SYD BARRETT
Jan. 6, 1946 - July 7,
2006
Singer, songwriter and guitarist Syd Barrett was a middle-class Cambridge,
England, native whose musical career followed a familiar '60s trajectory,
starting his first band while in art school. Like so many future icons of that
era,
Barrett's next band dabbled in American blues and R&B when Barrett
joined in 1965. Barrett subsequently renamed the group after blues singers Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. Signed to EMI, Pink Floyd defined British psychedelia with their first
singles, "Arnold Layne" and "See Emily Play," and their 1967 debut album, "Piper
at the Gates of Dawn," broke the British Top 10 with a set dominated by
Barrett's songs and guitar work. Barrett himself was already unraveling from his
excessive use of psychedelics, with the band recruiting guitarist David Gilmour as a precaution against Barrett's
unreliability. In March, 1968, Syd Barrett left Pink Floyd to embark on a solo
career that sputtered and largely lapsed into silence after the mid-'70s. Yet
his spirit remained identified with Floyd as the band established itself as a
rock institution. "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" was an homage to Barrett. He
lived his later years in peaceful seclusion in his native Cambridge.
(Image: Harry Goodwin/Redferns/Retna Ltd.)
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