filkertom | Syd Barrett Dies

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Syd Barrett Dies

Sadness. Syd Barrett, vocalist and songwriter for Pink Floyd, has passed away at the age of 60.

What's your favorite Pink Floyd track or album? Barrett Era or not. Besides every second of The Wall, I have an incredible love for "Several Species Of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together In A Cave And Grooving With A Pict", not merely because it was one of my first exposures to sound and music intended to set a scene, but because I'd never imagined a title like that.

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:( Syd Barrett, btw, is how I picked my username. I've been using it, or a varation of it, since around 1990/1991.

When I was a kid, I judged potential friends by whether they could name SSOSFASICAGWAP as a Floyd tune, extra points if they could reproduce the pict's ravings. (Needless to say, I was alonely child.)

I'm also very fond of "Bike" and ...dammit, I'm hearing "Shine On..." in my head now and shedding tears.

I know Syd gafiated a long time ago and most of Floyd's well-known stuff was done by the others, but there's no doubt in my mind he was the unique spark of weird genious that started it all.

Favorite Floyd tune? (today:)"Get your filthy paws off my desert", from The Final Cut.

I'm hearing "Shine On..." in my head now and shedding tears.

That song was, in fact, written about Mr. Barrett

oh no. This is turning out to be a hard year for artists of every stripe.

My favorite albums from Pink Floyd are "Wish you were here" and "Division Bell". The first because it's a musical painting - a sonic impressionist gallery. The latter because it just touchs a bit of the soul. The first Floyd song I ever heard was "Echoes" thanks to my roommate while I was overseas. Forever shall I remember drinking beers while sitting on the edge of a 3 story cement building, looking homeward over the cliffs and palms while Pink Floyd made a melancholy background to our isolation.

*sighs*

"Wish you were here"

again, a tribute to Mr. Barrett

And my personal favorite...

Don't get me started about the Wall ... you'd hate me by the end of my rant

I have a folder on my I Tunes called Pink Syd ... it's all the singles and the Piper album ... Pick any song from that ... I need to add Jugband Blues to it ...

That band after Syd left ... well ... Animals as a whole is probably my favorite post-Syd record.

SSOSFAGTIACAGWAP is a blast ... I need to get Ummagumma on CD ... I really do ... that needs to be the wake up music on Radio Capricon

Syd is a major hero of mine ... I'm pretty torn up about this

Picking one favorite Pink Floyd song is like picking one favorite chocolate chip in the batch of cookies.

I'm especially fond of "If" (and have been known to sing it at filks); other Floydian comfort food includes "San Tropez", "Wish You Were Here", "Time", "Echoes", "On the Turning Away", "Brain Damage/Eclipse", and "The Great Gig in the Sky" (the latter of which I was fortunate enough to see live on a Roger Waters tour with Clare Torry, the original singer from Dark Side of the Moon). "...Furry Animals..." was an early favorite, too.

Love the band to death? Why ever do you ask?

Haven't heard much of Syd..but, (aside from ALL of the wall), Astonomy Domine is always a favorite, along with "Sorrow", and "Keep Talking"..well, then again, almost any of "The Division Bell" is gold for me, mainly due to that being the first time I saw PF in concert.

I believe Syd was dismissed from the group early on due to excessive drug abuse and alcoholism (please correct me if I'm wrong)

Mostly wrong. Drugs had a part in it, but Syd's problems were much deeper than drugs. He was a classic british manic-depressive. His talent couldn't keep up with his ambition. He couldn't deal with the pressures of fame and finally withdrew completely.

This isn't to say that the drugs didn't push things along ...

ah, thanks... I knew it was somewhere along those lines, either way, his removal from the group was not voluntary.

He was withdrawing onstage even, so they brought in Dave Gilmour to play guitar (Syd and Dave had been friends since they were kids) in the hopes that Syd would be able to just sing. He couldn't handle that anymore, so on the way to a show the rest of the band just decided to not stop and get Syd.

No, I'm fairly sure you're right on that. It's just been way too long since I listened to early stuff.

My all time favourite album of forever of everyone is The Final Cut. Yes, Pink Floyd have beat out The Grateful Dead and Jimmy Buffett and even you in that space. Amazing, isn't it?

