Pink and Purple were both recording at the same studio when Syd Barrett and gave The Purple Gang a demo with a few songs, including Here I Go, which he wrote for them. The label's CEO didn't want them doing covers, so that got nixed. Then they lost the tape. 4/ 9 youtu.be/lhUT00LJbAM
Also, while "Granny Takes a Trip" seems like it'd scandalous enough to get attention, yet innocuous enough to get airplay, it flew too close to the sun and got banned. The follow-up single didn't chart. They didn't release anything else until 1998 5/9 thestrangebrew.co.uk/interviews/p...
Here I Go didn't fit Syd's usual style. I wonder what the other songs on the tape were. Chris Joe Beard, Purple Gang's guitarist, says "Golden Hair" was one. I think "Love You" is a bouncy tune that would lend itself to a skiffle arrangement but I'm just speculating. 6/9 youtu.be/5PX82V_q2zw
(unrelatedly, the only song listed under Syd Barrett on Youtube Music is Rhamadan, a tuneless 20-minute piece for guitar, bongos, and motorcycle. You can find it and listen to it if you want, but the novelty wears off long before the twenty minutes is up. I'm a superfan, but still no.) 7/9
Turns out the song I heard is on the album - the expanded 2017 release. They finally recorded it in 2006. In my defense, when they say "2006 version" they usually mean that's when it was remastered or remixed youtu.be/nBabGRYeg-c 8/9
Also, turns out that this was a known fact. Just not by me. I hadn't been keeping up with Syd Barrett news since there's been precious little of it in my lifetime, and if I had read about this, I lacked the context to appreciate it. So here you go. Context. 9/9