No Good Trying

This song also could be about Pink Foyd without him.

''It's no good trying to place your hand where I can't see because I understand that you're different from me''

It's no use trying to hide, I know you don't miss me. I know that you'll move on without me.

''yes I can tell that you can't be what you pretend''

This might be about Roger Waters. I saw on him on TV saying he didn't really get about the psychodelic movement, he just wanted to be a big rockstar driving nice cars and sleeping with lots of girls.

''and you're rocking me backwards''

Pretty self-explanatory.

''and you're rocking towards the red and yellow mane of a stallion horse.''

Don't really get this part...LSD?

''It's no good trying to hold your love where I can't see because I understand that you're different from me''

It's no use trying to walk away from me, I know that you still like me, or that you care about me.

''the caterpillar hood won't cover the head of you know you should be home in bed.''

This could be: I know you since you were a child, all that pose won't cover who you really are.

'It's no good holding your sequin fan where I can't see because I understand that you're different from me''

It's no use trying to hide all your sucess. Syd didn't want to be a big rockstar and he hated all this wonder-band stuff, but roger and the other guys didn't. Roger said on an interview that Syd got very suspicious when they started getting famous, and he got all ''Wait a minute, wasn't that what you wanted? We wanted to be rockstars!''

'yes you're spinning around and around in a car with electric lights flashing very fast...''

This is may be a reference to the big cars Roger daydreamed about driving, and the lights could be a reference to Pink Floyd early gigs, when they would flash lights all over the stage.

I don't know why, but this song sounds so spiteful.

Well, that's just my two cents.

he is such a great artist and this is such a great song.

Yes, this is a very sweet song.

Please inpraiseoffolly, if your'e gonna have negative things to say about artists or songs, don't say them. Keep your opinion to your self, and don't be a downer to other people. Maybe some people think it is a great song, I do. Just don't be rude anymore, thanks.

"....red and yellow mane of a stallion horse" I love that part for some reason. I can imagine a horse like that when I hear this part if the song. Such a cool sight.

I don't think saying a song is good is necessarily a negative thing to say, much less being rude

I really like the feel of this song, and Syd's how singing goes in a downward motion in the "It's/ no\good\try\ing-to/place\your\hand where/I\can't\see bec-ause-I /understand" part.(Slashes show vocal melody, lol). The guitar is very unique how it uses volume fading sounds, sort of modern sounding. Definitely one of Syd's best, IMO.

"There is no use trying, said Alice; one can’t believe impossible things.

I dare say you haven’t had much practice, said the Queen. When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

I stumbled upon this quote on this you tube page :

youtube.com/watch

Has this been documented elsewhere? It seems like this song title is obviously a Lewis Carroll lift... maybe the most pilfered children's book in the psych era.

It's no good trying to place your hand where I can't see because I understand that you're different from me yes I can tell that you can't be what you pretend and you're rocking me backwards and you're rocking towards the red and yellow mane of a stallion horse.

It's no good trying to hold your love where I can't see because I understand that you're different from me yes I can tell that you can't be what you pretend the caterpillar hood won't cover the head of you know you should be home in bed.

It's no good holding your sequin fan where I can't see because I understand that you're different from me yes I can tell that you can't be what you pretend yes you're spinning around and around in a car with electric lights flashing very fast...

'It's no good trying to place your hand, where I can't see because I understand that you're different from me' recalls a gentler version of Dylan's 'something is happening that you don't understand' (Ballad of a Thin Man)... at least my first impression of this song was that it is directed at observers of the scene/ himself.

Theres a jokey play on words with 'rocking'... watching the youtube above got me thinking this could be a lighthearted put down of Mick Rock, given Barrett's tendency to throw in cryptic references to his friends/ girlfriends. Probably not though. Maybe not even a reference to the 'rock' world.

There's all the fun of the fair as Barrett and companion are 'rocking backwards and rocking towards me' on 'the red and yellow mane of a stallion [fairground] horse.'

