Noachic Radio

It has been 15 years since Syd Barrett left the world. He died at the age of 60, and the world still remembers him as a crazy diamond.

“Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun”

Early Years

Roger Keith ‘Syd’ Barrett was born on 6 January 1946 in Cambridge. He was the fourth child in the family. He used to play piano and ukulele when he was a child but he mostly liked painting. One claims that Syd got his name from a jazz bassist Sid Barrett who was from Cambridge and he changed the name from ‘Sid’ to ‘Syd’ in order to prevent misunderstandings. Syd met David Gilmour when he was a teenager and he knew Roger Waters from primary school years.

Syd lost his father when he was 15 years old and his mother encouraged him to make music to get rid of the grief and depression. In 1962, he started studying at Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology and this was the place where he met David Gilmour.

Pink Floyd Years

In 1965, Syd Barrett attended the group “The Tea Set”. After they realized that there is another group that had the same name, Syd suggested The Pink Floyd Sound name. He put the name by being influenced by Pink Anderson and Floyd Council who were blues musicians. The name of the group changed to The Pink Floyd eventually. Syd was only 19 years old when he founded the group and became the creator brain of the band. Also, all the songs in “The Piper At The Gates of Dawn” album belong to Syd Barrett. In 1965 Summer, Syd Barrett used LSD for the first time and after this, he kept on using drugs. Syd’s behaviors began becoming absurd, unpredictable, inappropriate, and unusual due to the increasing use of LSD. In some concerts, he did not even play guitar completely, and in some concerts, he did not even sing.

In December, David Gilmour attended the group as the second guitarist, and after this, Syd only walked around the concerts and he rarely accompanied his band friends. On 26 January 1968, the band went to a concert at the University of Southhampton and they didn’t take Syd from his house. They gave the concert without him. On 6 April 1968, the band explained that Syd Barrett officially broke up.

“I don’t think I’m easy to talk about. I’ve got a very irregular head. And I’m not anything that you think I am anyway.”

Syd Barrett

The Recording Sessions of Shine On You Crazy Diamond

In 1975, Syd Barrett went to Abbey Road studios to see the recording sessions for the “Wish You Were Here” album. At that time, “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” song that is about Syd, was in the process of completing. At first, the members of Pink Floyd couldn’t recognize him, since he was overweight and he had shaven his head and eyebrows. They were shocked when they realized who was he and Roger Waters was in tears.

Rick Wright spoke about the session:

“One thing that really stands out in my mind, that I’ll never forget; I was going in to the the Shine On sessions. I went in the studio and I saw this guy sitting at the back of the studio, he was only as far away as you are from me. And I didn’t recognise him. I said, ‘Who’s that guy behind you?’ ‘That’s Syd.’ And I just cracked up, I couldn’t believe it… he had shaven all his hair off… I mean, his eyebrows, everything… he was jumping up and down brushing his teeth, it was awful. And, uh, I was in, I mean Roger was in tears, I think I was; we were both in tears. It was very shocking… seven years of no contact and then to walk in while we’re actually doing that particular track. I don’t know – coincidence, karma, fate, who knows? But it was very, very, very powerful.”

Rick Wright in an interview for VH1

Roger Waters asked Syd what he thought of the song “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”, and he said that he didn’t like it and went out off the studio.

His Mental Illness

After the breakup, Syd went back to Cambridge for a life of painting. The most known hypothesis on Syd’s mental illness is that he had schizophrenia and the use of psychedelic drugs triggered it. He had a genetic predisposition to schizophrenia and he was known for having suicidal behaviors. As his bandmates say, he had abnormal behaviors during the concert such as leaving the stage suddenly. As Roger Waters says that Syd had odd thoughts and this is linked to a biological predisposition for schizophrenia. Also, he had stressful childhood due to losing his father suddenly.

Syd Barrett is mostly known for his creativity. It is known that having a high level of creativity brings the risk of serious mental illness. Syd had psychosis, catatonia, paranoia, and bizarre actions as his friends expressed. Later on, Syd began having diabetes which is another problem for people with schizophrenia. Roger Waters spoke to VH-1’s Legends in 2002: “There is no doubt those (street drugs) are very bad for schizophrenics and there is no doubt that Syd was a schizophrenic.”

Another claim is that Syd had already schizotypal disorder before using drugs and after using drugs, his schizotypal disorder turned into schizophrenia. Individuals with schizotypal disorder tend to use the creative side of the brain more than others. The essential difference between schizophrenia and schizotypal disorder is that in schizotypal disorder, there are no hallucinations. When schizotypal disorder turns into schizophrenia, then the creativity burns out. Creativity is linked with the functions of the prefrontal and temporal cortical areas. Individuals with schizotypal disorder have a high level of creativity and it is found that those individuals mostly use the right frontal activation. Furthermore, individuals with the high schizotypal disorder are prone to have increased divergent thinking. On the other hand, individuals with schizophrenia have complex and disorganized thinking processes and this prevents them to become creative because gathering thoughts are hard for them. It seems that Syd Barrett was not able to balance the line between the creative side and schizophrenia due to using drugs.

His Death

Syd lived with his sister Rosemary until he died in Cambridge. He isolated himself from society and lost his early creativity. He wrote a book about the history of art as his sister says and it was unpublished. On July 7 2006, Roger Keith “Syd” Barrett left the world at the age of 60 due to pancreatic cancer and he was cremated. He didn’t have a long term in the music world, but his contributions have become a legacy. His shadow has always been above Pink Floyd. Rest in peace Crazy Diamond!

“I don’t care if the sun don’t shine

And I don’t care if nothing is mine

And I don’t care if I’m nervous with you

I’ll do my loving in the winter”

Jugband Blues song