Sometime in the autumn of 2010, I decided to listen to Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here album for the first time. I’d always seen/heard good things about it up to that point, and after being familiar with The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall by then, it only made sense to check it out. It came to the album’s final track, and while simultaneously reading the Wiki article about it, there was a mention of how keyboardist Rick Wright performs a short musical nod to the band’s earlier song ‘See Emily Play’, as a tribute to Syd Barrett, right at the end as it fades to silence. So then it only made additional sense that I went to find that song and figure which part the article was talking about.

And that’s how I came to know the subject of today’s post. It was a roundabout way of making my point, but I got there in the end. And the melodic phrase Wright borrowed for the tribute was right there in the melody of ‘Emily”s first line. Released in the sweet summer of ’67, ‘See Emily Play’ was only the band’s second ever single. It became something of a hit for the group and they appeared on Top of the Pops to promote it, both of which Barrett was vehemently against. But I enjoy it, at least. Definitely a highlight from the Syd Barrett-era of Pink Floyd. I do think after the initial hearing I may have thought it was a little strange. It could only ever have been released in the ’60s, especially 1967. But the more listens I gave it, the more used to the whole thing I became, as one would usually do.

This track by Barrett sees him write about another thing that he seems to find rather odd and yet strangely fascinating. He did it with a scarecrow, a gnome, a bike. I’m sure there are others. ‘See Emily Play’ is supposedly written about a real person though, a girl Barrett saw while sleeping in the woods under the influence of a ‘psychedelic drug’. It’s not really clear in the lyric whether Barrett actually knows this lady or not, so as far as I know, he was just so captivated by her presence – the drugs may have reinforced this feeling – that he went ahead and wrote a song about this stranger. The minor-key verses hint at the sadness she may be feeling at times. Something to ponder until those jubilant choruses come in which end with a joyful calling of the song’s title, which also closes out the song overall. It’s always a fun listen when this one comes on.