Arnold Layne

"Arnold Layne" is the first single released by the English psychedelic rock band The Pink Floyd (later simply Pink Floyd), shortly after landing a recording contract with EMI. It was written by Syd Barrett, their co-founder and original frontman. Although not originally included on the band's début album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, "Arnold Layne" is featured on numerous Pink Floyd compilation albums.

Lyrics

The song's title character is a transvestite whose primary pastime is stealing women's clothes and undergarments from washing lines. According to Roger Waters, "Arnold Layne" was actually based on a real person: "Both my mother and Syd's mother had students as lodgers because there was a girls' college up the road so there were constantly great lines of bras and knickers on our washing lines and 'Arnold' or whoever he was, had bits off our washing lines."

Recording

In January, Pink Floyd went to Sound Techniques studio in Chelsea (they had been there previously, to record two songs for Tonite Let's All Make Love in London). Here, the band recorded "Arnold Layne", and few other songs: "Matilda Mother", "Chapter 24", "Interstellar Overdrive" and "Let's Roll Another One" (which was renamed to "Candy and a Currant Bun", at the lead of Waters).Nick Mason on the choice of "Arnold Layne": "We knew we wanted to be rock'n'roll stars and we wanted to make singles, so it seemed the most suitable song to condense into 3 minutes without losing too much". The band had tried to re-record "Arnold Layne" after signing up with EMI, but the Joe Boyd version from January was released instead. The song would be Boyd's last production for Pink Floyd.