On June 5th, 1975, during the recording of Pink Floyd’s album Wish You Were Here at Abbey Road Studios, former band member Syd Barrett unexpectedly walked in, causing both surprise and intense distress. When David Gilmour identified Barrett as the man who stood before them, completely unrecognisable in his deteriorated state, Roger Waters broke down into tears at the sight of his childhood friend.
10 years before this, Barrett founded Pink Floyd with Roger Waters, Nick Mason, and Richard Wright, who would go on to achieve global acclaim without him. After playing multiple shows at the UFO Club in London to fans who were particularly taken by their singles “Arnold Layne” and “See Emily Play”, the band were offered a record deal which led to the release of their debut album, Piper at the Gates of Dawn in 1967. Driven by Barrett’s quirky lyricism and spatial improvisations which took a playful spin on psychedelia, the album features tracks “Bike”, “Matilda Mother”, and “Astronomy Domine”. These showcase his childlike lyrical tendencies whilst also incorporating driving riffs and the experimentation of elevated echo and reverb.
A certain air of mystery remains around the downfall, not only of Barrett’s music career, but also of his life. Whilst it is accurate to say that the excessive use of LSD and other drugs caused Barrett to spiral into a total state of disorientation and dissociation from himself and others, naming this the sole factor which contributed to the tragedy, would discredit the struggles he experienced with the band’s gradual rise to fame.
In a 2021 interview, Rogers recalled Barrett talking to himself on a number of occasions, one instance being before a Top of the Pops show in 1967 with Barrett mumbling to himself something along the lines of “John Lennon never had to do this”. As the band gained attention from the national public and began to have a growing influence on London’s music scene, Barrett’s disdain towards the public scenes which surrounded him became more apparent, with behaviours he displayed bordering dangerously on the lines of schizophrenia. Barrett’s eccentric personality manifested explosively in the art he created, immersing himself in a world of creativity from a young age. I believe the concept of “making art for art’s sake” was something that he heavily prized as sacred and the world of fame which accompanied the artistry of Pink Floyd was something he wanted to escape. Soon after he had plunged into a world of drugs, he was replaced in the band by his childhood friend, David Gilmour.
Although Barrett retired to his country house and distanced himself from the world he hoped to leave behind, he never stopped creating art. In 1968, he recorded the first of two solo albums, closely followed in 1970 with the release of The Madcap Laughs, produced by Peter Jenner, and Pink Floyd members, Gilmour and Waters. With its stripped back production and acoustic tone, the album demonstrates impressive versatility from what is heard from Barrett in Pink Floyd’s 1968 debut record showcasing his whimsical musicality.
After releasing his final piece of music in 1970 after The Madcap Laughs, he lived the rest of his life in obscurity and isolated from the outside world. He died in Cambridge at his mother’s home, but the influence he had on music remains till this day. Inspiring artists from Bowie, who named Barrett his biggest inspiration, to R.E.M, Barrett’s legacy lives on and shines as brightly as ever.
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