I have had enough spare time to have spent listening (at long last) to the generous uploads by Sir Henry about Tintern Abbey.

Being a lyrics fiend one of the first things I wanted to do was analyse the lyrics of the songs that made them household names...well on UK psych pages anyhow.

Having 4 demos of Beeside and 2 of vacuum cleaner there could have been a lot of development of the songs and the lyrics. As a turns out just as games of football are matches of two halves, so too is this single. It’s quite clear that vacuum cleaner underwent virtually no changes. Even the wonderful guitar solo that was intended to mimic a vacuum cleaner is nearly identical in all 3 tracks, showing that Don Smith had that down pat. I would say that this song emerged much more fully formed that its A side. It would also have been a much later song i suspect (using the logic it would have been on the earlier demos had it not)

As an interesting aside you might ask why write a song about vacuum cleaning, not exactly one of the hipper activities you would associate with youth of the time. A bit of research suggests that the song is very likely about vacuuming up the evidence of drugs referred to in the song in the flat because, at the time, the band members were half expecting a visit from the men in blue.

Beeside was clearly a song that was subject to a number of minor rewrites. The only significant musical change was deciding to dispense with the psychedelic drone in favour of a piano piece. Lyrically what was interesting in that the first rendition was a bit longer, one verse and half a chorus longer than the final version. Although it does not really have a chorus, so perhaps I will call it a refrain. They cut more of the song out with each succeeding demo. There is a lot of experimenting with the sound of the lyrics, the middle session had bits of the old and the new before standardizing so that the verse and refrain are simply repeated a second time in the song.

And the final version is rather more poetic. It’s best seen in replacing the original “She was a virgin of humble origin
I gave her my gin”
with
“She was a virgin of humble origin
She knew of no sin”

There was a good quote in SFA 11 about the likely meaning of the song. The demo suggests that it is not just a monologue from a tripped out human to a bee, but more of a argument between the wise hippy and the misguided bee. There is little doubt that the meaning of this song was as closely tied to the poem by Wordsworth as was the band name. So in effect this song was truly the bands theme song.

Anyway I await with baited breath what the compilers will produce next.

Hats off to you!
Thanks very much for your post, how interesting and deep! You're a true expert and, if you have several demos of the TA single in their original vinyl form, well, you're a true collector and have a multi££££ lot!!
Any other comments on TA or any other psych gems and obscurities?

well buttyfly that went right over my nonce[no disrespect] i thought bee side was actually b-side i need to revisit these tracks [and my nurse]

Nice analysis.

For those not following, the tracks Mr Robot speaks of are all available to hear at...

http://sirhenryrawlinson.blogspot.com/

I would think your take on the meaning of 'Vacuum Cleaner' is also accurate. Tintern Abbey were fairly notorious 'heads' and one of the many London based psychedelic groups to be prescribed cannabis tincture by Dr Sam Hutt aka Boeing Duveen aka Hank Wangford. The justification for this was that the paramoia associated with buying illegal drugs was bad for the mental health and therefore prescribing it was beneficial to the health of the patient.

Very interesting and accurate post indeed , Butterfly . But can I ask you a question ? Could you help me to figure out the lyrics to Cressida (both albums)and Arzachel ?
P.S. I'm not English .

No Bernado, I'm sure Daniel is not the owner of the acetates, even though he'd like to be. Check out the website if you haven't already.

Yes I certainly make no claim to owning any of those acetates, and Sir Henry deserves all the credit for making them available to our ears. That was a interesting addition to the drugs issue. It does sort of fall into place.

As for producing the lyrics of the Cressida and Arzachel LPs, well considering that a whole afternoon was spent on two short songs, I imagine that the task requested of me could take a wee bit longer. The question is do I have a few spare weeks to sit down and write out lyrics. As much as I would love to say yes, my limited spare time will be eaten up by other things. Thinking on it - it must be a few years since I heard either of those groups. Most of my collection has been sitting there stagnant for some while now.

I'd have a try for you but I don't own the albums Prof.