Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd dies, aged 60
HAMISH BROWN
The founding lead singer of Pink Floyd Syd Barrett has died at his Cambridge home from diabetes. He was 60.
Despite only recording one album with Pink Floyd and a handful of solo releases following his departure from the group, his influence on pop music is generally acknowledged to enormous.
Barret had not released any new material since 1972 and Since his departure from public life led a quiet and reclusive existence in Cambridge. Through time, he has become a celebrated but tragic figure, reknowned as much for his reputation as one of the first drug-casualties as for his music.
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Barrett was born in Cambridge, England, to a well off middle class family, the youngest of 5 siblings. His father Arthur Barrett was a prominent pathologist and both he and his wife Winifred encouraged the young Roger (as he was then) in his music. Barrett acquired the nickname "Syd" at the age of 15, a reference to an old local Cambridge drummer, Sid Barrett. Syd changed the spelling in order to differentiate himself from his namesake.
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Pink Floyd years (1965–1968)
Pink Floyd, with Barrett
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Pink Floyd, with Barrett
Pink Floyd (originally called "The Tea Set", "The Abdabs", "The Screaming Abdabs" and "The Megadeaths" before Syd joined and created the name "The Pink Floyd Sound" then later "The Pink Floyd") was formed in 1965. It is generally recognized that he named the band after two obscure bluesmen, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council, because his record collection was found to include recordings from them..
While the band began by playing cover versions of American R&B songs (much in the same vein as contemporaries The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, and The Kinks), by 1966 they had carved out their own style of improvised rock and roll, which drew as much from improvised jazz as it did from British pop-rock, such as that championed by the Beatles. In that year, a new rock concert venue, the UFO, opened in London and quickly became a haven for British psychedelic music. Pink Floyd became their most popular attraction, and, after making appearances at the rival Roundhouse, became the most popular musical group of the so-called "London Underground" psychedelic music scene.
By the end of 1966, Pink Floyd had gained a reliable management team in Andrew King and Peter Jenner. The duo soon befriended American expatriate Joe Boyd, who was actively making a name for himself as one of the more important entrepreneurs on the British music scene. Boyd produced a recording session for the group in January 1967 at Sound Techniques in Chelsea, which resulted in a demo of the single "Arnold Layne". King and Jenner took the song to the recording behemoth EMI, who were impressed enough to offer the band a contract, under which they would be allowed to record an album. The band accepted. By the time the album was released, "Arnold Layne" had reached #21 on the British singles charts (despite a ban by the BBC) and a follow-up single, "See Emily Play" had sold even better, peaking at #6.
These first two singles, as well as a third ("Apples and Oranges"), were written by Syd Barrett. Barrett wrote most of the Floyd's early material, and was the principal visionary/author of their critically acclaimed 1967 debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Of the 11 songs on Piper, Barrett wrote eight and co-wrote another two.[1] He was also an innovative guitarist, exploring the musical and sonic possibilities of dissonance, distortion, feedback, and the echo machine; his experimentation was partly inspired by free improvisation guitarist Keith Rowe [2]. One of Barrett's trademarks was playing his Fender Esquire guitar by sliding a Zippo lighter up and down the fret-board through an old echo box to create the mysterious, otherworldly sounds that became associated with the group.
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967)
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The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967)
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn was recorded intermittently between January and July 1967, much of that time in the studio right next door to recording sessions for the Beatles' landmark album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. When Piper was released in August of that year, it became a smash hit in the UK, hitting #6 on the British album charts (the album was not nearly so successful in the USA). However, as the band began to attract a large fanbase, the pressures placed on Barrett contributed to him experiencing increasing psychiatric illness.
Barrett's behaviour became increasingly unpredictable, partly as a consequence of frequent experimentation with psychedelic drugs such as LSD. Many report seeing him on stage with the group, strumming on one chord through the entire concert, or not playing at all. At a show at The Filmore West in San Francisco, during a performance of "Interstellar Overdrive", Barrett slowly detuned his guitar, the audience seemed to enjoy such antics, unaware of the rest of the band's consternation. At another show Waters remembered Barrett putting hair gel (purportedly mixed with crushed Mandrax) on to his head which subsequently melted down his face under the heat of the stage lighting, however Nick Mason has disputed this stating in the Barrett biography 'Madcap' "Syd would never waste good mandies."
Following a disastrous abridged tour of the United States, David Gilmour (a school friend of Barrett's) was asked to join the band as a second guitarist in order to cover for Barrett as Barrett's erratic behaviour prevented him from performing. For a handful of shows David played and sang while Barrett wandered around on stage, occasionally deigning to join in playing. The other band members soon tired of Barrett's antics, and in January 1968, on the way to a show at Southampton University, the band elected not to pick Barrett up. They attempted to retain him in the group as a songwriter, much as The Beach Boys had with Brian Wilson, but this proved untenable.
