Syd Barrett: a lunatic or a crazy diamond?
Oct 4, 2016 2:13:44 GMT
seamusthesheepdog and Mad Bugger like this
Post by The Lunatic on Oct 4, 2016 2:13:44 GMT
It was about time we had a thread devoted to discussions of Roger Keith 'Syd' Barrett's mental state...
The Legend of the Crazy Diamond is one of the most central and fascinating myths of the mythical Pink Floyd (perhaps second only to 'Which one's Pink?'). Even the band themselves found it direct fodder for two or three of their finest works, and almost everything else the Floyd ever did was informed to some extent by Syd, whether anyone knew it or not.
But the question of greatest debate is whether or not he was actually schizophrenic, or was he simply an acid casualty. I've heard arguments for both sides: Rick Wright held that he actually 'fried his brains' on LSD, whereas Syd's sister Rosemary Breen felt that he wasn't insane, just extremely eccentric; Roger Waters thinks he was a schizophrenic (I can't find a single source at the moment[ary lapse of reason], but he's said it numerous times). Out of the three, one would think his sister would both know the most (having grown up with him) and also have the least objective view (he being her brother and that).
On a more poetic note, the legend of the Leanan sídhe sounds a lot like Syd's case, doesn't it?
I would personally speculate that he was already eccentric to begin with (he said it best: 'I have a very irregular head'), and then copious amounts of LSD enhanced his eccentricity to the point of his becoming almost incommunicable, whilst the psychedelic scene of the late '60s allowed this whole disintegration to occur without anyone but the people he worked with really saying 'Hey, we've a nutter here who needs help!'
In the end, though, all we can do is speculate, because no one -- not even Roger Barrett himself -- could really know what went on in that noggin of his.
Either way, I have always found this an eternally fascinating subject, and the fact that it inspired so much of the Floyd's and particularly Roger's introspective explorations (that has a similar cadence as 'Interstellar Overdrive') makes it even more accessibly intriguing to those who don't normally get into the people behind the music.
I'd like to hear everyone else's opinions on the matter, so speculate away!
The Legend of the Crazy Diamond is one of the most central and fascinating myths of the mythical Pink Floyd (perhaps second only to 'Which one's Pink?'). Even the band themselves found it direct fodder for two or three of their finest works, and almost everything else the Floyd ever did was informed to some extent by Syd, whether anyone knew it or not.
But the question of greatest debate is whether or not he was actually schizophrenic, or was he simply an acid casualty. I've heard arguments for both sides: Rick Wright held that he actually 'fried his brains' on LSD, whereas Syd's sister Rosemary Breen felt that he wasn't insane, just extremely eccentric; Roger Waters thinks he was a schizophrenic (I can't find a single source at the moment[ary lapse of reason], but he's said it numerous times). Out of the three, one would think his sister would both know the most (having grown up with him) and also have the least objective view (he being her brother and that).
On a more poetic note, the legend of the Leanan sídhe sounds a lot like Syd's case, doesn't it?
I would personally speculate that he was already eccentric to begin with (he said it best: 'I have a very irregular head'), and then copious amounts of LSD enhanced his eccentricity to the point of his becoming almost incommunicable, whilst the psychedelic scene of the late '60s allowed this whole disintegration to occur without anyone but the people he worked with really saying 'Hey, we've a nutter here who needs help!'
In the end, though, all we can do is speculate, because no one -- not even Roger Barrett himself -- could really know what went on in that noggin of his.
Either way, I have always found this an eternally fascinating subject, and the fact that it inspired so much of the Floyd's and particularly Roger's introspective explorations (that has a similar cadence as 'Interstellar Overdrive') makes it even more accessibly intriguing to those who don't normally get into the people behind the music.
I'd like to hear everyone else's opinions on the matter, so speculate away!
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