May 1967 - July 1968: In Less Then a Year

Pictured above: Focal Point, 1968.

Despite being a small footnote in the history of music, the story Focal Point is still interesting for being one of the first bands to sign with Apple Records, before fading into obscurity with an abrupt stop. Despite this they still have a cult following and are remembered in the mainstream mostly by their bassist Dave Slater, drummer Ted Hesketh, and guitarist Paul Tennant, all of who would later play in the Plastic Ono Band, with Slater and Hesketh even participating in the recording of the album Plastic Ono Band.

Musician friends and songwriting partners Paul Tennant and Dave Rhodes happened to come across Paul McCartney one day in the summer of May 1967, who was walking his dog in London's Hyde Park. After chasing after him, they told the Beatle how they had been writing songs and didn't know what to do with them, then asking for his help.

After about five minutes of talking to each other, Paul McCartney gave them the number of Terry Doran, manager of Apple's record publishing business (later the manager of Apple Records, in particular the band Grapefruit). 

It would take them a week to muster up the courage to make the phone call, after which they were called over to Doran's office. After hearing the pair play some songs in his office, Doran was impressed enough to record some demos with the duo, which he played to Brian Epstein and John Lennon.

Epstein suggested that the two form a band called Focal Point, Tennant and Rhodes did form the group in Liverpool with bassist Dave Slater, keyboardist Tim Wells, and drummer Ted Heshketh. Then signing a contract with Apple Records, with Terry Doran and Lionel Morton as their managers.

The band soon got to work in recording an album of original compositions on August 2nd, 1967, finishing on January 4th, 1968, with the album being released on February 29th, 1968 on vinyl, later with an ELP release, as well as the single Never Never / Sycamore Sid one month earlier.

Focal Point

Side A

- 01. Miss Sinclair (2:29) [1]

- 02. Sycamore Sid (2:28) [1]

- 03. Hassle Castle (3:39) [1]

- 04. Never Never (3:26) [1]

- 05. Lonely Woman (3:31) [1]

- 06. Far Away Form Forever (3:41) [1]

- 07. Love You Forever (2:55) [1]

Side B

- 08. Tales From The GPO Files (2:19) [1]

- 09. McKinley Morgan The Deep Sea River (3:10) [1]

- 10. Falling Out of Friends (3:28) [1]

- 11. Girl on the Corner (2:21) [1]

- 12. Goodbye Forever (2:29) [1]

- 13. This Time She's Leaving (3:19) [1]

- 14. 'Cept Me (2:28) [1]

Released: February 29th, 1968

Track sources:

[1] - First Bite of the Apple (The Complete Recordings 1967-68), 2005

Within less of a year after chasing down Paul McCartney walking his dog, Focal Point became all the rage in Liverpool, the press likening the band to The Beatles, with a local tabloid going as far calling them the "potential Beatle killers". The band wasted no time playing live all across Liverpool and other surrounding cities in the Merseyside county.

"That was it. In less then a year we were on our way to the top. Our album hit number 5 in the charts, we were playing live gigs, doing interviews, appearing on radio shows, the works. However it would all come crumbling down on June 30th, 1968 - I remember the date because it was one day after my birthday - we were having a party or something like that, and everyone was absolutely drunk. (David) Rhodes fell from a window on the fourth floor and died on the spot. After that we didn't feel it was right to carry on, it just wasn't the same without Rhodes."

- Paul Tennant, 2005

The band officially broke up on July 4th, 1968. The remaining members would go on to perform as studio musicians and keep in touch between themselves, The Beatles, and other Apple alumni, with John Lennon latter calling in Tennant, Slater and Hesketh as somewhat regular members of the Plastic Ono Band lineup between 1969 and 1974.

July 1967 - November 1968: We Decided to Play Businessmen For a Bit

Pictured above: Logo of Apple Corps.

During the production of Merseyside Summers: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles' accountants had informed the group that they had two million pounds that they could either invest in a business venture or else lose to the Inland Revenue because corporate/business taxes were lower than their individual tax bills.

