Chapter 33: No Matter What (June 1972 - March 1973)

2 June 1972

Pink Floyd - Obscured by Clouds

Released: 2 June 1972

Recorded: 23-29 February and 23 March - 6 April 1972

Producer: Pink Floyd

Track listing[1]

Side A

Obscured by Clouds
When You're In
Burning Bridges
Dominoes
The Gold It's in the...
Wot's... Uh the Deal?

Side B

Childhood's End
Free Four
Stay
Wolfpack
Absolutely Curtains

Pink Floyd's seventh album was originally recorded to serve as a soundtrack to Barbet Schroeder's La Vallée (Obscured by Clouds in French), and the sessions took place in France in the midst of touring. Upon release, it reached #6 in the United Kingdom but did not reach the Top 40 in the United States (#46). The lead single, "Free Four", also failed to chart in America.

Still, Obscured by Clouds was, according to the band, made as a stop gap before they could put out their next album, which Roger Waters said was based around things that made people go mad, but still unified in a single concept. Such subjects would include time, money, and mental health, and production had begun as early as January 1972 with the music being performed live. The performances were a great success, but recording for The Dark Side of the Moon was put on hold whilst Pink Floyd worked on Obscured by Clouds.

However, all was not well in Pink Floyd, and once again, the problem related to a certain Mr. Roger Keith Barrett, known to his bandmates as "Syd".

Syd Barrett, 1972.

SYD BARRETT: "I felt like I was practically a liability to Pink Floyd by the time Roger got to work on The Dark Side of the Moon. An albatross, if you will. They were off playing live, and I was staying at home with my own tunes, doing nothing much else. It was just after we finished the sessions for Obscured by Clouds that I told the guys I wanted to leave the band and carve my own path." (1976)

ROGER WATERS: "I was initially shocked when Syd said to us that he wanted out of the Floyd. But after he gave us a speech as to why he wanted to leave, I spoke first and said, 'It's alright, Syd. Our artistic visions are diverging apart, and it's for the best that you leave before we say things we'll regret down the road.' The others were mixed about the whole thing." (1990)

When the announcement was made public, Barrett admitted to being crazy, but he added that he was, and always will be, the "crazy diamond" of Pink Floyd. To this day, it remains debatable as to what Barrett meant by the term crazy diamond, with Rick Wright suggesting that "since diamonds shine, and that because [Syd] was crazy, he shined because of it," even going so far as to calling it "poetic". (1973)

July - October 1972

David Bowie, Iggy Pop and Lou Reed, 1972.

DAVID BOWIE: "I was pretty active at the start of the 70s, and not just because of my work with the Rolling Stones. At the time, I was planning out what became Aladdin Sane, and soon I found myself tied into working on solo projects by Lou Reed and Iggy Pop. They're great musicians, and I figured we might've done a group project together despite being tied to different labels.[2] We do have Syd to thank for making this crazy idea a reality." (1997)

By 1972, the Velvet Underground and the Stooges, the respective bands of Lou Reed and Iggy Pop, had both collapsed, leaving the two frontmen to start up their own solo careers at Reed's label RCA Records.[3] Pop's song-writing partner was guitarist James Williamson, who was a member of the Stooges by the time they had broken up and stayed on with Pop.

SYD BARRETT: "I went into Trident Studios where I saw David and Lou working on some songs together. They seemed to be struggling with the lyrics to one of Lou's songs - I can't recall which - when, from out of nowhere, I made a suggestion to what they could be said. David was pretty taken aback by my presence; he and Lou must not have heard me come in." (1974)

LOU REED: "David was a bit nervous in the presence of Syd; he considered Syd his hero. But soon, all of us were talking and laughing together. Then David introduced the both of us to Iggy." (1986)

IGGY POP: "Lou and I had all this material we wanted to put down on tape, and David Bowie was going to help produce our albums before Syd Barrett turned up. He was a strange fellow, but still a good person all the same. He'd even suggested that instead of solo albums, we form a supergroup and put out an album together." (1982)

Kevin Ayers, early 1970s.

The original idea for the supergroup's name was the Crazy Diamonds, per Barrett's suggestion, but they soon settled on a name that David Bowie had originally intended for the Rolling Stones' Life on Mars, Hunky Dory. On the day that the sessions were to begin, 11 August, Barrett had entered the studio with a pair of surprise guests; Kevin Ayers and Robert Wyatt, former members of Soft Machine.

