OT: A legend died Friday

[Laker Fan]

Syd Barrett died Friday, yet the Crazy Diamond's legend shines on. He was only 60.

[msc]

How I wish, how I wish you were here.  

 

[Laker Fan]

We're just 2 lost souls swimmin' in a fishbowl, year after year.

I don't think most kids today realize the impact his short career prior to his spiral into drugs and schizophrenia (some have suggested) had on the music everyone listens to today.

If he hadn't lost his mind, imagine what he would have accomplished.

[jn]

It's probably been almost 20 years since I last listened to Piper and Saucer.   I still remember a few standout tracks like See Emily Play, Corporal Clegg and Interstellar Overdrive.  Ultimately I got away from being a Pink Floyd fan because as the years wore on they really lost any of the original psychadelic whimsy that Barret provided.  

Agreed that his influence on many musicians is probably missed by a lot of younger fans.


 

[westkoast]

We're just 2 lost souls swimmin' in a fishbowl, year after year.

I don't think most kids today realize the impact his short career prior to his spiral into drugs and schizophrenia (some have suggested) had on the music everyone listens to today.

If he hadn't lost his mind, imagine what he would have accomplished.

I had heard of him but did not realize exactly how much influence he really did have until I was reading wikipedia yesterday.  So I guess I fall under the kids (although I think I am a little old to be considered a kid lol)  you are speaking of.  Being that my mother is younger then all my other friends' parents...I grew up listening to alot of 80s music and they all grew up listening to classic rock, something I did not become very familiar with until I got into high school.

Speaking of classic rock bands, there seems to be a little movement going on that have newer bands emulating classic rock bands.  There is this group called WolfMother that is a brand new band but is heavily influenced by bands like Black Sabbath and the like.  Hopefully this brand of rock starts coming around.  Some say they think it is corny that they sound so much like a band from that era but IMO it's refreshing.  That was damn good rock.  Not the crap we have in the genre now.

[Guest]

Listening to Pink Floyd and some of the other classic rock bands of those years transports me to a whole different time and frame of mind. Amazing how music can trigger the memory of my youthful exploits.

My brother-in-law had a black lab back in the seventies. We would go over to his house and he would put on Pink Floyd, with those amazing flowing sounds and his dog would start to howl in rhythm. She just loved some of those soaring notes.

Pink Floyd - named after two influential blues musicians, so you know that these guys at least acknowledge the influence on their music from those who went before them. Don't know if today's players can say the same. How many actually are creating a sound for themselves instead of letting their producers synthesize a sound in a studio instead.

[JoMal]

That was me above

[jn]

What's old is what's new wk.  People's views on what's good in terms of rock music has little to do with actually listening to the music and everything to do with how they want to be identified and what they listened to during their formative years.  There have always been bands that borrowed from previous bands including the classic rock bands.  During the mid early to mid 90's The Smashing Pumpkins were so loud in proclaiming their unhipness in being fans of bands like Boston that they came across as complete dicks about it.  

I guess there is always this whole ridiculous way of thinking that boils down to this.  Mainstream music fans, be it rock, country or hip hop, are only comfortable with the music spoon fed to them by corporate radio stations, magazines and TV and dismiss anything outside those venues as weird regardless of it's content.  Any Pink Floyd /Syd Barrett fan should love The Flaming Lips but since the Lips have been slapped with the Alternative label they remain popular but hardly a band that's going to sell out 50,000 seat stadiums.  On the flip side hipsters will dismiss out of hand anything that gets mainstream attention and even abandon bands once they get big.  I went through that phase myself.  For example I loved Soul Asylum back in the late 80's early 90's when I could see them for 5 bucks with a crowd of about 200.   Then they had a platinum album, #1 song and it was 20 dollars a ticket to see them with 2000 people who only liked the band because they read the People Magazine article about the singer dating Wynona Ryder.  I had to hop off the bandwagon and frankly I have no idea if their recent albums are any good.  

