"Jugband Blues" is a song by the English psychedelic rock bandPink Floyd, and is featured on their second album, A Saucerful of Secrets, released in 1968. Written by Syd Barrett, it was his sole compositional contribution to the album, as well as his last published for the band. Barrett and Pink Floyd's management wanted the song to be released as a single, but were vetoed by the rest of the band and producer Norman Smith. "Jugband Blues" is directed towards anyone within Barrett's proximity.
Background and recording
"Jugband Blues" was written around the same time as "Vegetable Man". Both songs contain the same cynical humour, but while on "Vegetable Man" Barrett focuses his humour on himself, on "Jugband Blues" it is directed towards those around him. "Jugband Blues" was recorded on 19 October 1967 at De Lane Lea Studios. Barrett wanted a Salvation Army band to play on the track. He told them he wanted them to simply "play whatever they want" regardless of the rest of the group, while Norman Smith insisted on recorded parts. Eventually both versions were recorded and used. About The Salvation Army, band managerAndrew King said that Barrett "wanted a massive Salvation Army freak-out, but that's the only time I can remember Norman putting his foot down." The song features a distinctive three-tiered structure: starting off in 3/4 time| meter, then into 2/4 time| and finishing off in 4/4 time|.
Video
The promotional video for the song was filmed in December 1967, for the Central Office of Information in London. The video was supposed to be about Britain, and was meant to be distributed in the US and Canada. The video features Barrett and the group miming to the song in a more conventional stage setting, with psychedelic projections in the background. The original audio to the promo is lost, and most versions use the BBC recording from late 1967, consequently causing sync issues most evident as Barrett sings the opening verse. The original film was considered to be lost, until it was re-discovered in the Manchester Arts Lab in 1999. Barrett and Waters first watched the promo video during the second week of December 1967.
Reception
In a contemporary negative review for A Saucerful of Secrets, Jim Miller of Rolling Stone asserts that ‘Jugband Blues’ "hardly does any credit to Barrett's credentials as a composer."
Legacy
Barrett, along with Pink Floyd's managers, Peter Jenner and King, wanted to release the song as a single in the new year, before being vetoed by both the band and Norman Smith. Jenner said that "Jugband Blues", along with two others that Syd wrote around this time, were "amazing songs." When compared to "Bike" and "The Scarecrow", Jenner said "You think, 'Well, OK, those are all right, but these are powerful disturbing art.' I wouldn't want anyone to have to go as mad and disturbed as Syd did to get that, but if you are going to go that disturbed give me something like that. That's great art." Jenner had also called "Jugband Blues" "an extraordinary song, the ultimate self-diagnosis on a state of schizophrenia, the portrait of a nervous breakdown." Barrett, by the beginning of the recording sessions for A Saucerful of Secrets, was already shrinking into a delirious state of mind, exacerbated by his feelings of alienation from the rest of the band. The common interpretation of the lyrics is that they reflect his schizophrenia and it has been argued that they could also be read as a criticism of the other band members for forcing him out. King said of the song: "The most alienated, extraordinary lyrics. It's not addressed to the band, it's addressed to the whole world. He was completely cut off." Jenner said "I think every psychiatrist should be made to listen to those songs . I think they should be part of the curriculum of every medical college along with those Van Gogh paintings like The Crows." "Jugband Blues" is one of two songs from A Saucerful of Secrets that were later included on the compilation album . The song was preceded on the compilation by "Wish You Were Here", with lyrics by Roger Waters written in tribute to Barrett. The band Opal released a cover of the song on the Barrett tribute albumBeyond the Wildwood in 1987.