SYD BARRETT: "Well, we need a bassist and a drummer, don't we?" (1972)

KEVIN AYERS: "Robert and I knew Syd when he played guest guitar for one of my solo singles ["Singing a Song in the Morning"] back in 1969. He called me up on the phone one day in the summer of '72, and told me about some supergroup project he was doing with Bowie, Pop and Reed. He asked if I wanted to take part, and I asked, 'Can we bring Robert along as well?' And the rest is history." (1993)

ROBERT WYATT: "Kevin had songs and I didn't, but I was still happy to provide backing vocals and drums for the sessions." (2007)

23 February 1973

Hunky Dory - Melting Pottery I

Released: 23 February 1973

Recorded: August-October 1972

Producer: Hunky Dory and Ken Scott

Track listing[4]

Side A

Baby Lemonade
Oh! You Pretty Things
Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell
Interview
Walk on the Wild Side
Velvet Goldmine

Side B

Vicious
Oh! Wot a Dream
No Good Trying
Song for Bob Dylan
Shake Appeal
Milky Way
Wagon Wheel

Hunky Dory - Melting Pottery II

Released: 23 February 1973

Recorded: August-October 1972

Producer: Hunky Dory and Ken Scott

Track listing[4]

Side A

Don't Let It Get You Down (For Rachel)
Gimme Danger
Eight Line Poem
Perfect Day
Love You
Hymn

Side B

Penetration
Shouting in a Bucket of Blues
Queen Bitch
Long Gone
I'm So Free
Death Trip

The supergroup Hunky Dory consisted of Iggy Pop (The Stooges) on guitar, David Bowie (The Rolling Stones) on keyboards and piano, Kevin Ayers (Soft Machine) on bass, Lou Reed (The Velvet Underground) on rhythm guitar, Syd Barrett (Pink Floyd) on guitar, and Robert Wyatt (Soft Machine) on drums and percussion. The sessions lasting from August to October were so productive that the band decided to put out two albums under the same banner, Melting Pottery, under RCA Records. Although initially released as two albums, they were eventually paired together as a double album, I & II.

Both albums reached #3 in the United Kingdom and #40 in the United States, with some fans buying both to even out the sales. No singles were released, although many believed that Bowie's "Velvet Goldmine" should've been released as a single. Melting Pottery was a heavy blending of art pop, glam, punk, psychedelic, and folk rock, with every member contributing something different across every track.

Rock music critics were bemused at the unusual blending of various genres, but did admit that Hunky Dory never sat still for very long. John Lennon spoke very highly about the supergroup, calling them "a melting pot of everything great about music at the time." (1994) Axl Rose said that he loved listening to both albums as a teenager and was even said to have been impressed with the concept of putting out two studio albums at the same time from the same sessions. Kurt Cobain even wrote in his journals that both Melting Pottery albums were his all-time favorites. Johnny Marr, Steve Jones, Henry Rollins and Nikki Sixx also cite the albums has being influential to their sound.

2 March 1973

The cover to Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon, released March 1973.

But what of Syd Barrett's former band, Pink Floyd? Well, the recording sessions for The Dark Side of the Moon were finished in January 1973, their first album without Barrett. When it first came out in March, The Dark Side of the Moon reached #1 in America, Pink Floyd's first album to do so, but stalled at #2 in the United Kingdom. The album received critical acclaim from critics and fans alike, and many considered it to be Pink Floyd's magnum opus. It currently remains one of the best-selling albums of all time and ranked at #43 of Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".

Footnotes

1. All tracks are sourced from Obscured by Clouds, excluding "Dominoes" and "Wolfpack", both taken from Syd Barrett's Barrett.
2. In OTL, at the time, Lou Reed and David Bowie were both contracted to RCA Records, and Iggy Pop to Columbia Records. In addition, Kevin Ayers was contracted to Harvest Records in the United Kingdom, and neither Syd Barrett nor Robert Wyatt were contracted to a label - Barrett had left the music scene back then.
3. The Velvet Underground's Squeeze never gets recorded ITTL. Although not stated, the Lou Red era of the Velvet Underground lasted slightly longer than it did in OTL.
4. For both albums, tracks are sourced from Syd Barrett's The Madcap Laughs, David Bowie's Hunky Dory, the Stooges' Raw Power, Kevin Ayers' Bananamour, and Lou Reed's Transformer. On Melting Pottery I, "Baby Lemonade" is sourced from Syd Barrett's Barrett, "Milky Way" from Opel, and "Velvet Goldmine" from David Bowie's Five Years (1969-1973).

Author's Comments

Originally, for Melting Pottery, it was simply a collaboration between David Bowie, Lou Reed, and Iggy Pop called Hunky Dory - it was even the name of the supergroup. However, after checking out Auran's Gummaumma timeline that threw in Syd Barrett, Kevin Ayers and Robert Wyatt, I decided to have all six form the supergroup earlier to 1973. I think that is such a weird, wonderful collaboration; a Stone (in this timeline, at least), a Velvet, a Stooge, a Floyd, and two Machines performing under the same banner. Imagine if such a group existed back then, and imagine the discussions there'd be about trying to prune it down to a single album!

Also, I didn't include the tracklisting to The Dark Side of the Moon as I imagine it would stay the same, even in this timeline. After all, why mess with a perfect album? And yes, Hunky Dory will be part of the same storyline as Pink Floyd.