DVD Review: Syd Barrett Under Review

This DVD provides an overview of the recording career of Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd’s first main songwriter and lead guitarist, through the interviews of music journalists and critics. There is some great archival video footage of Barrett and the band, but there are only snippets of songs, which pique the listener’s interest. This can get frustrating if you don’t have easy access to listen to the tracks in their entirety, but you can get a sense of how the songs sound.

Pink Floyd played in the London underground music scene in the mid to late ‘60s. They released a couple of successful singles, “Arnold Layne” and “See Emily Play”, both of which reached the UK Top 20, before they released their first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, whose name is taken from a chapter in Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. The album reached #6 on the UK charts and is a great example of the English psychedelic scene with its surreal yet playful lyrics and eclectic soundscapes.

Barrett showed a talent for creating psychedelic pop songs, but it was something he could not sustain. Whether through his prolific use of LSD or some mental health issues that he had, his erratic behavior took its toll on him and the band. It is reported that he would strum one note, detune his guitar, and sometimes just stare off into space while the band played. David Gilmour was brought in to play guitar, and there was hope that Barrett could stay in Pink Floyd and contribute creatively in the studio while the rest of the band went out and performed gigs, similar to an arrangement that Brain Wilson had with The Beach Boys; however, this didn’t work, and Barrett was dismissed from the band.

Article Author: Gordon S. Miller

Gordon S. Miller is the artist formerly known as El Bicho, the nom de plume he used when he first began reviewing movies online for The Masked Movie Snobs in 2003. Before that year was out, he became that site's publisher. …

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