Musicians - Syd Barrett

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	Musicians - Syd Barrett

Roger Keith (Syd) Barrett (born January 6, 1946 in Cambridge, England) was one of the founding members of the group Pink Floyd. Though he was only active as a rock musician for a few years, he has been quite influential.

History

(1965–1968) Band years

Pink Floyd (originally called "Tea Set", then "The Pink Floyd Sound" then later "The Pink Floyd") was formed in 1965; Syd Barrett named the band after two obscure bluesmen, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council.

While the band began by playing cover versions of American R&B songs (much in the same vein as contemporaries The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, and The Kinks), they carved out their own style of improvised rock and roll by 1966, which drew as much from improvised jazz as it did from British pop-rock, such as that championed by the Beatles. In that year, a new rock concert venue, the UFO, opened in London and quickly became a haven for British psychedelic music. Pink Floyd became their most popular attraction, and, after making appearances at the rival Roundhouse, became the first most popular musical group of the so-called "London Underground" psychedelic music scene.

By the end of 1966, Pink Floyd had gained a reliable management team in Andrew King and Peter Jenner. The duo soon befriended American expatriate Joe Boyd, who was actively making a name for himself as one of the most important entrepreneurs on the British music scene. Boyd arranged a recording session for the group, which resulted in the single "Arnold Layne". King and Jenner took the single to the recording behemoth EMI, who offered the band a contract, under which they would be allowed to record an album. The band accepted. By the time the album was released, "Arnold Layne" had reached #21 on the British singles charts. A follow-up single, "See Emily Play", sold even better, peaking at #6.

These first two singles, as well as a third ("Apples and Oranges"), were written by Syd Barrett. In fact, Barrett wrote most of the Floyd's early material, and was the principal visionary/author of their critically acclaimed 1967 debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Of the 11 songs on Piper, Barrett wrote eight and co-wrote another two. He was also an innovative guitarist, exploring the musical and sonic possibilities of dissonance, distortion, feedback, and the echo machine. One of Barrett's trademarks was playing his Fender Esquire guitar by sliding a Zippo lighter up and down the fret-board to create the mysterious, otherworldly sounds that became associated with the group.

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn was recorded intermittently between January and July 1967, much of that time in the studio right next door to recording sessions for the Beatles' landmark album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. When Piper was released in August of that year, it became a smash hit in the UK, hitting #6 on the British album charts (the album was not nearly so successful in the USA). However, as the band began to attract a large fanbase, the pressures placed on the already-sensitive Barrett proved to be too much.

There are many stories about Barrett's bizarre and intermittently psychotic behaviour - many of which are undoubtedly apocryphal, although some are known to be true. One such incident occurred at a practice session. Barret came into the studio with a new song he had dubbed "Have You Got It, Yet?" The song seemed simple enough when he presented it to Roger and his bandmates, but it seemed very difficult to grasp. As they were practicing it, Barrett kept changing the rhythm guitar line, or the bass line, drumline, and keyboards, but in subtle ways. He would then play it again, with his arbitrary changes, and sing along "Have you got it yet?" while his bandmates would chime back "No, No we haven't!"

Barrett began to experiment with psychedelic drugs such as LSD. Barrett became increasingly unpredictable on stage. Examples of his stage antics included playing one chord continuously, or just not playing at all. At a show in San Fransisco, during Interstellar Overdrive, Syd sat there and slowly untuned his guitar until the strings broke. For some reason, people in the audience loved it, though. Another odd incident included a time where Syd put a mask of makeup on, and when on stage, the lights on stage slowly "melted" his face (His makeup was just running.) He also plopped on an entire jar of hair gel and walked into the spotlight and let it melt. The band just kept playing the intro.

Following a disastrous, abridged tour of the United States, his old school friend, David Gilmour, was asked to join the band as a second guitarist in order to cover for Barrett when his erratic behavior got the better of him. There was a short period of time where David would play Syd's guitar parts, while Syd would wander about stage or do nothing in particular. However, the other band members soon tired of Barrett's presence altogether and decided that they would continue playing shows without him, while also hoping that he would continue to write songs for the band. They kicked him out of the band by deciding not to pick Barrett up one day. Barrett then walked 40 miles home to Cambridge.

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Musicians - Syd Barrett

History

(1965–1968) Band years

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