July 11, 2006

One Less Diamond

By now, most of you know that Syd Barrett, one of the founding members of Pink Floyd who later went into seclusion, died today. If you didn't know, now you do, which is why I'm posting this. I spent a of time listening to Syd's music while I wrote Foop! and while I've been writing Lick Your Neighbor, so I thought I should at least mark the man's passing here.

When most people think about Syd Barrett, they think about a guy who went batshit crazy. A guy who did too many drugs, who would do stuff like play one cord throughout an entire concert, wander around stage aimlessly, and who later shaved off all his hair, eyebrows included, and once showed up at a Pink Floyd "Wish You Were Here" recording session holding a toothbrush. While the band tried to play, he held the brush still and jumped up and down, trying to brush his teeth.

So yes, the man had serious mental problems and did way too many drugs. But that has nothing to do with why I liked him so much. I'm not someone who glorifies a guy for dropping a ton of acid and having some kind of mental illness on top of that. It's his music that always attracted me to him, and I'm not alone. Syd directly influenced bands like The Flaming Lips, pretty much all of the Elephant 6 collective, The Cure, The Smiths, Paul McCartney, Brian Eno, The Beta Band, REM, Mercury Rev, Camper Van Beethoven, David Bowe, Pearl Jam, Love and Rockets, The Melvins, Transatlantic, Phish, Blur, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and on and on. If you listen to his songs, you can hear how everything from his lyrics (using surreal, dreamlike images, nonsense rhymes, and expressing feelings like instability and a desire for control and comfort) and highly stylized vocals, to his innovative freeform guitar work, can be heard in countless bands today.

So while you may only know Pink Floyd from their post-Syd days, and while his career didn't last very long, the guy accomplished a hell of a lot for someone who most people think of as some crazy ass nutso. And even though he's basically been a recluse for many years (I'm sure a lot of people thought he died a long time ago), his passing makes me sad. Even though I didn't know the guy, and few did, it feels like I lost a kindred spirit.

I couldn't find a decent clip of him playing, so here's a really great cover that Graham Coxon did of Syd's song "Love You."

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