The turning point: Nick Mason on the Pink Floyd album that “pushed the way” forward
Pink Floyd was practically lost in the woods by the time they started work on their second album. Sure, they still had the entire band somewhat intact, but it was becoming clear that Syd Barrett was not going to be able to go the distance with them the more he started to lose himself to his own mind. The group may have been in limbo for a few years, but Nick Mason thought that they found their true calling on A Saucerful of Secrets.
If you were to listen to the album without context, this was a far cry from the band that would go on to make songs like ‘Money’ or ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’. The psychedelic sounds of their debut may have been fine for what they were, but half of A Saucerful of Secrets feels like they threw everything they could at the wall to see what stuck.
Losing Barrett wasn’t all a wash, though, with lead guitarist and soon-to-be rock legend David Gilmour filling in for him at various times on the record. Considering this would be the last album that Barrett would contribute to in any capacity, his songs are also somewhat haunting, with ‘Jugband Blues’ feeling like a sad goodbye to the world before he entered hermit-like seclusion following a brief solo career.
Even if Barrett wasn’t present, they could still work up some weird sounds when they wanted to. Tracks like ‘Corporal Clegg’ are among the strangest pieces that the band had ever made, and the massive undertaking to make the title track an avant-garde piece feels like it would be more engaging to see being produced than to actually listen to.
Regardless of their setbacks, Mason stood by the album as a key part of their discography, telling Mark Blake in Pigs Might Fly, “My own view is that A Saucerful of Secrets had pointed the way ahead, but we studiously ignored the signposts and headed off making Ummagumma, which proved that we did rather better when everyone worked together rather than as individuals.”
Mason does have a point in showing how each member came together on their sophomore effort. Since their leader had gone away, Roger Waters stepping up to the challenge of being a frontman on songs like ‘Set the Controls for the Heart of Sun’ showed the kind of moody textures that the band would be toying with once they hit on their more epic pieces like ‘Echoes’.
The final product may not be the most pleasant listening experience all the time, but the group did have time to flesh out most of the best material from the album live. When watching films like Live at Pompeii, you can tell that the band took every lesson they learned from their time in the studio and channelled it into their live show, creating textures far better than what they did behind the glass.
A Saucerful of Secrets is definitely far from being the best Pink Floyd project, but it almost seems to function more as a transition than a proper album. The band was at an impasse, and if it hadn’t been for everyone coming together for this one, maybe they wouldn’t have been able to create projects like Dark Side of the Moon or The Wall at all.