Dark Globe
RIP (Roger) Syd Barrett. While most of the obituaries will tell and re-tell the story of one of the rock era's most notorious (and dispiriting) disappearing acts and his withdrawal into decades of silence, it's worth saying how influential Barrett's post-Pink Floyd solo albums have been, especially for indie music. From the glam rockers through Robyn Hitchcock to Destroyer to Neutral Milk Hotel to the Flaming Lips to Toronto's own Alex Lukashevsky, you can hear the influence of Barrett and The Madcap Laughs all over the art rock tradition straight into the '00s - in its looseness, its unexpected juxtapositions, its combines of horror and whimsy, its switches between the plainspoken and the surreal. It's one of those cases where the music may include the symptoms of psychic distress, but is made by someone so gifted that it is compelling much beyond the voyeuristic element - where the old lines about the blurry border between genius and madness come back to life. We'll probably never know how the last half of his life seemed to him, whether it was on balance contented. But we can wish that he had a good twilight, and that night fell gently.
| Posted by zoilus on Tuesday, July 11 at 12:57 PM | Linking Posts | Comments (2)
COMMENTS
My understanding is that no diagnosis was ever publicly confirmed - there's some talk, for instance, of Syd's breakdown having triggered some latent syndrome along the autism spectrum, although that certainly sounds unusual. There certainly does seem to be a consensus that calling him an "acid casualty" is too glib, as the drug use probably only facilitated the emergence of a pre-existing condition. And the post at the link you gave is fairly convincing about the schizophrenia hypothesis. (With the caveat that the etiology and nature of schizophrenia is still subject to heavy debate.) But I prefer not to engage in long-distance diagnostics, so "psychic distress" feels more properly vague.
Posted by zoilus on July 13, 2006 6:19 PM
Zoilus,
If you want to understand Syd Barrett's Music (and infact much of Pink Floyd's music) I think you'd find interesting some deeper insights into Syd's mental state. Instead of calling it "psychic distress" - I recommend you review this page:
http://www.schizophrenia.com/sznews/archives/003640.html
B.
Posted by Byron Peters on July 13, 2006 1:26 PM