Finally a decent Barrett book?

[Damn!t]

Check it out on BD.
Wont copy/paste Matt's articles again...

Looks very promising.

[snifferdog]

£60 though

[Felix Atagong]

Not a decent book in my opinion, but a coffee table book.

Probably I will buy it and put it next to my other Barrett coffee table books (Psychedelic Renegades, Mind Over Matter, Inside Out).

This will be a Barrett book year:
Julian Palacios - Lost In The Woods (new edition)
Syd Barrett: A Very Irregular Head - Rob Chapman
Pink Floyd: Illustrated Biography (Classic Rare & Unseen)" - Gareth Thomas

and of course Storm Thorgerson's yearly updates...

[Keith Jordan]

I shall be getting a copy of that for sure even if it it a "coffee table book".

The author has been in touch with Nick Mason to get some goodies from his archive, Nick being the official Pink Floyd archivist! I think Mr Mason should give me access to his archives too so I can add it all to NPF.

Register your intention to buy a copy of the book by clicking on "Register" at the top of this page > http://www.barrettbook.com/

[2066]

I think that Nick the archivist should release things like the Games For May performance. Trust me...I have it from a really good source that it exists on a good sounding recording. Nick had been personally asked to give it up for release but he refused. Maybe it was because Syd was still alive at the time. Or, maybe his drumming sucked!

[pinksydfloyd]

"I think that Nick the archivist should release things like the Games For May performance. Trust me...I have it from a really good source that it exists on a good sounding recording. Nick had been personally asked to give it up for release but he refused. Maybe it was because Syd was still alive at the time. Or, maybe his drumming sucked!"

Is this true??? Does this audio really exist?
That is supposed to be one of the greatest Pink Floyd performances of all time, I cannot see why it would not be released!!! But yet again, there is still a large amount of material involving Syd that has not yet reached the surface...

[Wolfpack]

To contact the people making the book, one has to subscribe to Facebook. I don't want to join Facebook, so I have a problem.

I want to ask them to include the lyrics sheet of 'It Is Obvious' ("Mind Shot"), which has only partly been shown on a compilation-CD.
Of course, any other lyrics sheets would also be great.

Can someone please pass on this request?

[my breakfast.]

I must say it must be a good book to beat A Very Irregular Head. I am reading through this book (at breakneck pace!) and it really is amazing. It shines a spotlight or rationality on 40 years of myth and bullshit. It cites logical arguments to back up the argument that Syd did not go crazy (check out the bootlegs folks!) and that he was ousted in a very middle-class British way from the band he helped create. The book explains in some length Syd's attitude towards music, lyric writing AND painting (although it seems that took a back seat for a year when he went major with Pink Floyd). Further more it argues that Syd was merely too jaded with the ridiculously manipulative and fake music industry, especially regarding promotion in America, to 'go along with it' and his onstage one-note barages and detunings were merely his artform, not a man trying to break a band. He might have had a shoddy work ethic but he was a true artist and he didn't suddenly go mental, though at times he did end up with the wrong people in the wrong places.

[Wolfpack]

Is 'A Very Irregular Head' telling that Syd was SANE? Didn't Syd go crazy?

Barrett wanted to be part of the music industry. That's why he was in a band. No one forced him to sign a record deal. And when he lost Pink Floyd, he approached Malcolm Jones to make another record.

Only after Barrett started failing, he's suddenly portayed as an artist who wants to create in his own way, protesting against music industry. To me, this "protest" hides the fact that Barrett became incapable to record professionally. Just compare 'Piper' with the solo albums. 'Piper' is complex. The solo albums are relatively simple and took almost as much effort for Syd, if not more. That shows a decrease in capability.

Barrett had a band, Barrett had girls. Once he lost this all, people start telling that he is just a bit "odd".
I think that Barrett wanted to have his own wife and kids, as much as any "normal" person. He even thought of becoming a doctor, like his father. And he wanted to marry.

In the past I believed in the great Syd Barrett being a genius throughout his life. But recently I see a lonely man who had some remarkable talents, which he couldn't really handle.

[my breakfast.]

Read the book instead of presenting your opinions as facts.

Why do so many "Syd fans" WANT him to be crazy? Does it make him cute and fluffy or something?

[Wolfpack]

Read the book instead of presenting your opinions as facts.

I've read a lot of books and articles on Barrett. I can't imagine them to be worthless now 'A Very Irregular Head' has appeared.

Why do so many "Syd fans" WANT him to be crazy? Does it make him cute and fluffy or something?

Why do so many Syd fans want him to be so sane, as if he lived a normal life? Is it sane to destroy your professional career and go retire at 24 years old? Is it sane to burn paintings in your garden?
Okay, Barrett was able to go shopping and ride a bike. That's something a small kid can do.

