APPLES AND ORANGES

Behind the seemingly happy sounding name of this 3rd single there was contempt brewing, shades of rebellion that can be heard in "Vegetable Man" as well. Recorded in October of 1967, conventional wisdom says Syd had ingested one LSD tab too many and became a "drug casualty" soon to be fired by the band and then Dave to the rescue. My take is that Syd had enjoyed the early camaraderie, the music and friends, and the excitement of making his album. But being a pop star quickly wore on Barrett and the realization that this grind would never stop became unbearable. He didn't like having to repeat himself and he didn't care for the ambitious nature of the others. The solution for Barrett was continued chemical ingestion and "acting out" creatively, that is, intentionally casting forth mediocre performance and writing. He was almost forcing the hand of the others, who he knew wanted a career, and who eventually called his bluff.

"...we put unrelenting pressure on Syd. When he didn't come up with it (another great single) we were thoroughly nasty to him." -Andrew King

"Syd was beginning to feel deeply disappointed with the Floyd." -Anthony Stern

"Couldn't care less." -Syd (asked about Apples & Oranges weak reception)

And it shows. "Apples and Oranges" is one of Barrett's worst tracks. All of the humor, charm, and intuitive psych-pop perfection of the previous two ear-candies was completely gone here. This is stale stuff and you can hear the disdain in Barrett's voice. Watching the video promo performance Rick Wright does his best to keep the train on the tracks with his usual professionalism, but Syd can barely be bothered to sing. They blew it picking this over "Vegetable Man" which is a much more interesting track. Rick's B-side of "Paintbox" was a much better track. Similar to "Remember a Day" Wright had a knack for the typical and clichéd hippie pop song but they are still very enjoyable. Lots of flower-power and great keyboard playing on this one, and Rick's voice is warm and soothing. Barrett contributes the high backing vocals and plays guitar here, though people sometimes think it is Gilmour because Dave did the promo video a few months later. But this track was also recorded in the fall of 1967 with Apples. It has a certain refined touch from Wright's jazzy piano inclinations, and would begin a string of songs for Rick that would endear him to his fans, though not always his band mates. Mason's playing is also notable for its long and relatively wild fills.

"Paintbox" drags the single out of the ratings gutter that "Apples" would be in. 2 ½ stars.

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