The Madcap Laughs
(1970)

Tracks

01. Terrapin (Barrett)

02. No Good Trying (Barrett)

03. Love You (Barrett)

04. No Man's Land (Barrett)

05. Dark Globe

06. Here I Go (Barrett)

07. Octopus (Barrett)

08. Golden Hair (Joyce)

(Lyrics from a poem by James Joyce)

09. Long Gone (Barrett)

10. She Took A Long Cold Look At Me (Barrett)

11. Feel (Barrett)

12. If It's In You (Barrett)

13. Late Night (Barrett)

14. Octopus (Barrett)

Takes 1 & 2

15. It's No Good Trying

Take 5

16. Love You (Barrett)

Take 1

17. Love You (Barrett)

Take 3

18. She Took A Long Cold Look At Me (Barrett)

Take 4

19. Golden Hair (Joyce)

Take 5

Lyrics

01. Terrapin (Barrett)

I really love you and I mean you
the star above you, crystal blue
Well, oh baby, my hairs on end about you...

I wouldn't see you and I love to
I fly above you, yes I do
well, oh baby, my hairs on end about you...

Floating, bumping, noses dodge a tooth
the fins aluminous fangs all 'round
the clam is dark below the boulders hiding all
the sunlight's good for us

'Cause we're the fishes and all we do
the move about is all we do
well, oh baby, my hairs on end about you...

Floating, bumping, noses dodge a tooth
the fins aluminous fangs all 'round
the clam is dark below the boulders hiding all
the sunlight's good for us

'Cause we're the fishes and all we do
the move about is all we do
well, oh baby, my hairs on end about you...

I really love you and I mean you
the star above you, crystal blue
Well, oh baby, my hairs on end about you...

03. Love You (Barrett)

Honey love you, honey little,
honey funny sunny morning
love you more funny love in the skyline baby
ice-cream 'scuse me,
I've seen you looking good the other evening

Oh, you dig it, had to smile just an hour or so
(are) we in love like I think we be?
It Ain't a long rhyme.
It took ages to think
I think I love it in the water, baby...

Honey love you, honey little,
honey funny sunny morning
love you more funny love in the skyline baby
ice-cream 'scuse me,
I've seen you looking good the other evening

Flaking you are an nice little one
to put it all around, its just good
I like it, hey hey hey
S'pose some time that day
we'll be swinging along over across to me

Honey love you, honey little,
honey funny sunny morning
love you more funny love in the skyline baby
ice-cream 'scuse me,
I've seen you looking good the other evening

Goodtime rocker woman we'll stray our pieces
little creepy we shine so sleepy,
so whoopee!
That's how you look...

Honey love you, honey little,
honey funny sunny morning
love you more funny love in the skyline baby
ice-cream 'scuse me,
I've seen you looking good the other evening

04. No Man's Land (Barrett)

You would hold your head up high
you even try
you would hold another hand:
oh understand!
They even see me under call
we under all,
we awful, awful, crawl
to hear my hour
come see me cry...

Just searching you even try
I can make you smile
if it's there will you go there too?
When I live I die!
They even see me under call
we under all, we awful, awful, crawl
because of you, to see me be.

(Last verse mostly garbled....but you can pick out "Tell me, Tell me, Tell me Yippee" and also: "Heavily spaced". According to the legend, this verse was originally meant to be understood, but when they f**ked it up in the studio, Syd liked it and kept it that way...)

06. Here I Go (Barrett)

This is a story 'bout a girl that I knew
she didn't like my songs
and that made me feel blue
she said: "a big band is far better than you"...

She don't rock 'n' roll, she don't like it
she don't do the stroll, well she don't do it right
well, ev'rythings wrong and my patience was gone
when I woke one morning
and remembered this song
O-oh-oh, kinda catchy, I hoped
that she would talk to me now
and even allow me to hold her hand
and forget that old band.

I strolled around to her pad
her light was off and that's bad
her sister said that my girl was gone
"But come inside, boy, and play, play, play me a song!"
I said "Yeah! Here I go"
She's kinda cute, don't you know?
That after a while of seeing her smile
I knew we could make it, make it in style!

So now I've got all I need
She and I are in love, we've agreed
she likes this song and my others too
so now you see my world is...
because of this tune!
What a boon this tune!
I tell you soon
We'll be lying in bed, happily wed,
and I won't think of that girl
or what she said...

08. Golden Hair (Joyce)

Lean out your window, golden hair
I heard you singing in the midnight air
my book is closed, I read no more
watching the fire dance, on the floor
I've left my book,
I've left my room

For I heard you singing through the gloom
singing and singing, a merry air
lean out the window, golden hair...

09. Long Gone (Barrett)

She was long gone, long, long gone
she was gone, gone, the bigger they come
the larger her hand 'till no one understands
why for so long she'd been gone.

And I stood very still by the window sill
and I wondered for those I love still
I cried in my mind where I stand behind
the beauty of love's in her eyes...

She was long gone, long, long gone
she was gone, gone, the bigger they come
the larger her hand 'till no one understands
why for so long she'd been gone.

And I borrowed the page
from a leopard's cage
and I prowled in the evening sun's glaze
her head lifted high to the light in the sky
the opening dawn on her face...