[Lurker]

For example I loved Soul Asylum back in the late 80's early 90's when I could see them for 5 bucks with a crowd of about 200.....I had to hop off the bandwagon and frankly I have no idea if their recent albums are any good.

jn,  I have heard some recent tracks and they are much closer to the original sound than their "pop mainstream" stuff.  But then there are a lot of bands that go thru that cycle...strong early music, move towards pop megaprofits, followed by either breakup or finding their roots.

As far as recent rock...IMO there are some good bands that continue to build off of the past but at the same time are original.  Godsmack and Audioslave are two that come quickly to mind.  At least they are not just 4 guys banging on their guitars and drums as loudly as possible and calling it music.

[Skandery]

Godsmack and Audioslave are two that come quickly to mind.

I'm slowly starting to come around to Godsmack.  I've gotten to know a good three to four songs, so they're no longer just a weird-named band.  Audioslave is a great band, but then again it should be.  You're not going to find very many guitarist more innovative than Tom Morello.  In fact other than Chris Cornell (former Soundgarden frontman), the rest of Audioslave is Rage Against the Machine and Rage is one of my favorite bands of all time.  Why'd you break up you bastards?! :cry:

On the flip side hipsters will dismiss out of hand anything that gets mainstream attention and even abandon bands once they get big.

This happens so often its disgusting.  One that pisses me off is U2.  People call them sell-outs for being played on the radio.  I maintain that band stayed true to its sound which lead to its revival in the late 90s, when U2 was swayed by the mainstream ("Discotheque") was when they were at their worst success-wise.  

Another recent one is System of a Down.  Four Albanian kids got together and started making politically relevant, alternative metal, with some mesmerizing guitar riffs and drum beats along with the versatile voice of frontman Serj Tankian.  A couple of years ago, radio MC's started putting System on the rotation and now all I hear is, "System lost it, man!"   :nonono:  
 

[Laker Fan]

It's probably been almost 20 years since I last listened to Piper and Saucer.   I still remember a few standout tracks like See Emily Play, Corporal Clegg and Interstellar Overdrive.  Ultimately I got away from being a Pink Floyd fan because as the years wore on they really lost any of the original psychadelic whimsy that Barret provided. 

Agreed that his influence on many musicians is probably missed by a lot of younger fans.

Piper at the gates of Dawn, a name pulled from a line in Kenneth Grahame's book, Wind in the Willows, was simply an abstract masterpiece, and whether anyone realized it or not at the time, it changed everything in terms of how music could be created because it followed no convention then known, with its surreal electronic vibe and haunting lyrics, bands started rethinking everything after that. And your nod to the Flaming Lips tells me you know your music, a VERY UNDERRATED band. See Emily Play was my favorite and another Barrett piece, Astronomy Domine, I've seen the Floyd perform live.

Pink Anderson and Floyd Council were Syd's inspiration for the band's name, old time bluesman that I have always thought got lost in the shadows of Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters well deserved limelight.

I think Pulse was marginally good, The Division Bell OK, but Momentary Lapse of Reason and the live tour and CD that it accompanied, The Delicate Sound of Thunder, were brilliant and IMO probably the last truly great work the Floyd produced. If you want to point to the music that was still clearly influenced by Barrett, their early work after Barrett was replaced by David Gilmour, from Atom Heart Mother to Dark Side (notice I leave out the Live Filmore and Ummagumma albums) were purely Syd Barrett inspired, although Dark Side was more thematic, or conceptual, than the albums it followed, it told a story start to finish, with easily some of the most brilliant lyrics ever written especially Time where they lament the futility of existence from their perspective:
"Well you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking, and racing around to come up behind you again. The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older, shorter of breath and one day closer to death", WOW, what a lyric!

They demonstrated their abilty to create a concept album like no one has before or since with The Wall, a loose tribute to Barretts slip into insanity, I always found it quite ironic that Syd, like Pink on the album, became totally dependent on his mother, Syd spent the last 30 years living with his mum in Cambridge.

For those of you that have yet to, I suggest you listen to not just the commercially successful work this band produced , but also the obscure non-commercial work they produced, Atom Heart Mother springs immediately to mind.