Rhythmically this is kind of a companion to Octopus/ Clowns and Jugglers and draws from the same fairground imagery:

nfa.dept.shef.ac.uk/history/rides/caterp.html

I remember going on one of these at Cambridge Midsummer Fair back in the early 80s... you are already 'spinning around in a car with electric lights flashing very fast' when suddenly the caterpillar hood mechanically covers over each car and you're plunged into darkness whilst bumping up and down at speed... an exhilerating experience, matched here by the choppy drum rolls, carnivalesque bleepy organ and wailing lead guitar.

I think the song as a whole alludes to the fairground nature of the music business/ psychedelic scene... Barrett has had too many late night's larging it, 'you know you should be home in bed', but there's no 'caterpillar hood' to protect him, he is instead standing completely exposed on stage through all this.

You could go further into the significance of fairgrounds and carnivals in English culture, their demonisation as a manifestation of 'pure hedonism'. Anyway, my recollections are that even in the 80s, the Midsummer fair was a big deal in the semi-rural flatlands of Cambridge, as this other world of travelling people, bright lights and scary rides sprawled accross Midsummer Common (a conglomeration of several travelling fairs together)

Not sure about 'sequined fan', any ideas?

Like the 'you shouldn't try to be what you can't be' line in 'Waving my hands...' I'm not sure if the 'you' is pointed at anyone particular or is more inward looking.

This was reportedly a very difficult track to record, with Syd significantly changing performance, length of bars etc between takes. As has been discussed elsewhere, this seems to have fazed Barrett's old bandmates (who on his departure settled into a plodding 4/4, with the odd exception such as 'Money' aside) more than the Soft Machine crew. His 'play what you like' approach might have been unusual, but in the context that his musical route seems to have come not through classical training but blues/ beat/ rnb morphing into an interest in free jazz does not seem unreasonable... perhaps also because he somewhat unwittingly found himself in the role of 'band leader'

Is that Rick Wright on the organ? It seems reminiscent of the Tonite Lets Make Love take of Interstellar Overdrive/ Nick's Boogie... I think those two had a good musical chemistry.

For those who are in the mood to speculate and read long entries, it's time for some "Andy Witmyer Song Analysis"! In regards to the theme of "It's No Good Trying" (one of my favorite Syd songs!), I think the most obvious general interpretation is that he's singing about being honest to a girl that he would like to be committed to, even if she's been evasive and that she is almost certainly a little bit "different" from him. Subject matter that, on at least one level, the song is almost assuredly referring to. But, that having been said, I feel their are other meanings hidden between each line.

THIS WILL BE LONG, BUT HOPEFULLY WORTH READING! Let us continue...

See, I also strongly suspect that this song is (yet again!) something of a dig at his former Floydian bandmates as well. The word "hand" could be symbolic of "control" - thus, Syd is stating that they've been placing the control of the band "where he can't see". The Floyd without him is also decidedly "different" from him. And, in his view, without him, they can't exactly be "what they pretend". Syd is therefore seen to be cynical in regards to the integrity of the Floyd's artistic vision without him.

The bits about the "sequin fan" are alluding to fame and fortune, which he both admired and hated - but once again, the band was achieving a bit of both, and doing so without Syd's vision (where he "can't see"). Syd is also stating that he feels that the band was holding their "love" away from him, as well. By love, he means the respect and admiration that he felt his mates once felt for him - and that he hopes that perhaps on some level, maybe they still feel that way, even if they are keeping those aspects actively hidden from him.

The other lines are, on the surface, about rides that one may come across at an amusement park. I think collectively, they represent a metaphor about the whole song and dance that he had experienced with PF as being something of a joke. An ongoing assortment of amusement rides - fun for a little while, perhaps - but, ultimately quite shallow.

