Pink Floyd - Julia Dream (1968)

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Julia Dream was recorded by Pink Floyd in April 1968 as a B-side to It Would Be So Nice, but remained unreleased to US audiences until it appeared on the Relics album in May 1971. Relics was more than a greatest hits /compilation LP, but was a welcome addition to the group's late 1960s repertoire, containing songs never before heard by American audiences. The album included the previously unreleased gem Biding My Time as well as British B-side singles such as Paintbox and Careful With That Axe, Eugene (which most US fans had heard only in its live form on the LP, Ummagumma), as well as Arnold Layne (an A-side single in the UK only).

The psychedelic folk ballad Julia Dream is among my favorite early Pink Floyd songs along with Arnold Layne, See Emily Play and Paintbox. One might also consider it as an early form of Gothic rock music. Visually, I have given it the dreamlike, phantasmagoric treatment the song begs the listener to create in his or her own mind. I hope it measures up to expectations. Written by Roger Waters and sung by David Gilmour, Richard Wright lends an eerie accompaniment on Mellotron and organ creating a strange, surreal beauty unique to early Pink Floyd ballads.