Careful With That Axe, Eugene

pretty much Pink Floyds version of "Dark Star" don'tcha think?

like when you think about it, no two versions are the same

and there are certain versions that people find their favorites


i think it's a pretty sweet song except for the excessive screaching by Waters (which is cool but i don't think it's quite right for this song)

 

The scream is classic.

 

what do you mean its not right for the song?????????? it says "careful with that axe eugene" and of course the scream is fitting because someone wasnt careful with that axe.....

supposedly, there is a rumour that the song was based off of jerry garcia actually. Im sure all you deadheads know that jerry lost a finger thanx to his brother and an axe, which was accidental, when he was a kid. I dont know the truth in that, or where they came up with the title for that song..... or the basis of that song.....

yes, there are many other versions out there. on the zabriskie point soundtrack, it is known as "come in car number 54, where are you" which I think is the absolutely best version. dave's guitar is so awesome in that version. there are many other versions too, they used it in their man and the journey sequence in concert in the early 70s..... it went under a different name too, I think it was massed gadgets of auximines, or something like that (actually it kind of escapes me at the moment)

the live versions of careful with that axe are the best for sure. pompeiis version is great, I think its even better than the one on ummagumma. rogers screams are so powerful.

I dont think that cwtae resembles dark star at all......... I think it more resembles the doors "the end" just listen to those two....... and even phish entertwined those two songs on their live disk in the 90s, during the mike's groove sequence.

great song.

 

i totally agree that the scream fits the title, but i'm not sure the scream really fits the music

like it's kinda slow and psychedelic and then a bunch of screaming kicks in, it's alright in small doses, which i why i like the version i have cuz the screaming doesn't last as long as others

 

well i don't mean in the sense that it's close to dark star

i just mean that it's in the same field, maybe not a total improv, but no two versions are similar, and that the only constant is the lyrics

it's a killer song for sure

 

I think the scream fits, the song is slow and builds up towards the scream, and afterwards it gets faster.

But I get what you are saying in your comparison towards dark star, how there are soo many different versions of the song, different lengths, ect...

 

exactly......... the music starts building up to this crescendo, and then the loud blood curling scream, and then the music gets really intense.

perfect.

just like "the end" by the doors.

 

maybe i have a sub-par version then

i'll shop around

 

Actually, what you are thinking of is called Massed Gadgets of Hercules and it is an early version of Saucerful of Secrets. (earliest version was Nick's Boogie)
Syd actually played on both of those versions. There is a BBC recording of Floyd w/ Syd doing Massed Gadgets, Vegetable Man, Scream Thy Last Scream, and Pow R Toc H.

Other names for Careful With that Axe...are the earliest being Murderistic Women, the version you mentioned from Zabriskie Point, a version called Beset by Creatures of the Deep, and of course Careful with that Axe Eugene. I think those are all of the different titled versions. It seems there are a number of Floyd songs that had different or multiple names as they evolved into their finished form.

There is a bbc from 1969 that had very early versions of floyd songs..some of them were

Daybreak (grantchester meadows)
Nightmare (cymbaline)
The Beginning (green is the colour)
Beset By Creature of the Deep (careful with that axe eugene)

I cant remember the original title for Echoes though....I'll have to search for it.

 

the version on ummagumma is by far the best i've heard. that 1st scream has scared the crap out of me when i wasn't expecting it. AWESOME SONG!!!!

 

The slow and psychedelic part is what builds up to the screaming... the screaming is the climax, the screaming is what makes the song. Otherwise, itd be a lengthy, tedious, and unchanging piece.

 

okay, I got the titles mixed up for careful with that axe, which appeared on the man and journey set. its what you said as beset by the creature of the deep.

echoes was known as first "looking through the knotholes of granny's wooden leg" also titled as nothing pts 1-24 and return of the son of nothing......

 

I just watched a DVD of a live performance of Careful With That Axe, Eugene and Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun from the Brighton Dome, 1972... Great stuff.

 

Roger's scream is awesome. It scared the living s**t outta me when i first heard it as i'm sure it did everyone else. Now it's in my top 10 floyd songs of all time

 

well also, you are quite confused about all of this. SYD never played on massed gadgets of auximenes, because it was part of their man and the journey set, which was 1969....... and all of the man and the journey sequence took material that they previously recorded, and they just renamed it something else, and played it a bit differently in a sequence...... syd didnt even play on a saucerful of secrets because he was long gone from the floyd by the time they even recorded it. THIS was the very first song that the floyd recorded without any presence of syd barrett, and they had very much success with this live, that they knew they could continue on without the songwriting and presence of syd. this was mid 68, and syd was ousted from the band by late 67.

Nicks boogie is also a totally different song, which appears on the tonite lets all make love in london....... and there is NO similarity between nicks boogie and a saucerful of secrets.