Syd Barrett — A Crazy Diamond That Was Equal Parts Both
Not All Of Those Laughs Were Madcap…
If anybody in modern music is taken as a stereotype of the genius/weirdness combination it is the late Roger Keith “Syd” Barrett, a founder and brief mailman of Pink Floyd, solo artist, painter, and recluse — often most of these things at the same time. If you just take into consideration the volume of the body of (musical) work he left behind, he should not have been more than just a footnote in rock history. He composed and played on all but one song on the debut Pink Floyd album, a few singles, a “one and a half” songs on their second album, two solo albums, and a set of scattered demos that were released on one occasion — most of which were of debatable sound quality (Opel).
Still, Pink Floyd themselves not only devoted “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”, one of their best songs, to Barrett but Wish You Were Here was practically devoted to him and members of the band played on both The Madcap Laughs and Barrett, his two solo albums. That’s quite a lot for someone that was literally kicked out of the band prior.
Even more so, Barrett is considered a progenitor of many things rock, particularly its psychedelic side, so much so, that in fifty years or so, his cult following has never diminished, many musicians themselves still citing him as a…
