1 Overlooked Gem Song From Every Pink Floyd Album

A Saucerful Of Secrets suffered a difficult birth, with Dave Gilmour recruited mid-recording as former leader Syd Barrett’s mental health declined. It’s generally considered weaker than its predecessor, and with all five members contributing songs but only appearing together on one track the record lacks cohesive identity.

There are musical hints at a future direction in the title track and elsewhere but Roger Waters’ contribution Corporal Clegg is the first example of the bass player’s lyrical preoccupation with war.

Having lost his own father during WWII, Waters offers up a gently satirical lyric about a soldier who “wins” a wooden leg in the war. It’s a lighter take on the subject than would come later, with members of the band heard laughing during the chorus.

Musically it’s one of the album’s most direct numbers, featuring a brass band and a kazoo solo. Indeed the song may have taken its name from Thaddeus Von Clegg, the German clockmaker who invented the kazoo.