The other porters got a bit jealous because he was giving me so much stuff. A brief return to London for several weeks in allowed him to tie up loose ends before making his final exodus. He gave away furniture, televisions, guitars and even session tapes before packing a select few belongings into a small carrier bag.
This time, he made the mile trek on foot. In contrast to his limited musical output, Barrett was a prolific visual artist for the remainder of his life, finishing his final canvas just days before he died. Pages of art-history notes were found in his personal effects after his death, and Breen claims that he penned an entire book on the subject.
There is little of him in it, some comments here and there. His semi-detached home, once shared with his late mother, became filled with alterations and makeshift furnishings that reflected the fractured mind of its sole inhabitant.
Doorknobs were replaced with plastic toy hippos or pieces of square wood, and flimsy plywood shelves lined each room. Furniture was haphazardly painted garish hues, and floor tiles were a clashing mosaic of textures. The idea of painting a room with the same color was just nonsensical to him. He used to laugh at them because they never worked at all. The projects all possess a charmingly childlike simplicity. End tables, walking-stick stands, letter racks and workboxes were roughly nailed together with chipboard.
Bits of wood were glued to legs of a stool in an aesthetically displeasing but functional attempt to add height. The effect is both goofy and poignant. The auction raised , pounds in all, which the Barrett family donated to a scholarship for local art students.
But one notable exception took place in November , when the BBC aired an Omnibus television special about his own life.
Intrigued, he decided to tune in. Newswire Powered by. The use of synthetic drugs of any kind and social withdrawal fostered the clinical impression that Barrett was suffering from schizophrenia. Recent studies, however, would suggest the hypothesis that he was suffering from a low-functioning Asperger's syndrome. The aim of this paper is to review Barrett's data that would indicate that this was actually his diagnosis.
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Like with most drugs, it is safe to assume that when it comes to psychedelics, results may vary. Trav Mamone is a queer trans blogger who write about the intersections of social justice and secular humanism at Bi Any Means. Was Syd Barrett an Acid Casualty? Share Tweet Submit Pin. Tags drugs health mental illness music pink floyd psychedelics schizophrenia science syd barrett acid lsd. When Pink Floyd "made it," Syd Barrett was about 21 years old. I don't know where they all arrived from, but I went to architecture school so did Rick [Wright, the Floyd's keyboard player] and Roger [Waters, bassist].
I don't quite remember how I met them all. I just remember suddenly being surrounded by the Pink Floyd and hundreds of groupies instantly. It wasn't drugs particularly that set Syd off, she insists; from the time she first met him Korner considered Syd one of the sweetest, most together people, even though Syd's previous girlfriend says he was off the wall a little even then.
According to Lindsey "it got a bit crazed" during the fall of '67; by Christmas Syd had started to "act a little bonkers. I think the pressures on Syd before that time must have upset him very much, the kind of pressure where it takes off very fast , which Pink Floyd did - certainly in terms of the way people behaved towards them.
I used to be speechless at the number of people who would invade our flat, and how they would behave towards anyone who was in the group; especially girls. I'd never seen anything like it. Some of the girls were stunning, and they would literally throw themselves at Syd. He was the most attractive one; Syd was a very physically attractive person - I think he had problems with that. People kept coming around and he would actually lock himself in his room. Like if he made the mistake of answering the front door before he'd locked himself in his room, he found it very difficult to say no.
He'd have these girls pounding on his bedroom door all night, literally, and he'd be locked inside, trapped. He did rather encourage that behavior to a certain extent, but then he didn't know what to do with it; he would resent it. During their LA stay the band was invited to visit the Alice Cooper entourage, quartered in a house in Venice during their stint as the Cheetah club's house band.
Cooper and his band had heard the Floyd's Piper at the Gates and their reaction, guitarist Glen Buxton recalls, was, "Wow! These guys should be reckoned with! It wasn't because he was a snob; he was a very strange person. He never talked , but we'd be sitting at dinner and all of a sudden I'd pick up the sugar and pass it to him, and he'd shake his head like 'Yeah, thanks,' It was like I heard him say 'Pass the sugar' - it's like telepathy; it really was.
It was very weird. You would find yourself right in the middle of doing something, as you were passing the sugar or whatever, and you'd think, 'Well, damn! I didn't hear anybody say anything! And this guy did it all the time. If leaving Pink Floyd were hard for Barrett, so were his last months in the band.
Shirley explains: "When he plays a song, it's very rare that he plays it the same way each time - any song. And some songs are more off-the-wall than others. When he was with the Floyd, towards the very end, Syd came in once and started playing this tune, and played it completely different. Every chord change just kept going somewhere else and he'd keep yelling the title , 'Have you got it yet? Similar episodes became more frequent until the Floyd reached breaking point.
They were pulling their hair out, they decided to bring in another guitarist to complement, so Syd wouldn't have to play guitar and maybe he'd just do the singing. Dave came in and they were a five-piece for about four or five weeks. It got better because Dave was together in what he did. Then the ultimate decision came down that if they were going to survive as a band, Syd would have to go. Now I don't know whether Syd felt it and left, or whether he was asked to.
But he left. Dave went through some real heavy stuff for the first few months. Syd had probably met Dave in the early '60s when Gilmour played in a Cambridge band. Syd was always a bit weird about Dave. That was his band, the Floyd. Even before Pink Floyd returned to England from their American tour, Barrett was proving more than merely eccentric. Buxton remembers "the crew used to say he was impossible on the road.
They'd fly a thousand miles, get to the gig, he'd get up onstage and wouldn't have a guitar. He would do things like leave all his money in his clothes in the hotel room, or on the plane.
Sometimes, they'd have to fly back and pick up his guitar. I didn't pick up that he was a drug casualty, although there were lots at the time who would do those exact things because they were drugged out. But Syd was definitely from Mars or something. Fields and Gayla Pinion, Syd's girlfriend during the difficult years after Pink Floyd, were most continuously exposed to Barrett - crazies, and Duggie recalls trying periods of life with Syd.
He didn't really have a sense of direction. Shall I get out of bed? He had great problems committing himself to any action. As for committing himself to doing anything for any length of time - he was the kind of person who'd change in the middle. He'd set off, lose his motivation, and start questioning what he was doing - which might just be walking down the street.
Fields attempted to alter Barrett's pattern, but nothing quite worked. He could be fabulous. He was the sort of person who had amazing charm; if he wanted your attention, he'd get it. He was very bright. After he left the group he was very much aware of being a failure. I think that was quite difficult, coming to terms with that.
Fields despaired; eventually Syd couldn't deal with them either because they were always underfoot, wanting his attention, as did many slightly younger people who idolized him. Fields recalls visitors constantly bringing pills to Barrett: "Just give Syd mandrakes and he'll be friendly.
I said, 'Look, Syd wants you out; he's coming back! Barrett's first solo album, Shirley says, was a result of the Floyd finally convincing Syd "that he should get off his ass and make an album.
I can't cope with that again! The two albums, release later in America as a double package, are curios even seven years after their appearance. Syd wrote all the material some of it years before except the lyrics to "Golden Hair" a James Joyce poem , and every symptom of his personal problems is in it evidence. The tone is somber and unsettling, with only three frivolous songs. Many tunes end abruptly or with contrived instrumental fades when Syd runs out of lyrics.
Barrett's singing is a deep-pitched melancholy monotone.
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