,... $$$$ $$$$T""P$$$ba, ,gd&P""T&bg. ,gd&P""T&bg. ggggggggggg $$$$ $$$$$b d$$$$ $$$$b d$$$$ $$$$$b ggggggggggg """"""""""" $$$$ $$$$$$ $$$$$ $$$$$ $$$$$bxxP&$$&P """"""""""" $$$$ $$$$$$ T$$$$ $$$$P T$$$$ $$$"""""" " """" $$$$$$ "T&$bxxd$&P" "T&$bxx$$$$$' " """"""$$$ """ """""" """ ggg "What I Know About Syd Barrett" ggg $$$ by -> AIDS $$$ $$$ $$$ $$$ [ HOE E-Zine #956 -- 12/14/99 -- http://www.hoe.nu ] .,$$$ `"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""' I've spent countless hours filling my head with enough information on Syd Barrett that it would make his old boyhood friend, Roger Waters sick. I've visited every website possible related to Syd Barrett, read articles, and even started this file over half a dozen unsuccessful times. But here it is, my very own personal thoughts on him, the one and only, Syd Barrett. OK, here's what I know about Syd: Uhm, he was in Pink Floyd and I guess he was friends with the guys in Pink Floyd and he wrote some really fucked up shit that sounds nothing like the celestial majesty that came with later Floyd releases like WISH YOU WERE HERE or DARK SIDE OF THE MOON or THE WALL. Instead Barrett worked on the insipid PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN, its desultory style mostly the result of his chronic LSD abuse. Unlike the other guys in the band, Barrett was really into drug use and it shows, his stuff is FUCKED UP and it sounds all crazy. It's too chaotic and silly and just sounds like a bunch of fairy tales and it's not anything like the stunningingly complex and in-depth things that later Roger Waters would accomplish. Eventually the guys in Pink Floyd decided they'd like to be a real band, so they kicked him out. He went on to do two solo albums; THE MADCAP LAUGHS and BARRETT. Both of these albums would SUCK! if it weren't for the fact that his replacement in Pink Floyd, Dave Gilmoure, produced them with the help of Roger Waters and uh the other guy. You KNOW that they did all the work and all Syd did was babble some shit about the faeires and elves in Elfland. so, ok, you gotta understand, SYD BARRETT took a lot of drugs, right? He took acid in his coffee and acid in his tea and acid in his food and fed acid to his cats and he dunked his head in buckets of liquid acid and try to go on stage and when he was on stage he'd be taking acid! He took acid 15 times a day for a year straight! And he wasn't the most sane guy to begin with, so you know, the acid FUCKED HIM UP. He went crazy and started being totally useless to the band, so they kicked him out, because they wanted to make MUSIC and not some fancy schmancy faery tales about the elven queen and her minions in hell. Syd went crazy as hell. It's that simple. He went totally nuts. Now he lives in Cambridge and rides a bike and it's a very nice bike, and he doesn't know anything that's going on at all. OK, even though I sort of hate Syd Barrett, I like one song called OCTOPUS (also known as CLOWNS AND JUGGLERS) and here are some of the lyrics: "Trip to heave and ho, up down, to and fro' you have no word trip, trip to a dream dragon hide your wings in a ghost tower sails cackling at every plate we break cracked by scattered needles the little minute gong coughs and clears his throat madam you see before you stand hey ho, never be still the old original favorite grand grasshoppers green Herbarian band and the tune they play is "In Us Confide" so trip to heave and ho, up down, to and fro' you have no word Please leave us here close our eyes to the octopus ride! Isn't it good to be lost in the wood isn't it bad so quiet there, in the wood meant even less to me than I thought with a honey plough of yellow prickly seeds clover honey pots and mystic shining feed... well, the madcap laughed at the man on the border hey ho, huff the Talbot "Cheat" he cried shouting kangaroo it's true in their tree they cried Please leave us here close our eyes to the octopus ride! The madcap laughed at the man on the border hey ho, huff the Talbot the winds they blew and the leaves did wag they'll never put me in their bag the seas will reach and always seep so high you go, so low you creep the wind it blows in tropical heat the drones they throng on mossy seats the squeaking door will always squeak two up, two down we'll never meet so merrily trip forgo my side Please leave us here close our eyes to the octopus ride!" It describes my life, just switch the just switch the Talbots and woods. It is very moving and I connect with it very well. With Syd Barrett's unique, musical ways, and his fucked up drug brain, he brought a whole level of stupidity to Pink Floyd that the band spent several years trying to escape. If you want to hear some wicked good guitar though, check out "Interstellar Overdrive" on PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN. Wonderful fuzz box distortion, I promise. From "sucking down more acid than chemical waste" and realizing "life is pointless and despair is my only friend," Barrett has taught us that "its a blessing to get fucked up beyond belief and destroy your mind" and that it is okay to be a "dreamer". It's also ok to love one another, I guess. [--------------------------------------------------------------------------] [ (c) !LA HOE REVOLUCION PRESS! HOE #956, BY AIDS - 12/14/99 ]