Since last week, I’m been very much in a Barrett mood.
It’s been a while since I last listened to Madcap Laughs and Barrett, and I was only slightly surprised to see that they had been pulled from my streaming service. It seems like albums are chronically coming and going, especially when they are from acts “across the pond” [Syd Barrett joins Jesus and Mary Chain for albums I can’t listen to… at the moment]. Without super-simple access to Syd’s solo albums, I opted for Pink Floyd’s Piper at the Gates of Dawn album to tide me me over until I could either pull up my MP3s or find time to find a quality upload of the complete albums up on YouTube for me.
Listening with “fresh ears”, it strikes me just how much Syd indirectly and directly influenced some of my tastes in music.
I came to early Pink Floyd later in life, being quite content to listen to their albums post-Dark Side. The Barrett years are rough around the edges, as the band had yet to really develop their signature sound, so it can be off-putting for folks less used to their more psychedelic sound (their later music I would probably class as progressive rock and not psychedelic).
As I listened over the weekend and into this week, I came to the slow realization that some of the more manic post-punk music I listened to growing up was probably directly influenced by Syd. I now hear his influences in everything from Love and Rockets/Bauhaus/Tones on Tail to David Bowie to The Cure. To an unnerving degree, if I’m honest about it.
Obviously, the darker music I listened to growing up has less of his stamp on it, but quite a few of his songs feel “familiar” when I think of quite a few songs I listened to growing up.
I won’t go much into Syd’s decline during his final days before Pink Floyd fired him (with good reasons, honestly) and his descent into mental illness during and afterwards. Suffice it to say, it was as tragic as the other rock n’ roll deaths out there, no less devastating than deaths from suicides or overdoses. And, in ways, it was a bit of a slow death, not quite getting around to finishing up until his actual death in obscurity during the 2000s.
Syd may have had a serious mental illness — never publicly disclosed, if it was ever actually diagnosed — and there can be no argument that he suffered from something…
But some of his approaches towards music and lyrics are absolute genius, in my opinion (although he rejected that notion when he was still competent enough to say something). The way he wove words was a tangled weave and I think he did the best that he could within his limitations.
As I said, it has been a while and now that I can see some of his influences elsewhere, I realize that — in subtle ways and indirectly — that much of the writer I am carries some of his writing DNA within my own pieces.
That’s pretty amazing to have that insight into one’s own creativity.
I leave you with “Octopus”, a song that is mostly accessible, but shows off his distinct sound [the link goes to the correct timestamp for the song]. Not all of his music is so accessible; while I like 95% of it, I recognize that the first album (or two solo albums) can be more difficult to listen to, as he was given free rein in it’s production and engineering. The second album, while more cohesive, still carries elements of his illness and distraction.
So trip to heave and ho
Up down, to and fro'
You have no word
Please, leave us here
Close our eyes to the octopus ride
Isn't it good to be lost in the wood?
Isn't it bad so quiet there, in the wood?
Meant even less to me than I thought
With a honey plough of yellow prickly seeds
Clover honey pots and mystic shining feed
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