The Bloc-ROCK
Syd Barrett in 1965
Syd Barrett. If this name doesn’t ring a bell, it’s because this guy spent very little time in the music industry. Between the middle of the 60’s and the early 70’s, the Crazy Diamond created one of the most famous bands in the world. He spent less than three years as frontman of Pink Floyd, but he changed the band and its members forever. His influence, both musical and personal, was huge.
In 1965 Roger Keith Barrett, a.k.a Syd, formed Pink Floyd with three of his friends from architecture school. The name of the band came from two bluesmen, favourites of Syd: Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. In 1967 they released their first album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. This masterpiece from the psychedelic movement, is entirely composed and written by Syd. It is the only one he ever made. Pink Floyd became well-known in the underground music scene of London. They used to play with strobe lights, floating and flashing, and they experimented with various lighting and sound effects.
The approach of Syd is childish, he has a wonderful and fantastic universe. He wrote melodic and subtle compositions with poetic and sophisticated lyrics. But early on, he discovered LSD, this drug was very popular in the 60’s. Syd used to take a lot, too much, taking more and more every time. The three other band members, his friends, decided to recruit David Gilmour to help him to play the guitar. But only three months later Pink Floyd went from a five-member band with Gilmour, to a four-member band without Barrett. The Crazy Diamond then disappeared for a long time.
Pink Floyd in 1967 with from left to right Mason, Wright, Waters and Barrett.
Pink floyd in 1968 with the five-member formation.
The four-member rock band is the formation everybody knows. And like that the band will reigned on the progressive rock stage that way for the next ten years. Pink Floyd can be analysed in four periods, four times.
The first period from 1965 to 1968 can be considered as the psychedelic period which ended with the disappearance of Syd.
The second period began with Gilmour, who brought about a new way of working. The band no longer played the more psychedelic stuff, and instead switched to a more progressive rock. They became better known and released five albums between 1969 and 1973.
The third period starts in 1973 when they released Dark side of the Moon. It was an artistic and commercial success. Soon after, they released Wish you were here, an album recorded during a time of great heartache for the band. The next album Animals is the most vengeful, the most aggressive. They finished the 70’s with one last album, a rock opera, written almost entirely by Roger Waters, who became the leader of the group, The Wall.
The final period from 1980 to 2014 is significant because it marked the end of one of the best rock bands of all time. They first released one record with Waters but without Wright and then three more records with Wright and without Waters.
The well-known four-member formation of Pink Floyd
The most interesting period -for me- is from 1973 to 1975. In 1973 they had just released Dark Side of the Moon, which was a huge success. It is difficult to start working again after such an accomplishment. It was difficult for them to find another bright idea. However, in 1975, they did it. After an exhausting tour and despite of all the strain between Gilmour and Waters, they finally found an idea. The absence of Syd Barrett gave them the inspiration for this new opus.
Wish you were here was a tribute album to their old leader and friend.
The album was released in 1975 and included five songs with one split in half because it couldn’t fit on one vinyl side. “Shine on You crazy Diamond” is a song about absence. The lack of inspiration, the lack of unity between all the members, the absence of Syd Barrett. “Remember when you were young / You shone like the sun / Shine on you crazy diamond”.
“Shine on…” is Pink Floyd’s longest song (25 minutes!). The next two songs “Welcome to the Machine” and “Have a cigar” are, both, cutting critics of the musical industry. Indeed, Waters regarded the industry more as a corporate machine than a way of artistic expression. That’s what makes this album so special in its genesis, as in its result. This album managed to link solitude and brotherhood, internal tensions and collective bravery. “From the incommunicability between us, are born the strength and singularity of our music” said Gilmour. This album crystallized the will left by Barrett after his departure.
In the middle of the mixing process of “Shine on…”, somebody went to visit them. “I remember I came in the studio and there was this guy standing […] large, large bloke. I had no idea who it was” said Mason. This person headed straight for the recording room. It took the band a while to finally understand who this guy was. After a moment, Gilmour recognised his friend, Syd Barrett.
He was unrecognisable. He was fat, big and old. He was bald and devastated by the drugs. Waters and Gilmour burst into tears at the sight of him. It was the last time they saw him before his death in July 2006.
From this visit, and in despite of their tensions, was born a new song which gave the album its title, another tribute to their lovely friend, “Wish you were here”.
Syd Barrett in 1975