syd's house

SYD BARRETT
To certain of his devotees, it was the misfortune of Syd Barrett, who 
has died of complications related to diabetes, aged 60, to remain alive 
after a tenure as creative pivot of the early Pink Floyd to become the 
ultima thule of pop recluses. Indeed, his departure from the group - 
then on the threshold of global eminence - in 1968, and, soon 
afterwards, his retirement as a professional musician to lead an 
outwardly unproductive life was on a par with, say, Mick Jagger 
leaving The Rolling Stones in 1964 to live quietly with his parents. 
The fourth of five siblings, he was born Roger Barrett in a genteel 
suburb of Cambridge. If blighted by the death of his father, a hospital 
pathologist, his upbringing was more liberal and steeped in the 
detours of culture than most. Before he graduated to Cambridge High 
School, he showed promise as a classical pianist and, moreso, as a 
visual artist. However, intrigued by an elder brother's skiffle combo, 
he taught himself guitar, mostly by playing along to records. He and a 
kindred spirit, David Gilmour, practiced together, but did not progress 
nuch further than talking about starting a group. It was around this 
time that Roger acquired the nickname "Syd". 

At sixteen, he was was playing non-committally with local beat 
groups, sometimes sharing a stage with bass guitarist Roger Waters. 
On obtaining respective scholarships at Camberwell Art College and 
Regent Street Polytechnic, Barrett and Waters moved to London 
where, from a turnover of other student musicians, what was to 
become The Pink Floyd smouldered into form, boiling down to Barrett, 
Waters, drummer Nick Mason and, on keyboards, Rick Wright. 
The gradual introduction of adventurous self-written material and 
lengthy monochordal improvisations put them in a favourable position 
to become popular fixtures in the capital's "underground" clubs where 
light shows were among aids used to simulate psychedelic experience. 
Snapped up by EMI, a debut single, "Arnold Layne", was, as expected, 
self-consciously "weird" - and a Top 30 entry, despite airplay 
restrictions. The follow-up, a tartly-arranged "See Emily Play" - also 
composed by Syd - climbed to Number Six.
 
Perhaps more satisfying to the group was recognition by The 
Beatles, who looked in during a Floyd session for 1967's ground-
breaking Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, a maiden album penned almost 
entirely by the charismatic Barrett, who, as a guitarist was as capable 
of severe dissonance as serene, if echo-laden, melody, and whose 
vocal style was as English as Elvis Presley's was American. 
With the other personnel keeping pace, he'd gone far into the 
cosmos and back musically with "Astronomy Domine", and 
disconnected with Earth altogether on "Interstellar Overdrive". 
Moreover, "Gnome", "Matilda Mother", "Flaming" and mediaeval-
flavoured "Scarecrow" cornered pop's gingerbread castle hour more 
effectively and instinctively than, for example, The Beatles' "Lucy In 
The Sky With Diamonds". 

Fortunately for the Fab Four, a now drug-addled Barrett was 
already proving ill-equipped to cope with pop stardom, particularly 
after a troubled US tour and the disappointment of a flop third single, 
"Apples And Oranges". In 1968, David Gilmour was enlisted as, first, 
the increasingly unreliable Barrett's understudy and then his successor 
during the making a transitional second album, A Saucerful Of Secrets. 
If happier as concert performers, Pink Floyd - the "The" had been 
dropped - were initially at a loss without Barrett's input.
 
Attempting to master his more absolute inner chaos, Barrett 
released in 1970 two curate's egg solo albums, The Madcap Laughs 
and the more focussed Barrett, with help from members of Soft 
Machine, Humble Pie - and Pink Floyd, and was persuaded to 
undertake disinclined promotional stage appearances. Eventually, he 
returned to Cambridge where he fronted a trio called Stars, who 
struggled through a solitary official booking at the city's Corn 
Exchange in 1972. 

The years left to Barrett were almost perversely unremarkable. 
Though he was known to be a painter, he neither exhibited nor sold 
any canvasses. Nevertheless, a legend took shape, bringing out 
strange stories, the most verifiable of which was of him presenting 
himself, portly and shaven-headed, in the studio when Pink Floyd 
were recording 1975's Darl Side Of The Moon album - which was to 
contain "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", regarded as a salaam to their 
former leader. Since then, intrusive press photographs of Barrett have 
portrayed him looking as middle-aged as his old collegues, multi-
millionaires all while he existed in invalidity benefit and fluctuating 
royalties. 

In the teeth of dull truth, Barrett continued to fascinate countless 
fans as well as record company moguls, scraping the barrel for 
anything on which he so much as breathed - as instanced by Crazy 
Diamond, a big-selling 1993 CD box set incorporating hitherto-
unreleased tracks. Barrett's income was buoyed too via respects paid 
by other artists, most conspicuously David Bowie who revived "See 
Emily Play" on 1973's Pin-Ups album, and "Arnold Layne" when guest 
singer at last month's London Concert by David Gilmour. 
Yet few of the faithful expected or even wanted Barrett to make a 
comeback, no matter how rejuvenated or contemporary. They 
preferred him as an ever-silent "no return" saga rather than one in 
which he was likely to try and fail to debunk the myth of an artistic 
death.
 
Syd Barrett (Roger Keith Barrett), 
musician, composer, born 6 January 1946; died 7 July 2006