Roger Keith Barrett 1946-2006
12 July 2006 by Raindogzilla
The first time I heard “Astronomy Domine”, I was hooked. Now, I’m sad.
Shine On You Crazy Diamond
“Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Now theres a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
You were caught on the crossfire of childhood and stardom, blown on the
Steel breeze.
Come on you target for faraway laughter, come on you stranger, you legend,
You martyr, and shine!
You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Threatened by shadows at night, and exposed in the light.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Well you wore out your welcome with random precision, rode on the
Steel breeze.
Come on you raver, you seer of visions, come on you painter, you piper,
You prisoner, and shine!
Nobody knows where you are, how near or how far.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Pile on many more layers and Ill be joining you there.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
And well bask in the shadow of yesterdays triumph, and sail
On the steel breeze.
Come on you boy child, you winner and loser, come on you miner
For truth and delusion, and shine!”
PINK FLOYD
12 July 2006, on 11:57 pm
THE GNOME
“I want to tell you a story
’bout a little man
If I can.
A gnome named Grimble Grumble.
And little gnomes stay in their homes.
Eating, sleeping, drinking their wine.
He wore a scarlet tunic,
A blue green hood,
It looked quite good.
He had a big adventure
Amidst the grass
Fresh air at last.
Wining, dining, biding his time.
And then one day – hooray!
Another way for gnomes to say
Whoooooooooooooooooooooam I?
Look at the sky, look at the river
Isn’t it good?
Look at the sky, look at the river
Isn’t it good?
Winding, finding places to go.
And then one day – hooray!
Another way for gnomes to say
Whoooooooooooooam I ?
Whoooooooooooooooooooooam I?”
Syd Barrett
13 July 2006, on 12:04 am
poor Syd. He was misunderstood.
He was fool, a seer,
but he was his own fool…
Shine on you crazy diamond!
No better name
For those who are the same
As this…
Crazy diamond!
A misunderstood genius.
13 July 2006, on 12:08 am
RDZ’s gonna slap me, but I was never a Syd-era fan. I’m 39 now, so I was hit full-force as a young almost-adolescent by “The Wall,” then went back as far as “Atom Heart Mother” and stopped. I’ve heard the earlier stuff, it just hasn’t grabbed me yet. I will always go back and give it another shot once every few years, because I needs more Pink Floyd, and the post-Waters days didn’t do it for me at all.
Syd was a fuckin’ loon. I can understand why you admire him, RDZ.
13 July 2006, on 12:47 am
Sean, all through high school, I was a huge Floyd fan but had never ventured back beyond Dark Side, myself. It wasn’t til my stint in college radio that I stumbled onto “The Madcap Laughs” and “Barrett”- solo Syd- and, from there into Piper and Saucerful, along with the soundtracks, “More” “Obscured By Clouds” and the singles “See Emily Play”, etc. I, too, don’t care much for Floyd post- Waters. Roger Waters kinda kept Syd’s edge going through the years- a psychedelic underbelly, if you will, while, left to his own devices, Gilmour is just blurry and fey(though a shithot guitarist for sure).
Syd was a kindred soul. I played Syd repeatedly on the radio- I had three hours of unformatted air time every week to do with as I pleased, my band covered Syd and Syd’s Floyd, and I tried my damnedest to completely fry my brain just like Syd. I even came uncomfortably close to succeeding but spent much, much good times trying. Rest assured, but for a slight serotonin imbalance, all is right with the world.
A girlfriend and I even went so far as to make a jaunt up to Cambridge on a London weekend in the hopes of encountering the reclusive Syd- to no avail. Syd lived with his mother after his flameout- and until she passed several years back, with no real memory of his time as a rockstar. He collected stamps and guitars, dabbled in painting, and was well looked after financially by royalties and his former bandmates.
13 July 2006, on 10:30 am
TERRAPIN
“I really love you and I mean you
the star above you, crystal blue
Well, oh baby, my hairs on end about you…
I wouldn’t see you and I love to
I fly above you, yes I do
well, oh baby, my hairs on end about you…
Floating, bumping, noses dodge a tooth
the fins a luminous
fangs all ’round the clown
is dark below the boulders hiding all
the sunlight’s good for us
‘Cause we’re the fishes and all we do
the move about is all we do
well, oh baby, my hairs on end about you…
Floating, bumping, noses dodge a tooth
the fins a luminous
fangs all ’round the clown
is dark below the boulders hiding all
the sunlight’s good for us
‘Cause we’re the fishes and all we do
the move about is all we do
well, oh baby, my hairs on end about you…
I really love you and I mean you
the star above you, crystal blue
Well, oh baby, my hairs on end about you…”
SYD BARRETT
13 July 2006, on 11:51 am
His contribution to the psychedelic-rock era is clear; though his approach and writing styles were different than later Floyd, he put them on the map even in the shadow of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. I can’t speak for others, but when listen to Piper or The Madcap Laughs, I hear a sorely untapped genius and depth. Even his gentle and dark interpolation of “Golden Hair” shines in its stark simplicity. The myths, legends and conjecture surrounding Barrett has gone a long way to make “madness” something of a pop culture trait, and anything pertaining to it (be it guerilla art, musicians like Bowie and Sonic Youth, or the movie “Pi”) owes its debt. He was a weird, inspired candle that flamed out too soon.
“Ice Cream, ’scuse me, i seen you looking good the other evening!”
13 July 2006, on 4:19 pm
Lovely. He will be missed. I hope that more young people will continue to discover his music and be inspired by it, as I was.
13 July 2006, on 6:47 pm
There’s much debate over Syd’s eventual crack up. Whether it was completely drug-induced, whether a preexisting mental condition was merely exacerbated by the hallucinogens, and whether the death of his father when Syd was 11 or so effectively forestalled his development. The last is supported by the whimsical, childlike, fairytale quality to much of his work- “The Gnome”, “Scarecrow”, “See Emily Play”, “Effervescing Elephant”, and “Octupus/Clowns and Jugglers” to name but a few.
His last recordings are really hard to listen to. His guitar playing has regressed, the songs have no symmetry whatsoever- so the backing musicians couldn’t play along, and his voice reels from utter detachment/flat affect to gutwrenching anguish. It’s like an audio snapshot of a soul’s torment.
As a former musician, I have to give enormous props to the rest of the band for first playing with him as he became increasingly unreliable- sometimes he would just stand there playing a single chord all night- then bringing in Gilmour to play Syd’s parts while Syd remained outfront doing his thing with, say, melted Bryl-creme and crushed mandrax- read “quaaludes”- melting from his hair down his face. When it became impossible, they made sure he was taken care of and continued to write tribute to him up through The Wall.
15 July 2006, on 6:11 pm
God help the crazy man…insane–a low blow to an herioin expecter of Love and Peace….Its too bad L.S.D is stll illegal.(still good for the souul..i might add) Good-bye Mr. Barret…Loved your music.Wow….lllllsssssdddddd….Oh.Mainly $$$$$$ maker. Raindogvilla say it pretty well…Souls == ecxtacy.—-CHUMP..
18 July 2006, on 8:07 pm
Someone needs to up Tim’s meds – or take him off them…