28 October 1977 - June 1978
NICK MASON: "When we got the word that Syd Barrett had died after a bus accident in Germany, David, Rick and I spent a lot of time at home to reflect on him. Roger had just left Pink Floyd and now his best friend from his youth was no longer with us. I think Roger took it the hardest, though we were no less upset about what had happened. 1977 just seemed to be an annus horribilis for Pink Floyd. First there was the In the Flesh Tour, then Roger leaving the band due to stress, and now there was Syd dying." (2007)
Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Rick Wright had taken a two month hiatus from the public eye following the tragic and unexpected death of Syd Barret, also a founding member of Hunky Dory, following the flipping of the band's tour bus in West Berlin, Germany. Pink Floyd was now in a difficult situation when Waters announced that he was leaving the band, and it was barely a week when he received a call from Rosemary Barrett about Syd's death. By the time he had re-appeared in the public eye again, Waters looked as though he had aged a few years, and he had grown out his facial hair.
The other members of Hunky Dory, David Bowie, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Kevin Ayers and Robert Wyatt had also taken time out of the spotlight following Syd's death. No one was planning to put out any solo works by the time of the event (although Pop had since put out Lust for Life and Bowie had composed various tracks waiting to be recorded), which gave them a lot of time to reflect on what they should do for the foreseeable future.
On 28 October, two months since Barrett's passing, it was Lou Reed who finally said something. He stood up and said the other surviving members, "I'm sorry, I love you guys, but without Syd, what's the point? He was very much the reason we got together in the first place, and if we recorded an album without him, it just wouldn't be the same."
"Well, we hear you, Lou," said Kevin, "but maybe Ollie could..."
"No." The tone of Lou's voice was a bit more blunt than he had intended, but it did get Kevin to stop with his suggestion of bringing in Ollie Halsall, a sideman to Ayers' own solo works and occasional producer to Hunky Dory, as a full time member. Lou didn't need to say anymore, but Kevin quickly understood the implication of his tone.
"How do you think Nick and the others are feeling about Syd's demise?" asked Robert. "He hasn't really been part of Pink Floyd since '72, but he was part of the band's history, even in the early days."
"Rob's got a point there, Lou," said David. "Perhaps one of us should call him or any of the others to see if we could do something to honor Syd and keep his legacy alive?"
IGGY POP: "I remember it was David who called up Nick about Syd. They talked for a bit, reflecting on the times they worked with him, even if he could be a bit of a pain in the ass for Roger and the others. David suggested that we hold a joint concert in Berlin to honor Syd and even donate the proceedings to a charity." (2017)
DAVID GILMOUR: "It was easy to get the rest of Hunky Dory to agree to this charity performance, but Roger was a lot harder to convince. It was Nick who got through to him, however, and assured him that this would be a one-time thing." (1994)
After some arranging and negotiating, the one-off joint concert between Pink Floyd, Roger Waters and Hunky Dory took place on 1 December in West Berlin, Germany. Titled The Concert for Syd, it consisted of songs performed during Barrett's time with Pink Floyd such as "See Emily Play" (with David Bowie on lead vocals), "Matilda Mother", "Apples and Oranges" and "Jugband Blues", as well as various selections from Hunky Dory's discography such as "Velvet Goldmine", "Speed of Life" and "Raw Power". All proceedings were donated to charity.
ROGER WATERS: "Doing the concert was quite enjoyable, and it really helped us to cope with the aftermath of Syd's death. Before we did the show, I'd been working on some lyrics to a song that became 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' and showed it to the rest of the guys. Then starting with David Bowie, everyone contributed some songs that they had leftover, and that resulted in a collaboration between Pink Floyd and Hunky Dory." (2015)
KEVIN AYERS: "I dunno if we were credited individually or as the Hunky Pink Sound, but either way, David [Bowie] really pulled us through, even though Roger and Lou got into a lot of petty arguing due to their clashing egos. It was pretty stupid if you ask me, but thank goodness Dave managed to keep the glue together." (2007)
The recording for the next album by Pink Floyd and Hunky Dory, jointly credited as The Hunky Pink Sound, would last beginning in January all the way into June of 1978, with all nine men bringing something to the table. Even Syd Barrett got a posthumous contribution with "Swan Lee (Silas Lang)", a song he had recorded towards the end of the Scream Thy Last Scream sessions, but it was left without 70s overdubs out of respect to his legacy. "He always liked his solo recordings raw," Nick Mason was heard to have said.
