Customer Reviews

Syd Barrett: A Very Irregular Head

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Length:: 1:27 Mins

Robyn Hitchcock is quoted at great length here and there on Barrett (along with other
contemporary musicians such as Graham Coxon (Blur?)
David Gilmour)

Its probably the best book on the young man. I would HIGHLY recommend this as a
read. I'm not gonna say that it closes the book on Barrett, but its such an
exhaustive work that I think it sums him up pretty well

Grade: A

Chapman has written an excellent book, which entirely avoids the `mythical approach' to Syd, so common in rock journalism, relying instead on a scholarly approach, fusing sociological, historical, psychological and literary prisms as a means of approaching Barrett's life and trying to understand who he was, and divining what moved his spirit.

Chapman has collected an impressive array of sources here - he has interviewed Barrett's sister, nephew, friends and girlfriends, as well as collecting quotes from previous band mates and years of obscure and mainstream press sources.

It is a most beautiful and moving book, and if you are at all interested in Barrett, then Id say it is a book you must have on your shelf, and it is a book to read, and re read, and treasure.

Its value is in its scholarly foundation, as well as in its emotional and spiritual worth. Chapman has totally by passed the absurdity and hagiography of the music press and produced a far deeper work of significant value.

One closes the book still left wondering and asking many more questions about Syd - Chapman's text does not pretend to have 'resolved the mystery' of Syd's world. But one feels lifted up by the spirit of Chapman's work, and further inspired by the poetic muse of Barrett.

Syd Barrett was a kind of solitary genius,even when he was surrounded by people in his hey day in a group.He had a choice as did his Pink Floyd bandmates,he could choose art and painting,which would have suited his solitary instincts more or he could take the musical option.He took the latter,the others in Pink Floyd chose not to go back to architecture,carving long careers out of being Pink Floyd.Of course he led the group creatively to begin with,the light-show events in the early days,which he reacted to instinctively,creating an intuitive kind of music.He had no plans or agendas or motivation to go on the road touring,ploughing the furrows for an industrial harvest. Syd was private in himself while still playing creatively as a group member.One can't blame the others in Pink Floyd when his mercurial talents became so unpredictable and unproductive,for replacing him with another(friend)of the Cambridge elite.The book brings out well this temperamental moodiness and need to create out of inspiration.Syd's waywardness is explained by Chapman as indifference to the music industry,fame,egotistical introversion,the discipline of riding the wave of popularity,the hard work, dealing with money people, interviews. This sweet and charming boy took drugs in different combinations,Syd was a full-on sonic explorer and sound painter. His fast intuitions fed into a machine,rebelled.Syd was happy in a small group when he had no ambitions, he liked to be around the Cambrigensians from his own town.They shared good memories and times,ending up in each other's houses back in Cambridge,learning to play,having meals,taking dope.Things were easy,he was good-looking, pulled the girls,dressed like a bohemian romantic poet.Ended up in London doing art, playing music.

However it is suggested late on in the book of his life he copied from Freud that if you do not pass a vital phase in childhood,the `depressive position',(being confident that even if a child has been angry,that his mother will return),the child will develop regressive tendencies,developing depression later in life.The book skirts his mental illness for a long time saying that Syd functioned often quite well,played good music even until late on in 1967.He was surrounded by creative people whose business was to be cool,too cool to acknowledge his extreme problems,behavioural,psychotic,emotional.Helping someone in need was not in their vocabulary,so instead of facing up to it,they chose to ignore it,shut the door on it.Some did try and book an appointment for him to see RD Laing, but he refused to get out of the car that took him.However as good as The Madcap Laughs is and some of Barrett,the well was drying up,he was becoming odd,floundering for months in a psychological limbo,becoming perverse,cruel and strange.Duggie,the painter who he lived with after leaving the group,admits he didn't pull him up or challenge him when he became reckless,finding it hard to do this to someone he was fond of.Creatively too, stasis overcame momentum in his lyrics,he resorted to a very basic monotonous strumming.Dave Gilmour helped him out creatively but found it more and more draining until unable any more.Robert Wyatt wanted to form a group with him but he lay around all day.He had helped him on some of The Madcap Laughs album.

