Hiya tea-set, I'd just like to respond to your points about Shine On..
would you let that huge man jumping up and down whilst brushing his teeth lay a guitar track on the follow up to one of the greatest albums of all time?
imagine how crazy their heads must of been going after not seeing syd for that long them have him turning up looking like that. You woukldn't know what to do.
I agree with you on that one. The picture of Syd from the WYWH sessions is of him at his absolute lowest and to me he was largely rebelling against his pop culture image and the music industry in this period, as well as supposedly being "troubled", so to answer your question I probably would not trust him to play on the record.. however if the band's artistic expression is to be wholely believed I do wonder why they didn't at least humour him and see what he could do with it, after all, they could always not use it if it wasn't acceptable. That is probably what I would have done if I was genuinely feeling those emotions conveyed on the record.
besides i think SOYCD is one of, if not THE greatest songs of all time and i dont think for a second that ANYONE, not even the great Roger Waters and David gilmour could write a song that beautifull without wholeheartedly feeling the emotions conveyed in the music.
This is where I really diverge from your point of view. I believe the ability to write good music is about talent, but although some music can be obviously insincere, I think if you are genuinely talented you can easily write a good tune that you don't necessarily really believe in.
I think the point here is something I mentioned in another thread but it's very relevant just now: in my opinion, SOYCD is
not about Syd at all, it is about
what the band thought they felt about him, it is
their image of him, and it is a message
they wanted everyone else to percieve they felt about him.