The shaper of the early Pink Floyd psychedelic sound is dead. Syd Barrett, who suffered from diabetes and had been out of music for a number of years, died last Friday at the age of 60.
The infamous "crazy diamond," who was already lost wandering the astral plane by 1970, drifted farther and farther away from music after parting from the band he co-founded and put on the map in the late-'60s.
Barrett's brother Alan said today, "He died peacefully at home. There will be a private family funeral in the next few days."
Born Roger Keith Barrett in Cambridge in 1946, he became "Syd" at 15. Beginning in the mid-'60s as a R&B-based hard rock band like the Who or Pretty Things, Pink Floyd — Syd Barrett on guitar and vocals, Roger Waters on bass and vocals, Richard Wright on keyboards, and Nick Mason on drums — mutated quickly into an odd combination of twee pop-British psychedelia ("See Emily Play," "Arnold Layne," "The Gnome," "Bike") and long-form instrumental space rock ("Astonomy Domine," "Interstellar Overdrive," "Set the Controls For the Heart of the Sun," "A Saucerful of Secrets"), guided by Barrett's beguiling lysergic explorations - a Cambridge English garden transported to Mars.
But even Ken Kesey, Timothy Leary and Jerry Garcia will tell you (well, they would if they were alive) daily dosing isn't conducive to functioning in the real world, and by 1967 Barrett had officially freaked out on acid.
Guitarist David Gilmour, also from Cambridge, joined the group as insurance against Barrett's volatility in '68, but when Barrett was forced from the group for unreliability, the band's management — in one of the most monumental selections of the wrong horse in music history — dumped Floyd in favor of Barrett solo, and what might have been the end was instead a new beginning for the resilient combo (named after Piedmont blues figures Pink Anderson and Floyd Council).
What had been largely Syd's backup band became a democratic foursome sharing writing, singing and leadership duties. They also became one of the most popular and successful bands in rock history.
After Floyd, Barrett recorded two solo albums — Barrett and The Madcap Laughs — did some BBC sessions and random other dabblings, and that was musically it for the last 35 years of his strange, haunted life, spent as a recluse in his Cambridgeshire home.
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Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Mark Saleski
Syd was definitely a sad character.
2 - DJRadiohead
He's been gone so long it's hard to believe he is only now taking his leave of us.
3 - Duke De Mondo
excellent writing here, Sir Olsen, as ever. this saddens me some. i had avoided Pink Floyd with great enthusiasm until about a month ago, when i picked up, finally, Piper At The Gates Of Dawn. Floyd always seemed to represent most everything i detest about rock music, and yet Barrett was an altogether transfixing character. so that debut record, i grabbed hold of it and it blew me backwards out my eyes. Bikes, in particular. i got hold of The Madcap Laughs after that and was similarly astounded. and now this! terribly sad affair. not just this, in fact. the whole tragic saga.
again, excellent piece.
4 - El Bicho
"Under Review", reviewed at BC previously, he said self-servingly, suggests that Syd's freakout and withdrawal might not have been due solely to his intake of acid, which is plausible with what little was known about mental health and the brain 40 years ago. Not to say that it didn't have a role.
"What had been largely Syd's backup band became a democratic foursome sharing writing, singing and leadership duties."
Until "Dark Side of the Moon", that is.
5 - Eric Olsen
thanks guys, very sad Mark. Gilmour said recently that the acid certainly didn't help, but that Syd's personality very likely would have cracked under the strain of rock stardom anyway.
Duke, it makes perfect sense that you would respond so to Syd, and I agree the tone of his work couldn't be much different from the '70s classic rock Floyd. It seems strange to say that "See Emily Play" was the first Floyd I ever heard, and I was actually a Syd fan at about the age of 10!
Josh, it seems a lifetime ago, and it was
6 - Eric Olsen
and Bicho's very fine review is in fact here
7 - Connie Phillips
A fitting tribute and a wonderful memorial. It's such a sad occasion.
8 - Eric Olsen
thanks Connie, I am realizing now that in the back of your mind, you always hold out a little bit of hope that people like Barret will rally one more time and return to brilliance, but it rarely happens and didn't with poor Syd
9 - Douglas Mays
Good review. It was bound to happen. Set the controls to Syd's new astral plane....
10 - Eric Olsen
thanks Douglas, I think a lot of people were surprised he was still alive
11 - Peter J
very cool article, very cool artist.
I'll miss him as I would a friend I haven't seen in 40 years
it's sad to me that so many from my generation are leaving
12 - Eric Olsen
thanks Peter, very touching tribute
13 - Baronius
I hadn't heard. Sad. I never realized that Syd recorded solo albums. I can only imagine how out-of-focus they must be, given what his Pink Floyd music was like.
14 - Eric Olsen
whimsical, to say the least, but not without charm
15 - El Bicho
Baronius,
Roger Waters and David Gilmour play on and produce part of "The Madcap Laughs" while Richard Wright and Gilmour play on and produce "Barrett", so they might not be as much out of focus as you'd expect.
16 - Glen Boyd
I can't say this wasn't entirely unexpected, but still I about fell outta my chair when I heard the news this morning. Still can't believe it truth be told. It's such a sad thing when one so brilliant is never really able to reap the reward of what he brought to the world.
It's probably wishful thinking on my part, but I wonder if the surviving Floyd members might put their differences aside for one night to benefit Syd's family (assuming Syd has family)?
You seem to be designated eulogist here at BC Eric and as usual you wrote a great one.
-Glen
17 - DJRadiohead
Glen, Syd does have a brother. He is one of the people who released a statement confirming Syd's passing.
As for the other guys coming together for one night... Roger did pay tribute to Syd when they performed "Wish You Were Here" at Live8. I'm not saying it wouldn't be nice to see them back together but I think that performance will be their swan song.
18 - Eric Olsen
thanks Glen and that's a great idea, but Josh is probably right
19 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
btw, last night's Comcast page news of Barrett's death had the line-up wrong: even as they had a photo of Pink Floyd with Roger Waters, in print they mentioned David Gilmour as a founding member, with Waters coming along later.
It's fixed now, but what a blunder.
20 - Eric Olsen
sheer assholatry
21 - Mark Saleski
josh is probably right (isn't he usually?). i would like to see them get back together only if they'd perform nothing but stuff from the first two records....with the exception of ending the show with "Shine On You Crazy Diamond".
i'd pay to see that.
22 - Eric Olsen
I'd even be happy with everything through Wish You Were Here, since the whole album is inspired by Syd!
23 - Les Slater
Syd's Pink Floyd radicalized my taste in rock music with their Piper album.
Lost interest after Dark Side of the Moon.
I got the Barrett albums and later the CDs.
I was one of the people who thought about him over the years.
24 - Eric Olsen
very cool way of putting it Les - I think a fair number of people thought about him, but over time he became pretty abstract - at least to me
25 - JR
I'm not sure Syd Barrett needs to be remembered with such sadness, as the last paragraph of this Slate obituary points out. He didn't want for food and shelter, he made a greater mark on the world than the vast majority of us ever will, and we have too little idea what his state of mind was to assume that he suffered much. His story probably brought more sadness to the rest of us than to himself.