The Syd effect

[bpmolder]

they were young
very young
and syd blew the usa tour
syd would de string his guitar

while on stage .in the middle of a show

while on tour w/ hendrix syd's arm would dangle lifeless
other guitar men from other groups would fill in

please try to see that if all your hopes and dreams were being dashed

would you all be so above it all ??

roger david and nick did a fucked up thing to syd
i would have done the same

life happens

I wouldn't do the same thing. I am dealing with a similar situation right now where my good friend and musical partner is completely falling apart. He is suffering from "red light fever" really bad. He plays just fine until you hit record, then he totally falls apart. He has taken over 3 months to record 2 guitar solos because he can't even play a single note sometimes when the red light is on. Many people have told me to dump him and either find someone else or go forward on my own, since I am doing 90% of the work anyway.

I always tell them, though, that a true friend is patient and long suffering. I know my friend has problems and I am going to help see him through them, not dumping him out of selfishness and impatience. That's what a real friend does.

So yeah, I'd like to believe that I am above that sort of behavior because I have learned to appreciate the deeper things in life and value more than money and a quick route to the top.

It's called not selling out.

[snifferdog]

In truth, none of us knows what we would do unless we were in that situation ourselves. Most of us have never been in a position where one of our friends has suffered a massive personality change, is having great difficulty in behaving like a normal human being and - crucially - is an obstacle standing in the way of our attaining more success. Who's to say that we might not end up making a pragmatic decision when our patience wears out?

[lostplay]

ok
lets do a time line


when did in 67 syd start to fade ??

how long did syds bad actions go on until roger got fed up ???
how long did syd function normal as a member of pink floyd ??

would the age of syds bandmates matter in there dealing with success ???

[Idisaffect]

It wasn't just Piper royalties Syd was living off of.

Sounds like you are talking about love, bp. If you love your friend unconditionally than he/she may very well drag you down with them. That is one aspect of loving a person who has serious issues. I think Syd benefited from floyds later day success considering he didn't work regularly at a 'normal' job.

I think your friend has got Tom Scholz disease. (100 takes for a boston song guitar solo?? ...It wasn't worth it.)
Some tough love might be in order. Like, "play good now, mofo, or else you suck!" Sometimes that can help.

Either way I think they all realized later that they did not understand it enough to handle it well. I wouldn't do that to my best friend but Syd was obviously not their best friend in late '67- early '68. He did write the songs, though.
You never know how you will act in a war until you get there.

[bpmolder]

Yes, it is a matter of love. I love my friend like a brother. It doesn't mean that he will drag me down with him, it just means that for now, I will be doing most of the work while he gets his head straight. If he can't get it straight, then I will make sure I exhaust every possible way to help him. Even if he still doesn't get it straight, I will still support him. If he ends up coming into the studio 2 years later and wanting to lay down a guitar part, I will let him. It doesn't mean that I will use it, but I will let him express himself nonetheless.

It is my firm belief that strong support like that can work wonders. It can bring a person around. Let's face it, the reason people in that situation feel like they aren't supported is because they aren't. They feel worthless because no one helps them to feel any different. Giving a person a strong sense of self worth and support will inspire that confidence almost every time, unless the person has such a serious issue that they can't possible see the light of day. That may have been Syd's problem, but then again, it may not have.

With all this new stuff coming to light about him, especially from his sister, I am going to reserve my judgment about certain things until she decides to come out with the whole story. I think that if he was supported more, his needs dealt with respectfully, he could have come back strong. Maybe it was the very act of abandonment by the rest of the group that caused him to not want to look back. Something about his music days caused him unbearable pain, so much that he couldn't look back to those times at all. Maybe the pain he felt was due to being used and thrown away. Once again, I don't know and will hold my judgment.

The simple fact that his music has stood the test of time as long as it has is proof enough that they could have given him time off and helped him along properly so he could have possibly come back later and continued where he left off.

Brian Wilson spent nearly 35 years in that darkness before he fully reached the end of the tunnel. The things that he says helped him the most were support and love. He had someone in his life who cared about him for who he was, not what he could offer musically. It took that for him to bounce back. So now, as a result, Smile has been finished 38 years after it was started. He came back and conquered what was haunting him because he was given strength, not abandoned when he was at his lowest.

Who knows? If Syd would have had someone like that in his life at an earlier point, he could have finished his Smile as well. By the time his sister got involved, it was already too late for him I think. He was already so intent on not looking back no matter what. Such a loss to the music world.

[oldperfume]

All these guys were what 22-25 years old & Syd was 21-22? They would ALL do it differently if they could. Hindsight being 20-20. Personally I think Syd would have left on his own in 69-70 if he hadn't got sick. Rick might've come with him, but I just think that he wouldn't have gone along in the same vein like Gilmour did.Not slighting any of them but who was the ARTIST!? Who seemed to always be thinking outside the box? Robyn Hitchcock in my opinion is where Syd might,ve headed but who knows. Has anyone ever seen the old pic of Syd's Floyd where they're in some type of alley & Waters,Mason & Wright all have on these long navy peacoats & some dull dark clothing on!?!? Syd is to the left of them, standing a bit awaybut he has on (if my memory serves me!!) A white fur vest with orange pants, green socks & red shoes or something very similar. THERE is the difference & sometimes it starts w/ the way you dress. It was a (to me) perfect picture & also the difference internally of all 4 guys. Just an opinion!!

[1drunk]

I am going to give Syd enough room to say what he liked, disliked, or wanted to do. I'm sure by leaving he was making the best decision for himself or he would not have done it otherwise. He wanted to be happy somewhere else doing things where he didn't have to be on time, or play this or that game, or be in the eye of everyone. He was probably a person that did not want a lot of media attention and wanted to be left alone, otherwise they distort his thoughts. What's wrong with wanting to be private, 'illness' or not?

[Duckboy]

He didn't leave the band. They just didn't pick him up one day.

[Mandi Apple]

*scratches head* I dunno, I think it's a difficult one. Syd made it extremely clear he didn't want anything else to do with that period of his life, even reverting to his birthname: what were his old bandmates supposed to do? I think they tried to be respectful of his feelings and give him the distance he wanted - but at the same time, it might have been more healing for him to work through the issues he had with his bandmates abandoning him. However, it could well also have had a disastrously bad effect on him and driven him even more psychotic than he already was (supposedly). Who knows?

At the end of the day, what happened, happened. They were all young guys, at their age I would not have known how to deal with the situation either. David looked out for Syd as much as he could, without intruding on his hard-earned privacy - after all, it was up to Syd really to decide how much contact he wanted with his old friends or not, and he did decide to have that contact on a couple of occasions, but that was on his own whim, not pushed into his face.

It's a tragedy all round: I sometimes wish I had a time machine and could pop back to the 60's and save the guy before he fried his brain, but, y'know, it's all water under the bridge now isn't it...

[awayandbeyond]

Extended jams, singing style, sound affects , a certain element of surprise

[mosespa]

It's a tragedy all round: I sometimes wish I had a time machine and could pop back to the 60's and save the guy before he fried his brain, but, y'know, it's all water under the bridge now isn't it...

That's the thing, though. It's always sort of been suggested that Roger Barrett might have lost it even without drug use and/or the pressures of stardom.

I suppose that it could be said to be "revisionist history," but pretty much everyone who knew the guy (that I've ever read about, anyway,) has described him as "fragile" or any number of other euphemisms for "subject to going off the deep end, anyway."

I don't think it was drugs alone.

I could be wrong. *shrug*

Obviously, though, I don't think that I am.