Syd Barrett: 1946-2006

On March 24, 2006, I happened to be thinking about Syd Barrett. I wrote this:

"Wouldn't it be neat if, after Syd Barrett (link for those not fully aware of who that is) quietly passes away alone in his home in Cambridge, his family finds and releases a series of mind-blowingly amazing fully finished albums, proving that he never lost his gift after all? One can hope anyway, right? Happy belated 60th, Syd. (Two months late is better than not at all.)"

It's now July 11, and Syd has quietly passed away in his home in Cambridge. He will be mourned briefly by obsessives like me, and will be gone, but not forgotten, much in the same way as he lived for the past 35 years.

As celebrity deaths go, this one isn't particularly tragic, but it's sad because we never got the chance to hear Syd talk about himself. It's every Syd fan's dream to hear from the man himself about what happened to him in the late 1960s, what he's been doing, what he thinks. Our biggest loss is that we have only hearsay, rumors, and stories that may or may not be true told by people three steps removed. Syd will forever be a mystery, in death even more so than he was in life.

This is a shame because Syd is the quintessential musician who's famed more for his legend than for his music. It's a shame because not enough people will ever truly appreciate the ramshackle brilliance of The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (not to mention The Madcap Laughs and Barrett). And it's a shame because Syd may have died without ever knowing that there were people who wanted more, not just more music, but more of Syd in general.

In closing, I'm trying as hard as I can not to sign off with "shine on you crazy diamond," but it's hard to find something as appropriate that works as well (for those unaware, "Shine On You Crazy Diamond was written by the Barrett-less Pink Floyd as a tribute to Syd). So go ahead, Syd. Shine on.