Most of Pink Floyd's songs after he was out of the band referenced him, RIP.

Just saw the news 5 minutes ago and was shocked. The guy was a true original. RIP Syd

Wasn't he in an institution? That's sad. I'm not anti-drug, but he's one of those guys who makes you wonder what if he hadn't done that one dose too many, and what would have happened he had stayed healthy? He might be a living legend.

Amazing how Pink Floyd continued in a new direction. Similar to Fleetwood Mac.

NDRU said:

The post-Peter Green era.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

theAudience said:

Right. Though I guess you could compare post Nicks/Buckingham Mac to post Waters Floyd, too. yech!

Shine on you crazy diamond.

NDRU said:

I read that he was mentally unstable from LSD.....not sure about the institution.

Supposedly he stopped touring/working with Pink Floyd because of the mental problems stemming from LSD usage.

Too many artists from my generation got screwed up and/or died from drugs.

cubic61052 said:

Yeah, I don't think LSD will necessarily mess you up, but if you're unstable to begin with, it can probably push you over the edge.

Another Floyd/Mac connection, this is what happened to Peter Green. Actually, I think there was ANOTHER guy in Mac who became unstable from LSD, too!

John Lennon was probably on the edge, too. Thank god he didn't fall over, he just dipped his toe in insanity.
[Edited 7/11/06 13:43pm]

NDRU said:

That'd be a yech! to the 10th power.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

What?!

Damn.

Shine On.


It's a grossly overused phrase, but Syd Barrett was a true rock legend, mostly because he hasn't performed live or recorded, or even been seen for more than 30 years. Barrett, whose death was confirmed today, was the first "acid casualty", and few actually remember the man who led the most important group of Britain's counterculture in 1966 and 1967.

One man who does remember is Joe Boyd. He discovered Pink Floyd in the summer of 1966, and promoted them at the legendary UFO club on London's Tottenham Court Road, where Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd made their name. Boyd also produced Pink Floyd's first single Arnold Layne, and writes about his experiences with the group in the excellent book White Bicycles.

I've just interviewed Boyd for Guardian Unlimited's daily news podcast, Newsdesk. You can listen to the results in tomorrow's programme, but in the meantime, here's a transcript of the best bits.

Boyd: Floyd were the official group of the underground. The bible of the underground was the International Times, the meeting point of the underground became the UFO club, and the Floyd were the resident attraction.

When they started to get so popular that they were too expensive for us, it forced us to go and try and find other groups to take their place that would satisfy the demands of the audience, but it was a very, very difficult slot to fill.
One of the things that was so different from other groups, was that they kind of hid in amongst the light bubbles on stage. There was this light show, these pulsing, oil-based inks that were floating in a kind of projection of light, and so the four members of the group never really shone. They didn't really step forward, you didn't get the feeling of a personality because it was just the music.

But if there was a personality initially, I think it was Syd, because first of all he was incredibly good looking: he had these dark eyes, and this curly black hair, and he was very, very appealing, girls loved him. He was a wonderful sexy lead singer.

But the Floyd ethos was such that he didn't perform the way that a pop lead singer would normally perform in 1967. He didn't dance around or show off, or talk at all between the songs. Nobody talked. It was very self-effacing, the whole presentation of the group.

But the glint in Syd's eye shone amongst all of that, and I think he was certainly the focal point.


Me: What do you remember of the Arnold Layne session?

Boyd: We did it very efficiently and very quickly. The recording and the mixing of the A and B sides took a couple of nights in February 1967. It was a pleasure, I enjoyed working with them and I was very disappointed not to produce the album, not just obviously because of the success it would have had, but also because it was a good working relationship, I really got along with them.
Syd was very diffident, Roger Waters was much more of a forceful personality in the studio. Syd had his opinions, but he didn't take as much of a leadership role in the studio as Roger.

Me: Were you surprised when Syd Barrett parted company with the band?

Boyd: Well, in the end not, because when the Floyd left UFO, and after they'd signed with EMI, a few months went by when I didn't really see much of them at all.

But we reached an agreement that no matter what happened, no matter how big they were, they agreed that they would come back in June 67 and play the UFO club. And sure enough, by June they were huge. There were queues around the block and crowds outside the club and everything. And there was no stage entrance, so the group had to come in through the crowd to perform. So I saw them up close as they came by, and I kind of greeted them as they came in. I said hello to everybody, and Syd was the last one in.

And Syd, I would have to say, was a very, very different person that night in June from when I had seen him previously. He was very vacant-eyed, didn't really say anything.

But he had always been very witty, made under-his-breath little sarcastic comments and funny little comments here and there. But none of that, that night. And when he went on stage, he just stood there, for long stretches, while the rest of the band played. It was very awkward and very disturbing to see.

I then kept in touch with the group's management, with Peter Jenner and Andew King. They told me how they were going to have to bring in Dave Gilmour, who was an old friend of the group's from Cambridge, to play with Syd, so when he would stop playing there would be another guitar player who could carry on. So it became a five-man group.

But it was clearly very difficult.

And I think that at the time it was a phenomenon that we weren't really familiar but I think as soon as the concept of "acid casualty" became part of the parlance of the day, Syd was identified as the first one that we knew.

Not that any of us had any information as to what was the cause of his disturbing behaviour, but it was assumed that it was from taking too much acid.

