Lucy Leave Explained

Lucy Leave
Cover:Lucy Leave single.jpg
Type:single
Artist:Pink Floyd
A-Side:Lucy Leave
B-Side:I'm a King Bee
Written:Late 1964
Released:Nov. 27, 2015
Recorded:December-January, 1964-1965
Genre:Rock and roll, British R&B, rock, garage rock

"Lucy Leave" is a song by the English rock band Pink Floyd. The song is one of the first written and recorded by the band and was not released until 2015 in the EP and in 2016 in The Early Years 1965–1972 box set. The song was featured on the 1965–1967 CAMBRIDGE ST/ATION CD as the first track and featured most of Pink Floyd's original lineup of Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, Nick Mason and Bob Klose.[1]

Writing and recording

Lucy Leave was written in early 1965[2] (although Nick Mason wrote that it was written in December 1964)[3] by Syd Barrett.[4] The song is about a relationship with a girlfriend, expressing the desire to break up while simultaneously being clingy and affectionate towards her. This was one of the first songs written by the band which was called 'The Tea Set' at the time.[5] Barrett played rhythm guitar and was on vocals, Waters was on bass guitar, Mason on drums and Klose on lead solo guitar, the song did not feature Richard Wright playing keyboard. "Lucy Leave" was released unofficially as a single without a label, The B-side featured the song "I'm A King Bee".[6] Both songs were recorded around the same time.

In Echoes : The Complete History of Pink Floyd, Glenn Povey writes that "Lucy Leave" "shows the band performing a very straightforward R&B style". In Reinventing Pink Floyd : From Syd Barrett to the Dark Side of the Moon, Bill Kopp further states the song is "based upon a familiar R&B melodic line" but is nevertheless distinctive due to its "start-and-stop sections of the melody [...] and the slightly non-standard [...] chord choices".

Music

The song has a simple chord sequence, the intro goes from the chords E7, D, C and then the main chords which are E and A repeating. The chorus has C, D and B as the chords. For most of the song a solo is played by Bob Klose and a main guitar solo is played after the 3rd verse.

Personnel

See also

References

  1. Kreps . Daniel . 2015-12-02 . Pink Floyd Quietly Release '1965: Their First Recordings' EP . 2024-01-21 . Rolling Stone . en-US.
  2. Web site: RoIO CD: Lucy Leave & Other Rarities . 2024-01-20 . www.pf-roio.de.
  3. Book: Mason, Nick . Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd . Chronicle books . 2017 . 9781452166100.
  4. Web site: Jaxsta . 2024-01-20 . jaxsta.com.
  5. Book: Kopp, Bill . Reinventing Pink Floyd : From Syd Barrett to the Dark Side of the Moon . Rowman & Littlefield Publishers . 2018 . 9781538108284.
  6. Book: Povey, Glenn . Echoes : The Complete History of Pink Floyd . Mind Head Pub. . 2007 . 9780955462405.