There are many stories about Barrett's bizarre and intermittently psychotic behaviour - many of which are undoubtedly apocryphal, although some are known to be true. According to Roger Waters, Barrett came into what was to be their last practice session with a new song he had dubbed "Have You Got It, Yet?" The song seemed simple enough when he first presented it to his bandmates, but it soon became impossibly difficult to learn: as they were practicing it, Barrett kept changing the arrangement. He would then play it again, with the arbitrary changes, and sing "Have you got it yet?"; after more than an hour of trying to "get it" they realised they never would.
Barrett did not contribute any material to the band after A Saucerful of Secrets was released in 1968. Of the songs he recorded with Pink Floyd after Piper, only one ("Jugband Blues") made it to the band's second album; one became a less-than-successful single ("Apples and Oranges"), and two others were never officially released ("Scream Thy Last Scream" and "Vegetable Man"). Barrett supposedly spent some time outside the recording studio, waiting to be invited in (he also showed up to a few gigs and glared at Gilmour), it's possible that his contributions to the album (guitar on some of the tracks) were included as a concession to him. In March 1968 it was officially announced that he was no longer a member of Pink Floyd.
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Solo years (1968–1972)
The Madcap Laughs (1970)
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The Madcap Laughs (1970)
Barrett (1970)
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Barrett (1970)
After leaving Pink Floyd, Barrett distanced himself from the public eye. However, at the behest of EMI and Harvest Records, he did have a brief solo career, releasing two mercurial solo albums, The Madcap Laughs and Barrett. Much controversy has risen around the production work - which left Barrett's more vulnerable moments on tape to give the records a more "authentic" feel - but many feel the treatment does Barrett few favours and instead takes advantage of his fragile condition. Much of the material on both albums dates from Barrett's most productive period of songwriting, late 1966 - mid 1967, and it is believed that he wrote few new songs after he left Pink Floyd.
The first album, The Madcap Laughs, was recorded in two distinct sessions, both at Abbey Road Studios: a few tentative sessions took place between May and June 1968 (produced first by Peter Jenner and then by Malcolm Jones), while the bulk of the album was recorded between April and July 1969 (produced by David Gilmour and Roger Waters). This album offers an insight into Barrett's state of mind at the time; tracks such as "Dark Globe," have been seen as first-person narratives of schizophrenia. A few tracks on the album feature overdubs by members of the band Soft Machine.
The second album, Barrett, was recorded more sporadically than the first, with sessions taking place between February and July 1970. This effort sounds more polished than the first, but Barrett was arguably in a worse state. The album was produced by David Gilmour and featured Gilmour on bass guitar, Rick Wright on keyboard and Humble Pie drummer Jerry Shirley.
Despite the numerous recording dates for his two solo albums, Barrett undertook very little musical activity between 1968 and 1972 outside the studio. On 24 February 1970, he appeared on John Peel's BBC radio programme Top Gear playing five songs - only one of which had been previously released. Three would be re-recorded for the Barrett album, while the song Two of a Kind was a one-off performance. (The song appears on the 2001 greatest hits album The Best of Syd Barrett: Wouldn't You Miss Me?.) Barrett was accompanied on this session by David Gilmour and Jerry Shirley who played bass and percussion, respectively.
Gilmour and Shirley also backed Barrett for his one and only live concert during this period. The gig took place on 6 June 1970 at the Olympia Exhibition Hall, London, and was part of a "Music and Fashion Festival". The trio performed four songs, playing for less than half an hour, and due to poor mixing, the vocals were inaudible until part-way through the last number. At the end of the fourth song, Barrett unexpectedly but politely put down his guitar and walked off the stage.
Syd Barrett made one last appearance on BBC Radio, recording three songs at their studios on 16 February 1971. All three came from the Barrett album, and were presumably aired to encourage people to buy the record. At this stage, though, Barrett seemed to have little interest in recording music, and even less interest in performing it live. After this session, he would take a hiatus from his music career that lasted more than a year.
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Later years (1972-2006)
In 1972, Barrett formed a short-lived band called Stars with ex-Pink Fairies member Twink on drums and Jack Monck on bass. Though the band was initially well-received, one of their gigs at the Corn Exchange in Cambridge proved to be disastrous and Barrett decided to leave soon afterwards[citation needed].
In 1974, Peter Jenner convinced Barrett to return to Abbey Road Studios in hope of recording another album. However, little became of the sessions, which lasted three days and consisted of blues rhythm tracks with tentative and disjointed guitar overdubs (the only titled track is the intriguing "If You Go, Don't Be Slow"). Once again, Barrett withdrew from the music industry. He sold the rights to his solo albums back to the record label, moved into a London hotel and when the money ran out he walked back to Cambridge to live in his mother's basement. Further attempts to bring him back (including one endeavour by The Damned who wanted him to produce their debut album) have all been fruitless. Barrett still receives royalties from his work with Pink Floyd from each compilation and some of the live albums and singles that have featured his songs; Gilmour has commented that he "makes sure the money gets to him alright."
