Does anyone else really not get the appeal?

[oldperfume]

Seriously; there ARE Pink Floyd sites you can go to if Syd isn't your style. WHY come to a Syd site & you're not really a fan!? I mean what's the point? It's like watching a TV show you don't like & you're making fun of it the whole time or going to a sporting event in your home town & rooting against that team. Do you not have other things to do? I s your life so dull & boring that you have to go & piss on someone's parade? There's so much negativity in this world & I know with Syd I wear my heart on my sleeve but come on. Read Rob Chapman's new book "A very irregular head". You may not like him any better but I think you'll have more insight on what Syd was about & why he did what he did.

[ddebil]

WHY come to a Syd site & you're not really a fan!?

I must apologise for my ignorance, but I wasn't aware that this was a 'Syd site'.

[oldperfume]

Maybe I'm wrong too & if so I apologize. I just thought each member of Pink Floyd had there own forum. I for one don't go to the Waters thread because I'm not a big fan of his. That's actually what I meant.

[David Smith]

Way to resurrect a thread that effectively ended 5 months ago.

Seriously; there ARE Pink Floyd sites you can go to if Syd isn't your style.

Since when was this site called Neptune Syd Barret

Is your life so dull & boring that you have to go & piss on someone's parade?

I don't know if this thread was aimed at anyone in particular, but this thread has never been about critisising Syd Barret is or anything like that - none of us have said he was rubish, though some of us have said we don't like his music. There's a big difference there, and one that you should have picked up on by now if you bothered to read the posts in this thread. From the first post this has always been about asking people what they get out of Syd's music. That you have continuously spammed it and now brought it back after a 5 month absense to moan some more really is troll-like behaviour.

I also don't feel that your in a position to ask anyone to leave - almost everyone who has posted here has been on the forum longer than you, has posted more than you, and isn't spreading anything like as much negativity as you.

There's so much negativity in this world

Kind of weird that you choose that post to put it in. As far as i am concerned you have completely ruined this fairly interesting thread by turning a discussion in to an argument.

what Syd was about & why he did what he did.

That part has never bothered me too much, i'm more interested in Syds music than him as a person (which brings us back to one of the main niggling points in this thread)

[oldperfume]

Dave,
I was angry & I also apologized. And if it wasn't good enough, I am apologizing again. This isn't a Syd site, but it IS a Syd forum. I get defensive about him sometimes...and for that I extend an olive branch to you. But saying that I haven't posted here long enough, what does that have to do with anything!?! If people took my feelings the wrong way, I'm sorry. I am not trying to kick people off this forum either; I just thought that there's been enough negative shit about Syd that enoughs enough. Alot of people don't like Syd, my wife of 18 years can't stand him, but loves all the other Floyd!! I agree with you on one thing, let's talk about the music, instead of the personal stuff. It just seems to me that it always end up about "Crazy Syd" when even if you don't like his tunes, he was an original. Take care Dave & I hope you accept my apology.

[danielcaux]

if all of those songs were being released now , by a new or unheard of artist , most would be laughed at.

Same goes to The Beatles, Elvis, Louis Armstrong or even Beeth's oven, you can't take art out of its historical context, put it into a newer one, and then judge it! And still, I , an 80s child, was able to enjoy all of those artists, including Syd, without knowing anything about their history. So, I don't know what I'm really saying, I guess there are many forms of enjoying/judging art/music? I can enjoy most of Syd songs as pure forms of "absolute music", the same way I enjoy a Floyd song, and I can also find his recordings interesting as historical documents that register his mental condition, but that's rarely the case. I just like the music, and the words; maybe because from my personal experience I can "connect" with what he is saying and the emotions he is expressing? Isn't that what pop music/art is about?

[Idisaffect]

No one seems to be talking about Syd's incredible talent for vocal melodies. There are so many bands today who wish they had someone who could deliver strong, catchy vocal melodies like Barrett, song after song. Sure, his solo stuff is completely ramshackle, but think about how rich it is in melodies. A lot of bands can make a really clean, concise record, doing take after take of some mediocre song until it's perfect, with sublime audio engineering and slick production, but it's all empty if there are no memorable songs. Syd's stuff is filled with strong vocal hooks. That's his gift. His tunes are ripe for covering.

