Let There Be More Light

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“Let There Be More Light”
Single by Pink Floyd
from the album A Saucerful of Secrets
B-side Remember a Day
Released June 29, 1968 (UK)
July 27, 1968 (US)
August 19, 1968 (US single)
1968 (Japanese single)
Format 7"
Recorded January, March, May 1968
Abbey Road Studios, London
Genre Space rock, psychedelic rock
Length 5:39
3:00 (US single)
5:27 (Japanese single)
Label Tower Records (US)
Writer(s) Roger Waters
Producer Norman Smith
Pink Floyd singles chronology
"It Would Be So Nice"
(1968)
"Let There Be More Light"
(1968)
"Point Me at the Sky"
(1968)
A Saucerful of Secrets track listing
"Let There Be More Light"
(1)
"Remember a Day"
(2)

"Let There Be More Light" is the first song on Pink Floyd's second album, A Saucerful of Secrets. It was also released in edited form as the fourth U.S. single by the group. A rare US-only single release (Tower 440) contains edited mono versions of this song and 'Remember A Day'. The single did not chart. Pink Floyd performed the song live from 1968-1969, often acting as an encore.

The song was entirely written by Roger Waters. It begins with an iterative bass line before the vocals start. The first, gentler vocals are performed by Richard Wright with Roger Waters whispering, the following, harder refrain by David Gilmour. The last two minutes feature for the first time a guitar solo from Gilmour in a Pink Floyd album, featuring his distinctive style of playing single notes treated with effects such as distortion and echo.

According to the Echoes FAQ, the songs lyrics were inspired by various science fiction sources and historic persons, including; The Rhull, Mildenhall, Hereward the Wake and Carter's father. It also contains an allusion to the Beatles song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds in the lines "The outer lock rolled slowly back / The servicemen were heard to sigh / For there revealed in flowing robes / Was Lucy in the Sky".

The song has inspired British alternative rock band Placebo for their single "Taste in Men".



[edit] Personnel

[edit] Cover Version

  • A cover of Let There Be More Light by Brook Claman appears on 2003 Pink Floyd tribute album A Fair Forgery of Pink Floyd.
  • Another cover can be found on the RPWL Album "999", dated 2007.