Music Syd Barrett, 1946-2006
The Crazy Diamond shines no more. Syd Barrett died July 7 from complications relating to diabetes, but for all practical purposes, he hasn’t really been alive since he vanished from the music scene over 30 years ago. The founder of the enormously influential British psych-rock band Pink Floyd, Barrett burnt out in classic acid-head style. But before he fried his brain, Barrett left a small but potently inventive body of work that continues to fire imaginations worldwide.
Barrett was a pivotal figure in unmooring rock and roll from its R&B roots and catalyzing the music into fresh, dynamic permutations of exploratory instrumentation (haters will call this “wankery” or worse, but they deserve the earthbound mediocrity that is their typical listening diet). While Pink Floyd certainly excelled at the extended freakout, they also could pen concise, eccentrically infectious pop tunes (“Arnold Layne,” “Lucifer Sam,” “See Emily Play,” and “Bike,” to name but a few). Either the drugs were better then or Barrett was a mad genius. Actually, both assertions are true.
The mastermind behind Pink Floyd’s 1967 debut, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Barrett is largely responsible for launching psychedelic rock into deep space with tracks like “Astronomy Domine” and “Interstellar Overdrive.” The rest of that all-time classic album perfectly captured the by turns absurd, blissful, whimsical, and disturbing aspects of the LSD-enhanced sensorium.
Barrett contributed only minimally to Pink Floyd’s second album, A Saucerful of Secrets (1968), and then shakily embarked on a solo career in 1970 with help from his Floyd replacement, guitarist David Gilmour. Both The Madcap Laughs and Barrett possess an awkward winsomeness and can be construed as forerunners to the sort of bedroom/lo-fi aesthetic that has flourished in the rock underground from the late ’80s to the present. On these LPs, Barrett mostly retreats into more introverted singer-songwriter territory, albeit one tinted with the eerie glow of a manchild tumbling down the rabbit hole of insanity while eking out memorable melodies on an acoustic guitar. Both albums are the aural equivalent of Taj Mahals constructed out of glued-together toothpicks.
In 1972, Barrett formed a band called Stars with ex-Pink Fairies drummer Twink and bassist Jack Monck, but that unit didn’t last long and, aside from an aborted 1974 recording session with Peter Jenner at Abbey Road Studios, Barrett gave up on music and retreated to his mother’s basement.
Barrett’s ramshackle, surreal, crazy-psychonaut persona and music have inspired everyone from Radiohead to Robyn Hitchcock to the TV Personalities to Julian Cope to bands that have named themselves after Syd songs (Gigolo Aunts, Baby Lemonade, and Effervescing Elephant, for all I know).
While his life was a tragedy and perhaps a cautionary tale, Barrett blazed incredibly brightly while he was an active musician, and his legacy will last as long as people desire to expand their consciousness through sound.
Pink Floyd (Syd, center)
thanks Dave for a great tribute. Syd's tale was certainly a tragedy, but it is doubtful an album like Piper would have been if he wasn't mad to begin with.
Today is a sad day for music.