Beatles, Pink Floyd Similarities, and the PID Connection
By Andy Winfrey
Everything in this article operates on the assumption that PID [Paul is Dead], and that the popular theory in regards is correct. I will not rehash all of that here. It is available in a million blogs and can easily be accessed with a Google search.
Anyone who was there at the time or grew up later in the 70’s or 80’s would have no problem recognizing the basic similarities and sounds coming from Pink Floyd and the Beatles. From Roger Waters multiple nods to Paul McCartney on the bass, to the Beatles post Sgt. Pepper output, which owed more than just a nod to the Floyd. In particular, “What’s the New Mary” comes to mind as a glaring example of Floyd’s influence on the Beatles, and could have been written by Syd Barrett himself. It’s also intriguing that Faul is reported in multiple sources to have visited the recording sessions for Floyd’s debut, “Piper at the Gates of Dawn”, that was being recorded in the same studio as the Beatles, as they were finishing up Sgt. Pepper.
Outside of the above mentioned examples, I never really gave Beatles/Floyd any other thought. There was just really nothing there to think about, or so I thought until I made a fairly startling discovery that made me think otherwise, and brought out a couple of other weird similarities that just add more to the whole bizarreness that is PID.
For those well versed in PID, you will be very aware of the section in Revolution No.9 where you can hear someone scream, "let me out." It’s heavily associated with the car crash theme that is inundated throughout Beatles official releases of film and music, and is the widely accepted version of how JPM [James Paul McCartney] died.
The Beatles Revolution #9 REVERSED!!!
Well, one day while listening to PATGOD, my favorite Floyd album, I heard this same voice saying the same thing. I couldn’t believe it. I reviewed it many times and came to the conclusion that, yup, that’s it. The name of the song is, “Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk” and the voice can be heard @ 2:09.
Curiously enough, this is the only song accredited solely to Roger Waters, and the only one with no credit to Barrett.
So, now we have this bizarre Beatles' thing inserted into a Floyd song. Why? I really don’t know, but I do have Faul, the King of Cosmania, showing up over at the Floyd recording session. I do have on record Lennon and Harrison obviously digging Barrett, and copying him with a song they advocated putting on an album, but Faul shut it down. So, at this point, it’s getting fairly weird, which naturally brings us to Barrett.
What exactly happened to Barrett? We all know the official story that Syd took too much LSD and went crazy, forcing his removal from the band. Okay, that is the official nutshell, but the official accounts don’t really show that.
Syd, by all accounts, was a super talented, charismatic guy who was on his way to super stardom. His songs were great; he was a fantastic lead guitarist with a really unique style. No doubt he was a star and could have been just as big without Floyd. On record, the Producer of PATGOD wanted to replace Syd with David Gilmour, and as reported, this was well before Syd showed signs of trouble. In the interview, he simply said Barrett was uncompromising and wanted everything his way. This is odd having Gilmour lurking in the corner that early given how events unfolded. So, is it possible Barrett wasn’t down for some nefarious lesser magick being inserted into his songs stemming from the murder of Paul? Conjecture I know, but not soon afterwards, Barrett was being fed tons of LSD in his tea (John and George got the same) which leads to some episodes. But even after that, Barrett put out two great Pink Floyd songs, "Scream Thy Last Scream" and "Vegetable Man" should have landed on their boring second album, which tried to reemulate Syd. So the whole Syd had to go thing is a little suspect. A profit driven record company would have really nurtured Syd's solo work, which was good, but could have been great with the right production.
So, was Syd taken out because he wasn’t down with the dark side? Did Faul have him taken out because of jealousy? Maybe, maybe not, but there seems to be a whole lot of weird, which goes hand in hand with anything Faul touches.
Now we have some deeper similarities between the two bands that I could never have put together before: They both have a voice screaming, “Let me out!” on their albums. An even weirder synchronicity is they both have founding members of their bands being replaced by someone “waiting in the wings” to do so. They also both went on to score huge record setting albums whose themes and lyrics revolved around the condition and circumstance of those replacements.
Is this whole killing someone physically or mentally as some type of sacrifice the way you sell albums? Do you talk about it all the time in song, verse, and interview to reinforce the spell? I don’t know, but if I ever meet Faul, I think I’ll just straight up ask him.
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Tina Foster is the author of
Email Tina at faulconandsnowjob at hotmail dot com.
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