Shine On You Crazy Diamond

     One of the original founders of the greatest band ever, Pink Floyd, passed away several days ago, but was just announced on Tuesday. Syd Barrett, who has been troubled with diabetes (and other mental issues) most of his life, was the writer of many great, early Pink Floyd albums; including "Piper at the Gates of Dawn," "Saucerful of Secrets" and some other lesser known singles and unreleased records.

     Although not my favorite member or even contributor, his presence did directly influence portions of later great Floyd albums like "Dark Side of the Moon," "Wish You Were Here" and "The Wall" with his style and his personality.

     Besides "inventing" new guitar sounds while recording Piper and being generally credited with naming the band, the most well known thing about Syd, were his antics on stage. Drugged up most of the time on LSD, most of his on stage time consisted of him randomly strumming the same chord for an entire show and he or may not have been singing. Much of the time he just stared blankly at the audience or camera and drooled.

     Here's a good story: according to Roger Waters, Barrett came into what was to be their last practice session with a new song he had dubbed "Have You Got It, Yet?" The song seemed simple enough when he first presented it to his bandmates, but it soon became impossibly difficult to learn: as they were practicing it, Barrett kept changing the arrangement. He would then play it again, with the arbitrary changes, and sing "Have you got it yet?" After more than an hour of trying to "get it," they realized they never would. Hilarious actually.

He directly influenced the main character in Pink Floyd's "The Wall" movie partly by shaving off all of his body hair at one point; chest, legs, eyebrows and all. Also, brushing your teeth while holding the brush in place and jumping up and down is not a normal way of thinking or doing things; but that was Syd.

     After being kicked out of the band, he tried a few solo albums and collaborations but finally gave up and ended up living a reclusive lifestyle in his mother's basement until his death.

     So it will be a day filled with Pink Floyd in my office today, as the founder of my favorite band has died at age 60 of, thus far, unannounced reasons. So thanks Syd. Although I don't care for a lot of your music, your influence and passion inspired some of my favorite songs of all time and countless more musicians who went on to become huge successes. I won't miss you, because your legacy lives on. Peace brother.


~Drewbacca
MoviePatron.com