Read Aloud the Text Content

This audio was created by Woord's Text to Speech service by content creators from all around the world.

Text Content or SSML code:

Being asked to interview the Pink Floyd is an ordeal I would have wished only on my worst enemies. I was shaking like a leaf an hour before our first midday appointment. The thought of having to talk to a psychedelic group brought me out in sugar-cube shaped goose pimples. What language do these musical martians speak? Would their hallucinatory gaze turn me into an orange? What would be the horrible consequences of freakling out with a bunch of transvestites in Cambridge Circus? Pre-conceptions flooded my already busting mind. This was going to be sixteen hours of terrifying, heart halting experiences. Nervously I tiptoed to the door of lead guitarist Syd Barrett's house just off busy Cambridge Circus in the middle of London's vice-ridden west end. The front door was painted an ominous purple. Why wasn't I being paid danger money? Was this one trip on which all expenses weren't going to be paid? Syd Barrett tumbled out of his bed and donned his socks. I peeked around the small attic room looking for women's clothing that the Pink Floyd say Arnold Layne tries on In front of the mirror. Instead his girl friend materialised at the door and brought in a cup of coffee. So far, there was little evidence of the terrible Arnold being in the vicinity: the Pink Floyd were covering up well. I'll shoot Barrett a few quick questions while he's still half asleep. "Syd, why did you write such a dirty filthy smutty immoral and degrading song as Arnold Layne?' Syd blinked blankly: "Well, I just wrote it. I thought Arnold Layne was a nice name and it fitted very well Into the music I had already composed." "But isn't it true, said I, that Radio London, quite rightly, banned the record because they thought It was smutty? Instead of reeling into the wardrobe and revealing a cupboard full of feminine clobber, Syd began to explain: "I was at Cambridge at the time I started to write the song. I pinched the line about 'moonshine washing line' from Roger:our bass guitarist: because he has an enormous washing line In the back garden of his house. Then I thought, 'Arnold must have a hobby and it went from there. 'Arnold Layne' just happens to dig dressing up in women's clothing. A lot of people do, so let's face up to reality. About the only other lyric anybody could object to, Is the bit about It takes two to know. And there's nothing smutty about that. "But then if more people like them dislike us, more people like the underground lot are going to dig us so we hope they'll cancel each other out. Organist Rick Wright walked in and said: "I think the record was banned not because of the lyrics because there's nothing there you can really object to: but because they're against us as a group and against what we stand for. "it's only a business-like commercial insult anyway: It doesn't affect us personally.", thought Syd. Roger the bass, and Nick Mason the drummer joined the happy throng. Maybe they were the evil people I thought. Roger said: "the pirate radio stations play records that are much more smutty than 'Arnold Layne will ever be. In fact, it's only radio london that has banned the record. The BBC and everybody else plays it. I think it's just different policies: not anything against the group. That sounds like sense. Syd got up and moved closer to the tape recorder. They're going to try subliminal brainwashing I thought. They're going to lock me in a revolving echo chamber full of laughing gas and pipe Stockhausen through the portholes, while Suzy creamcheese writhes on the transparent roof In a "Matey" bubble bat, being watched instensely by the immates of the asylum of clarenton under the direction of the marquis de sade. Syd put on one of the new Pink Floyd album tracks instead. And, it's foot tapping stuff. Quite interesting pop music actually: Avantgarde I think it's called. Warming to the floyd's tapes of numbers like interestellar overdrive and flaming, I began to think that maybe I was wrong: maybe beneath the hustle and bustle of the incrowders and the newspaper reports, here was a group not quite as weird as everyone makes out. Let's go for a drink: they said. A drink? Surely hippies don't drink: But sure enough there we were in the pub downing good old fashioned brown beer. And another, and another. And then It was off to EMI Studios for the group's recording session. Quite a normal affair. No kaleidoscopic lighting, no happenings or freaking: just a lot of hard work. Where does the group think they fit In the pop music structure? We would like to think that we're part of the creating half in that we write our own material and don't just record other people's numbers or copy american demo discs; said nick mason. Our album shows parts of the pink floyd that haven't been heard yet, Roger chipped in. t's bringing into flower many of the fruits that have remained dormant for so long: added Rick Wright. Syd said: It all comes straight out of our heads and it's not too far out to understand: If we play well on stage, I think most people understand that what we play isn't just a noise. Most audiences respond to a good set. And despite those terrifying premonitions and the misinterpreted facts and the blown-up rumours, interviewing this so-called psychedelic group was an enjoyable experience. They were very normal people.