<\/p>\n Now we know just how strange. In a recent talk with NPR<\/a> for the album\u2019s 50th anniversary, former Floyd drummer Nick Mason explained the group\u2019s methods during their first weeks back in Abbey Road Studios, where Dark Side was recorded.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n \u201cIn fact, of course, we ended up spending an awful lot of studio time doing nothing or working on a project called Household Objects,\u201d Mason says. The concept behind that latter project, he said, \u201cwas to make a record using household objects rather than musical instruments.<\/p>\n \u201cThe only thing I remember playing was, instead of using a bass drum, I had an ax and a large log of wood.\u201d<\/p>\n Pink Floyd recorded just two songs before giving up.<\/p>\n \u201cI think if we\u2019d stuck with it, we\u2019d still be in Abbey Road now trying to finish,\u201d Mason says. \u201cWe should have carried on touring Dark Side<\/a> for another year. But we didn\u2019t. We thought we\u2019d sort of had to get on, I suppose.\u201d<\/p>\n \n Nick Mason performs with Pink Floyd at the Palais des Sports. in Paris, June 24, 1974. (Image credit: Christian Rose\/Roger Viollet via Getty Images)<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t all a wasted effort. One of the instruments for Household Objects was a makeshift glass harmonica, made by filling water glasses with varying amounts of liquid and stroking the wetted edges of the glasses to produce bell-like timbres. The instrument reappeared on the intro to \u201cShine on You Crazy Diamond,\u201d the central track on Wish You Were Here, the album they eventually got around to making.<\/p>\n As Gilmour previously explained, bass<\/a> guitarist Roger Waters came up with the album\u2019s title, which was in part a criticism of his bandmates, who were, creatively speaking, not all there.<\/p>\n But Wish You Were Here was also a tribute to the band\u2019s founder, Syd Barrett, who abandoned the group as his undiagnosed mental health issues made it impossible for him to perform. His breakdown, which began while the band was on tour in the U.S. \u2014 a stint that saw them living for a short time with the Alice Cooper band<\/a> \u2014 led to Gilmour joining the band as Barrett\u2019s condition worsened.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n His decline would become a central theme in Waters\u2019 music, including Floyd\u2019s 1970s albums The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall. But nowhere was it more explicitly about Barrett than in the central work on Wish You Were Here: \u201cShine On You Crazy Diamond.\u201d The song was written expressly in tribute to Barrett, who coincidentally visited the band in the studio on the day they recorded it.<\/p>\n \n The Syd Barrett\u2013fronted Pink Floyd, circa 1968. (from left) Roger Waters, Nick Mason, Barrett and Richard Wright. (Image credit: Hulton-Deutsch Collection\/CORBIS\/Corbis via Getty Images)<\/p>\n As Gilmour explained to Rick Beato, that song came about after he stumbled onto a note cluster while playing his electric guitar<\/a>. The passage, consisting of G F Bb E played in sequence (often referred to as \u201cSyd\u2019s Theme\u201d), became central to the song.<\/p>\n \u201cI was in a rehearsal room doing all sorts of little things, and that one [came] out,\u201d Gilmour explained<\/a>. \u201cSomething in your brain goes, There\u2019s something to that! You do it again, and after a while, other people in the room stop.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can see this thing on people\u2019s faces, this awakening moment. People are going, \u2018there\u2019s a possibility here. There\u2019s something here\u2019. The whole of ‘Shine On’ grew out of that moment.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Nick](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/RnMbzEia9EeeuWpHQx9QZ6.jpg\")
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