Syd Barrett Dies
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Syd Barrett Dies
Shine On.
This was written by Ken Barnes on UAS Today's website.
Floyd's first leader, Syd Barrett, dies
A sad return for me -- just turned on the computer after 11 days out of pocket and saw that Syd Barrett had died at 60. The announcement was just released, but it appears Barrett, who suffered from diabetes, died an unspecified few days ago.
Syd Barrett will always be one of rock's great might-have-been mysteries. When Pink Floyd made their startling debut in 1967 straight out of Cambridge, England, with first single Arnold Layne and debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, the band sounded like nothing else on earth. And Barrett, make no mistake about it, was Pink Floyd. The other members -- bassist Roger Waters, drummer Nick Mason, keyboardist Rick Wright -- supplied instrumental coloration, but they were fulfilling the singular vision of Barrett.
In songs such as See Emily Play (a top 10 UK hit), Gnome, Lucifer Sam and Scarecrow, he devised a peculiar mix of classic British whimsy and avant-garde psychedelic pop, a style that set the tone for a key stream of British music for the next five years and onward.
The remarkable Astronomy Domine set Floyd's outer-space-rock agenda, but Barrett's explorations of inner space caused a frighteningly quick crash, as follows.
A legendary consumer of LSD and other drugs, Barrett rapidly fell into a state of virtual catatonia, standing motionless onstage, contributing only occasional vocals and random guitar slashings. The rest of the band first hired Cambridge chum David Gilmour to augment Barrett's role, then simply decided to carry on without their putative leader. Barrett shows up ephemerally on Floyd's second album, A Saucerful of Secrets (the fascinatingly disjointed Jugband Blues is his, and a couple of outtakes exist), but that was the end of his Floydian legacy.
Somehow, with the assistance of erstwhile bandmates Gilmour and Wright, he managed to complete two cult-adored solo albums, The Madcap Laughs and Barrett, released in 1970, both by turns fascinating and frightening in their raw glimpses of a fragmenting mind still illuminated by flashes of musical genius. But that last burst of creativity, apart from scattered outtakes and an abortive 1972 band called Stars that played a few gigs, was it. He retired to his family's Cambridge home and spent his last three decades in virtual anonymity.
Pink Floyd struggled at first without him, but found their way with 1973's alltime prog-rock chart champ, Dark Side of the Moon. They memorialized Barrett on the follow-up, 1975's Wish You Were Here, with the fitting tribute Shine On You Crazy Diamond, and the rest of the Pink Floyd story is too well-known (and too complicated) to go into here.
But it's endlessly fascinating to speculate what would have happened to the band had Barrett not psychedelically imploded. It's doubtful that Waters and Gilmour would have come to the fore as songwriters, so we would not have had Dark Side or The Wall or all the other Floyd landmarks in rock's geography.
But you know what? I'd trade 'em all for another few albums led by a relatively healthy Barrett. During his brief peak, he was as brilliant an innovator and songwriter (and as fascinatingly quirky a guitarist) as anyone during that most creative era. Obviously, we'll never know what he could have done. But spare a kind thought for one of the great, tragically underdeveloped talents of rock's golden era.
Shine On.
This was written by Ken Barnes on UAS Today's website.
Floyd's first leader, Syd Barrett, dies
A sad return for me -- just turned on the computer after 11 days out of pocket and saw that Syd Barrett had died at 60. The announcement was just released, but it appears Barrett, who suffered from diabetes, died an unspecified few days ago.
Syd Barrett will always be one of rock's great might-have-been mysteries. When Pink Floyd made their startling debut in 1967 straight out of Cambridge, England, with first single Arnold Layne and debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, the band sounded like nothing else on earth. And Barrett, make no mistake about it, was Pink Floyd. The other members -- bassist Roger Waters, drummer Nick Mason, keyboardist Rick Wright -- supplied instrumental coloration, but they were fulfilling the singular vision of Barrett.
In songs such as See Emily Play (a top 10 UK hit), Gnome, Lucifer Sam and Scarecrow, he devised a peculiar mix of classic British whimsy and avant-garde psychedelic pop, a style that set the tone for a key stream of British music for the next five years and onward.
The remarkable Astronomy Domine set Floyd's outer-space-rock agenda, but Barrett's explorations of inner space caused a frighteningly quick crash, as follows.
A legendary consumer of LSD and other drugs, Barrett rapidly fell into a state of virtual catatonia, standing motionless onstage, contributing only occasional vocals and random guitar slashings. The rest of the band first hired Cambridge chum David Gilmour to augment Barrett's role, then simply decided to carry on without their putative leader. Barrett shows up ephemerally on Floyd's second album, A Saucerful of Secrets (the fascinatingly disjointed Jugband Blues is his, and a couple of outtakes exist), but that was the end of his Floydian legacy.
Somehow, with the assistance of erstwhile bandmates Gilmour and Wright, he managed to complete two cult-adored solo albums, The Madcap Laughs and Barrett, released in 1970, both by turns fascinating and frightening in their raw glimpses of a fragmenting mind still illuminated by flashes of musical genius. But that last burst of creativity, apart from scattered outtakes and an abortive 1972 band called Stars that played a few gigs, was it. He retired to his family's Cambridge home and spent his last three decades in virtual anonymity.
Pink Floyd struggled at first without him, but found their way with 1973's alltime prog-rock chart champ, Dark Side of the Moon. They memorialized Barrett on the follow-up, 1975's Wish You Were Here, with the fitting tribute Shine On You Crazy Diamond, and the rest of the Pink Floyd story is too well-known (and too complicated) to go into here.
But it's endlessly fascinating to speculate what would have happened to the band had Barrett not psychedelically imploded. It's doubtful that Waters and Gilmour would have come to the fore as songwriters, so we would not have had Dark Side or The Wall or all the other Floyd landmarks in rock's geography.
But you know what? I'd trade 'em all for another few albums led by a relatively healthy Barrett. During his brief peak, he was as brilliant an innovator and songwriter (and as fascinatingly quirky a guitarist) as anyone during that most creative era. Obviously, we'll never know what he could have done. But spare a kind thought for one of the great, tragically underdeveloped talents of rock's golden era.
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Sorry, Anibus.
I did not mean to step on your prior post. I looked before I posted but did not see it until just now.
I did not mean to step on your prior post. I looked before I posted but did not see it until just now.
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Sad news for sure!
Anybody ever hear any of these albums by him? Good stuff guys.
http://www.floydianslip.com/syd.htm
Especially loved the song Baby Lemonade.
Sad news.
Anybody ever hear any of these albums by him? Good stuff guys.
http://www.floydianslip.com/syd.htm
Especially loved the song Baby Lemonade.
Sad news.
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this is so sad my freind met sid barret one time in oxford i loved his fender teleaster its a shame
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yes I was shocked when I heard the news.. RIP legend
what were your guy's favorite works by him? Mine are Apples and Oranges, See Emily Play, and the scarecrow. But I love all of his stuff. A genius.
what were your guy's favorite works by him? Mine are Apples and Oranges, See Emily Play, and the scarecrow. But I love all of his stuff. A genius.
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