Syd Barrett

Syd Barrett in his short career as a musician played part jester and sensitive poet for Pink Floyd's first two albums Piper at the Gates of Dawn and A Saucerful of Secrets, his writing treaded into the territory of nursery rhyme and betrays the complexity of simple thoughts felt deeply, in the landscape of 60's psychedelia and it's search for novel and liberating views of the world he was a leading visionary. There are folk song and melodies that pool together in peoples collective conciousness by simple recitation and their felt iconic symbolism, the melodies of Barrett are exactly this but for the animal folk and creatures living in the English gardens of "The Wind in the Willows". Childish things that are still of intingue and mystique to an adult mind are always of very special quality.

Syd Barrett left Pink Floyd very early in the band's history in April 1968, with complications of psychedelic drugs and mental illness being an often cited speculation; it's often the environment that creates a mental pathology and the spotlight fame of being a rockstar might have been too strenuous and undesirable, in the sea of speculation the idea of him having been on a spectrum of schizotypy is probable and an almost audible character of his work post-Pink Floyd.

With the help of his former bandmate David Gilmour as producer/bassist, Barrett recorded The Madcap Laughs. The overdriven free-jam ascepts of his Pink Floyd work become background colouration for a new format of folk song. As the trip settles, his previous fantastical imagery becomes more interpersonal and subtle, the poppy garden that was the entire world and place for song and dance is now surrounded by brick buildings, dining rooms, tea-sets and all manner of troubles coming from the outside - now a retreat for pained monologue and release such as the song Dark Globe, or indulging in the warm feelings of love in Here I Go.

After recording one masterpiece he recorded another, the self-titled Syd Barrett offers a psychological depth penultimate within rock music. The atmospheres are overcast and potently gray, Barret's affect is tender but flat like those with too much on their mind, with feelings all-consuming and in intensity matching the feelings of those in psychosis - we get to hear a gentle mind navigate these things with marked intelligence, the results can be unassuming, like passing a stranger on the street and being blind to the heavy swirling of thoughts inside of them on a seemingly mundane walk. This makes it all the more piercing.

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Syd Barrett withdrew from the public, never releasing an album again other than giving EMI permission in 1988 to publish unreleased material on Opel. Pink Floyd continued to be one of the biggest phenomenon in rock and though Barret's time with it was short, with his whimsical sound and lyrics disappearing from their work, his presence was felt in it's absence. Very notable is the song Shine On You Crazy Diamond written by the band as dedication to Barrett, he very famously appeared unannounced at the recording session for it in eccentric appearance and behaviour, saying it "sounded odd", and none of the members ever saw him again.

Syd Barrett passed away in 2006 on July 7th.