Interstellar Overdrive - Composition and Recording

Composition and Recording

The opening hook of the piece is a distorted, descending guitar riff, played by Syd Barrett, its composer, with Roger Waters on bass and Richard Wright on organ. Nick Mason's drums then kick in, and after the riff repeats itself a bit, the track turns into improvisation, including modal improvisations, flourishes on the Farfisa organ, and quiet interludes. The song gradually becomes almost structureless and in free-form tempo, punctuated only by strange guitar noises. Eventually, however, the entire band restates the main theme, which is repeated with decreasing tempo and more deliberate intensity.

This riff originated when early Pink Floyd manager Peter Jenner was trying to hum a song he could not remember the name of (most commonly identified as Love's cover of "My Little Red Book"). Barrett followed Jenner's humming with his guitar and used it as the basis for the principal melody of "Interstellar Overdrive". Roger Waters once told Barrett that the song's riff reminded him of the theme tune from Steptoe and Son (by Ron Grainer). The free-form section (and also, "Pow R. Toc H.") was inspired by Frank Zappa's free-form freak-outs and The Byrds' "Eight Miles High".

Recorded on 16 March 1967, with overdubs in June of that year, the Piper version also appears on the official compilation albums Relics and A Nice Pair. Producer Norman Smith played the drum roll.