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Psychedelic |
Born Roger Keith Barrett on January 6th 1946, Cambridge, England. Barrett was an early member of the Psychedelic/Space-Rock Progressive group Pink Floyd, and wrote most of the band's early material. An innovative guitarist who explored the sonic possibilities of dissonance, distortion, feedback, and the echo machine. Most notably, he is remembered for playing his Fender Esquire by sliding a zippo lighter along the fretboard in the band's top 10 hit See Emily Play. These experimentally playful techniques produced mysterious, otherworldly sounds that became associated with the group. He r ...read more
Born Roger Keith Barrett on January 6th 1946, Cambridge, England. Barrett was an early member of the Psychedelic/Space-Rock Progressive group Pink Floyd, and wrote most of the band's early material. An innovative guitarist who explored the sonic possibilities of dissonance, distortion, feedback, and the echo machine. Most notably, he is remembered for playing his Fender Esquire by sliding a zippo lighter along the fretboard in the band's top 10 hit See Emily Play. These experimentally playful techniques produced mysterious, otherworldly sounds that became associated with the group. He released one album with them (1967's groudbreaking The Piper at the Gates of Dawn), along with a few singles.
After suffering a mental breakdown, brought on by excessive use of LSD that was already causing Barrett to go through wild behavior, such as bouts of violence, and not playing at concerts, Barrett was admitted into a Cambridge psychiatric hospital for a short time. It was then announced that he was no longer a member of Pink Floyd in 1968. He was replaced by David Gilmour, his childhood friend, who had already been tagging along for Floyd's live performances because of Syd's erratic behavior. Barrett released two solo albums after this, The Madcap Laughs and Barrett, which were made with help from Pink Floyd members David Gilmour, and Roger Waters, along with members of the group Soft Machine. Although attempts were made to make another album in 1974, the sessions did not yield any real results, and further attempts to get him back into the studio (including a quest by the Sex Pistols to get him to produce their debut album) proved fruitless.
After visiting his former Pink Floyd bandmates during the recording of Wish You Were Here, Barrett retired from the music business in 1975, and has spent much of his time since in his home in Cambridge. Since then, EMI have released (on his behalf) Opel, a series of outtakes and unheard footage, along with boxed set Crazy Diamond in 1993. The Best of Syd Barrett: Wouldn't You Miss Me? was released in 2001. Another noteable release is the bootleg recording Have You Got It Yet?, 19-disc audio/visual compilation composed of several live performances of Barrett both solo and with Pink Floyd. « hide |
Similar Bands: Nick Drake, Soft Machine, John Frusciante, Pink Floyd
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