I do not know why, though it might be associations it has for me. But I do know that if you catch me listening to it over and over and over you should prolly make sure that I'm going to be ok.

My favourite song is Brain Damage/Eclipse and need to figure out how to permanently connect those two songs on my iPod for all time.

However, I am resoundingly not fond of Divison Bell and must make sure that it is removed from all my play lists because it keeps coming up and annoyinng me.

My favorite song is without a doubt "Learning to Fly". I have no idea where that falls in the band's chronology - I'm honestly not familiar with their history. But listening to the song makes me feel like flying, and can bring tears to my eyes when I'm in the right mood.

I'll second that.

I'd have to say "Dark Side of the Moon" is my favorite aside from "The Wall"

Several Species Of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together In A Cave And Grooving With A Pict...

My god! I thought I was the only one who ever loved (or even remembered) that song.

I'm very much a Dark Side of the Moon fan, but I was introduced to Piper at the Gates of Dawn when it was new and was immediately hooked. My favorite individual song is probably Comfortably Numb except when I'm listening to one of a half-dozen others.

I have The Madcap Laughs on vinyl someplace and should probably pull it out for another listen.

Appropriatly, my favorite Floyd album is Wish You Were Here (inspired by/dedicated to Syd), followed by Momentary Lapse of Reason (heresy, I know), Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall, Animals, Ummagumma...

At one point I was committed to buying all the PF CDs, but due to their excellence they were never offered at discount, so budgetary contstraints killed that ambition.

When I had my first CD player, I would lie back with my eyes closed and listen to WYWH. With new-disc clarity, it would sound like the machine was actually marching toward you on "Welcome to the Machine," and on the title track, the second guitar in the intro actually joins you in the room. Awesome.

I'm with you on SSoSFAGTiaCaGWaP, bestest song title EVER!

Momentary Lapse of Reason (heresy, I know)

Have a seat on the Group W Bench with me, then. It's only been in the last half-dozen years or so that I've been able to even tolerate Floyd, much less like them, having come of age at a point where everyone around me was wailing "But dude - it's Pink Floyd! How can you not like them?!" And every time I heard that, I was pushed a little further away. So the things I do enjoy are from the much later end of their catalog, because it doesn't have that built-in mental block.

I've been a Floyd fan for more years than I can remember.

I'm going to be spinning some of Syd's stuff on my show on Friday in memoriam. Fortunately, a lot of his stuff falls in the 'dementia' category.

Honestly, my favorite Floyd track is "Great Gig in the Sky".

Something about that wailing vocal in the background, it's both horrid and beautiful, tossed in with a good dosage of insanity.

I remember falling in love with it during my stay in Toronto, where once every month a local independent theatre would do "Dark Side of Oz"... Man, you could get high just standing in the lobby on those nights!

BTW, "Wish You Were Here" is my absolute favorite song to listen to when I'm feeling sad or depressed...

I think it applies here.

Favorite album? Wish You Were Here without a doubt. Favorite track? Oooo.. tough one. I'd have to go with On The Turning Away.

Total icon love.

Jeeminycrizmus. "Several Species...", all of Dark Side of the Moon, "Comfortably Numb", "Wish You Were Here", "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" (natch), "One Of These Days" (which usually includes a snippet of the Dr Who theme, as they did at the Shoe in '93)... damn. I could go on for a while...

The Delicate Sound of Thunder version of 'One of These Days' has the Who theme in there /VERY/ plainly heard. It's one of the reasons I plan on spinning it this Friday during my webcast after I play a couple of Syd's good Floyd songs... so it's not /technically/ dementia radio... eh, it's my show. :)

Toss-up between "Shine On" and "Echoes" and "Comfortably Numb," if forced to choose. "Careful with that Axe, Eugene" and "Several Species..." and "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" pre-Meddle.
Trivial note probably shared by several others...on the day of Syd's passing, I received my long-awaited "Pulse" DVD (my VHS copy is long worn out). One of the better concert DVDs/videos there is, and it still barely does justice to the live show. If you know someone you want to make a Floyd fan, show 'em Pulse :-)

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Syd Barrett Dies

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Crazy Diamond

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wah.

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By the way, which one's Pink?

Re: By the way, which one's Pink?

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Shine On