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Syd Barret
By Harry
In August2006 a sixty year old, bald, stocky bachelor with a face at once stern andsensitive died of diabetes. He was living on his own in his home-town: thegenteel city of Cambridge, England, world widely known for its university,which, in the UK, is rivalledonly by the equally venerable one in Oxford.
His namewas Syd Barret. Or was it? No. His name was Roger Keith Barret, known as Rog tothe few people he bothered to see, mostly his family. Syd Barrett is the namethe world will remember him by. He was aliving legend. Now he is a dead legend.
Let meoutline the birth of this legend in a few words. Do you knowthe magnolia?
What makesits beauty so special is not only its features, but also that it blooms veryearly, and very short. In those seminal years of pop/rock music, the midsixties, Barrett’s songs and shared the same properties. As foundingfather and undisputed leader of a band called Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett was apivotal figure in the emerging psychedelic scene in London, and, via his records, the rest of theworld. It was atime when the world, in the words of Keith Richards, suddenly turned from blackand white into Technicolor. And Syd Barrett was a most colourful being indeed,to the ear, to the eye and to the mind in equal measures. Brought up quiteliberally, with well to do parents, and a particularly doting mother, young Sydwas as gifted as he was attractive, and a humorous, impish fellow at that.Experimenting with a few things almost no one had heard of in these days, likeLSD –until the sixties mainly used by the CIA as sort of a truth serum drug- andthe ancient Chinese Book of Changes, the I Ching, his main occupations werepainting and music. Painting came first, the and songs that would makehim famous came second in those early days. In themusic industry many things had changed in the slipstream of the Beatles fame.Musicians were no longer puppets on a string of shady, cynically-minded Tin PanAlley-types, churning out product for whoever laid the money down. There was anew playfulness and originality in the of the Beatles and also acompletely un-self-conscious integrity, mainly brought about by the fact thatthe Beatles wrote their own songs, and became a role model for that. It was theKennedy era. People were in some ways starting to be encouraged by theauthorities to think for themselves and not to do simply what the sameauthorities expected them to do, which, of course, implies a paradox with avengeance, but, lucky for those times, it took a while for us all to realize. Back to ourstory.
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So the Beatle phenomenon became a trailblazer for a whole gamut ofgifted young bands, all into writing their own material: The Rolling Stones,The Kinks, and The Who, who does not know their names. Barrett’sPink Floyd rose to fame a few years after the first batch of post Beatlesbands. And in those heady days a few years made an enormous difference.Swinging Londonwas already turning psychedelic and of that era Barrett was, is, and alwayswill be one of the finest relics. It all went by so fast… Syd Barrettwas an almost devout non-believer in discipline, and had a frame of mind andbody not heavy duty enough for the rough life of a rock star. Within twoblasting years his behaviour had become so erratic that he could not rationallyfunction anymore in the band that was his brainchild. Forgetting guitarseverywhere, sometimes refusing to speak to anyone, standing on stage like astatue, playing just one chord. Roger Waters, Rick Wright and Nick Mason had toincorporate guitarist David Gilmour, a good friend of the whole band, and alreadya highly rated session player. A short while the band was a five some, David Gilmourdelivering the sonic good, and Syd Barrett as a sort of far-out ornament. Thenthe idea was that he would be the home staying genius, with the other boys onthe road a la Brian Wilson, but it al expired, Syd being so deranged that hetemporarily became an inmate of the Terrapin Asylum, after which followed a fewyears in London, living in various trippy bohemian settings. During that timehe did manage to create two albums that are still enjoyed by quite a few goodears: “The Madcap Laughs” and “Barrett’s” quirky, very asymmetrical songs withstrangely evocative lyrics about almost nothing/everything, after which hestopped making altogether. He ended up where he started, in Cambridge, living withhis mother, and after her death on his own, picking up painting again andwriting a history of art for his own enjoyment, without the slightest idea tolet others read it, let alone publicize it. All hislife he had the status of a cult hero, also because his old band, Pink Floyd,became hugely successful in the line-up with David Gilmour, and the standardbearers of, let’s say, adult rock: always competent, creative, even poetic,skilfully performed on state of the art hardware, but with the elusivex-factor, which makes things creep under your skin, considerably reduced. A shortcareer and a long retirement.
He regainedhis inner balance sufficiently to live as a quiet, withdrawn, strange but notcrazy citizen, sustained by the royalties of his compositions on Pink Floyd’sand his own records. According to his family he could even be said to live withhis very own brand of satisfaction. Syd Barrett will always be remembered asone of the most enigmatic characters in the pantheon of modern Western popularmusic.
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