Pink Floyd Online Forums

so im sure theres been a few threads similiar to this one, so apologies.

when i think of barrett, his amazing music is sort of overshadowed by a deep sadness i feel for him. such a genius, exceptionally: talented, popular and good-looking. ending up half brain dead living with his mother for the rest of his life, forgotten by the public. if you havent seen this picture and want to think of barrett as the bright artist he was, then im warning you not to look. but this image upset me... how did this man with the world at his feet go from this:
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to this:
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i just feel deep pity for him and mourn the death of an artistic spirit. can any one agree or offer some comforting point of view? not that there really is one, considering the truths of the matter.

Unfortunately , shooting stars tend to burn up rather quickly . There is something intrinsically sad in Roger Barrett's story , always the center of the "in crowd" , but unable to handle the pressure of being the center of attention . What kind of story would have been written if only he had been comfortable being himself without having to run away and hide when the world came clamouring . What is , is and in this reality , he burned up rather quickly . The other question I have to ask is what would the band have been like if he had a strong , well balanced personality ? Certainly it would not have been this band , not even close .

Jeff 2008 Wrote:Unfortunately , shooting stars tend to burn up rather quickly . There is something intrinsically sad in Roger Barrett's story , always the center of the "in crowd" , but unable to handle the pressure of being the center of attention . What kind of story would have been written if only he had been comfortable being himself without having to run away and hide when the world came clamouring . What is , is and in this reality , he burned up rather quickly . The other question I have to ask is what would the band have been like if he had a strong , well balanced personality ? Certainly it would not have been this band , not even close .

yeah you are right about the shooting stars, i like that analogy.
we definately wouldnt be hearing 'wish you were here' 'shine on...', i doubt much of DSOTM either... his diminishing affected them so heavily that i think its imprinted into all of their work, no matter how slightly.
i even feel guilty for admiring syd, if youve watched
Which one's Pink, it sums up that Syd sort of reclused when he realized he might be becoming a 'scrumptious pop idol' and thats not what he wanted... his tale is a very sad one. and i think that its still something surviving band members have a burden of too.

The best thing is that people will talk about and listen to him and his music for years and years. His short time in the spotlight has influenced many musicians artists and songwriters. And that will continue as long as we (as fans and musicians) keep it alive.

There are different points of view on who Syd was and what happened to him. I don't having any claim to knowing which is correct, but... there IS the point of view that at least some part of it was conscious... he didn't want to be a pop star, and ended up choosing to be a quiet recluse/artist instead. Perhaps, in some ways, he was happy with what he had become. I AM pretty sure that he was mentally ill--descriptions of his behavior remind me of mentally ill people that I have known, but that doesn't rule out the possibility that at least some of this was a conscious choice. I can completely understand why you'd feel sad for him (and I've certainly felt that way myself), but it is possible to view him in other ways, too.

hey mabewa, yeah i agree with that, i think it was his eccentric way of rejecting the stardom thrown at him... but whether there is small comfort in the fact he made the decision for himself, it is very sad that it had to come to this. i will always admire him for the bright artist he was... it is heartbreaking to watch an interview like this:
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs-tSn-T5TQ
where his brain and entire persona is so switched on, to this... i really cant believe it!
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=4xRaVTKDip...http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=4xRaVTKDipA&featu
you just cant get a word out of him that really makes sense.
tragic! but i really appreciate your point of view... it was definately his own doing, and perhaps he was happier this way then him becoming famous?

Well, as I said, I don't know, and I don't think any of us can claim to know. Personally, I found what happened to him to be pretty sad. But, there is the point of view that this might have been a deliberate decision. At the same time, I have no doubt that he was suffering from mental illness... just maybe that there was also some part of him that knew exactly what he was doing.

I always found the song "Jugband Blues" to be very interesting, by the way--a lot of people say it's like a self-diagnosis: again, there was part of him that knew what was going on.

mabewa Wrote:Well, as I said, I don't know, and I don't think any of us can claim to know. Personally, I found what happened to him to be pretty sad. But, there is the point of view that this might have been a deliberate decision. At the same time, I have no doubt that he was suffering from mental illness... just maybe that there was also some part of him that knew exactly what he was doing.

I always found the song "Jugband Blues" to be very interesting, by the way--a lot of people say it's like a self-diagnosis: again, there was part of him that knew what was going on.

Do you mean you think he was mental before he overdosed on LSD?
Yeah Jugband blues, i never analysed that - youre right.

"i'm not here/and im wondering who could be writing this song?"
interesting.

What can you say, really? early on, he was the horse the band was plowing the fields with. He was like a bit of a bard, wizard, all of that. They had made a 100% commitment to that lifestyle, THEN he has his issues? they get scared, 'cause The Floyds paying the rent, and he gets spotty on them?

When the Stones had issues, they'd take a year or a decade off 'till it worked out, but not early on, and the same for Floyd. If they'd had like a jillion in the bank? perhaps they could've waited for him to sort all of that out? when I listen to much, not all, of his solo stuff? it's clear that the same wit was there, just no band to clean and polish it for the retail bins.

Not only was he singing, and song writing, but he was for like a second or two a bit of a rock star, then you surround all of that with Owlseys acid, and all of the other top end club drugs? its REALLY hard to stay on the top of the pops so to speak, with the teen set, and do recall, when he was gone, they drifted away from trying to write hits singles, to the album concept

I won't pretend to know the depth of any of the bands souls on the syd saga, but you can see in interviews there is some level of guilt there over the end result.

What would YOU do in there shoes? you know?

One can only wonder. His solo stuff does seem to have alot to do with him talking abot "that band". Huh.
We will never know.