"Our accountant came up and said 'We got this amount of money. Do you want to give it to the government or do something with it?' So we decided to play businessmen for a bit because we've got to run our own affairs now. So we've got this thing called 'Apple' which is going to be records, films, and books - which all tie up."

- John Lennon, 1968

Despite being founded by The Beatles, the company was mostly run by their manager Brian Epstein (who was appointed CEO), who initially had ambitious plans for the company, beyond just records and films: electronics, book publishing, and retail. Among these plans, thanks to some convincing from Beatle George Harrison, only the record label, film producing and book publishing fronts came into fruition.

After some time without a proper office, the company finally found a base in London at a four-story building at 94 Baker Street.

Pictured above: The Beatles in India, 1968.

After planning and officially founding Apple Corps, The Beatles took off to Rishikesh in India for a Transcendental Meditation course with the guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in February of 1968, along with their wives, girlfriends, assistants, many reporters, and multiple other high profile celebrities like Donovan, Mike Love and Brian Wilson from The Beach Boys, and Paul Horn.

Ringo Starr left in only ten days, likening the experience to the British seaside resort chain Butlins. Paul McCartney eventually grew bored and left only a month later. For John Lennon and George Harrison, they started questioning the Maharisi's integrity when an electronics technician and close friend of the band known as Magic Alex suggested that he was attempting to manipulate them.

When he alleged that the Maharishi had made sexual advances to women attendees, a persuaded Lennon left abruptly just two months into the course, bringing an unconvinced Harrison and the remainder of the group's entourage with him. In anger, Lennon wrote a scathing song titled "Maharishi", renamed "Sexy Sadie" to avoid potential legal issues.

"We made a mistake. We thought there was more to him than there was."

- Paul McCartney, 2000

Despite none of The Beatles completing the course, it was one of their most creatively prolific periods. The Beatles came together in May 1968 at George Harrison's house in Esher, called Kinfauns, to record several acoustic demos of said songs.

Having a great abundance of quality songs to work with (around 40), The Beatles decided to go all out, releasing two separate albums on the ELP format, both recorded at the same time. With the two album format, John Lennon had an idea in mind of a concept the album was to follow.

"So, the idea was one of contrast: a white album and a black album... at first I didn't have any ideas beyond that, but that's when it hit me, what were two of the main, but contrasting, ideas of all time? Love and hate, order and mayhem, peace and chaos."

- John Lennon, 1972

Sessions for the albums, titled Peace and Chaos, started in May. Despite the great abundance of songs to work with, and a plan for the album's concept, the recording sessions weren't without tension. 

With irregular session hours, an unorthodox form of working out songs involving recording every rehearsal and jamming and later adding overdubs to the best take, the band's collective ever-growing ego, and the presence of John Lennon's girlfriend Yoko Ono in the studio, it was no surprise tensions were high with the albums' recording, with Ringo Starr going as far as leaving the band for 10 days.

Despite this, the band pulled through, finishing recording on October 14th, with both albums released the next month on November 22nd, 1968, with the single Hey Jude / Revolution being released previously on August 26th, 1968.

They were The Beatles' most eclectic albums by far, with songs such as the Beach Boys-inspired Back in the U.S.S.R., the country-esque Ringo Starr composition Don't Pass Me By, and McCartney's ballad Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da, the latter causing some minor fighting within the group, with John calling it "more of Paul's granny music shit".

Another notable track in the albums was George Harrison's While My Guitar Gently Weeps, which had two versions, one on each album. The version on Peace was acoustic and had a string orchestra, much like their 1965 hit Yesterday, while the version of Chaos was more "electric" with a guitar solo by Eric Clapton on it.

With all these different genres and the unusual "double song" of While My Guitar Gently Weeps, two tracks that stick out especially are the avant-garde What's The New Mary Jane? and Revolution 19. The former featuring former Pink Floyd member and friend of Lennon Syd Barrett on it.

