The Rare '70s Rock Album First Pressing Behind An Eerie Cover

Pink Floyd had a whole life before 1973's legendary "The Dark Side of the Moon," starting with their 1967 debut, "The Piper At the Gates At Dawn," and don't forget their original name before then, the Tea Set.  Though shades of later Floyd were present early on, the band's creative reins were still held by founder Syd Barrett, who left in 1968 to do his own weird, idiosyncratic musical thing. Hence, we have the rare first press of his solo "The Madcap Laughs" from 1970 and its unsettling, striped-floor cover shot.

Granted, "The Madcap Laughs" isn't unsettling in a horrific, disturbing way — just a surreal and "huh?" kind of way. The cover features Barrett kneeling on the far side of a room with a jarringly painted wooden floor, where each floorboard is painted in alternating orange and purple colors. There is a single, slender vase full of daffodils next to Barrett, a vent behind him on a white wall, and some power cords (not the guitar kind) leading from the wall out of frame to the left. The music within the album is equally odd. Sounding something like a bunch of MTV Unplugged Radiohead demos from 30 years in the future, "The Madcap Laughs" is a largely minimalistic, acoustic guitar-driven affair with little in the way of radio-friendly fare. 

This might be why Harvest pressed so few of Barrett's album at first — some say as few as 1,000, though that figure remains unsubstantiated. The album's first run, which remains much discussed in collectors' circles, got released on January 3, 1970.  You can identify it based on a couple markers, including a missing EMI label. 

No one would be talking about the rare first press of "The Madcap Laughs" without the ever-inscrutable Syd Barrett, whose substance abuse and worn-out, deteriorated mental condition — evident in interviews from Floyd's earliest days — triggered his escape from the public eye. Barrett lore and mystery traces back to stories of the photo shoot for "The Madcap Laughs," without which we wouldn't have the album's unique cover, nor any hunt for elusive first presses from 1970. 

The unusual cover photo for "The Madcap Laughs" comes from Mick Rock, a prolific rock photographer who's shot everyone from David Bowie to Madonna and Freddie Mercury (and who relayed to us a famed quote of Mercury's about living a fabulous life). Rock shot the album cover for "The Madcap Laughs" in Barrett's apartment, which was nearly as bare as "The Madcap Laughs'" cover shows. Rock arrived to find Barrett in bed — a mattress on the floor, really — and his roommate walking around the apartment with nary a stitch on. She shows up in some background shots for "The Madcap Laughs" and comes with her own mythical tale of being the '60s musical muse going by the name "Iggy the Eskimo." Rock just started shooting the environment off-the-cuff, though shots like the album cover contain some clear, intentional symbolism — flowers in the middle of a lonely room, for instance. 

There simply wouldn't be as much interest in "The Madcap Laughs" without this Barrett-featured cover, which acts as a time capsule for Barrett's life at that point, bizarre backstory included. The very floorboards in the shot have even gone to auction. All 70 sold for £28,500 in 2024 on Omega Auctions.

So why did "The Madcap Laughs" and its strange album cover get such a limited first run? We don't really have a clue, expect perhaps a lack of confidence in the album's commercial success. But through a combination of Barrett's legend, Pink Floyd's later fame, and "The Madcap Laughs'" telltale cover and backstory, we wound up with a rare press that remains a sought-after find for album hunters.

Hunters can identify a first press of "The Madcap Laughs" based on several standout markers across the album. The first of these is the lack of an EMI logo on "The Gramophone Co., Ltd." label on the record's front side. Its back side, meanwhile, says, "6911 TPS Printed and made by Ernest J. Day & Co. Ltd. London SHVL 765" in the lower, right-hand corner. The "6911," we should note, means the album was actually pressed in November, 1969, ahead of its release date the following year. 

To Barrett fans and hardcore collectors — the kind of people who might have jumped on having a newfangled hi-fi stereo system in the '60s — such details are critical. Serious sellers, who typically sell "The Madcap Laughs" at auction, go through lengths to prove that the album they're selling is legit. They also warn of fake first editions. Other sellers — perhaps the kind to watch out for — might just list the album with no proof. So, even if a site like eBay lists over 300 "The Madcap Laughs," be sure to do your homework if you're serious about getting a first edition press. As a benchmark, one legit first press went for £170 in October, 2014 on eBay.