of spacy psychedelia where the band are starting to find their direction, but going through the transition of guitarists.

Roger Waters makes a bigger impact on this album than on 'Piper at the Gates of Dawn', and gives us a great opening track in 'Let There be More Light', and two tracks later we get the epic 'Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun'. In between is a chilled out, drifting 'Remember a Day' from Rick Wright before the first of Roger Waters' recorded anti-war songs - the gloriously kazoo-driven 'Corporal Clegg'.

The title track is a very crude version of what the band were to become in the 70's, but with a far heavier psychedelic lean than anything later. The last two tracks have Syd Barrett written all over them, but they are not the strongest tracks.

It's goodbye to Syd and hello to Roger on this album, and it makes the transition pretty well.

Floyd in search of direction
The patchwork nature of "A Saucerful of Secrets" reveals a band in a quandary over the mental demise of their erstwhile frontman, Syd Barrett. Roger Waters hadn't yet seized the role of band visionary, but did contribute three songs to Rick Wright's two.

As on their debut album, Pink Floyd journeyed into space, but whereas Barrett's space twinkled with cosmic explosions, the Barrett-less Floyd probed darker, silent, barren reaches. Take the title-track, at over ten minutes the album's centrepiece. "Interstellar Overdrive" it isn't. Much of it consists of keyboard drones punctuated by vaguer sounds that give it an eerie quality. A middle section featuring a tumbling drum pattern breaks it up, but overall the track is an example of style over substance. For me, it is partly successful, intriguing but not breathtaking.

Of Waters' songs my favourite is the first, "Let There Be More Light", though after the lively opening bass riff the slow, deliberate chant of the verse reveals that the band have lost some of their lustre. "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" seems to be widely popular, but is not one of my favourites, its hypnotic melancholy being a little too long and repetitive. "Corporal Clegg" by contrast makes you sit up, if rather uncomfortably.

I like both of Wright's songs. Barrett's lingering presence flickers across "Remember A Day", courtesy of his distinct guitar contribution. This is another eerie track, though Wright is these days embarrassed by it. "See-Saw", with its flowery explosions of sound is perhaps the one song that wouldn't sound out of place on "Piper".

The last word goes to Barrett with his "Jugband Blues". Ironically, his clipped diction ("It's awfully considerate of you to think of me here") has never been more lucid on record. But of course he has to leave the scene with a pointed, unresolved moment ("And what exactly is a joke?").

"A Saucerful of Secrets" is an album I return to occasionally, often to remind myself of the title track. Odd and mysterious.