She was long gone long, long gone
she was gone, gone, the bigger they come
the larger her hand 'till no one understands
why for so long she'd been gone.

And I stood very still by the window sill
and I wondered for those I love still
I cried in my mind where I stand behind
the beauty of love's in her eyes...

She was long gone long, long gone
she was gone, gone, the bigger they come
the larger her hand 'till no one understands
why for so long she'd been gone.

She was long gone long, long gone.

10. She Took A Long Cold Look At Me (Barrett)

She took a long cold look at me
and smiled and gazed all over my arm
she loves to see me get down to ground
she hasn't time just to be with me
her face between all she means to be
to be extreme, just to be extreme
a broken pier on the wavy sea
she wonders why for all she wants to see...
But I got up and I stomped around
and hid the piece where the trees touch the ground...

The end of truth that lay out the time
spent lazing here on a painting dream
a mile or more in a foreign clime
to see farther inside of me.

And looking high up into the sky
I breathe as the water streams over me...

11. Feel (Barrett)

You feel me
away far too empty, oh so alone!
I want to go home
Oh find me inside of a nocturn - the blonde
how I love you to be by my side
they wail...
the crowd on her side
she straggled the bridge by the water...

She misses her crawl
far ley grew
heady aside in a dell
inside an eye be the lonely one, my bride
how I leave on the waddling wheel
they flail...
a gasp shringing
a bad bell's ringing
the angel - the daughter...

You feel me...

12. If It's In You (Barrett)

Yes I'm thinking of this, yes I am
puddle town, Tom was the undergroud
hold you tighter so close, yes you are
please hold on to the steel rail
colonel with gloves
-draughts leeches
he isn't loved on 'Sundays Mail'
all the fives crock henrietta
she's mean go-getter
gotta write her a letter.

Did I wink of this, I am
yum, yummy, yum, don't, yummy, yum, yom, yom...
Yes, I'm thinking of this, in steam
skeleton kissed to the steel rail
fleas in Pamela
-gloves -draughts leeches
chugging along with a funnel of steam
all the fives crock Henrietta
she's mean go-getter
gotta write her a letter...

13. Late Night (Barrett)

When I woke up today
and you weren't there to play
then I wanted to be with you
when you showed me your eyes
whispered love at the skies
then I wanted to stay with you
inside me I feel alone and unreal
and the way you kiss will always be
a very special thing to me...

When I lay still at night seeing
stars high and light
then I wanted to be with you
when the rooftops shone dark
all alone (I) saw a spark
spark of love just to stay with you
inside me I feel alone and unreal
and the way you kiss will always be
a very special thing to me...

If I mention your name
turn around on a chain
then the sky opens for you
when we grew very tall
when I saw you so small
then I wanted to stay with you
inside me I feel alone and unreal
and the way you kiss will always be
a very special thing to me...

Notes

The Madcap Laughs, LP, CD, CASS January 3, 1970
---
Madcap Laughs
Syd Barrett
Audio CD (August 21, 1990)
Number of Discs: 1
Emd/Capitol; ASIN: B000007MVM
1. Terrapin
2. No Good Trying
3. Love You
4. No Man's Land
5. Dark Globe
6. Here I Go
7. Octopus
8. Golden Hair
9. Long Gone
10. She Took A Long Cold Look
11. Feel
12. If It's In You
13. Late Night
---
Madcap Laughs + 7 [IMPORT]
Syd Barrett
Audio CD
Phantom; ASIN: B000024KBA
1. Terrapin
2. No Good Trying
3. Love You
4. No Man's Land
5. Dark Globe
6. Here I Go
7. Octopus
8. Golden Hair
9. Long Gone
10. She Took A Long Cold Look
11. Feel
12. If It's In You
13. Late Night
14. Octopus (Takes 1 & 2)
15. It's No Good Trying (Take 5)
16. Love You (Take 1)
17. Love You (Take 3)
18. She Took A Long Cold Look At Me (Take 4)
19. Golden Hair (Take 5)

Album Description
UK reissue of Pink Floyd founder's first album. Featuring Roger Waters and Dave Gilmour. 13 tracks all written by Barrett. Includes 7 bonus tracks 'Octopus' (Takes 1 & 2), 'It's No Use Trying' (Take 5), 'Love You' (Take 1 & 3), 'She Took a Long Cold Look at Me' (Take 4) and 'Golden Hair' (Take 5). 1994 release. Standard jewel case.

Review
Amazon.com
Having left Pink Floyd in 1968 after a daily LSD habit had taken its toll, Syd Barrett's first solo album finally appeared two years later with ex-Floyd sidekicks David Gilmour and Richard Wright riding shotgun with him in the studio. The Madcap Laughs is a brilliant but brittle album, with every strum of the electric guitar seeming to take its toll on Barrett's increasingly frayed nerve strings. On songs such as "Love You," his state of mind is well concealed beneath the sort of jolly jangle-pop Blur would later indulge in. On "Dark Globe," however, the strain is palpable: "Please lend a hand ... won't you miss me? Wouldn't you miss me at all?" he pleads, ominously. The best tracks are "Octopus," which possesses all the controlled mania of early Floyd, and "Golden Hair," a still moment of musical rapture whose lyric is taken from a James Joyce poem. --David Stubbs