Syd Barret essays

Syd Barret essays The rock band Pink Floyd has proven over the years to be a great influence on music and art in Britain and around the world. The band is most acclaimed for their sonically experimental approach and their cerebral masterpieces of the seventies. But having made seven albums before they became a world-renowned psychedelic band, they had time to develop their signature style and songwriting technique. The early days of the band are some of the most interesting in the history of rock music. The founder and once the undisputed leader of Pink Floyd, Syd Barret, showed erratic glimpses of brilliance in his songwriting and musical ideas, but only after writing all the songs on their widely successful debut album in the mid sixties and gaining worldwide popularity for Pink Floyd, Syd left the band because of a nervous breakdown, induced by his constant consumption of LSD and latent schizophrenia. Its undeniable, however, that Syd's erratic brilliance influenced and inspired the remaining memb ers of the band, giving them the means to become one of the most popular and celebrated bands in history. His influence on the band can be most clearly seen, not surprisingly, in their most successful and fully realized albums, The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, and The Wall, which were all released years after Syd's departure. Syd Barret's story is one that has always been mysterious and controversial. Syd had a happy childhood. He was a charming boy, who loved art and painting, and was very well liked by his peers. David Gilmour, who grew up with Syd and also became a leading member of Pink Floyd, always had good things to say about him; "From the time I came to know him until the time he 'turned', Syd was fantastic. There wasn't a single person who didn't like him, think he was brilliant, or wasn't certain he was going to be a success at something. He was good-looking and fantastically talented at anything he cared to put his hand on," (q...