Chapman is good on his lyrical gifts(as opposed to musical)and gives the sources of several of the songs in the last two albums.However I think he fancifully compares him at times to poets like Hopkins,although like him Syd concentrated the essence of his meanings into a few,simple words.He is closer to the analogy with Clare who also did a lot of walking home and ended up in an asylum.He stuttered into vacancy and a vagrant silence, making the long walk home to his mother's in Cambridge.His mother found a complete stranger to the boy who'd set out.Syd just opted out,not challenging any myths,or pursuing another career in painting, although he did paint,he burned his work after a while.Syd stopped communicating or sharing his gifts with anyone,instead doing gardening,shopping and do-it-yourself.There is an epigraph to each chapter from The Wind in the Willows and a songline.Syd had a caring, supportive family.His sister Rosemary gives an amazing account of his last 30 years.His 1st girlfriend too reveals the letters he sent when he was her 1st love.He was always troubled by being stalked and photographed by fans and the media as he went out on his bike shopping,but his neighbours looked out for him.A touch ofJDSalinger. Drugs had taken their toll of his mental and physical health over the years.Medical treatment failed to reclaim his mental health,he was admitted to Greenwoods mission for the treatment of enduring mental health problems for a year.There he appeared very lost,inarticulate,with little control of his own affairs.'The fire had gone out, nothing could rekindle it.'In the last years he still had humour and got on with his hobbies quite well. Chapman, although he seems removed from Syd's personality,has given him dignified biography without removing the ultimate mystery of his meteoric talent. B/w and colour plates,Cambridge people,the Floyd,mother,paintings,home.

Most biographies are just a long description of the subject's life. Not the one Mr Chapman wrote. He tries, and succeeds, to make a deep analysis of Syd Barret's creative work and, at the same time, to shed some life on what led to his being sacked by his band mates.
The life of Syd Barret was a great tragedy and one may think of Rimbaud's, both having reached the top of their creativity very young. So, regarding their lives, a lot of "what if" questions can be formulated.
Not being a musician myself, I paid special attention to the analysis of the lyrics. When people like Susan Sontag, T. S. Eliot or Ezra Pound are mentioned and not just name dropped, it is clear that we are in for some deep work. The connection with Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear and others is certainly meaningful and adds to the quality of Syd's work. Inevitably, from now on, my way of looking at his songs will be more interesting due to all the information I have now acquired.
Syd Barret was sacked from the band he had founded, for which he had found the name. Why?
In rough terms, at the end of the day, one gets the idea that he was too creative for a pop group and not particularly interested in the glamour, front page news or whatever that comes with success (see page 200, meeting with former girlfriend Libby Gausden). That he was not mad or had burnt out at the time is clear from chapters 5, 6, 7, ("Only on the "Jugband Blues" promo film does Syd look ungaged and a tad frazzled.", one reads on page 207) while at the same time one learns that if things were not well with him it is true that "in the main friends and onlookers were too damned cool to do anything about it."(page 202).
He may have suffered from mental disorders, overused drugs, but his sacking from the band was certainly highly traumatic. Chapman compares the situation with what happened to Robert Wyatt (page 210).
It is hard, for instance, to accept the guy he felt closer to in the band had to find excuses "to go off and play a gig."(page 210). Some statements, in my opinion, can only be read as cynical comments (page 235, second paragraph from above).
And yet "they were unable to shake off the legacy of their former guiding spirit. Syd's spectral presence continued to cast a long shadow well into the 70s."
To be a great artist you do not have to be a great human being and, frankly, I am not that impressed by Pink Floyd members as persons. I must say that my impression is deduced more from interpretation than from what is actually written.
I was never a great Pink Floyd fan. Their music always sounded too Jean Michel Jarre-like. That, however, can be a matter of taste.
There is a final comment to make. Too much , and too often, is said, especially at the time Syd died, that Pink Floyd always saw to it that he reiceved his share of royalties. But could it be otherwise? Did he not write the songs? Did he not found the group?...
All in all, Mr Chapman's book deserves top marks and is not another brick in the wall.