Syd Barrett: The Madcap's Legacy

Fortunately, the majority of people to be touched by the music of Syd Barrett do not let the sadder parts of his life affect the enjoyment of his songs.  The list of musicians to be inspired by Barrett’s single-minded pursuit of the new and shunning of the mainstream is being added to every day.  Perhaps the most high profile Barrett disciple is David Bowie, who covered ‘See Emily Play’ on his ‘Pin-Ups’ album (Bowie has said that after Barrett’s departure “for me, there was no more Pink Floyd”).  Kevin Ayers’ ‘Oh Wot A Dream’ is a tribute to Syd, while The Television Personalities paid their own less subtle homage with the track ‘I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives’ – a nod to the multitude of disappointed pilgrimages that took place over the years to the Barrett home.

Whereas bands like The Gigolo Aunts and Baby Lemonade (now Arthur Lee’s backing band) have literally wore Barrett’s influence on their (record) sleeves, others have not been so flagrant.  Perhaps the oddest instance of Syd worship is that of the Sex Pistols – while on the one hand Johnny Rotten could be seen wearing iconoclastic slogans such as the famous “I Hate Pink Floyd” on his t-shirts, Malcolm McLaren was reportedly trying to arrange for the derided rockers’ missing founder to produce the punks’ debut album.  Furthermore, countless cover versions and tributes from the likes of Siouxsie and The Banshees, Smashing Pumpkins and The Damned have ensured that Syd remains as much a punk and even a goth icon as much as anything else he might be.

The baggie scene of the ‘90s brought the music of Syd Barrett again back into the public eye, with the chorus of Blur’s breakthrough hit ‘There’s No Other Way’ borrowing heavily from that of ‘See Emily Play’.  The scouse psychedelic scene just after the turn of the millennium also looked to the likes of Barrett for inspiration, with The Coral’s ‘Goodbye’ in particular depth-charging into a very Floydian middle section.  And even today, his madcap spirit can be heard laughing in the music of pots ’n’ pans racket of The Mystery Jets (Blaine Harrison cited ‘Piper… ’ as one of his greatest influences recently on these pages), the day-glo genre-munching of Klaxons, the gauche punk of Graham Coxon and, on a more mainstream scale, the sillier moments of Super Furry Animals and The Flaming Lips.  And, while their respective ills may be quite different, the sad loss of talent that mental illness and drugs precipitated in Barrett may act as a cautionary tale to a certain Mr Doherty.

In the midst of the plethora of bands who’ve looked to Barrett as a guide in their quest for their own musical identity, it’s easy to overlook his ongoing influence on his old friends, Pink Floyd, in whom his spirit lives on more than most.  As well as their personal tribute ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ and the echoes of Syd in the character of Pink in their film ‘The Wall’, it is said by Barrett’s biographer Tim Willis that Syd had suggested to Roger Waters that the band should bring in two backing singers and a saxophonist – the sound that is the hallmark of their most successful album ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’.  Similarly, the track ‘Rats’ on ‘Barrett’ rolls into the same organ-driven blues that would become the signature sound of his former employers.  Even recently, Waters dedicated ‘Wish You Were Here’ to Syd at Live 8 while David Gilmour and Rick Wright ran through ‘Arnold Layne’ on ‘Later With Jools Holland’.  In a sense, the continued success of Pink Floyd, though hardly in his image, could be considered the greatest tribute to Barrett of all. 

Waters once said of Barrett’s talent: “Artists simply do feel and see things in a different way to other peole.  In a way it’s a blessing, but it can also be a terrible curse”.  In musical terms, Barrett was taken from us by this “curse” a long time before he died, and so his death has been received by the musical community more with sadness than shock.  A keen gardener and occasional painter at the time of his death, Gigwise joins Syd’s legions of fans in hoping that Syd died a man who had attained a level of happiness in life.  “Wouldn’t you miss me?” he once sang.  Syd, you needn’t ask.