Lost track featuring Syd Barrett to be released

According to the new issue of Mojo Magazine, Syd's appearance on the Kevin Ayers track "Singing A Song In The Morning" is finally coming out on a new reissue of Kevin Ayers' "Joy Of A Toy" on CD. An EMI spokesperson has confirmed that this reissue will be released in the U.K. in May. The recording is Barrett's only known guest appearance. It will also include an alternate mix of "Singing a Song in the Morning" with Barrett as a bonus track.

Archivist Mark Powell, who is masterminding the EMI project said: "I've listened to 84 versions of that song, including one that clearly mentions Syd at the start of the take. Yes, there's weird guitar all over it, very wayward, but as a whole it's very together". The track has been a frequent one on many unofficial collections but to date, none of them have genuinely been the version including Syd's guitar.

Barrett added his overdub to the track on Dec. 17, 1969, when the working title for the song was "Religious Experience." When the single was issued in 1970, Barrett's recording had been removed from the mix.

"We couldn't use any of the stuff because it was all over the place," Ayers says in the Mojo piece.

Ayers was a founding member of The Soft Machine, a band that, like Floyd, helped define the psychedelic underground scene of London in the '60s. He's set to record his first solo record in a decade.