Joe Boyd's White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s is published by Serpents Tail, £11.99.
A CD of the same name, featuring Boyd's many great productions including Arnold Layne, is on Fledgling records.

Link

BananaCologne said:

That's a great photo. I've never seen that one before.

Shine On, Syd. You were a living legend, and now you're part of rock immortality. You surely will be remembered forever.

i wonder if he took anti-psychotics? he was definitely schizophrenic, or had a related illness.... if he didn't, he needed them... however i think he never really would have/did come back anyway.... poor man...

shine on...

NDRU said:

I think he was living with his parents... or at least his mother...

Slave2daGroove said:

Well some of them... not most of them...

MartyMcFly said:

Which ones ?

AsylumUtopia said:

I think the most famous recordings about Syd were, Shine On You Crazy Diamond and Wish You Were Here.

MartyMcFly said:

He lived in Cambridge with his mother. He was photographed occasionally riding his bicycle around town or in his front garden although he tended to keep to himself and shunned publicity. Later photographs showed a balding, slightly overweight man. Completely different from the rock star of the sixties.

pacey68 said:

Yeah, I was going to edit my original post to say I know the obvious ones would seem to be Shine On and Wish You Were Here, and until recently I believed them to be written about Syd. In fact, I have believed for years, as I'm sure many others do, that the entire 'Wish You Were Here' album was their tribute to Syd. However, I was recently reading Nick Mason's book 'Inside Out' in which he seems to indicate that none of the 'Wish You Were Here' album was written with Syd in mind, and that the theme is purely coincidental. I say 'seems to indicate' because I can't remember exactly how he phrased it but I do remember that while I was reading it I was quite surprised that there was absolutely no connection between 'Wish You Were Here' and Syd Barrett. If memory serves, the only coincidental thing Mr. Mason noted was that Syd appeared in the studio during the recording of the album and he (Mason) was only then struck with how appropriate the theme of what they were recording was. He also said that to his shame he didn't recognise who 'that fat bald bloke' was, until Roger Waters told him.

It's annoying me that I can't remember more fully what Nick Mason said about this, so I shall dig out the book and re-read the relevant portions this evening, and update my post with actual facts according to Mr. Mason rather than half-rememebered might-be-facts according to me.
[Edited 7/12/06 4:41am]

AsylumUtopia said:

"Shine on you Crazy Diamond," definitely. As I've understood it, really the entire Wish You Were Here album. Dark Side of the Moon certainly referenced the topic of lunacy. The Wall, perhaps at some level, but not specifically.


R.I.P., Syd. Man, what a sad situation, to decline so far so fast and at such a young age. Then to never return to making music or, it would seem, to a point where he could function at all in society. I wonder if we'll ever know if it was the acid, mental illness, or some combination of both factors.

I read many times he was living at his mother's home and doing a lot of painting. I wonder if we'll ever see any of his work? Or if he did any writing at all?

'Dark Globe'

This is the saddest news.
Syd was a fantastic performer and lyricist.
I do believe he was happy in his world away from the music scene,
and I hope he knew how much he was and will be missed.
Steven.

CandaceS said:

Definitely seems like the Wall, while maybe not specifically about him, must have been at least partially inspired by him.
[Edited 7/12/06 10:39am]

VERY nice thread, Slave. It's obvious that Syd STILL has an effect on Roger. He's coming back out here to L.A. in Oct from his Hollywood Bowl shows just here recently. In that set, he dedicated certain songs to Syd. But the Floyd always gave Syd his due through albums such as "Wish You Were Here" and "The Wall" which were largely based on Syd. Syd was a troubled genius. Which of course, are the best kind to be.

NDRU said:

Interesting, I always thought it was just Roger Waters' semi-autobiographical, semi-fantasy vision of what he himself was, and might have become (or was becoming). Certainly the eariler part of the film dealing with the younger Pink is fairly autobiographical, as is probably the portrayal of the excesses of the rock star life. But the metamorphosis into a nazi rock god is allegory, and I'd never considered that it's subject might be Syd. Hmm.

Also, it appears I was talking shite in my earlier post. I've read the relevant bits of the book and Nick Mason doesn't say either way whether Wish You Were Here (the album) was or wasn't about (or a tribute to) Syd. I guess I just did too much reading between the lines. What he does say is that the theme for Roger Waters' lyrics was 'absence'. He does say that Shine On was the track most influenced by Syd's presence, or absence. and I think this is where I may have got my wires crossed. When talking about the time Syd turned up to the studio, he says that although legend has it that they were recording Shine On at the time, that he is not sure that they actually were. I think I must've read this as saying he wasn't actually sure that Shine On was about Syd, but, ahem, on second read, ehm, no.

It would seem reasonable to assume that Wish You Were Here (the song) is also about Syd.

AsylumUtopia said:

yeah, I've heard both songs are about, or at least inspired by Syd. I haven't ever heard of The Wall being about Syd, and I think you're right that it's mostly personal stuff from Roger, but descent of Pink into madness & isolation just seems a bit too coincidental to not be related.

Of course, Pink Floyd were huge rock stars, and they could have easily suffered the megalomania & burnout depicted in the movie as well.

RIP, currently spinning Wish You Were Here in his honor.

Here is a great DVD about him if you want it....

http://www.amazon.com/gp/...ance&n=130