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Pink Floyd · S1 E5
Bob Klose
The fifth member nobody remembers. A jazz guitarist who plays on early recordings and keeps the band musically disciplined. When he leaves to focus on his studies, the door opens for Syd Barrett's experiments
Late 1964, a rehearsal room at Regent Street Polytechnic. A jazz guitarist named Bob Klose plays clean, precise blues runs while Syd Barrett sits across from him, coaxing strange howls from his guitar by dragging a metal ruler across the strings.
Pink Floyd, Astronomy Domine. The opening track of their debut album, recorded two years after Bob Klose left the band. This is what happened when Syd Barrett had no disciplined jazz guitarist keeping him in check.
The Fifth Member
Rado "Bob" Klose joins the band in 1964, a fellow Polytechnic student and by far the most accomplished musician in the group. Where Waters, Mason, and Wright are enthusiastic amateurs, Klose can actually play: clean jazz phrasing, proper blues technique, the kind of disciplined musicianship that makes a band sound professional. For a brief period in late 1964, both Klose and the newly arrived Syd Barrett play guitar in the same lineup, creating a tension between precision and chaos that cannot hold.
“Bob was far and away the best musician among us. He could actually play properly.”
— Nick Mason
Astronomy Domine, Pink Floyd (1967)
The opening track of The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Pink Floyd's debut album. Manager Peter Jenner reads astronomical names through a megaphone over the introduction, and then Syd Barrett's guitar tears the song open. The whole thing vibrates between structured verses and freeform noise, a sound that could not have existed if Bob Klose had stayed in the band.
TAP TO REVEAL: What did Bob Klose do after leaving Pink Floyd?
The Door Opens
When Klose leaves in 1965, the balance of power shifts overnight. With no technically proficient guitarist to anchor the sound, Syd Barrett becomes the sole lead player, and he uses the freedom to push into territory Klose would never have followed. Feedback loops, slide guitar with a metal ruler, echo units cranked to the edge of chaos.
Pow R. Toc H., Pink Floyd
From The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967). A wordless instrumental built from vocal sound effects, crashing piano, and guitar noise that has nothing to do with jazz, blues, or any genre Bob Klose would have recognized. This is pure post-Klose Pink Floyd: structure thrown out the window, replaced by sound for its own sake.
What musical style did Bob Klose bring to the pre-Pink Floyd band?
The band needs a name. Syd Barrett has been digging through old blues records, and two names have caught his eye: a singer from South Carolina called Pink Anderson, and a guitarist from North Carolina called Floyd Council.
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