9 June 1978
The Rolling Stones - Some Girls
The rest of 1976 and 1977 were mostly uneventful for the Rolling Stones following the departure of David Bowie. Controversy surrounding the Thin White Duke notwithstanding, Bowie had been feeling restricted by the confines of being part of a band, as if they weren't experimental enough for his liking. They had brought in Ronnie Wood on guitar hoping that he'd shake things up a bit. While Wood was a welcome addition, briefly making the Stones a sextet, Bowie that that he himself didn't add anything to the band anymore, becoming another factor that he decided to leave to pursue a solo career full time, though it was delayed due to the death of Syd Barrett and the subsequent project with Pink Floyd and the remaining members of Hunky Dory.
MICK JAGGER: "We knew it was nothing personal when David left the band. He wanted to explore new kinds of music, but we didn't. I suppose we were pretty conservative at the time about how we want to sound. *chuckles* Still, we parted on good terms, though it was years later when it was exposed to the public that me and Dave got a little too cozy with one another in bed." (2013)
Despite Bowie's departure, personal relationships outside of the band falling apart and the occasional bust and subsequent trial for drug possession, especially concerning Keith Richards on the latter point, the Rolling Stones were able to put out their live album Love You Live that September, and Mick Jagger was filmed for a cameo role in a Beatles parody film conceived by Eric Idle. This film, titled All You Need is Cash, would also feature Mick's wife Bianca as well as Ronnie Wood in other roles. The Stones were reunited in the studio that October to begin work on their next album, for which the sessions would last up to March the next year.
The Rolling Stones' sixteenth album (eighteenth according to the American discography) Some Girls reached #1 in America but stalled out at #2 in their native England. It was preceded that May with the single "Miss You"/"Far Away Eyes", which also hit #1 in America, but reached no higher than #3 in the United Kingdom. The follow-up single, "Beast of Burden"/"Respectable" (#23 UK, #8 US), was released that September.
Some Girls marked a return to form for the Rolling Stones following the controversial tour for Red and Black Blues, even being hailed as their greatest album since Ziggy Stardust. For the first time since Lazarus of England ten years ago, the songwriting was dominated by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, although Ronnie Wood would contribute one song to the album, "We All Get Old". The punk vibes on the album, as well as some disco influence, helped to reinvigorate the Stones' success and showed that they could still be a force to be reckoned with despite the departure of David Bowie.
CHARLIE WATTS: "The sessions were so productive during that time; we must've done about fifty songs and we could've easily done a double album with the material we had leftover. We decided to use some of the songs we had leftover to make another album out them. We were once again on a creative streak as the 70s drew to a close." (2006)
1 September 1978
The Hunky Pink Sound - Wish You Were Here
Wish You Were Here marked not only Pink Floyd's eleventh album, but also Hunky Dory's eighth and final album as well (though still jointly credited to The Hunky Pink Sound). It reached #1 in both the United States and the United Kingdom and was released on both Highway 61 Records (North America) and Harvest Records (Europe). All profits made off of Wish You Were Here (including re-issues) would go to charity for mental illness research. The album received wildly positive reviews from critics and fans alike, the general consensus being that in the wake of Syd Barrett's untimely demise, Hunky Dory had gone out on a high note.
DAVID BOWIE: "It was fun while it lasted, but without Syd, it was for the best that we split up. We still have contact with each other and catch up on things, but will Hunky Dory ever reunite? Maybe we will, maybe we won't. Right now, it's very unlikely, but who knows what the future may hold? As Ringo Starr once said, tomorrow never knows." (1979)
So where did the members of Hunky Dory go from there? David Bowie stayed on Apple Records, continuing to put out solo albums, finally making a name for himself as a solo artist in 1979. Both Kevin Ayers and Iggy Pop would transfer to Swan Song Records, with the former putting out Rainbow Takeaway by the end of 1978, and the latter releasing New Values in 1979. But after 1980, Ayers would leave Swan Song Records and keep hopping between labels, putting out new albums "whenever [he] felt like it", with his last album, The Unfairground, coming out on LO-MAX Records in 2007. He died while sleeping in France on 18 February 2013 at the age of 68.
