London Underground
"While Pink Floyd began by playing cover versions of American R&B songs[46] (in much the same vein as contemporaries The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, and The Kinks), by 1966 they had carved out their own style of improvised rock and roll,[47][48] which drew as much from improvised jazz[49] as it did from British pop-rock, such as that championed by The Beatles. After Bob Klose departed from the band, for the rest of the members, the band's direction changed, however, not instantly,[nb 1] with more improvising on the guitars and keyboards.[38] Mason said on the change: "It always felt to me that most of the ideas were emanating from Syd at the time".[38] In October 1965, after a jam with Gilmour at the 21st birthday party of Thorgerson's girlfriend, Libby January, the band got drunk.[52] They were so drunk that Barrett tried to whip off a tablecloth, with all items on the table, managing to crash the items on to the floor.[52] Barrett, frequently at his Earlham Road residence, played The Mothers of Invention's Freak Out!, The Byrds' Fifth Dimension, The Fugs' and Love's debut albums,[53] and The Beatles' Revolver,[54] repeatedly. All these albums were connected by their proto-psychedelic field, which had begun to guide Barrett's songs, as much as R&B had, previously.[53] "Interstellar Overdrive" (included into the band's setlist from autumn), for example, was inspired by the riff from Love's "My Little Red Book", 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".[53] The Kinks' "Sunny Afternoon" was an important influence on Barrett's songwriting.[53]
At this time, Barrett's reading reputedly contained (among others): Grimm's Fairy Tales, Tolkien's The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, Carlos Castaneda's The Teachings of Don Juan, and The I-Ching.[53] During this period, Barrett wrote most of the songs for not only Pink Floyd's first album, and also songs that would later appear on his solo albums.[53] In 1966, a new rock concert venue, the UFO (pronounced as "you-foe"),[55] opened in London and quickly became a haven for British psychedelic music. Pink Floyd, the house band,[50][55][56][57] was its most popular attraction and after making appearances at the rival Roundhouse,[57][58][59] became the most popular musical group of the so-called "London Underground" psychedelic music scene.[10]"
Well the teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, by Carlos C, was not released until in 1968. But perhaps that is in time.
