Film Eyes Pink Floyd Co-founder Syd Barrett
Creativity and stardom often trigger or exacerbate mental illness and self-destruction. In the rock world, the list of casualties includes such names as the Rolling Stones’ Brian Jones, 13th Floor Elevators’ Roky Erickson, folk singer Nick Drake, Derek & the Dominos drummer Jim Gordon, producers Phil Spector and Joe Meek, Moby Grape’s Skip Spence, and Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett.
Barrett’s story is as striking and poignant as any of them. Born in 1946 in Cambridge, England, he co-founded and named Pink Floyd in 1965 and served as its original frontman. He composed eight of the 11 tracks on the band’s psychedelic debut album, 1967’s The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, including the great “Astronomy Domine,” and co-wrote two of the others, among them the lengthy –and spacey – instrumental “Interstellar Overdrive.” He also penned the group’s memorable second single, “See Emily Play,” which incorporates typically abstruse Barrett lyrics about losing your mind, “gazing through trees in sorrow” and floating “on a river forever and ever.”
But he made more modest contributions to Pink Floyd’s sophomore LP, 1968’s A Saucerful of Secrets, and was kicked out of the band before that album’s release as his apparent mental illness and drug use intensified. After subsequently releasing two commercially unsuccessful solo records, he walked away from the music business.
Barrett, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2006 at age 60, spent most of his remaining years living in obscurity off his royalties and creating abstract paintings that he often destroyed. Pink Floyd, meanwhile, went on to become one of the world’s biggest bands, thanks to such albums as The Dark Side of the Moon, which charted for nearly 20 years and has sold close to 50 million copies, and Wish You Were Here, which includes a tribute to Barrett called “Shine On, You Crazy Diamond.”
So, what exactly happened to the group’s original leader? Was he in fact crazy? Why did he turn his back on the rock world? And why has his music had such an impact, not just on his former bandmates but on many other artists? A 2023 film that has just been released digitally and in a DVD/Blu-ray package doesn’t definitively answer these questions, but it grapples at length with all of them and gives us as full a picture as we’re likely to get of Barrett’s sad but fascinating life, career, and mercurial mindset.
Called Have You Got It Yet?: The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd, the movie features interviews with many people who knew him, among them his childhood friends, sister, and girlfriends; the Who’s Pete Townshend; Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, Nick Mason, and David Gilmour; and the group’s original managers. It helps that the late Storm Thorgerson, who co-directed, conducted the interviews, as he grew up in Cambridge with Barrett and was already acquainted with many of the people he spoke with for the film.
The DVD/Blu-ray set comes with several notable bonus features, including two spirited concert performances of Barrett’s “Arnold Layne,” one with David Gilmour, Richard Wright, and Nick Mason in their last performance as Pink Floyd, the other featuring Gilmour and David Bowie. Among additional extras are mini-features devoted to Barrett’s paintings and lyrics, an interview with co-director Roddy Bogawa, and a film-length track with commentary by Bogawa and the producers.
Also Noteworthy
Melissa Carper, Borned in Ya. Melissa Carper, who released the terrific Ramblin’ Soul in 2022 and collaborated with Kelly Willis and Brennen Leigh on this year’s equally remarkable Wonder Women of Country, is back with another solo release. At least as impressive as those earlier albums, the new Borned in Ya exudes charm and originality and offers more evidence that Carper deserves fame, fortune, and a shelf full of Grammys.
Critics often label her “alt-country,” but that barely hints at the wide array of influences displayed on the almost entirely self-penned CD, which includes three tunes co-written with Leigh. “I Don’t Love You Anymore” sounds like something out of the Great American Songbook while “Your Furniture’s Too Nice” is one of several jazz-tinged numbers and “Somewhere Between Texas and Tennessee” is somewhere between Bob Wills and Patsy Cline. Throughout, the star of the show is Carper’s elastic, instantly identifiable voice. As she proclaims in the gospel-influenced title track, “You can’t sing like this ’less you’re borned in it.” Amen.
Gene Clark, Back Street Mirror: Revisited. Roger McGuinn, Gram Parsons, and David Crosby garner the lion’s share of notice for the Byrds’ successes, but Gene Clark, who co-founded the group and wrote such standouts as “I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better,” also played a big role. His talents have come into sharper focus in recent years, thanks to such posthumous CDs as 2018’s Gene Clark Sings for You; 2019’s No Other; The Lost Studio Sessions: 1964–1982, which came out in an expanded edition earlier in 2024; and now Back Street Mirror: Revisited, a digital-only release.
This album, which first appeared as a six-song vinyl LP in 2018, has been expanded to include five tracks – one from 1964 and the rest from 1970 – that first surfaced in 2016 on a limited edition of The Lost Studio Sessions. Highlights include the baroque-pop title cut, which showcases a Dylanesque vocal; “Yesterday, Am I Right,” another baroque-pop entry, this one featuring a horn arrangement by Hugh Masekela and redolent of portions of the first Blood, Sweat & Tears LP; and “If I Hang Around,” an acoustic folk demo of a song that would have made a fine addition to the Byrds’ catalog.
AJ Lee & Blue Summit, City of Glass. Everything clicks on this third album from AJ Lee & Blue Summit, a California-based quartet that’s rooted in bluegrass but embraces elements of folk, jazz, and Americana. In addition to a sensual cover of Harlan Howard’s “He Called Me Baby,” the uniformly first-rate 12-track program offers five numbers by Lee, the group’s namesake, mandolinist, and principal lead singer; three by guitarist Scott Gates; two by guitarist Sullivan Tuttle (one with a co-author); and one by producer Lech Wierzyski, a member of the California Honeydroppers, a blues and R&B outfit. Blue Summit also features fiddler Jan Purat.
Imaginative, sometimes quirky material is just one of several weapons in the arsenal of this band, which sometimes recalls Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks. Highlights include the previously mentioned Howard cover, the moody “I Can’t Find You at All,” which features guest vocalist Molly Tuttle; the lighthearted “Sick on a Plane”; and Tuttle’s catchy “Seaside Town,” which is sung by its author.
Jeff Burger’s website, byjeffburger.com, contains five decades’ worth of music reviews, interviews, and commentary. His books include Dylan on Dylan: Interviews and Encounters, Lennon on Lennon: Conversations with John Lennon, Leonard Cohen on Leonard Cohen: Interviews and Encounters, and Springsteen on Springsteen: Interviews, Speeches, and Encounters.
