By the time Syd Barrett left Pink Floyd in April of 1968, he had songs he had partially finished, including “I Never Lied to You,” “I Get Stoned,” and more, including one he originally recorded a rough demo of in 1967 as a follow-up to the band’s second single “See Emily Play” that never got an official release.
“Vegetable Man” was considered for the band’s second album A Saucerful of Secrets and was nearly released as a single, the B-side to another unreleased track, “Scream Thy Last Scream.” Yet, both were never released until a compilation, 50 years later.
“After he [Barrett] left the band, they all thought those songs were too intense,” said Peter Jenner, former Pink Floyd manager in Nicholas Schaffer’s 1991 book Saucerful of Secrets The Pink Floyd Odyssey, of some of Barrett’s previously unreleased songs. “They couldn’t handle them. They were like words from a psychiatrist’s chair—an extraordinary document of a severe mental disturbance. I always thought they should be put out, so I let my copies be heard. … They somehow felt they were a bit indecent, like putting out nude pictures of a famous actress…but I thought they were good songs and great pieces of art.”
He added, “They’re disturbing, and not a lot of fun, but they’re some of Syd’s finest work – though God knows, I wouldn’t wish anyone to go through what he’s gone through to get to those songs. They’re like Van Gogh.”
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[Pink Floyd Made Their ‘Top of the Pops’ Debut With “See Emily Play” Before it was Erased]
“Where Are You?”
Barrett wrote the song at Jenner’s house and was describing himself at the moment. “He had to go and record,” recalled Jenner, “and, because a song was needed, he just wrote a description of what he was wearing at the time and threw in a chorus that went ‘Vegetable man, where are you?’”
In yellow shoes, I get the blues
Though I walk the streets with my plastic feet
With my blue velvet trousers, make me feel pink
There’s a kind of stink about blue velvet trousers
In my paisley shirt I look a jerk
And my turquoise waistcoat is quite out of sight
But oh oh my haircut looks so bad
Vegetable man, where are you?
So I’ve changed my gear, and I find my knees
And I covered them up with the latest cut
And my pants and socks all point in a box
They don’t make long of my nylon socks
The watch, black watch
My watch with a black face
And a big pin, a little hole
And all the lot is what I got
It’s what I wear, it’s what you see
It must be me, it’s what I am
Vegetable man
I’ve been looking all over the place for a place for me
But it ain’t anywhere, it just ain’t anywhere
Vegetable man, vegetable man
He’s the kind of person
On December 20, 1967, the band performed “Vegetable Man” for a BBC radio broadcast but never took it live in concert. For decades, “Vegetable Man” was bootlegged until the band released it on the 2016 box set The Early Years 1965–1972.
Saucerful of Secrets
Floyd drummer Nick Mason continues to play Saucerful of Secrets. “That is sort of extraordinary. “It’s sort of an unfinished work,” said Mason. “It’s that thing about whether one should put more into it or whatever. But in a way, it’s a nice little cameo of what Syd did. One of the strange things, looking at Syd’s work, is the variety of music styles. Because some people, I think, point at ‘Vegetable Man as a sort of early punk thing in a way, which it is.”
Photo: Pink Floyd (l-r) Rick Wright Roger Waters Syd Barrett And Nick Mason in 1967 (ANL/Shutterstock)
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