Syd Barrett: Real Genius or Real Hype?

Guy_Debord_68 wrote: You have to really get your head around Syds solo work. You have to remember the context it was recorded in and how his mind was working. Some of it is car crash listening but there are moments of clarity like 'Octopus', which is majorly great song writing and construction. 'No good trying' was lofi/grunge 20 years in advance and songs like 'Baby Lemonade' and 'Dominoes' are beautiful. If well polished muso prog is what you're after then Syd aint your man That was never going to be hid shctick. The likes of 'Interstellar Overdrive' bore more resemblance to Velvet Underground and the avant garde than hippy dippy, glossy prog.

The context in which an album was recorded may have some interesting value to it, and actually help me gain some apreciation towards the artist as a person. But in the end, what really makes me like or love an album is the music. It doesn't matter how hard it was for the artist to do it, or if his mind was already shattering and it meant a superhuman effort, if I don't like the music, then it's just interesting information, and I won't like the music anymore because of that. There are some songs I like from Barret's solo albums, but not enough to make me actually like those albums as a whole. Some of the songs I like better on Gilmour's cover versions. And in general, I like more what Syd did with Pink Floyd than what he did solo... and even more, I like better what Pink Floyd did without Syd than what they did with him.

Edited by Dellinger - August 27 2015 at 21:10

Seconded here. While most Syd fans probably got into his albums after reading how he went round the bend, there's the hipster part of his fanbase who elevate his work because of that and stopped judging his music based on its own merits. Then again, that can be said of any fanbase.