The Brightest Diamond of Rock Music: Syd Barret; The founder of Pink Floyd, the leader who chose the name of the band, wrote the lyrics of almost all of the songs in the first album, played the guitar, and sang the songs.
The artist, whose real name is Roger Keith Barrett, was born in Cambridge on January 6, 1946. He was the fourth child of Doctor Arthur Max and his wife Winifred Barrett. Roger, who received a very good education, gradually shifted his success in sports and scouting activities toward artistic and creative direction and became interested in acting, painting, and music. His biggest supporter, his father, was a fan of classical music and, like his other children, he instilled this love of music in Roger at an early age. However, Roger's happy childhood years were overshadowed by the sudden death of his father. Roger was only 14 years old when this unfortunate incident occurred, and it was a huge and unexpected trauma for him.
Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett (6 January 1946 – 7 July 2006) was an English singer, guitarist, and songwriter who co-founded the rock band Pink Floyd in 1965. Barrett was the band's frontman and primary songwriter, known for his whimsical style of psychedelia, English-accented singing, and stream-of-consciousness writing style. As a guitarist, he was influential for his free-form playing and for employing effects such as dissonance, distortion, echo and feedback.
During these years, Roger bought his first guitar and changed his name to Syd, after a drummer he loved very much. He made many friends in the musical circles in Cambridge, including David Gilmour. David and Syd formed a great friendship and started playing together at a club called The Mill. David's technique was superior to Syd's, but Syd was a genius at writing lyrics. He showed the same talent in painting and won a scholarship to attend Camberwell School of Art in London.
In 1965 he left the family home and moved to London permanently. He started playing in the Rand B Band with the advice of Roger Waters, whom he knew from Cambridge. The band's drummer, Nicholas Berkley Mason, was an architecture student. Richard William Right, on the keyboard, was studying music in London. Everyone in the group had a musical background, but Syd had a more special talent. With his love for painting, he was transforming colors into notes. In a short time, he became the leader of the group with his impressive personality and rare talent, and together with his bandmates, he founded the band Pink Floyd, inspired by two musicians named Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. The compositions of Syd, who is considered the father of psychedelic music with the different effects he added to the sounds and stage shows, made the band known in a short time. In 1967, Pink Floyd released its first album "The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn". The lyrics of all songs except one in this album belonged to Syd Barrett. "See Emily Play", also written by Syd and written for an imaginary girl, was one of the songs that made the band known.
However, as his success increased, Syd Barret began to use more drugs and wrote his songs under the influence of drugs. One of his songs (Candy and A Current Bun) was even banned because it was about drug addiction. Syd, who was becoming less and less sober, fell out with his bandmates due to his poor performance at concerts.
After parting ways with the band Pink Floyd, he chose to stay completely away from the public eye. During this period, he released two solo albums, "The Madcap Laughs" and "Barret". He made these albums with materials he collected between 1966 and 1977, the period when he was most productive in songwriting. He received considerable support from David Gilmour and the group "Soft Machine" in the production of these albums. Unlike Pink Floyd, he used only an acoustic guitar in his solo albums. He went to his last concert after the album "The Madcap Laughs" and left the concert unfinished by leaving the stage during the third song. After these albums, he made plans for his third solo album, but these plans never came true. Barret wrote very few new songs after leaving Pink Floyd.
He returned to music in 1972 with a band he called "Stars", and he disbanded this band after their third concert.
In 1975, Pink Floyd included two songs dedicated to Syd on the album "Wish You Were Here". One of them was “Shine on You Crazy Diamond” and the other was “Wish You Were Here”. The band members, who came to the studio during the recording of this album and saw him overweight and exhausted, did not want to believe that the person who came was Syd Barrett. But Roger Waters was sure it was Syd Barrett. After this meeting, he never met with the band members again. Pink Floyd also wrote the song "Brain Damage" from the album "Dark Side of The Moon", inspired by Syd. Additionally, "Pink", the main character of the movie "The Wall", was created by Roger Waters, inspired by Syd Barrett.
In 1988, the album "Opel", consisting of Barrett's unreleased songs and adaptations of songs from his two solo albums, was released. In 1993, Syd Barrett's post-Pink Floyd works were released as the Crazy Diamond Box set. In 2001, his best-of album "Wouldn't You Miss Me" was released with two unreleased songs.
During his retreat in Cambridgeshire, Syd Barrett devoted himself to painting. Barrett, whose health deteriorated, died on July 7, 2006.