Wouldn't You Miss Me?: The Best of Syd Barrett

Syd Barrett

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 11, 2001)
• Original Release Date: March 27, 2001
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Capitol
• ASIN: B00005ABWV
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #58,398 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Pop culture's fascination with the psychically damaged has inspired a pantheon of cult heroes, from Brian Wilson through Sky Saxon, Roky Erickson, and Kurt Cobain, whose enduring--if troubling--appeal could give a cultural psychologist a life's worth of study. Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett has long been one of the most obsessed over. Listening to this first-ever distillation of the "best" of Barrett's brief post-Floyd recording career (which essentially ended in 1970), it's not hard to understand why. Barrett's childlike side (displayed here on such Lewis Carroll-esque fare as "Octopus," "Terrapin," and "Effervescing Rhino") and almost painfully innocent love songs sometimes feel like the lost blueprint of alt rock, while his space-case vocal delivery and distinctly surreal sense of timing and rhythm give each cut a hypnotic sense of intrigue. It's all a far cry from the intricately baroque pop psychedelia of his brief tenure in Pink Floyd. Something (LSD? Insanity? Both?) clearly shattered Barrett's consciousness between the band's debut album Piper at the Gates of Dawn (he left the band shortly afterward) and the spare, shattered acoustic ballad poems from his first solo album (The Madcap Laughs) featured here. The more accessible, pop-conscious ethos of its follow-up, Barrett (highlighted by "Baby Lemonade" and the amusing "Gigolo Aunt") were largely studio illusions conjured up by sidemen such as Floyd's David Gilmour and Richard Wright. Barrett fans should also note the presence here of the previously unreleased "Bob Dylan Blues," a wry, talking blues parody of the great Zimmerman and allegedly one of Barrett's earliest compositions. --Jerry McCulley

Product Description

UK collection featuring 22 tracks, the finest solo works from the eccentric original Pink Floyd co-founder. Compiled from his solo albums, the rarities and outtakes collection 'Opel', the box-set 'Crazy Diamond' and two previously unreleased tracks, 'Two Of A Kind' (BBC Session Track) and 'Bob Dylan's Blues'.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, October 29, 2005

By	J. Brady (PAWLEYS ISLAND, SC United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Compared to the ornate, almost Baroque quality of Pink Floyd's Piper at the Gates of Dawn, which Syd Barrett was largely responsible for, these songs are almost frightening in their sparseness and simplicity. Having said that, the lyrics completely overshadow the sometimes underdeveloped arrangements and the fragile vocals. Fractured and almost completely devoid of the playful innocence that was a highlight of his earlier work, songs such as Gigolo Aunt and Terrapin seem on the surface nothing more than the incoherant ramblings of a burned out Rock n Roll tragedy. Further inspection of the lyrics will reveal a poet of the first order. There is little doubt the laurels heaped upon Barrett are justified, and this is the rare case where the term Legend can be properly applied.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Syd is a genius, September 19, 2001

By	"kraft_werk01" (Montreal, Quebec) - See all my reviews

This album is great. Of course the material is not very new to hard-core Syd fans, who probably already own the Peel Sessions LP with 'Two of a kind' on it. But I would still recommend this CD to hard-core and wanna-be Syd fans alike. Those unfamiliar with Syd will be stunned by the lyrics if they pay attention. All titles have been remastered so they sound way DEEPER than the original recordings. Bob Dylan blues is a great and happy little song. Altough it's kinda hard to see if the lyrics of the song are based on admiration or irony; perhaps a mix of both. It shows a very different, more childish, Syd... since it was written in 1963 (the version on the cd was recorded in 1970). Sure it is a shame that Gilmour waited so long to make 'Bob Dylan Blues' available. But remember... royalties are now syd's sole mean of survival. That must be why new songs are brought in one by one... so that royalties keep coming as new CD's are issued. After all, Syd is a genius and he deserves it. Hopefully, somedays, we'll get to hear 'Living alone','Rhamadan', 'Rooftop in a thunderstorm', 'Lanky part 2' and songs probably recorded live with the 'sparks' or the 'twinks'. Also, sleeping in vaults somewhere, must lie more 196x to 1965 Floyd covers of rock'n'roll and r'n'b classics.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Listening, December 18, 2005

By	directions "iladvocate" - See all my reviews

This a superior collection of Syd Barrett songs especially considering that Bob Dylan's Blues (a hilarious parody) is not available elsewhere. It has almost all of the official songs and leaves out weaker ones. However, it omits a few songs that are classics, "She Took a Long Cold Look at Me" and "Milky Way" still hold up. Of course, it eliminates unreleased work Barrett did with Floyd (obviously for copywrite reasons) such as the disturbing classics, Vegetable Man and Scream Thy Last Scream (both of them repeatedly covered by neo-psychedelic bands. Still song lyrics like "I'm only a person with Eskimo chains. I tattoed my brain all the way" they seem document someone's mental breakdown whether that was intentional or not. Many of the songs are painfully removed from reality. However, they are effective, however eerily disturbing pop songs far superior than the general "guy with a guitar" genre.