01-22-2003, 05:15 PM
can't wait! One more album to add to the list...
From the February 2003 issue of Mojo:
CRACKED ACTOR
Ayers trawl yields unique Syd find
A legendary Syd Barrett recording, cut with Kevin Ayres
in December 1969, is set for release later this spring.
The track, "Singing a Song in the Morning," featuring
Barrett on guitar and the subject of much speculation
over the years, is Syd's only known guest appearance.
"It was totally chaotic, as I remember," says Ayres,
who apparently turned up at Barrett's flat in order to
tempt him out to the session at Abbey Road studios. "I
don't think it was together at all. We couldn't use
any of the stuff because it was all over the place."
Archivist Mark Powell, who is masterminding the
forthcoming Ayres reissue series for EMI, disagrees,
"I've listened to around 84 versions of that song,
including one that clearly mentions Syd at the start
of the take. Yes, there's weird guitar all over it,
very wayward, but as a whole it's surprisingly together."
Syd recorded his overdub on the song - at this early
stage titled "Religious Experience" - on Decembeer 17,
1969, though by the time it appeared on (a) single in
1970, his contribution had been edited out. Now, says
Powell, the Syd-enhanced version is likely to appear
as one of the bonus tracks on the remastered edition
of Ayers' "Joy of a Toy" album from 1970. History may
yet prove Ayers' assessment wrong.
"I'd be delighted if it was more together than I
remember it," he says today.
Meanwhile Ayers - a reclusive cult figure in his own
right - is about to record his frist solo album in
over a decade.
(Page 125, in The Buzz, with a b/w
foto of Our Hero, and a smaller
colour pic of Ayers.
-Pink
From the February 2003 issue of Mojo:
CRACKED ACTOR
Ayers trawl yields unique Syd find
A legendary Syd Barrett recording, cut with Kevin Ayres
in December 1969, is set for release later this spring.
The track, "Singing a Song in the Morning," featuring
Barrett on guitar and the subject of much speculation
over the years, is Syd's only known guest appearance.
"It was totally chaotic, as I remember," says Ayres,
who apparently turned up at Barrett's flat in order to
tempt him out to the session at Abbey Road studios. "I
don't think it was together at all. We couldn't use
any of the stuff because it was all over the place."
Archivist Mark Powell, who is masterminding the
forthcoming Ayres reissue series for EMI, disagrees,
"I've listened to around 84 versions of that song,
including one that clearly mentions Syd at the start
of the take. Yes, there's weird guitar all over it,
very wayward, but as a whole it's surprisingly together."
Syd recorded his overdub on the song - at this early
stage titled "Religious Experience" - on Decembeer 17,
1969, though by the time it appeared on (a) single in
1970, his contribution had been edited out. Now, says
Powell, the Syd-enhanced version is likely to appear
as one of the bonus tracks on the remastered edition
of Ayers' "Joy of a Toy" album from 1970. History may
yet prove Ayers' assessment wrong.
"I'd be delighted if it was more together than I
remember it," he says today.
Meanwhile Ayers - a reclusive cult figure in his own
right - is about to record his frist solo album in
over a decade.
(Page 125, in The Buzz, with a b/w
foto of Our Hero, and a smaller
colour pic of Ayers.
-Pink