Especially sister Rosemary seems to portray a picture of Barrett just being a little bit "odd". For the exhibition she had to show photo's instead of paintings. That's more than just odd. Barrett was so creative and so much an artist, that he destroyed what he made. Why? Was it an artistic statement? Who was looking then?

With "crazy" I mean nothing sensational. Barrett didn't bite bats onstage. It's not the romantic "crazy diamond" image. With "crazy" I just mean someone who can't really interact with society.

I believe Barrett had autistic features. (Asperger.) Even though "crazy" is not the right word for that, it isn't a "normal" condition either.
It seems to me that young Barrett had a rather happy, hopeful view on life, before he realized how hopelessly different he was. His friends grew up and he remained a kid, unfull-grown.

In the past I was the first to believe that Barrett turned his life into an artistic statement. But life is too worthwhile to turn into an artistic product. So, even if Barrett was acting, it would still be crazy.

[my breakfast.]

I've read a lot of books and articles on Barrett. I can't imagine them to be worthless now 'A Very Irregular Head' has appeared.

That is covered in the book. The book Crazy Diamond is dismissed as being factually inaccurate. Articles are often re-hashes using the same leaky information, or once again factually inaccurate such as that one written by Nick Kent.

Why do so many Syd fans want him to be so sane, as if he lived a normal life? Is it sane to destroy your professional career and go retire at 24 years old? Is it sane to burn paintings in your garden?

How is that for a closet-minded statement. So the minute you don't have a longterm career plan you are insane? Should Syd have been playing Glastonbury in the '90s or something? Maybe a collaboration or two with Aphex Twin? Is it possible that a musician can only have a certain level of creativity? I mean who buys all the shitty new Rolling Stones and The Who albums compared to purchases of Beggar's Banquet and Live at Leeds. Jeez. As for destroying your works, many painters have done this. Syd only painted for his own pleasure, and had no reason to preserve his work.

Especially sister Rosemary seems to portray a picture of Barrett just being a little bit "odd". For the exhibition she had to show photo's instead of paintings. That's more than just odd. Barrett was so creative and so much an artist, that he destroyed what he made. Why? Was it an artistic statement? Who was looking then?

She showed photos because the original paintings had been burned. When they auctioned his stuff when he died they had handful of stuff at best. He was hardly a prolific painter anyway. Besides as I already said he was not trying to get a comission or a spot in a gallery. My grandparents had a neighbour who built model steam engines. They were really realistic models that actually ran on steam and took a few years to make each one. The guy would fire them up, film them moving, then put superglue in all the pipes to stop them ever moving again. Same principle. The joy is in the creation, not the end product.

With "crazy" I mean nothing sensational. Barrett didn't bite bats onstage. It's not the romantic "crazy diamond" image. With "crazy" I just mean someone who can't really interact with society.

Crazy has a huge negative weight to it. Maybe a better word would be good for somebody who found society difficult to function in.

[Damn!t]

Alan, how did this sudden turn towards Barrett happen to you?

[Hudini]

Supposing you're going to ask me the same thing after this, I'll state that I'm getting real tired of people calling Syd Barrett "crazy" just because he was an unconventional person and retired early from his musical career to live a simple life, or hearing stories about him that make him look crazy while a lot of people around us do the same without anyone even noticing it.

So, to begin with this thing.

Again, copyrighted by Moss.

1. Is it sane to destroy your professional career and go retire at 24 years old?

2. Is it sane to burn paintings in your garden?

3. Especially sister Rosemary seems to portray a picture of Barrett just being a little bit "odd".

4. Barrett was so creative and so much an artist, that he destroyed what he made. Why? Was it an artistic statement?

5. With "crazy" I just mean someone who can't really interact with society.

6. life is too worthwhile to turn into an artistic product. So, even if Barrett was acting, it would still be crazy.

1. Is it sane to go on with your "professional career" pursuing it the way others think it's best? Or is it more sane giving up once you realize you don't want to pursue it the way others think it's best and you're too weak to pursue it alone on your own?

Even when Syd went out of Pink Floyd and decided (or was made) to record a solo record, there were others (namely the rest of the band) who though they knew what's best for him to do. They overdubbed his recordings with drums and keyboards, for God's sake. Do you honestly believe it was the way he inteded his songs to turn out?

Syd was an experimenting character, that's why some takes of what was supposingly the same song turned out to be a completely different tune. He just wasn't a type of character to fit into a conventional mould of a "rock and roll star" and that's what others wanted him to turn out. I believe that he was just an ordinary bloke with an extraordinary talent but he couldn't cope with it personally. And if that makes him insane then a lot of us must be insane too.