The "red and yellow stallion horse" is about a specific creature on what appears to be a merry-go-round. Horses are often symbolic of action and of journeys. This could be seen as a metaphor of Syd's earlier success with the Floyd - an event which resulted in a flurry of creative activity and, while on tour, of journeys both far and wide. Red can associated with passion, and yellow of the sun - elements that could be seen as belonging to Syd before things went sour. He was passionate in regards to his songwriting, and his fame shone bright, like that of the sun. He began to "ride" both at the start of his career, but ultimately in a circle for the horse in this song, although a stallion (indicating power), was ultimately rather weak and constricted; both Syd and the horse were forced to go around and around to the sound of strange music - while perhaps fun at first, I feel that this ultimately portended (what Syd eventually saw as) the futility of his aspirations, due to the manipulations of those who "design merry-go-rounds", so to speak (or, in other words, the big wigs within the music industry who only wanted Syd to go in only the directions they desired and of those who only wanted successful singles and the like from that point onward).

"The caterpillar hood" represents another ride - this time, analogous to the middle of Syd's musical journey. He's too big for the ride now - it won't even "cover [his] head"! This is obviously symbolic of not only outgrowing one's original zone of comfort and of ideas and philosophies in general, but also of actual discomfort. Syd was no doubt feeling cramped and stifled by such a "ride" at this point. The "caterpillar" itself is often synonymous with the idea of transformation, and more specifically, of the very beginning of such a change. If this part of the song is in regards to the middle of Syd's artistic journey, it seems to indicate that he was, perhaps, feeling stuck. He should have been in a cocoon, or even a butterfly, by now. Instead he was still feeling pressured to be "who he was at the start", which was no longer possible. In the end of the verse, we find him questioning the entirety of what he had accomplished at this point and he openly wonders if he should have simply "stayed in bed", or in other words, not even have maybe bothered with his career in music at all! The "bed" is a symbol for the comfort that one finds at home - something he would never find in a studio or on a stage.

And finally, the most darkly cryptic verse of the song. "Yes, you're spinning around and around in a car with electric lights flashing very fast" - I feel that these lines in particular contain SEVERAL different meanings! On the surface, one may assume that he's speaking of bumper cars, or something of that sort. Spinning around, aimlessly, wrecking into others constantly. The electric lights of the amusement park glimmer, disorientingly, just beyond (lights you would only see, by the way, just before or sometime after sunset, indicating that it must have been "night time" outside...). I feel that, in regards to his tenure with the Floyd, this really captures Syd's state of mind at the twilight of his musical career. He was, by now, in a position where he felt he was the one who could be in control of things - a feeling that is represented by a "car", which one would assume that Syd was the driver of. But, even now, in such a car, he was still feeling constrained - as it was merely yet another "ride", with very real boundaries (as well as other cars, each with their own drivers) at all sides of him, and into both, he would find himself endlessly colliding. This serves as a metaphor for Syd's strong desire to push the very boundaries of music, but coming up against heavy resistance at nearly every turn. I also suspect that the lines have a secondary meaning, which is to represent Syd's major abuse of psychedelic drugs at this time. "Spinning around and around" in a haze of "electric lights flashing very fast" sounds, to me, like someone describing a "bad trip". And just one of many that Syd may have experienced at the time. Lastly, and this is just some very far out speculation, but I wonder if these lines might also be strongly hinting at his first major nervous breakdown, which happened after Syd had broken up with Lyndsey, and while driving around England in his Mini (an event for which he had been briefly institutionalized). And for those that buy into the possibility of Syd having been a possible victim of MK-ULTRA mind control experiments, "flashing lights" were extensively used by the CIA to (along with drugs and other methods), induce states of extreme hypnosis, mainly for for the purpose of 'programming or brainwashing' an individual. Again, that last point was, at best, something of a very far flung idea, but I'll include as a possible interpretation anyway...because this is Syd Barrett we're talking about, and so you never know...!

And that's all I have. I hope this wasn't too long and that someone read it. Cheers! - Andy

Great, no, good, yes.