BBC website:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5169344.stm

Syd Barrett, one of the original members of legendary rock group Pink Floyd, has died at the age of 60, the band's spokeswoman has confirmed.

He was born Roger Barrett in Cambridge and met future bandmates Roger Waters and David Gilmour at school there.

The guitarist was invited to join Pink Floyd by Waters in 1965 but left three years later after only one album with his mental state affected by drugs.

Did you know that Shine On You Crazy Diamond was an account of Syd Barrett. If you listen to the lyrics you can understand why.

Sad news, I cant claim to have known Syd, but have seen him on many occasions around Cambridge, usually with a plastic shopping bag in hand. Shine on you crazy diamond.....

Shine On You Crazy Diamond

Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
You were caught on the crossfire of childhood and stardom,
blown on the steel breeze.
Come on you target for faraway laughter,
come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!
You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Threatened by shadows at night, and exposed in the light.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Well you wore out your welcome with random precision,
rode on the steel breeze.
Come on you raver, you seer of visions,
come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine!

Syd Barrett wrote and sung the first two Pink Floyd hits: Arnold Layne and See Emily Play. According to David Bowie, Syd Barrett was the first British rock singer to sing in a British accent.

A far more poignant song by Pink Floyd (ie David Gilmour) about Syd Barrett was on the same album as "Shine On", and gave the album its title: "Wish You Were Here". Gilmour and Barrett had been best friends at art school, and Gilmour had been drafted in to support (and very quickly replace) Barrett when the latter's mental collapse sadly continued throughout 1968-1969.

It has to be added that Barrett's two solo albums from 1969-70 are arguably the best work he ever produced (despite the brilliance of that first Pink Floyd album, which remains unique) - but perhaps because, rather than in spite of, the fact that his mind was about to reach "interstellar overdrive". His utter, unprecedented silence thereafter lies at the root of his legend.

So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell,
blue skies from pain.
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?
And did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?
How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have you found? The same old fears.
Wish you were here.


For anyone wanting to understand what the fuss is all about, just give yourself 90 minutes to listen to
(a) "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" - Pink Floyd, 1967
( "The Madcap Laughs" - Syd Barrett, 1969

Sorry for sounding so nerdy on this thread - but I'm a bit of a Syd nut!