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Tuesday, July 11, 2006

CRAZY DIAMOND 


... shine on.

Comments:
I hadn't realised he'd gone until you posted this. I'd say shame but we've had over 30 years to get over it already. What will we miss? Ifs and buts have an infinite lifespan.
 
He's joined the Great Gig in the Sky according to the Metro. Was every later Floyd song about Syd?

I can just see him with Freddie Mercury, John Bonham and Derek Smalls.

Is Smallsie dead?
 
Richard - it was pretty unsurprising, but it's still sad that his potential peaked so early. The debut Pink Floyd album is unbeatable in its field and probably in my top five of all time (...as if anyone cares!)

Geoff - I don't know about Derek Smalls, but the Tap have a number of dead drummers so it must be pretty noisy at the Great Gig In The Sky. I think Syd wouldn't really be heard above that racket if he was doing one of his acoustic number.
 
Keith Moon. Dead drummer. PARTY IN HEAVEN!
 
MJ - the problem being that there's a bar on drugs and booze in Heaven.

I meant to say "acoustic numbers" above, of course.
 
Wot? A bar on drugs and booze? What's the point then?
*resumes sinning*
 
Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.

That's why David Byrne shits on ladies' heads.
 
Sid - one of my favourite pop voices, along with Anthony Newley.

And David Byrne? Dragged up, obviously. Tut tut.
 
MJ - I'm on antihistamines at the moment. Not as an homage to Syd - it's to combat some gnat bites.

Geoff - it that your attempt at a haiku poem?

Arabella - Syd and Anthony Newley were both admired and had their ideas nicked by one David Bowie. Actually, you're not really David Bowie are you Arabella?
 
I think requires another 7 syllables for a haiku. Or is it 4, I can never remember. Any offers?

Betty, Jed has written a nice tribute here
 
Was every later Floyd song about Syd?

Only the good ones. Wish You Were Here is my fave late Floyd album by miles. If marks are given for inspiration alone (and in my house they most certainly are) then Syd was top of the class. It says something when a band who took over the world and sold more records than God continued to lament the loss of their talisman so powerfully throughout their career. He must've been something truly special.
 
Thanks Richard. There seems to have been relatively little said about his death. I think he's seen as an obscure cult figure despite the enormous success of Pink Floyd.

Del - Spot on. Marcello Carlin makes a point about how moving the Live 8 performance was because of his absence at http://cookham.blogspot.com/2006_07_09_cookham_archive.html#115269090101525762
 
It may well have been that he was a genuinely nice person behind all the acid and nothing to do with the innovatory talent. People often lament the loss of personality more and the chemicals removed Syd's.

A very similar thing - I must admit that after the J.Ross interview last week, my perception of Pete Doherty is completely different now. He does seem a very very genuine and nice person as well as actually a quite talented writer. Although a couple of things in the past had hinted at it, Friday was a confirmation. I can understand the Libertines dissolving after the loss of Doherty's personality rather than his talent. Luckily he hasn't fallen of the edge like Syd did.
 
Richard - Syd apparently had mental health problems which were exacerbated by drug use, although it would all be guesswork to suggest what caused those problems in the first place and how it affected his life when he withdrew from the public eye

I've not seen that Jonathan Ross interview and have always felt a bit cynical about the "myth" surrounding Pete Doherty because I've never been particularly impressed by his music up to this point. I'm sure that a major part of people's attraction to him is because he's seen as an outsider with an artistic, unpredicatable temperament in an age when most rock musicians are nicely behaved careerists with a ten year plan and an image consultant ... waffle, waffle. Just my opinion, like. Maybe I'm too old to understand?
 
Betty, I did an interesting experiment on that Pete Doherty interview. I didn't see the Friday show, I was watching the Saturday one instead and while I was doing so I was searching You Tube. There was the interview, in all its glory, posted several hours before. So it's there if you want to see it. I actually found parts of it to be incredibly touching, to be honest.
 
Saw the interview eventually - talk about a rabbit caught in the car headlights. I suppose, like a lot of old punks, Jonathan Ross can see the spirit of the Clash in the Libertines and Pete Doherty as an outsider figure. Fair play to the bloke if he can get off the drugs, but his music still doesn't appeal to me.

Any nicely brought up young people who want to say "piss off, grandmother, you'll never understand. We're the young generation, and we've got something to say" feel free to comment. I could do with some hate mail.
 
The Syd Barrett thread on I Love Music now into its four millionth comment, probably continuing the fierce argument about Syd's shorts ...
 
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