"John actually invited me to come over and lay out some odd noises for his song, which sounded like it was inspired by Piper."

- Syd Barrett, date unknown

Revolution 19 was a combination of two separate songs with a similar origin, Revolution 1 and Revolution 9.

"Well, the thing was that for a specific take of Revolution 1... take 18, I think, we kept on jamming for several minutes as an extended coda of sorts. I took that extended coda and worked with Yoko (Ono) to use it as the basis for this avant-garde sound collage I dubbed Revolution 9. When the rest of the band heard it, they thought I was insane for wanting it on the record. Eventually, we reached a compromise, George Martin would combine the regular Revolution 1 with Revolution 9, to make - you guessed it - Revolution 19"

- John Lennon, 1972

Peace

01. Back in the U.S.S.R. (2:43) [1]

02. Dear Prudence (3:55) [1]

03. Glass Onion (2:17) [1]

04. Sour Milk Sea (3:53) [2]

05. Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da (3:12) [1]

06. Los Paranoias (1:56) [2]

07. While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Peace) (3:22) [3]

08. Martha My Dear (2:28) [1]

09. I'm So Tired (2:07) [1]

10. Blackbird (2:18) [1]

11. Rocky Raccoon (3:33) [1]

12. Child of Nature (2:35) [4]

13. Mother Nature's Son (2:47) [4]

14. Honey Pie (2:41) [1]

15. Sexy Sadie (3:15) [1]

16. Long, Long, Long (3:06) [1]

17. Cry Baby Cry (2:38) [3]

18. Can You Take Me Back? (2:13) [3]

19. I Will (1:45) [1]

20. Julia (2:56) [1]

21. Good Night (3:15) [1]

Released: November 22nd, 1968

Track sources:

[1] - The Beatles, 1968

[2] - The Beatles I - What If - Misc.

[3] - The Beatles II - What If - Misc.

[4] - Custom mix by Auran

Chaos

01. Helter Skelter (4:46) [1]

02. Yer Blues (4:02) [2]

03. Not Guilty (4:08) [3]

04. Wild Honey Pie (0:53) [2]

05. The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill (3:14) [2]

06. While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Chaos) (4:45) [2]

07. Birthday (2:42) [2]

08. Piggies (2:04) [2]

09. Why Don't We Do It In The Road? (1:41) [2]

10. Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey (2:24) [2]

11. Savoy Truffle (2:54) [2]

12. Don't Pass Me By (3:59) [2]

13. What's the New Mary Jane? (6:02) [4]

14. Circles (2:13) [4]

15. Revolution 19 (10:32) [5]

16. Happiness is a Warm Gun (2:45) [2]

Released: November 22nd, 1968

Track sources:

[1] - Custom mix by me

[2] - The Beatles, 1968

[3] - The Beatles II - What If - Misc.

[4] - The Beatles I - What If - Misc.

[5] - A Doll's House - soniclovenoize (Albums That Never Were)

August 1967 - June 1968: Nah, Let's Not Bother

Pictured above: Pink Floyd, 1968.

Having released The Piper at The Gates of Dawn, Pink Floyd remained a popular live act in London, most notably at the UFO Club. However, guitarist and frontman Syd Barrett's decaying mental state started becoming very apparent, with his erratic behavior on stage concerning his fellow bandmates.

After being forced to cancel their appearance at the prestigious National Jazz and Blues Festival, along with several other shows, the band's manager Andrew King informed the press that Barrett was suffering from nervous exhaustion. Roger Waters eventually arranged a meeting with psychiatrist R. D. Lang, with Waters even driving Syd personally to the appointment, despite this Barrett refused to leave the car. A stay in Formentera with the well-established in the underground music scene doctor Sam Hutt also led to no visual improvement.