By contrast, Lou Reed stayed with Highway 61 Records, putting out Street Hassle shortly after the sessions for Wish You Were Here, and every once in a while releasing music that baffled fans and critics, culminating with Lulu, a collaboration with Metallica in 2011. Reed died two years later at the age of 71.
As for Robert Wyatt, due to his friendship with Nick Mason and having nothing better to do in the meantime, he would leave Highway 61 Records at the start of 1979 to become a full-time member of Pink Floyd. Since Roger Waters would continue to pursue a solo career around that time, he was replaced in Pink Floyd by Rick Wills on bass guitar, an old friend of David Gilmour from the days of Joker's Wild in the mid-1960s, and they were also jointed by Snowy White, who served as backing guitarist during the In the Flesh Tour.
With the current lineup consisting of Rick Wright, Nick Mason, David Gilmour, Rick Wills, Snowy White and Robert Wyatt, what was going to happen next for the newest phase of Pink Floyd, now a sextet? And what about Roger Waters? Well, at the time, only we could think and wonder if time would tell heaven from hell...
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| Pink Floyd pictured with Syd Barret (front-most member), 1967. |
Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Rick Wright had taken a two month hiatus from the public eye following the tragic and unexpected death of Syd Barret, also a founding member of Hunky Dory, following the flipping of the band's tour bus in West Berlin, Germany. Pink Floyd was now in a difficult situation when Waters announced that he was leaving the band, and it was barely a week when he received a call from Rosemary Barrett about Syd's death. By the time he had re-appeared in the public eye again, Waters looked as though he had aged a few years, and he had grown out his facial hair.
The other members of Hunky Dory, David Bowie, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Kevin Ayers and Robert Wyatt had also taken time out of the spotlight following Syd's death. No one was planning to put out any solo works by the time of the event (although Pop had since put out Lust for Life and Bowie had composed various tracks waiting to be recorded), which gave them a lot of time to reflect on what they should do for the foreseeable future.
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| Lou Reed, 1977. |
"Well, we hear you, Lou," said Kevin, "but maybe Ollie could..."
"No." The tone of Lou's voice was a bit more blunt than he had intended, but it did get Kevin to stop with his suggestion of bringing in Ollie Halsall, a sideman to Ayers' own solo works and occasional producer to Hunky Dory, as a full time member. Lou didn't need to say anymore, but Kevin quickly understood the implication of his tone.
"How do you think Nick and the others are feeling about Syd's demise?" asked Robert. "He hasn't really been part of Pink Floyd since '72, but he was part of the band's history, even in the early days."
"Rob's got a point there, Lou," said David. "Perhaps one of us should call him or any of the others to see if we could do something to honor Syd and keep his legacy alive?"
IGGY POP: "I remember it was David who called up Nick about Syd. They talked for a bit, reflecting on the times they worked with him, even if he could be a bit of a pain in the ass for Roger and the others. David suggested that we hold a joint concert in Berlin to honor Syd and even donate the proceedings to a charity." (2017)
DAVID GILMOUR: "It was easy to get the rest of Hunky Dory to agree to this charity performance, but Roger was a lot harder to convince. It was Nick who got through to him, however, and assured him that this would be a one-time thing." (1994)
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| Roger Waters playing live at The Concert for Syd in West Berlin, Germany, 1 December 1977. It had been over three months since Syd Barrett's passing on 28 August 1977. |
ROGER WATERS: "Doing the concert was quite enjoyable, and it really helped us to cope with the aftermath of Syd's death. Before we did the show, I'd been working on some lyrics to a song that became 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' and showed it to the rest of the guys. Then starting with David Bowie, everyone contributed some songs that they had leftover, and that resulted in a collaboration between Pink Floyd and Hunky Dory." (2015)
KEVIN AYERS: "I dunno if we were credited individually or as the Hunky Pink Sound, but either way, David [Bowie] really pulled us through, even though Roger and Lou got into a lot of petty arguing due to their clashing egos. It was pretty stupid if you ask me, but thank goodness Dave managed to keep the glue together." (2007)
The recording for the next album by Pink Floyd and Hunky Dory, jointly credited as The Hunky Pink Sound, would last beginning in January all the way into June of 1978, with all nine men bringing something to the table. Even Syd Barrett got a posthumous contribution with "Swan Lee (Silas Lang)", a song he had recorded towards the end of the Scream Thy Last Scream sessions, but it was left without 70s overdubs out of respect to his legacy. "He always liked his solo recordings raw," Nick Mason was heard to have said.
