The recent peloton of bike posts over at Charity Chic blog forced me to dig out one of my few favourite Pink Floyd songs, although I think it's fair to say that it's more of a Syd Barrett solo...
I have to confess I'm not the biggest expert on Syd - I'm sure some of you know far more about him than I do - but I often think it's a shame he was (to quote iffypedia) "ousted" from the Floyd, as to me they became a far less interesting combo without him.
And
it feels like 1974
Syd
Barrett's last session, he can't sing anymore
He's
gonna have to be Roger now for the rest of his life
His struggle with mental health and gradual decline to a reclusive existence living in his mum's old semi is well documented...
...but he's remembered fondly by many and proved to be a huge influence of many of the next generation of stars, including Bowie, Bolan, Weller, Cope... and Freezer.
He's also to be found in illustrious company here, as Scroobius Pip lays down his Ten Commandments...
Thou
shalt not worship pop idols or follow lost prophets
Thou shalt not take the names of Johnny Cash, Joe Strummer, Johnny Hartman, Desmond Dekker, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix or Syd Barrett in vain
Thou shalt not take the names of Johnny Cash, Joe Strummer, Johnny Hartman, Desmond Dekker, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix or Syd Barrett in vain
Meanwhile, Ernie's old neighbour, Martin Newell, was clearly a Syd fan...
Leslie Feist obviously has a little Syd obsession going on too, as she reveals here in this excerpt from her notebooks...
Why
did I write down everything that entered my mind?
Check
out these lines, like -
"I'm
Syd Barrett and I'll swim to England in his clothes, in 20 holes"
How
could I say at what point I would gain perspective, let alone know I had it?
Texan indie dude Matthew Logan Vasquez is a new name to me. He's apparently in three bands: Delta Spirit, Middle Brother and Glorietta. And on his day off, he does stuff like this...
My
little sister got my record collection
They
tried to tell her it's a bad direction
But
somehow I'm alive today
With
Syd Barrett fuckin' up my brain
Tobin Sprout is not the nephew of the Green Giant - no, he's a member of Guided By Voices. And he does his own things too...
Madcaps
and laughs
Syd
Barrett
The
last man well known to kingpin
Back in 2011, John Wesley Harding stopped releasing material under the name he'd stolen from Bob Dylan (who in turn stole it, with a misspelling, from Wild West outlaw John Wesley Hardin). Instead, he went back to using his real name, Wesley Stace. Here he is, in nostalgic mood...
In
Hastings, when I was younger
Thе
sea could take you under
I
never much swam in there
But
I skimmed some stones and I breathed the air
The
Who, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd
Syd
Barrett's final show
Didn't
take that long to get
To
want to know the ghosts
Of
Hastings Pier
And here are a few more tunes that name-drop Syd in the lyrics...
As is so often the case with this feature, one tune immediately sprang to mind when it came to Syd Barrett: Roddy Woomble's biggest hit. I loved this song from the first moment I heard it, though I've never had a clue what it was all about. Apparently the title comes from some nonsense Roddy shouted at his girlfriend during an impassioned argument, and the whole thing was Idlewild's attempt to write a Pavement song. So the fact that it doesn't make any sense actually makes perfect sense.
