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MOJO COLLECTIONS
RECORD COLLECTOR - BOOK OF THE YEAR
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54 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Absolutely essential for any serious Syd fan,
By A Customer
This review is from: Random Precision: A Syd Barrett Chronology: Recording the Music of Syd Barrett, 1965-1974 (Paperback)
"Random Precision - Recording the Music of Syd Barrett 1965-1974" is a book, published earlier this year and written by co-editor of Chapter 24 David Parker, covering all of Syd's studio sessions. In the course of writing the book, David has had access to ALL of EMI's Floyd-related studio documentation (the first writer ever to have been able to do this), and has interviewed many of the key players, amongst them Peter Jenner, Andrew King, Joe Boyd, Bob Klose (!!!), Peter Bown, John Leckie, and a host of EMI and Sound Techniques studio engineers, the vast majority of whom have never been interviewed about Syd or the Floyd before. The result is a book that gives us the clearest picture EVER of Syd's studio work, taking in fascinatingly detailed accounts of the making of Piper and Syd's two solo albums, plus expositions of everything that came in between - from the Lucy Leave demo recording in spring 1965 (plenty of eyebrow-raising new info on that one from Bob Klose) through the sessions for the likes of Scream thy Last Scream, Vegetable Man, Jugband Blues and Early Morning Henry (yes, that's right) in the second half of 1967, to the sad story of Syd's final attempt at recording in August 1974. Even better is that David managed to get permission to listen to some of the outtakes from Syd's solo recording sessions, meaning that we get detailed (and frequently tantalising) descriptions of the likes of that final '74 session, Rhamadan (a whacky 17-minute studio jam from 1968) and Millionaire (an attempt at remaking an unreleased Floyd tune during the 'Barrett' LP sessions - and no, it's NOT the same as One in a Million!).You may be getting the impression that this book is a fairly major advance in Floyd and Barrett scholarship. It is. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that it's one of the biggest ever - up there with, and possibly beyond, Povey/Russell's In the Flesh or Julian Palacios' Lost in the Woods. Up until now, the most we've had on the making of, say, Piper is a few snatched quotes from Norman Smith or Peter Jenner. Here, we've got detailed recollections from the people who were sat behind the desk in Abbey Road for every day of those sessions, actively involved in getting Syd's crazed visions and that extraordinary sound on to tape. We even get the date, precise location, duration and tape number of every single session, for chrissakes. You could not possibly want to know any more. Jenner and King's recollections are wonderful as well - both men talk about Syd with real affection and insight, and throw plenty of new light on the story of both his rise and his fall. Yes, I know they've been interviewed trillions of times before, but if you think you've heard everything they have to say if you've seen, say, the Omnibus documentary or the Crazy Diamond book, believe me - you haven't! David has somehow managed to extract a great deal more information from them, and it's incredibly enlightening, and in some places very touching. There's a famous quote from Roger Waters, agitated by the constant fascination with Syd's fall on the part of those who know very little about it, where he says that there are only one or two solid facts about Syd ("he wrote most of the songs on the first album and one on the second" or something), and the journalists just make up the rest as they please. He had a point. Hopefully this book will go some way to redress the balance. In Random Precision, we now have a plethora of previously unknown facts about Syd that really do contribute a lot to the nderstanding of the man and his work. It doesn't provide an exhaustive biography of Syd, nor does it claim to, but it's got more solid information in there than the 30 years of conjecture and lazy thinking that have preceded it. It's great. Even if you just want to unravel all those "well the liner notes on such-and-such a bootleg said..." type where-did-that-track-come-from mysteries, it's still great. And then there's the illustrations... Tons of EMI tape boxes and documentation, rare adverts and quite a few excellent, previously unseen 1967 live shots. Is that Jarvis Cocker standing at the side of the stage at the Tiles Club? We should be told. And then there's the complete concert dates listing, and a section on uncirculated live recordings that are believed to exist which is most enlightening... let's hope the publicity will tease some of them into circulation. There are a few tiny criticisms - the layout, while neat and legible, isn't the most stylish (we're stuck in Times New Roman-o-vision for the duration, more or less), and the strict chronological diary format does occasionally make things a tiny bit confusing, but these are very minor things, so just forget I said anything really. All in all, a treasure. If you've bothered to read this far, you're probably the kind of person who's fanatical enough about Syd to need this book. Get it.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Essential for all Syd fans,
By A Customer
This review is from: Random Precision: A Syd Barrett Chronology: Recording the Music of Syd Barrett, 1965-1974 (Paperback)
Much more than a collection of session info, David Parker's Random Precision offers all new and often very candid and revealing interviews with those that worked with Syd. New interviews with Jenner and King shed more light on Syd's breakdown and departue from the band. Syd's recording career was so brief that once you are hooked by his songs the thirst for more becomes insaitable. This book let's you know exactly what's left in the EMI vaults. Many mysteries that have baffled Syd fans for years are finally unraveled. Want the final word on the Kevin Ayers/Syd session, 'Rhamadam', 'Millionaire', the '74 session, and what Saucerful tracks Syd appears on? This book answers all of those questions and much more. Also has the world's largest collection of Syd Barrett signatures and some unseen pics.Chris Moise
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Strangely compelling statistics.,
This review is from: Random Precision: A Syd Barrett Chronology: Recording the Music of Syd Barrett, 1965-1974 (Paperback)
You know how some guys collect bus timetables or football programmes, or else they know a lot of numbers about the engine sizes of motorbikes and that? Well, this book is the same kind of thing about Syd Barrett.Basically, the guy who wrote this went to EMI and found all the bits of paper and tape covers and actual tapes and booking sheets and god knows what else and arranged all the information in chronological order. What you get is a long list of all the times Syd was in the studio and what tracks he put down and what, if anything, happened to the recording. On top of that you get some interviews with technicians and the like who were in the studio at the time. Most of these (understandably) go something like: "I think that was the day when Syd... Actually it's really hard to be sure... Sometimes he'd record quite a lot and others... No, I can't remember that day, really..." But, for some reason, I couldn't stop reading it any way.
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