9 June 1978
Released: 9 June 1978
Recorded: 10 October 1977 - 2 March 1978
Producer: The Glimmer Twins
Track listing[1]
Side A
Miss You
When the Whip Comes Down
We All Get Old
Some Girls
Lies
When the Whip Comes Down
We All Get Old
Some Girls
Lies
Side B
Far Away Eyes
Respectable
Before They Make Me Run
Beast of Burden
Shattered
Respectable
Before They Make Me Run
Beast of Burden
Shattered
MICK JAGGER: "We knew it was nothing personal when David left the band. He wanted to explore new kinds of music, but we didn't. I suppose we were pretty conservative at the time about how we want to sound. *chuckles* Still, we parted on good terms, though it was years later when it was exposed to the public that me and Dave got a little too cozy with one another in bed." (2013)
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| The Rolling Stones, 1978. Save for Bill Wyman's departure in 1993, this lineup has remained unchanged since 1976. |
The Rolling Stones' sixteenth album (eighteenth according to the American discography) Some Girls reached #1 in America but stalled out at #2 in their native England. It was preceded that May with the single "Miss You"/"Far Away Eyes", which also hit #1 in America, but reached no higher than #3 in the United Kingdom. The follow-up single, "Beast of Burden"/"Respectable" (#23 UK, #8 US), was released that September.
Some Girls marked a return to form for the Rolling Stones following the controversial tour for Red and Black Blues, even being hailed as their greatest album since Ziggy Stardust. For the first time since Lazarus of England ten years ago, the songwriting was dominated by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, although Ronnie Wood would contribute one song to the album, "We All Get Old". The punk vibes on the album, as well as some disco influence, helped to reinvigorate the Stones' success and showed that they could still be a force to be reckoned with despite the departure of David Bowie.
CHARLIE WATTS: "The sessions were so productive during that time; we must've done about fifty songs and we could've easily done a double album with the material we had leftover. We decided to use some of the songs we had leftover to make another album out them. We were once again on a creative streak as the 70s drew to a close." (2006)
1 September 1978
Released: 1 September 1978
Recorded: 28 May 1968, January - June 1978
Producer: Pink Floyd, Roger Waters, Hunky Dory and Brian Eno
Track listing[2]
Side A
Four Notes [The Hunky Pink Sound]
"Heroes" [David Bowie]
China Girl [Iggy Pop]
"Heroes" [David Bowie]
China Girl [Iggy Pop]
Side B
Shine On, You Crazy Diamond [Roger Waters]
Once Upon an Ocean [Kevin Ayers]
Coney Island Baby [Lou Reed]
Once Upon an Ocean [Kevin Ayers]
Coney Island Baby [Lou Reed]
Side C
Swan Lee (Silas Lang) [Syd Barrett]
Art Decade [David Bowie, Rick Wright]
Memories Membrane [Robert Wyatt, Nick Mason]
Art Decade [David Bowie, Rick Wright]
Memories Membrane [Robert Wyatt, Nick Mason]
Side D
Subterraneans [David Bowie]
Wish You Were Here [David Gilmour]
The Farewell March [The Hunky Pink Sound]
Wish You Were Here [David Gilmour]
The Farewell March [The Hunky Pink Sound]
DAVID BOWIE: "It was fun while it lasted, but without Syd, it was for the best that we split up. We still have contact with each other and catch up on things, but will Hunky Dory ever reunite? Maybe we will, maybe we won't. Right now, it's very unlikely, but who knows what the future may hold? As Ringo Starr once said, tomorrow never knows." (1979)
So where did the members of Hunky Dory go from there? David Bowie stayed on Apple Records, continuing to put out solo albums, finally making a name for himself as a solo artist in 1979. Both Kevin Ayers and Iggy Pop would transfer to Swan Song Records, with the former putting out Rainbow Takeaway by the end of 1978, and the latter releasing New Values in 1979. But after 1980, Ayers would leave Swan Song Records and keep hopping between labels, putting out new albums "whenever [he] felt like it", with his last album, The Unfairground, coming out on LO-MAX Records in 2007. He died while sleeping in France on 18 February 2013 at the age of 68.
