Syd Barrett 'The Madcap Laughs' MINT 1st EMI UK Pressing Laminate Gatefold Psych
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Syd Barrett 'The Madcap Laughs' MINT 1st EMI UK Pressing Laminated Gatefold - A Psychedelic Classic!
PRIVATECOL48 NOW SHIPS AROUND THE GLOBE VIA eBay's INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING
EVERY DISK IS PRE-PACKAGED IN A NEW 'INVEST IN VINYL' POLY OUTER SLEEVE. PROFESSIONALLY PACKAGED AND SHIPPED USING VALUE MAILERS' CARDBOARD LINERS AND RECORD MAILERS
SEE DISCOGS DETAILS & ALLMUSIC REVIEW BELOW
The Madcap Laughs Review by Stewart Mason Courtesy of AllMusic.com
Wisely, The Madcap Laughs doesn't even try to sound like a consistent record. Half the album was recorded by Barrett's former bandmates Roger Waters and Dave Gilmour, and the other half by Harvest Records head Malcolm Jones. Surprisingly, Jones' tracks are song for song much stronger than the more-lauded Floyd entries. The opening "Terrapin" seems to go on three times as long as its five-minute length, creating a hypnotic effect through Barrett's simple, repetitive guitar figure and stream of consciousness lyrics. The much bouncier "Love You" sounds like a sunny little Carnaby Street pop song along the lines of an early Move single, complete with music hall piano, until the listener tries to parse the lyrics and realizes that they make no sense at all. The downright Kinksy "Here I Go" is in the same style, although it's both more lyrically direct and musically freaky, speeding up and slowing down seemingly at random. Like many of the "band" tracks, "Here I Go" is a Barrett solo performance with overdubs by Mike Ratledge, Hugh Hopper, and Robert Wyatt of the Soft Machine; the combination doesn't always particularly work, as the Softs' jazzy, improvisational style is hemmed in by having to follow Barrett's predetermined lead, so on several tracks, like "No Good Trying," they content themselves with simply making weird noises in the background. The solo tracks are what made the album's reputation, though, particularly the horrifying "Dark Globe," a first-person portrait of schizophrenia that's seemingly the most self-aware song this normally whimsical songwriter ever created. Honestly, however, the other solo tracks are the album's weakest tracks, with the exception of the plain gorgeous "Golden Hair," a musical setting of a James Joyce poem that's simply spellbinding. The album falls apart with the appalling "Feel." Frankly, the inclusion of false starts and studio chatter, not to mention some simply horrible off-key singing by Barrett, makes this already marginal track feel disgustingly exploitative. But for that misstep, however, The Madcap Laughs is a surprisingly effective record that holds up better than its "ooh, lookit the scary crazy person" reputation suggests.
DISCOGS DETAILS: Courtesy of DiscogsSyd Barrett – The Madcap Laughs
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Label:
Harvest – SHVL 765, Harvest – 1E 062 ◦ 04261Format:
Vinyl, LP, Album, Stereo, Gatefold SleeveCountry:
UKReleased:
Jan 3, 1970Genre:
RockStyle:
Psychedelic Rock, Folk Rock A1 Terrapin 5:00 A2 No Good Trying 3:26 A3 Love You 2:25 A4 No Man's Land 3:50 A5 Dark Globe 2:10 A6 Here I Go 3:13 B1 Octopus 3:45 B2 Golden Hair 1:56 B3 Long Gone 2:47 - (7:59) B4 She Took A Long Cold Look B5 Feel B6 If It's In You B7 Late Night 3:12- Record Company – E.M.I. Records
- Manufactured By – The Gramophone Co. Ltd.
- Made By – Ernest J. Day & Co. Ltd.
- Made By – Trade Platemaking Services
- Printed By – Ernest J. Day & Co. Ltd.
- Published By – Lupus Music Ltd.
- Pressed By – The Gramophone Co. Ltd.
- Composed By – Syd Barrett
- Design [Cover], Photography By – Hipgnosis (2)
- Engineer – Jeff Jarratt, Mike Sheady*, Pete Mew*, Phil McDonald, Tony Clark
- Lyrics By – James Joyce (tracks: B2), Syd Barrett (tracks: A1 to B1, B3 to B7)
- Photography By [Cover] – Mick Rock
- Producer – David Gilmour (tracks: A5, B1 to B6), Malcolm Jones (tracks: A1 to A4, A6, B7), Roger Waters (tracks: A5, B1 to B6)
Specific to this release and not found on subsequent releases are:
Released in a front laminated gatefold sleeve with the disc housed in the rear opening and the front opening is glued shut with no inner flap.
The back cover states printing date 6911 (November 1969). This was clearly in advance of the 1970 release date.
White straight corner cut inner sleeve with:
Variation 1: 'PATENT APPLIED FOR' and 'MADE IN ENGLAND'.
Variation 2: 'PATENT No. 1,125,555' and 'MADE IN GREAT BRITAIN'.
Only first pressing labels have all of the following:
1. Green/yellow Harvest Label with no 'EMI' Logo and 'The Gramophone Co. Ltd.' at 11 o'clock on the outer rim.
2. 'SYD BARRETT' appears just above the 'HARVEST' logo at 9 o'clock. Later pressings move this higher up the label.
3. Side 2 label has credits 'Barrett except + Joyce'. Later pressings have 'Barrett + Joyce'.
4. On each label side there is no gap between 'Lupus Music Ltd' and 'Produced by...' Later labels have a gap.
On the sleeve tracks B4 to B6 have a combined running time of 7:59.
℗ 1970
- Other (Printer's date stamp / code): 6911 TPS
- Matrix / Runout (Label side A, in parentheses): SHVL.765A
- Matrix / Runout (Label side B, in parentheses): SHVL.765B
- Matrix / Runout (Side A runout stamped, variant 1): SHVL 765 A-2G
- Matrix / Runout (Side B runout stamped, variant 1): SHVL 765 B-2G
- Matrix / Runout (Side A runout stamped, variant 2): SHVL 765 A-2G R 1
- Matrix / Runout (Side B runout stamped, variant 2): SHVL 765 B-2G A 1
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