[Duckboy]

Also I see people criticise the serious lack of consitency in his rhythms but I personally find it harder to play rhythms that change than rhythms that stick to 4 bars of 4 or 3 beats before repeating or picking patterns that vary. shrug.

[David Smith]

Dave,
I was angry & I also apologized. And if it wasn't good enough, I am apologizing again. This isn't a Syd site, but it IS a Syd forum. I get defensive about him sometimes...and for that I extend an olive branch to you. But saying that I haven't posted here long enough, what does that have to do with anything!?! If people took my feelings the wrong way, I'm sorry. I am not trying to kick people off this forum either; I just thought that there's been enough negative shit about Syd that enoughs enough. Alot of people don't like Syd, my wife of 18 years can't stand him, but loves all the other Floyd!! I agree with you on one thing, let's talk about the music, instead of the personal stuff. It just seems to me that it always end up about "Crazy Syd" when even if you don't like his tunes, he was an original. Take care Dave & I hope you accept my apology.

Aye no probs sir, everyone has something they get very defensive about (in my case it tends to be the Roger Waters era of floyd and The X Files). That wasn't meant to be an elitest thing about not posting long enough - a good thing about this forum is that we're not one of those arsey ones where you need 2500 psts before anyone takes you seriously - just rather that it seemed you were telling people to leave which i feel is especially needless when someone hasn't posted all that much. Oh, and kudos on the wife thing there, my girlfriend has never been a floyd fan either, though she is joining me for a wall concert next year so there's still hope of a conversion yet...

Peace man

[sashwap]

roger is very, very talented, but syd was a genius

[tristah]

You talk about Waters dealing with emotions, the human condition. The Madcap Laughs in particular deals very much with a human condition, just not one most people can relate too. Madcap deals with Betrayal, being shunned, feeling ok at times and at others just completely gone and sometimes mellow. Syd himself described the album as one song offsetting the next the tempos balancing each other out (something like that.) Whether or not the instrumental playing is always at a completely perfect level the humanity he deals with is 100% real especially on "No Good Trying" "No Mans Land" "Dark Globe" and "Long Gone"

The former two are reminiscent to punk songs. He sounds betrayed and angry but keeps his cool at the same time, suppression of emotion I suppose. Either way, the raw, uncontrolled emotion is absolutely something which inspired Waters in later albums.

[Vlad The Impaler]

Other than "getting the appeal" of Syd I will add that Roger Waters has gone on record as saying it took him 16 years to get anywhere near the humanity he found in Syd's music. If anyone wants to argue that point contact Roger Waters and take it up with him.

.

[awayandbeyond]

I can't help but think that for some people, the whole back story of what happened to the chap attracted them to his music more than the music itself.

Agree 100% ..... if all of those songs were being released now , by a new or unheard of artist , most would be laughed at.

Probably true, but not because Syd had a lack of major talent. The same could be said of many of the excellent progressive bands and solo musicians from "the day", including post-Barrett Floyd. It speaks more to the pathetic state of the music business in the new century than anything else. Of course if you enjoy people talking over drum machine tracks and the rest of the pack sounding like one another than all is well and good.

I have turned a few people with no prior knowledge of Syd Barrett on to "Terrapin" and "Golden Hair" and a few others off of the Madcap Laughs album and they absolutely loved the tracks. So one could reverse the reasoning in the post you were replying to and come up with a completely different take on it. How much more enjoyable and acceptable would Barrett's music be if the listener wasn't setup to believe that he was listening to someone with mental illness?

[moom]

roger is very, very talented, but syd was a genius

Tsss... quiet... Roger must not hear that

[awayandbeyond]

roger is very, very talented, but syd was a genius

Tsss... quiet... Roger must not hear that

In fairness to Roger, he was the one who stated that Syd was a genius in an interview regarding the recording of 'Madcap'. Q: Terrapin?" RW: (laughing) That was done in one take. Syd's a genius".
I believe that he is the only Floyd member to ever state that outright. As a matter of fact, he may have been the one person who got the ball rolling in terms of the music establishment/press regarding Syd as a genius.