The First Pink Floyd Recording Session: December 1964 at King’s College London

In December 1964, a band still calling themselves The Tea Set (soon to be Pink Floyd) dragged a portable tape recorder into a cramped classroom at King’s College London. They weren’t recording for a label—just for themselves, capturing the raw, R&B-tinged sound of their early gigs.

Four songs came out of that session: “Lucy Leave” (a Syd Barrett original with a bluesy swagger), a cover of Slim Harpo’s “I’m a King Bee,” the spacey instrumental “Double O Bo,” and “Butterfly” (another Barrett composition). The recordings are lo-fi, hissy, and full of youthful energy—nothing like the polished stadium rock they’d later be known for.

These tracks wouldn’t see official release until the 2015 The Early Years box set. For decades, they existed only as bootlegs, offering a glimpse of a band still figuring out who they were before the psychedelic floodgates opened.