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R.I.P. Syd
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Rev Matt
26 posts

Re: R.I.P. Syd
Jul 12, 2006, 00:13
I just heard. Haven't been on this site in a while but this was the first place I thought of going.

At the risk of sounding like a shameless name dropper, it was The Seth Man who first turned me on to Syd Barrett over 25 years ago. (I first turned him onto The Teardrop Explodes, should we call it even?) I remember listening to Piper at the Gates of Dawn for the first time and thinkingm "Damn, this blows the doors out of just about any other psychedelia I've ever heard." Still does.

My band covered Lucifer Sam. I tried to write songs on a par with Astronomy Domine and Intersteller Overdrive but fell short. Who hasn't? I would say that very few who were inspired by Barrett ever came close. Maybe Brian Eno and a couple of others. This is not to say that those who followed Barrett were somehow subpar. Far from it. I would have to say that among my top 100 favorite albums since 1967 close to half were strongly influenced by the early Floyd. Fried, Peggy Suicide, every Brian Eno album, Underwater Moonlight, Heaven Up Here, The Man Who Sold The World, Dealing With The Dead... the list goes one. All would be unimagineable without Piper At the Gates of Dawn.

What can we say? Syd Barrett set the bar pretty high as a lyricist, songwriter, arranger and guitarist.
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