The Flute Solo That Made 'Julia Dream' a Collector’s Prize

Recorded in early 1968, “Julia Dream” was the B-side to “It Would Be So Nice” and one of the last Pink Floyd tracks to carry Syd Barrett’s psychedelic fog. By then the band had already moved toward tighter song structures, but this track floats on echo-drenched vocals, a wandering organ, and a flute solo that feels beamed in from their Piper days. That flute wasn’t played by any band member—it was session musician Dennis Ricketts, a rare early instance of Pink Floyd hiring an outsider.

Collectors obsess over that solo because it’s the only piece of prominent flute in the band’s official pre-Dark Side catalog, and because it captures a transitional moment: the group was trying to be more commercial, yet still allowed a trippy, unanchored instrumental break. The whole song was later pulled from circulation when the band disowned “It Would Be So Nice,” making the original single a pricey item. Today, “Julia Dream” sounds like a ghost of the Barrett era that Ricketts accidentally helped preserve.