It Would Be So Nice

It Would Be So Nice
Studio recording late March 1968 
* Released on single 12 April 1968 
* Re-released on The Best of the Pink Floyd, 1970 (Europe only); Masters of Rock vol. 1, 1974 (Europe only); and the Early Singles CD in the box set Shine On, 1992

Production
Written by Richard Wright
Produced by Norman Smith

Releases
UK: Columbia DB 8410
US: Tower 428 (B-side)

Lyrics:
It would be so nice (3x)
To meet sometime

Everybody wakes, and in the morning
Hot tea, can't stop yawning
Pass the butter please
Have you ever read the Daily Standard?
Reading all about the plane that's landed
Upside down
And no one knows what I did today

There can be no other way
But I would just like to say
It would be so nice (3x)
To meet sometime
It would be so nice (3x)
To meet sometime

Everybody cares about the weather
And everybody should know better
What a waste of time
Everybody lives beneath the ceiling
Living out a dream that sends them reeling
To a distant place

But no one knows what I did today
There can be no other way
But I would just like to say
It would be so nice (3x)
To meet sometime
It would be so nice (3x)
To meet sometime
It would be so nice (3x)
To meet sometime
It would be so nice
It would be...

Lead vocals: Richard Wright
Guitar: Dave Gilmour

Pink Floyd's fourth single, It Would Be So Nice, was recorded during the sessions for the Saucerful of Secrets LP, probably in mid to late March, 1968. It was the first release with Dave Gilmour on guitar; it was released only six days after the press announcement that Syd Barrett had left the band. Those watching the group's career undoubtedly lost hope that it would amount to anything without Syd, for It Would Be So Nice is certainly one of the worst songs Pink Floyd ever recorded.

Nick Mason: "Fucking awful, that record, wasn't it? At that period we had no direction. We were being hustled about to make hit singles. There's so many people saying it's important you start to think it is important."

Roger Waters: "I don't like It Would Be So Nice. I don't like the song or the way it's sung."

The BBC asked that a line mentioning the Evening Standard newspaper be changed because it might be construed as advertising. Nick and Roger comment.

Nick Mason: "We were a rock and roll band and if you're a rock and roll band and you've got a record that you want to be number one, you get it played and if they say 'take something out' or whatever — you do it. In fact what you do is exactly what was done — you make as much press out of it as possible. You ring up the Evening Standard and say 'Did you know that the BBC won't play our record because it mentions your paper?'"

Roger: "That line was changed to Daily Standard to appease them, but nobody ever heard it because it was such a lousy record."

Copies of the song with the Evening Standard lyric are very rare.