I've seen them twice (The Division Bell and Delicate Sound of Thunder) and wish they would do just one more tour, they are fantastic live.

[msc]

I've seen them twice (The Division Bell and Delicate Sound of Thunder) and wish they would do just one more tour, they are fantastic live.

Dan, what are your thoughts on seeing Roger Waters in Oct. at the Hollywood Bowl?  Are you anti b/c Gilmour won't be there?

I'm kind of torn b/c I'm such a huge fan of Gilmour's playing.  He's one of my all time favorite guitarists.  It would seem wierd to me to hear someone else playing those leads essentially stealing the wonderful tone that Gilmour created.  It just doesn't seem right.  

But the set list looks pretty intriguing and Roger did write most of the songs.  
Check out this set list from a show he played recently in the Netherlands:  

Set List

FIRST HALF: In The Flesh, Mother, Set The Controls For the Heart Of The Sun, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Have A Cigar, Wish You Were Here, Southampton Dock, The Fletcher Memorial Home, Perfect Sense parts 1 and 2, Leaving Beirut, Sheep.

SECOND HALF: Dark Side of the Moon.

ENCORE: The Happiest Days Of Our Lives, Another Brick In The Wall (Pt 2), Vera, Bring the Boys back Home, Comfortably Numb.

http://www.pinkfloydz.com/roger2006/index7july.htm
 

[Laker Fan]

I lost an opportunity to see David Gilmour and Rick Wright do a little jam session once when I was in New York, they showed up at some little hinky joint in the Village ala Mick Jagger or Eric Clapton and by the time I heard about it, there was no way I could get in.

I would love to see Roger Waters live, and with that set list, what an awesome show it will be, I would miss Gilmour on guitar but Water's voice is still Pink Floyd.

You know, when Barrett was still with the band, David Gilmour used to sit in on their sets all the time and he brought something to the band that was lacking, he was a  serious and superior musician, something the Floyd at that time was never known for, they were know for production, musical arrangements and lyrics, but none of them were considered great musicians. When Syd was pushed out (he did not leave of his own accord), David was the logical choice, and he turned into quite the songwriter as well as bringing tremendously slick (not fast, but that wasn't their style anyway) guitar work to the band.

The rift between Waters and the band was not just him and Gilmour, Nick Mason was pretty vocal about the whole thing as well, he and David are very  close friends, and let's face it, David Gilmour has been with Pink Floyd since 1966, and officially their guitarist since 1968, hardly a newcomer to the band, he had as much voise and right within the band as Roger did, the Floyd would probably never been more than a niche/cult band had he not brought the talent muscially and songwriting skills he had into the mix.

But to answer your question, I absolutely am going to try to make the Water concert, sounds awesome to me.

[Laker Fan]

MSC, I just read that Nick Mason is confirmed to play on Dark Side of the Moon, even more of a  reason to be there.

[msc]

Yeah, I'll still probably go.  I'm just kind of stubborn that way.  I wish these guys could just get along!  It's too bad, really.  Nick Mason playing would be great.  

I didn't realize Syd was pushed out.  I haven't done extensive research or anything, but I had always read and heard that Syd wanted out.  He wanted to be left alone and didn't want the attention and pressure associated with being in a big time rock band.  Obviously, heavy drug use was a factor in the equation and many believe some deeper mental issues.  

I'd also read that Gilmour was essentially the 5th member of the band before Syd left and when he did leave, he was the logical choice to take over that missing spot.  "Wish You Were Here" the song, was supposedly written to Syd as the bands overall sentiment at the time.  And obviously, "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" was written about him as well.  


On a side note, here's a quote about Syd issued yesterday from another one of my all time favs, the Thin White Duke:  

"I can't tell you how sad I feel. Syd was a major inspiration for me. The few times I saw him perform in London at UFO and the Marquee clubs during the sixties will forever be etched in my mind. He was so charismatic and such a startlingly original songwriter.

Also, along with Anthony Newley, he was the first guy I'd heard to sing pop or rock with a British accent. His impact on my thinking was enormous. A major regret is that I never got to know him. A diamond indeed." -

David Bowie, July 11th 2006