Video Diary: The Pink Floyd - See Emily Play

I believe this is The Pink Floyd's first performance on Top of the Pops from July 6, 1967. Long believed gone this partially recovered video surfaced in 2010 and is the only surviving video of their three appearances on the show that month. Pretty Cool.

See you on the Flip-Side!

Tower Records Spotlight: The Pink Floyd - See Emily Play/The Scarecrow

See Emily Play

The Scarecrow

I've been having fun with our look at, first, Dunwich Records out of Chicago and, this past week, A&M Records out of Los Angeles. I'm going to continue the creative conceit by focusing this week on the legendary Tower Records out of LA.

Tower Records was a subsidiary for Capitol Records (the name was derived from the Capitol Building's infamous Tower). The label only existed for 6 years from 1964-1970. Oh, but what years those were. The label specialized in artists that were considered too minor for the titan of labels that was Capitol Records. As a result, a lot of garage bands -- particularly those hailing from California -- found their way to the iconic red and black "t" label. But Tower didn't just do garage rock. Some country artists, soul artists and doo-woppy vocals groups. Hell, even Mickey Rooney had a release on the catch-all Tower Records label. And like A&M Records, Tower Records became an outlet for some obscure British acts that barely even made a dent in their native UK. Let's look at one of those today.

We start our Tower Records focus with a monster of a record and a collector's valhalla. Everyone knows the name...Pink Floyd. But they sure didn't when this groundbreaking, mind melting record came out. And it's not the Pink Floyd that would go around putting bricks into walls. The Pink Floyd released five ultra-rare singles and two LPs on Tower Records. The second release for The Pink Floyd was, in my opinion, their best. It is Syd Barrett's own composition, See Emily Play with a Flip-Side of Syd's The Scarecrow. The single was released with an über, über rare picture sleeve (whose picture I've unceremoniously swiped from 45cat.com as I don't have it).

As all should know, Syd Barrett was the founder of The Pink Floyd, named the band, wrote the vast majority of their material, was the lead singer and was the sole guitarist. He only lasted one album and a few singles before mental illness mixed with psychotropic drugs pushed him over a brink from which he would never quite crawl back over. Of all his brilliant compositions, See Emily Play is my favorite. Shucks, I already said that. Two minutes and 55 seconds of pure joy. Gentle, melodic, ethereal, abstract, innocent. It's as close to perfect as a song can get. Even the out-of-nowhere harpsichord breakdown works perfectly. And that voice, ahh, what a voice Syd had. David Gimour would soon be brought in to help his friend Syd get through the increasingly erratic shows. But it was too late. Syd moved back home with his mum and Gilmour, Roger Waters, Nick Mason and Rick Wright would carry on without the "The" before Pink Floyd. I think they had a hit or two, but I don't really know about that band.

Video Diary: Jessica Lea Mayfield - Kiss Me Again

More from Nashville's Americana Music Fest. Jessica Lea Mayfield performs Kiss Me Again. We loved the languid music, the sleepy eyed singer and the low-fi guitar that reminded us of the better works of bands like TV Personalities, Syd Barret and some Neko Case work. We were lucky enough to catch Jessica performing at the very excellent Mercy Lounge.

Song of the Week: "Silly Girl", Television Personalities

Sometime around 1980, an off-key whimper of an album hit the record bins in the UK. A simple white album cover with a picture of the boob-tube characters, The Avengers was accompanied by the black and white words: Television Personalities. The backside of the album had photos of cops, hands, cats, Syd Barrett, "Alex" from A Clockwork Orange, Pete Townshend, The Creation and a pudgy kid holding a monkey. It looked much like the wall of most teenagers of the day (with the exception of the tilt towards 60's mod pop/psychedelia). The album is entitled And Don't The Kids Just Love It. It's the first output from the do-it-yourself band, Television Personalities, a band centered around the work of singer and songwriter Dan Treacy.

Television Personalities were amateurish (at best). But that was the intrigue of the band. Treacy played warbly, poorly tuned guitar and, at times, sang so far out of key in his thick British accent that you had to wonder if he was doing it on purpose. Despite, or because of, his musical limitations, Treacy made an impact in Britain. Here was a kid and his friends who wanted to make music. So they did it. They wrote songs, recorded those songs themselves, designed the album cover themselves and released it on their own label. No more A&R suits swilling gin and tonics telling you how unmarketable you are. Go straight to the record stores yourself and sell the record yourself.

Today's SoTW, is one of those songs off of that first album. It's one of their more accessible songs and it is entitled, Silly Girl. It features Treacy strumming frantically on guitar as the bass plays an overly complicated run. Ghostly noises fill out the aura of the song.

Television Personalities never broke the charts, but they did influence deconstructionists bands like Scotland's the Jesus and Mary Chain and Stockton, California's Pavement.

Click here to listen to Television Personalities perform their own composition, Silly Girl.