‘See Emily Play’: The Acid Dream and the Guitar Slide That Launched Pink Floyd

The most interesting thing about “See Emily Play” is that the descending guitar riff—that wobbling, psychedelic slide down the neck—was basically an accident that Syd Barrett turned into a signature. He was trying to play a simple melody on his Telecaster when he discovered that running his thumb along the strings while bending the bar gave a swooping, almost laughing sound. It became the hook that made the song instantly recognizable, and it’s the first time Pink Floyd used that kind of controlled chaos in a single.

The lyrics were inspired by a girl named Emily whom Syd met at the UFO Club in London—or, depending on which story you believe, she was a figure from a dream he had after taking acid. Either way, lines like “float on a river” and “paint the sky with stars” match the lysergic, playful quality of the recording. The song was written quickly after the band’s manager urged them to create a follow-up to “Arnold Layne,” which had been banned by the BBC for its transvestite lyrics.

The recording at Abbey Road in May 1967 was a major step up from their earlier work. Previous singles were cut at Sound Techniques with engineer Joe Boyd in cramped, makeshift conditions. For “See Emily Play,” Norman Smith (who had engineered The Beatles) placed the band in Studio Two with proper separation, used flanging and reverse tape effects on the vocal, and insisted on multiple takes to tighten Syd’s wandering sense of timing. The result was a crisp, trippy pop song that hit No. 6 on the UK charts—the band’s first and only top-ten hit while Syd was still in the group.