2. I once burned a pile of my old school projects, including sketches, paintings, large scale architectural projects, some models and on top of that an old couch, in my backyard. Does that make me a lunatic? I don't consider myself to be one. I was just rather unsatisfied with those projects and the couch was very old.

I don't think burning your old work you're displeased with makes you crazy. Rick Wright often stated how much he was unsatisfied with his early work, calling some of it "crap". If he could have burned all the copies of "See Saw" (which he allegedly hated the most), I believe he would have done so. But, he wasn't the one to end his musical career at the peak of popularity so no one calls him crazy...

3. So, his sister saying he was "being a little odd" is enough for a diagnose? Don't you have a relative who is "a little odd", like the most of us have? And if you do, do you call him insane too?

After all, his sister used to live with him until the end. As a "normal" person and a caring sister, she would have recommended him for an institution if he were really insane. Unfortunately, I have a friend who is a schizophrenic and the first thing his family did when they found out about it is put him on treatment. Not lock him inside a house and make him a recluse. That's the stuff you only see in the movies and if there's people who actually act that way they are even more insane than the patient.

4. Perhaps you've answered your question yourself. But just perhaps.

Besides that, isn't gardening also a creative call? Maybe he just found out rather late in his life that he was an excellent gardener and that he loved doing that, while a lot of people literally forced him into being a rock and roll star. Sure he had a lot of musical talent, but does that mean that everyone with musical talent must become a star?

It depends on personality I guess, and he just wasn't a person who could cope with that. I believe that's also the reason he later forbid people to call him "Syd", that he just wanted to have nothing with the period of his life where others wanted him to become something he never wanted to and could not have become. It must have been a very frustrating time for him, but no one ever seems to look it from that point of view.

It's like when you're having a relationship that means a lot to you and the person you're with does something that hurts you so much you never want to hear of them again, so you forbid your friends to speak of them in your presence. That's just a defensive mechanism, not a symptom of insanity.

5. I agree with Alan that your choice of words is bad here. And I agree with you that Syd couldn't really interact with the society in a way most of the "normal" people do. But when you call it "crazy" it sounds like he was a sociopath or something like that. He did ride his bike, did his shopping, walk in the streets (and I agree that a seven year old can also do that but that's not the point) so he did interact with society in some way.

How many people you know that live their lives the same way? People who never got married, never had a real job, lived with their parents until their 50s... I know a handful. But the fact that none of them had been in Pink Floyd doesn't make them crazy, does it?

6. It depends how you look at life. People who commit suicide don't really find it worthwhile. People who struggle with their problems still do. And I believe that Syd did struggle with his frustrations about Pink Floyd for a long time, only his way of dealing with them was running away.

We always seem to forget that he wasn't just a guy from the block who became odd all of a sudden, he used to be a part of a band that became one of the most popular bands in the world ever, and he himself has been dubbed one of the most inspirational musicians ever, and he never really wanted to become any of that and he was partially deprived of his privacy from all those stalkers while he wanted to have a simple life. It's a very difficult emotional situation. But we always seem to look at it as if it's a normal thing that could happen to anyone else and that he should he turned out a "normal" person after all.

As for all the acting, maybe he did all the stuff he did deliberately or maybe they were reflections of his frustrations. Shaving his head could have been just expressing of a difficult situation and his need for a change. As for the eyebrows, it could have even been medication.

But I do believe that most of the stories we hear about Syd Barrett are at least exaggerated.


Now, this was very exhausting. I don't know how Mossy used to write a dozen of these posts a day.

[my breakfast.]

Alan, how did this sudden turn towards Barrett happen to you?

When I first read about Rob Chapman's A Very Irregular Head book I thought it made a lot of sense. I never bought the whole Syd the mystic thing, and I thought it highly unusual he just went 'crazy'. To me 'going crazy' is just either wrong diagnosis, social stigmatism or just some other means of poking sticks at people who just don't fit in. To me it is worse to try and get everybody to conform to the same standard. I could totally understand the British way that the other members dealt with Syd, and I think it is easy for them to say "he went crazy, he had to go" rather than just admit he was still totally lucid, but didn't want to do the banal bullshit being a pop star required of him. I mean, I would probably do the same if I had the oppertunity and guts/self belief. For a band that was basically tiny one week to be in the charts the next then being asked about American food on the Pat Boone Show a few months later, they grew too fast because of hungry record executives, and it is little wonder Syd didn't want to play the game.

Call it an epiphany but I now get offended when people try and say Syd basically became a brain damaged individual and is therefore worthy of as much ridicule as respect.