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The Wish You Were Here sessions
Syd Barrett had one noted reunion with Pink Floyd, in 1975 during the recording sessions for Wish You Were Here. Barrett attended the Abbey Road session unannounced and watched the band record Shine On You Crazy Diamond — coincidentally, a song about him. At that time, Syd had gained a lot of weight and had shaved off all of his hair, including his eyebrows, and his ex-bandmates did not at first recognise him (one of the photographs in Nick Mason's book Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd appears to have been taken that day; it is captioned simply: Syd Barrett, 5th June 1975). Eventually, they realised who he was and Roger Waters was so distressed that he was reduced to tears. Members of the band also reported on their featured VH1 episode of Behind The Music that Barrett held a toothbrush and attempted to brush his teeth by holding the brush still and jumping up and down. A reference to this reunion appears in the film Pink Floyd The Wall (1982), where the character 'Pink', played by Bob Geldof, shaves off his eyebrows after succumbing to the pressures of life and fame.
In an interview for VH1, Rick Wright spoke about the session, saying: "One thing that really stands out in my mind, that I'll never forget; I was going in to the the Shine On sessions. I went in the studio and I saw this guy sitting at the back of the studio, he was only as far away as you are from me. And I didn't recognise him. I said, 'Who's that guy behind you?' 'That's Syd'. And I just cracked up, I couldn't believe it... he had shaven all his hair off... I mean, his eyebrows, everything... he was jumping up and down brushing his teeth, it was awful. And, uh, I was in, I mean Roger was in tears, I think I was; we were both in tears. It was very shocking... seven years of no contact and then to walk in while we're actually doing that particular track. I dont know – coincidence, karma, fate, who knows? But it was very, very, very powerful." In another interview, Nick Mason has said: "When I think about it, I can still see his eyes, but... it was everything else that was different." In yet another interview, Roger Waters has said: "I had no idea who he was for a very long time."
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Compilations
Opel (1988)
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Opel (1988)
In 1988, EMI Records released an album of Barrett's studio outtakes and previously unreleased material recorded from 1968 to 1970 under the title Opel. In 1993 it issued another release, Crazy Diamond, a box set of all three albums, each loaded with further out-takes from his solo sessions that illustrated vividly Barrett's inability or refusal to play a song the same way twice. [3]
EMI also released The Best of Syd Barrett: Wouldn't You Miss Me? in the UK on April 16, 2001, and in the United States on September 11, 2001. This was the first time his song "Bob Dylan Blues" was ever officially released, taken from a demo tape that David Gilmour had kept after an early 70s recording session. Also worthy of mention is the bootleg collection Have You Got It Yet?, a 19-disc audio/visual compilation composed of several live performances of Barrett both solo and with Pink Floyd, containing some versions considered superior to those that were officially released. Among the main attractions of the collection are tracks for his never-released third album. There are also interviews with other Pink Floyd members, video footage and covers from other artists.
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Last years
According to a 2005 profile by his biographer Tim Willis, Barrett, who had reverted to using his original name of Roger, continued to live in his late mother's semi-detached home in Cambridge, and had returned to his original art-form of painting, creating large abstract canvases. He was also said to have been an avid gardener. His main point of contact with the outside world was his sister, Rosemary, who lived nearby. While reclusive, it was his physical health that prompted most concern, being afflicted with stomach ulcers and type two diabetes.
Although Barrett had not appeared or spoken in public since the mid-1970s, time did little to diminish interest in his life and work; reporters and fans still traveled to Cambridge to seek him out, despite his attempts to live a quiet life, and many photos from the 1980s to the present of Barrett being annoyed by paparazzi when walking or biking to the store had been published in various places. A planned screen biography entitled "Crazy Diamond," which was to have been produced by Ridley Scott and directed by former Pink Floyd collaborator Peter Medak from a script by Ted Shuttleworth, ran into legal and rights issues and was shelved indefinitely.
Apparently, he was not happy being reminded about his past as a musician and the other members of Pink Floyd had no direct contact with him. However, he did go to his sister's house in 2002 to watch the BBC Omnibus documentary made about him - apparently he found some of it "too noisy", though he's said to have enjoyed hearing "See Emily Play" again.
Barrett died of a diabetes-related illness at his home in Cambridgeshire at the age of 60.
Last updated: 11-Jul-06 14:38 BST
leflaw
ChillinBuzz
Rest in peace, Syd. You were and always 
GeneHilbert
independentm...
captdunsel
CodeWarrior
clickplay
ebarbarella
Syd, will miss you 
"...I know a room full of musical tunes. 
