ElectryA

In Memoriam:Syd Barrett

In June 1975, while Pink Floyd were recording the album Wish YouWere Here at London’s Abbey Road studios, a portly, shaven-haired man arrived and stood quietly at the back, watching.
He appeared as the Floyd performed the song “Shine On You CrazyDiamond”. It contains the words: “Remember when you were young,you shone like the sun. Shine on you crazy diamond. Now there’sa look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky.”
At first, they didn’t recognise the man, whose head and eyebrows were shaved and who was apparently trying to clean his teeth by holding the brush still and jumping up and down.
But this was the “crazy diamond” himself: Syd Barrett, thesubject of the song. He was the most famous “acid casualty” of his generation, and the writer of much of the original materialof the group, from which he had been ejected because of his drug-induced eccentricities.
When Roger Waters saw his old friend, he broke down.
Rick Wright, the keyboards player later told an interviewer: “I saw this guy sitting at the back of the studio… and I didn’trecognise him. I said, ‘Who’s that guy behind you?’ ‘That’sSyd’. And I just cracked up, I couldn’t believe it… he hadshaven all his hair off… I mean, his eyebrows, everything…he was jumping up and down brushing his teeth, it was awful…
“Roger [Waters] was in tears, I think I was; we were both intears. It was very shocking… seven years of no contact andthen to walk in while we’re actually doing that particulartrack. I don’t know - coincidence, karma, fate, who knows? But it was very, very, very powerful.”
Pink Floyd continued as one of the biggest names in music, butfor much of the time since, Barrett lived reclusively inCambridge, painting and gardening, cycling to the shops andrefusing all interviews. He preferred to be known by hisoriginal first name, Roger, and looked very different from theslim and dark-eyed genius of the Sixties.
While he had driven them to despair, Barrett was never forgottenby his former bandmates, who made sure he received all hisroyalties. On 2 July last year, when the Floyd, whose remainingmembers reformed for the Live8 concert in London, theydedicated “Wish You Were Here”, to Barrett.
Just over a year later and after nearly four decades as the mostfamous recluse in rock’n'roll, Barrett, has died, aged 60. Hehad been suffering from diabetes and stomach ulcers.
Last night, the Floyd paid tribute: “The band are naturally veryupset and sad to learn of Syd Barrett’s death. Syd was theguiding light of the early band line-up and leaves a legacywhich continues to inspire.”
Despite the fact he had not produced any original work since theearly Seventies, Barrett remained an iconic, almost mythicalfigure in music. He was a presence whenever Pink Floydperformed, and was cited as an influence by contemporaries suchas Pete Townsend and David Bowie, and groups such as The Cure,Placebo and The Libertines. In Tom Stoppard’s new playRock’n'Roll, showing in the West End, he is portrayed in theopening scene, and his life and music are a recurring theme.
Bowie, who recorded a version of “See Emily Play”, the Floyd’ssecond single, on his album Pin-Ups’ said: “I can’t tell you howsad I feel. Syd was a major inspiration for me. The few times Isaw him perform … during the Sixties will forever be etched inmy mind. He was so charismatic and such a startlingly originalsongwriter. His impact on my thinking was enormous. A majorregret is that I never got to know him.”
Former Blur guitarist Graham Coxon cited Barrett as one of thegreatest influences on his career.
Barrett was from a middle class Cambridge family and was atschool with Waters and guitarist David Gilmour, although helater studied at the Camberwell School of Art in London.
Originally called The Tea Set, The Screaming Abdabs or TheMegadeaths, Barrett renamed the band the Pink Floyd when hejoined them in 1965. They originally played R’n'B covers.
In early 1967, they signed to EMI and released Barrett’s “ArnoldLayne” reaching 21 . “See Emily Play”, also written by Barrett,reached sixand they followed with their first and criticallyacclaimed hit album, Piper at the Gates of Dawn; Barrett wrotemost of the album.
Barrett soon tired of playing their hit and began to experimenton stage. The Floyd became a more improvisational group and amainstay of the psychedelic underground music scene.
But, even as Piper was released, Barrett’s drug abuse spiralledout of control, becoming a liability to the band. One night onstage he de-tuned his guitar, and on others he simply stoodthere staring straight ahead. In the United States, he once tookthe stage with a pot of Brylcreem on his head into which he hadcrushed a bottle of Mandrax, the sleeping tablet favoured as arecreational drug.
According to Tim Willis, Barrett’s biographer, there werestories of Barrett being locked in cupboards by hangers-on anddark rumours he was being fed, without his knowledge, daily LSDdoses by “friends”. Gilmour would later say: “Syd didn’t needencouraging. If drugs were going, he’d take them by theshovelful.”
Because Barrett sometimes forgot to turn up for gigs, Gilmourwas recruited as stand-in guitarist. The end came in 1968, notlong after Barrett’s 22nd birthday, they decided not to botherpicking him up on the way to a performance. It was, said Willis,debatable, whether Barrett ever realised.
Although he would never play with them again, Barrett’s careercontinued sporadically for some time. Once or twice, he wouldturn up for gigs, guitar in hand, only to be ushered away.
By that time, the Floyd were well on their way to hugecommercial success, with Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You WereHere and The Wall, until tensions between Waters and Gilmour ledto a final split in 1985, although Gilmour continued to leadvarious versions of the band until 1994.
Over the next few years, Barrett made sporadic musicappearances. Assisted by Gilmour and Waters, he made two soloalbums, The Madcap Laughs and Barrett, released in 1970, bothrevered by fans for their whimsy and madness. He appeared onPeel’s radio programme, Top Gear and there was one gig inOlympia, in 1970, when Barrett walked off stage after foursongs. One further attempt in 1974 to get him back into theAbbey Road studios, ended in failure.
Barrett eventually withdrew completely. He sold the rights tohis solo albums back to the record company, checked into aLondon hotel and, after his money ran out in 1981, walked to hismother’s home in Cambridge. He stayed there until his death.
No-one now doubts that what was dismissed in the Sixties as justanother case of LSD abuse was more likely to have beenschizophrenia, Asperger’s Syndrome or another type of autism,aggravated by the drugs.
Otherwise, it was a quite life. Apart from his painting, heworked briefly as a gardener. Some of his paintings were madepublic, and an album of previously unreleased material came outin 1988.
And, in 2002, the BBC screened a documentary about him, which hewatched at his sisters. Afterwards, Barrett was said to have enjoyed hearing “See Emily Play” again, he found much ofit, “too noisy”.

posted by electrya @ 1:54 PM