Latest / Booked On Rock with Eric Senich / Syd Barrett: A Star's Descent Into Isolation [Highlight From Episode 326]

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Syd Barrett: A Star's Descent Into Isolation [Highlight From Episode 326] · Booked On Rock with Eric Senich

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Here's a highlight from a recent episode of Booked on Rock.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: His name is Mike Evans. He is the author of
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Pink Floyd Behind the Music, with Barrett as their main songwriter.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: They did have two hit singles, Arnold Lane c Emily Play,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: and then the successful debut studio album The Piper at
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: the Gates of Dawn. That was all that from nineteen
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: sixty seven. And this was not something that said embraced.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: There's a highlighted quote in your book where Sid said,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: if John Lennon doesn't have to do Top of the Pops,
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  Speaker 1: why should I? His mental decline was pretty rapid. Was
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: it due to drugs? Was it mental illness? Was it
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: simply an artist who rebelled against commercialism? Was it all
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: of that combined? What do you think?
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  Speaker 2: I think he's probably all of that combined. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: the drugs obviously didn't help, but physically they were the
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: day were the main influence on his mental state, in
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  Speaker 2: the main detrimental influence on his mental state. He wasn't
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: the first and he wasn't the last, but to have
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: that kind of mental history, but he uh, there's a
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: there was an awful fatal, almost fatal combination of sudden
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: fame and and over indulgence. I mean it happened to
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  Speaker 2: a number of rock stars. But but but but with said,
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  Speaker 2: it was just more disastrous than than with many, you know,
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  Speaker 2: and uh, it was a combination of the of fame
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: and I mean without the fame, he probably couldn't have
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  Speaker 2: afforded so many drugs, if you like to look at
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  Speaker 2: it that way. And also because the whole scene is
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  Speaker 2: full of hangers on and made all that very easy.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: You know, it was very accessible. And and it's like
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: it's been like that forever, you know, on the kind
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  Speaker 2: of music scene. Uh, but fame, it's particularly on somebody's
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: quite young and and still feeling their own way in
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: the world. I mean, these were just students. I mean
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  Speaker 2: they were like, you know, eighteen nineteen year old. They
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: were kids, you know, comparatively speaking. And so if you
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  Speaker 2: couldn't quite handle that and it to you know, not
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: just said about it, but you know, if you couldn't
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: handle that quite could you could spial out in the
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: wrong direction, which unfortunately he did.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a story of what's the talk show that
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  Speaker 1: they were on when sid would as soon as their
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  Speaker 1: cameras were on and they would ask Sid a question.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: He would go completely quiet and say nothing, and then
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  Speaker 1: they say cut hold on and then they say, Sid,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: you just got answered the questions a little bit. And
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  Speaker 1: so Sid was playing with them. He's like, oh, no,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: no problem, no problem, I'll talk okay, let's do this again.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: And then they turned the camera on and he would
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: do the same thing, shut down, not saying yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just like like it was just it became
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  Speaker 2: a totally it became totally unreliable, especially if you're trying
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: to handle that.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: There's been stories about years later where people would knock
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: on his door because they found out where he lived,
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  Speaker 1: and he would open the door sometimes and be friendly
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: and sometimes would say please leave me alone. Stories that
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  Speaker 1: he there was checks that would arrive and that he
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: would never cash publishing checks, like he wanted nothing to
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: do with the Pink Floyd past. What do you know
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: about that? Yeah, you've heard those stories.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: I've heard them, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 1: But he was very reclusive. Pictures of him around town
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  Speaker 1: going to the art shop on his bicycle, yeah, privately
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  Speaker 1: very sad because then people got intrusive pictures of him
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  Speaker 1: taking his trash out, you know, it's very They try
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: to glamorize it, almost like it was this fascinating story
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  Speaker 1: that there was people couldn't refuse to really invest themselves into.
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  Speaker 1: But like Roger Water said, it's a sad story. It's
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: a tragic story.
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  Speaker 2: There was that situation where he appeared as some recording session.
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  Speaker 1: I Wish you were here.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and they didn't reckon in first when he came
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: to the studio.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Let's talk a little bit more about Wish you were
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: here from nineteen seventy five, you write quote Roger Waters
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  Speaker 1: made it clear very early on in the process that
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: shine on You Crazy Diamond, which would be the key
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: composition on the new album, was closely related to his
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: affectionate reflections on the band's old comrade said, Barrett, you
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: did talk about it a little bit before, about what
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  Speaker 1: happened with Sid. He showed up out of the blue
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  Speaker 1: one day right now. Nick Mason wrote about it in
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  Speaker 1: his book and he puts a picture in the book
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  Speaker 1: too of the day that Sid was there. So he
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: just showed up.
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  Speaker 2: It was seven years after he left the band.
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  Speaker 1: Seven years and they're literally recording a song about him,
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  Speaker 1: and he walks in.
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  Speaker 2: Correct, nobody knows whether it's coincidence that he happened to
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  Speaker 2: Pung happened to Pung the moment they were doing that
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  Speaker 2: particular song, or whether he just wandered in the studio
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  Speaker 2: and that was coincidence, or whether it's a bit of
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: a myth and he wandered in. But that was one
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: of the songs that they were doing. You know, it
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  Speaker 2: could have been the myth, could have been slightly manipulated,
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  Speaker 2: so he didn't actually walk in when they were in
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  Speaker 2: the middle of Crazy Diamond. But who knows. But it
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: was certainly remarkable that he appeared at all. You know,
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  Speaker 2: That's the point.
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  Speaker 1: They tried talking to him, right, but it really wasn't
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  Speaker 1: getting far. He wasn't really connected to reality at that point.
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  Speaker 2: No, I mean, I'm often I can't remember that whether
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  Speaker 2: Nick Mason ever mentioned how he got in there in
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  Speaker 2: the first place. I mean, he couldn't. He didn't just
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  Speaker 2: wander in the door, you.
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  Speaker 1: Know, somebody had to let him in.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, And there's a story that he was he had
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  Speaker 1: a tooth brushing his hand. He's brushing his teeth while
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  Speaker 1: his wife's perform. He was overweight, he had shaved his
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: his head and he looked unrecognizable. It's a very eerie story.
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  Speaker 1: And again, the fact that they're recording that song, or
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: how much of truth there is to that, but still
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: the fact the.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: Exactly that song came out of that session. Put it
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: that way,