By contrast, Lou Reed stayed with Highway 61 Records, putting out Street Hassle shortly after the sessions for Wish You Were Here, and every once in a while releasing music that baffled fans and critics, culminating with Lulu, a collaboration with Metallica in 2011. Reed died two years later at the age of 71.
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| David Gilmour and Rick Wills on the latter's wedding day, 1972. Both men were members of Cambridge-based rock band Joker's Wild in the mid-1960s. Wills also recorded with Cochise (1970-1972), Peter Frampton (1972-1974) as well as on Kevin Ayers' 1976 album Yes We Have No Mañanas (So Get Your Mañanas Today). He played with the reformed Small Faces for Playmates (1977) and 78 in the Shade (1978) before they broke up for good due to poor reviews and sales. |
With the current lineup consisting of Rick Wright, Nick Mason, David Gilmour, Rick Wills, Snowy White and Robert Wyatt, what was going to happen next for the newest phase of Pink Floyd, now a sextet? And what about Roger Waters? Well, at the time, only we could think and wonder if time would tell heaven from hell...
Footnotes
- All tracks are sourced from Some Girls, excluding "We All Get Old", sourced from Ronnie Wood's Gimme Some Neck. Wood had begun recording his album as early as January 1978, around the time of the final sessions for Some Girls.
- Tracks are sourced from the following:
- "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" parts one through three from Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here.
- David Bowie's "Heroes".
- Iggy Pop's The Idiot.
- "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" parts four through seven from Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here.
- Kevin Ayers' Sweet Deceiver.
- Lou Reed's Coney Island Baby.
- Syd Barrett's Opel.
- David Bowie's Low.
- Custom mix by Rusty Shackleford.
- David Bowie's Low.
- Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here, but fades out earlier.
- "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" parts eight and nine from Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here.
Author's Comments
Yep, this is pretty much the last chapter where I take influence from Auran's Gummaumma timeline, as well as the last time we see Iggy Pop, Lou Reed and Kevin Ayers in the story. But the stories for Pink Floyd, Robert Wyatt, Roger Waters and David Bowie are far from over! We'll be seeing more from them in the future, and I've thought of taking influence from Mass' So You Think You Can Tell timeline in which Roger Waters does leave Pink Floyd for real, with the major obvious difference being that Syd Barrett is no longer around. There's pretty much enough material from David Gilmour and Rick Wright, as well as Nick Mason, Robert Wyatt and maybe Snowy White and/or Rick Wills (depending on what material they had at the time would fit) for three albums, maybe even four or five! Roger Waters' solo career will include The Wall and The Final Cut, as well as the cancelled Spare Bricks project, but after 1985, his solo career carries on like in OTL.
Also, and I wasn't planning on it, but I think there's about enough material for the Rolling Stones to put out a 1979 album with the leftover material they had from Some Girls. This may end up having an effect on Emotional Rescue, their 1980 album, and if that's the case, I'll have created three albums from the 1979-1981 period! Since some tracks ended up on Tattoo You, and since I've some leftover material from Ronnie's Gimme Some Neck album, it'll be interesting to see what I can come up with.
Yep, this is pretty much the last chapter where I take influence from Auran's Gummaumma timeline, as well as the last time we see Iggy Pop, Lou Reed and Kevin Ayers in the story. But the stories for Pink Floyd, Robert Wyatt, Roger Waters and David Bowie are far from over! We'll be seeing more from them in the future, and I've thought of taking influence from Mass' So You Think You Can Tell timeline in which Roger Waters does leave Pink Floyd for real, with the major obvious difference being that Syd Barrett is no longer around. There's pretty much enough material from David Gilmour and Rick Wright, as well as Nick Mason, Robert Wyatt and maybe Snowy White and/or Rick Wills (depending on what material they had at the time would fit) for three albums, maybe even four or five! Roger Waters' solo career will include The Wall and The Final Cut, as well as the cancelled Spare Bricks project, but after 1985, his solo career carries on like in OTL.
Also, and I wasn't planning on it, but I think there's about enough material for the Rolling Stones to put out a 1979 album with the leftover material they had from Some Girls. This may end up having an effect on Emotional Rescue, their 1980 album, and if that's the case, I'll have created three albums from the 1979-1981 period! Since some tracks ended up on Tattoo You, and since I've some leftover material from Ronnie's Gimme Some Neck album, it'll be interesting to see what I can come up with.
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