Piper at the Gates of Dawn Syd Barrett Dead
Not sure if you have heard, but Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd passed away Monday. Poet, seer, recluse, visionary, the songwriter who veered the Pink Floyd during the late 60s.
His songs had some science fiction qualities in them and fantasy elements. His reference to Dan Dare and pschedelik stirrings gave breath to the band for the first album "Piper at the Gates of Dawn."
We would not have the same Pink Floyd if it were not for Barrett. Several songs were direct reference to the guy... songs like "Wish You were Here" and a few songs off "The Wall" talk about him. He was more than just another brick in the wall.
There were several lines like "... got a little black book with my poems in, got a toothbrush and a comb" were actual descriptions of Barrett's belongings. Of course, the reference "Wish You Were Here" was an actual wish the band had... wishing he was here for his inspiration.
The album "Dark Side of the Moon" was, literally, an inspiration of his madness... the whole beginning of it with the thumping sliding into crazed laughter. Everything plunged during his apparent madness that had been the cause for his departure. There was one time when he locked his girlfriend into his bedroom in 1967 and when one of his friends recalled his seeing "little people in the corner" were more symptons of his slow desendency into madness.
It was not a sudden thing. But a gradual thing... the hero of "The Wall" was a spitting image of him, the characer of Pink.
I'm sure that Roger Waters, co-founder and bass player, will take his death the hardest because they were both long-time friends. I don't remember if they knew each other since they were kids, but I know for sure they were peers since teenagers.
It is no exaggeration when I say that the band would not be the one we know if it weren't for him. Several of the band albums continued to refer back to him. He was a definite poet of his generation. While his guitar playing wasn't in the same class as, say, Jimi Hendrex, his playing certainly spirals from an intense creativity, his constant searching for the right sound... even noise was music to him.
If you listen closely to the song "See Emily Play," with the slicing in his editing, and you can hear the chop chop of music, that's because he's constantly shifting and butchering his own work.. he was never happy with his music so he goes back and re-edits the whole damn thing not one, but a dozen times, never assuredly satisfied with it. Musican David Bowie later covered this song.
The guy was the pinnacle of creative spark... and when it was his time for this troubled genius to leave, the group's had to drop "the" from "the Pink Floyd" to reflect his departure. His presence was never actually exorcised by the band... instead, they took his departure into something of a reccurrent theme.
Wish You Were Here? Sometimes, yes. He was someone that couldn't be easily replaced. We're talking about the original lead singer and songwriter... he wrote the stark majority of the album "Piper at the Gates of Dawn." When he wasn't writing hard rock n roll, he was composing ditty fairy tales that seems childish, but the simplicity, the oddity was there. And that simplicity was also the inspiration for later Pink Floyd albums...
They were lucky enough to find David Gilmour who replaced and continued to bring the unusual sound that made the band unique.
Listen to the first song of the Dark Side album, and you will notice that it is this same simplicity that works.... "Breathe... breath in the air... what makes you think I care... leave... don't leave me..." Those are brilliantly simple lines, yet give so much poetry in those few, simple lines. Roger Waters was right in keeping his lyrics simple.
Syd Barrett was the most reclusive of the band members, staying at home with his mother, occasionally coming out to paint, the only sign of his creativity that was a hold-over from his stirring days of Pink Floyd. But he was, in many ways, the ghostly presence of the Pink Floyd… now, he is. He died at the age of 60.
His songs had some science fiction qualities in them and fantasy elements. His reference to Dan Dare and pschedelik stirrings gave breath to the band for the first album "Piper at the Gates of Dawn."
We would not have the same Pink Floyd if it were not for Barrett. Several songs were direct reference to the guy... songs like "Wish You were Here" and a few songs off "The Wall" talk about him. He was more than just another brick in the wall.
There were several lines like "... got a little black book with my poems in, got a toothbrush and a comb" were actual descriptions of Barrett's belongings. Of course, the reference "Wish You Were Here" was an actual wish the band had... wishing he was here for his inspiration.
The album "Dark Side of the Moon" was, literally, an inspiration of his madness... the whole beginning of it with the thumping sliding into crazed laughter. Everything plunged during his apparent madness that had been the cause for his departure. There was one time when he locked his girlfriend into his bedroom in 1967 and when one of his friends recalled his seeing "little people in the corner" were more symptons of his slow desendency into madness.
It was not a sudden thing. But a gradual thing... the hero of "The Wall" was a spitting image of him, the characer of Pink.
I'm sure that Roger Waters, co-founder and bass player, will take his death the hardest because they were both long-time friends. I don't remember if they knew each other since they were kids, but I know for sure they were peers since teenagers.
It is no exaggeration when I say that the band would not be the one we know if it weren't for him. Several of the band albums continued to refer back to him. He was a definite poet of his generation. While his guitar playing wasn't in the same class as, say, Jimi Hendrex, his playing certainly spirals from an intense creativity, his constant searching for the right sound... even noise was music to him.
If you listen closely to the song "See Emily Play," with the slicing in his editing, and you can hear the chop chop of music, that's because he's constantly shifting and butchering his own work.. he was never happy with his music so he goes back and re-edits the whole damn thing not one, but a dozen times, never assuredly satisfied with it. Musican David Bowie later covered this song.
The guy was the pinnacle of creative spark... and when it was his time for this troubled genius to leave, the group's had to drop "the" from "the Pink Floyd" to reflect his departure. His presence was never actually exorcised by the band... instead, they took his departure into something of a reccurrent theme.
Wish You Were Here? Sometimes, yes. He was someone that couldn't be easily replaced. We're talking about the original lead singer and songwriter... he wrote the stark majority of the album "Piper at the Gates of Dawn." When he wasn't writing hard rock n roll, he was composing ditty fairy tales that seems childish, but the simplicity, the oddity was there. And that simplicity was also the inspiration for later Pink Floyd albums...
They were lucky enough to find David Gilmour who replaced and continued to bring the unusual sound that made the band unique.
Listen to the first song of the Dark Side album, and you will notice that it is this same simplicity that works.... "Breathe... breath in the air... what makes you think I care... leave... don't leave me..." Those are brilliantly simple lines, yet give so much poetry in those few, simple lines. Roger Waters was right in keeping his lyrics simple.
Syd Barrett was the most reclusive of the band members, staying at home with his mother, occasionally coming out to paint, the only sign of his creativity that was a hold-over from his stirring days of Pink Floyd. But he was, in many ways, the ghostly presence of the Pink Floyd… now, he is. He died at the age of 60.
posted by K.M. Paters at 11:06 AM
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