Despite all these troubles, the band followed a few European concert dates in September with their first US tour in October. However, as the US tour went on Barrett's condition only worsened. During appearances on the Dick Clark and Pat Boone shows in November, Barrett would not respond to the host's questions as he stared off into space. He went as far as refusing to move his lips when it came the time to mime the song See Emily Play on Boone's show.

After these embarrassing episodes, King ended their US visit early and immediately sent them back to London. Soon after they supported Jimi Hendrix during a tour of England, with Barrett only getting worse and worse, culminating in December where they had to hire a new guitarist.

Pictured above: David Gilmour, 1968.

David Gilmour was added to Pink Floyd's lineup in 1967 as a guitarist and the fifth member of the band. Gilmour and Barrett already knew each other, both having studied together at Cambridge Tech during the early 60s)

"(On Syd Barrett and David Gilmour at Cambridge) the two got along well - getting together at lunchtimes with guitars and harmonicas for a jam - and later spent a summer down in

the south of France, hitch-hiking around and busking."

- Nick Mason, 2005

In January 1968, Blackhill Enterprises (a partnership between the members of Pink Floyd, Peter Jenner, and Andrew King) announced Gilmour as the band's newest member, with the band intending to keep Barrett as a nonperforming songwriter, not too different from Brian Wilson's situation with The Beach Boys at the time.

"The idea was that Dave would ... cover for his (Barrett's) eccentricities and when that got to be not workable, Syd was just going to write. Just to try to keep him involved" 

- Peter Jenner, 1991

In an expression of frustration, Syd, who was expected to write additional hit singles to follow up Arnold Layne and See Emily Play instead introduced the song Have You Got It Yet? intentionally changing the structure of the song on every performance as to make it impossible for the band to follow.

"It was honestly frustrating as all hell. I was about to put down my bass and leave the room, but then what I can only describe as fucking magic happened: Despite the damn thing changing all the time, Nick (Mason) and Rick (Wright) started to play along, improvising and constantly changing the structure themselves. Eventually, me and David (Gilmour) also joined in and it ended up becoming this huge improvisational piece that lasted for like 30 minutes. Of course, we cut it down for the album, but that was probably one of my favorite moments in the studio during the recording of Scream Thy Last Scream."

- Roger Waters, 2001

In the end, despite the chaotic and fruitful recording of Have You Got It Yet?, Syd Barrett proved to be too difficult to work with, and matters came to a conclusion in January of 1968 while on their way to a performance in Southampton, when a band member asked if they should collect Barrett, to which the answer was "Nah, let's not bother.", signaling the end of Syd's presence in Pink Floyd.

"He was our friend, but most of the time we now wanted to strangle him."

- Roger Waters, 2008

In March of 1968, Pink Floyd met with business partners Jenner and King to discuss the future of the band, with Barrett agreeing to leave. With them believing that Barrett was the creative genius of the band, Jenner and King decided to represent Barrett and end their relationship with Floyd. Despite this the band continued to record the album Scream Thy Last Scream, releasing it on the ELP format on June 29th, 1968, peaking at number 9 and receiving mixed reviews by critics.

Scream Thy Last Scream

- 01. Vegetable Man (2:31) [1]

- 02. Let There Be More Light (5:38) [2]

- 03. Remember a Day (4:32) [2]

- 04. In the Beechwoods (4:43) [1]

- 05. Apples and Oranges (3:04) [1]

- 06. Paintbox (3:47) [1]

- 07. Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun (5:27) [2]

- 08. Corporal Clegg (4:12) [2]

- 09. Have You Got It Yet? (14:32) [3]

- 10. See-Saw (4:36) [2]

- 11. Scream Thy Last Scream (4:42) [1]

- 12. Jugband Blues (3:00) [2]

Released: June 29th, 1968

Track sources:

[1] - 1965-1967 Cambridge St/ation, 2016

[2] - A Saucerful of Secrets, 1968

[3] - 1965-1967 Cambridge St/ation, 2016 - John Latham Versions 4-9 (start Version 4 from 2:34 onwards)