Mad as a hatter, but greatness sometimes comes with lunacy

I like him, but I like post-Barrett Pink Floyd more.

Still, I don't know that I've ever heard an artist be as whimsical and sad at the same time. If the goal of music is self-expression, Syd deserves to be among the greats.

I love Syd Barrett...anytime I start reading about his slide , it makes me cry.

He was a true poet and a genius and I agree with James Lee. His solo stuff is actually more interesting.

Love him of course, he is undobtedly the favorite member of my favorite band. It is clearly evident that he is a truly astounding songwriter, even while he is writing through the lens a mentally instable recovering drugaddict.

James Lee wrote: ^ not recovering. He never recovered. He just didn't die from it like so many others.

At the time of his solo projects, he was recovering from a nervous breakdown. Of course he never recovered, I was merely stating that in such a state of mind his brilliance still shined through.

Artistic genius and powerful catalyst. Often imitated never bettered.

Just like Theakson's Old Peculiar in some ways...

 A DVD release just came out last week, I believe, about Syd and the Pink Floyd legacy. It's interesting to listen to Roger talk about him and get so emotional. Robyn Hitchcock also sings a couple of Syd's tunes. While Syd is not my favorite Floydian, I'll vote for the 'love' his music category.

erik neuteboom wrote: Mind that Syd due to schizophrenia and drug abuse was never able to fulfill the dreams of so many fans and people from the musicial press!

He actually suffers from a rare disorder known as Asperger's Syndrome. Anywho, I love him, brilliant man, too bad he's a reculse now.

Giacas wrote: lol too far man, but hmm i dno. hard choice. some of his stuffs ok, but most of it annoys me.

Agree!!

Love him ... how could I not? The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn is a unique and (I actually feel) underrated album that broke all kinds of new ground ... For that one fleeting moment Syd was so far ahead of a vast majority of his contemporaries ...

a real pity it couldn't last ...

Hallo Damen.

I'm very curious where you get that information about the Asperger Syndrome from? I have read many books about Syd Barrett and never read anything about that syndrome and several people (like Roger Waters) sonsider Syd's behaviour as from a schizophrenic disease. I'm working for 20 years as a psychiatric nurse and to me his symptoms are very similar to schizophrenia and not to the Asperger Syndrome. On the other hand, it often happen that schizophrenia and forms of austism (like the Asperger Syndrome) are confused with each other so I'm curious to your explanation, very interesting!

Why such sharp alternative love or hate? Can't we be just good friends?

erik neuteboom wrote: Hallo Damen. I'm very curious where you get that information about the Asperger Syndrome from? I have read many books about Syd Barrett and never read anything about that syndrome and several people (like Roger Waters) sonsider Syd's behaviour as from a schizophrenic disease. I'm working for 20 years as a psychiatric nurse and to me his symptoms are very similar to schizophrenia and not to the Asperger Syndrome. On the other hand, it often happen that schizophrenia and forms of austism (like the Asperger Syndrome) are confused with each other so I'm curious to your explanation, very interesting!

Well, the common symptoms of Asperger's syndrome are social impairments, such as being unable to express oneself using body language, facial expressions, and nuance in the ways most people do. Another symptom is narrow, intense interests, which focus on a certain thing to a degree that manifests extremely sophisticated reason, an almost obsessive focus, and eidetic memory. Another symptom is speech and language peculiarities, inlucing a rare gift for humor (in the form of puns, wordplay, doggerel, satire, ect.) or a rare gift for writing. Other symptoms include  range of other sensory, developmental, and physiological anomalies, a delayed development of motor skills at a young age, and they also may display a distinctive "waddling" or "mincing" gait when they walk and may walk with their arms held out in an unusual manner. Compulsive finger, hand, or arm movements, such as flapping, are also observed.

I think that better describes Barrett's behavior rather than schizophrenia as I see him display more of these behaviors.

Hello Damen.

Thanks for your interesting answer! My problems with your explanation concerns his abilities with communication, sport and humor. Indeed, he has a very special way of expressing himself with words (like 'newspeak' and association) but in general Syd could communicate very well, he could maintain relationships, he did sports (no problems with his way of moving) and he had a very good sense of humor. All these facts you can read in the excellent books about Syd: Lost in the woods and Crazy Diamond. In my opinion all problems really started after the sudden death of his father (when Syd was almost 16). His behaviour became more and more strange and he even started to lose contact with the reality (but this was also due to the abuse of acid). In my opinion he suffered from paranoid hallucinations, deeper than from drugs-abuse and went in a catatonic schizophrenic state on stage (when he stood motionless with his guitar on his neck). In my opinion he's nowadays suffering from the negative symptomes of schizophrenia like partial lost of activity and emotion, fragmentic thinking and formes of regression.

This is my explanation, Damen, don't consider it as an attack because your explanation did let me think and today I've searched on Internet on Asperger Syndrome sites.This in order to obtain more information, it remains very interesting although Syd's situation is very bad also due to his deteriorating diabetic state (he can hardly see).

erik neuteboom wrote: Hello Damen. Thanks for your interesting answer! My problems with your explanation concerns his abilities with communication, sport and humor. Indeed, he has a very special way of expressing himself with words (like 'newspeak' and association) but in general Syd could communicate very well, he could maintain relationships, he did sports (no problems with his way of moving) and he had a very good sense of humor. All these facts you can read in the excellent books about Syd: Lost in the woods and Crazy Diamond. In my opinion all problems really started after the sudden death of his father (when Syd was almost 16). His behaviour became more and more strange and he even started to lose contact with the reality (but this was also due to the abuse of acid). In my opinion he suffered from paranoid hallucinations, deeper than from drugs-abuse and went in a catatonic schizophrenic state on stage (when he stood motionless with his guitar on his neck). In my opinion he's nowadays suffering from the negative symptomes of schizophrenia like partial lost of activity and emotion, fragmentic thinking and formes of regression. This is my explanation, Damen, don't consider it as an attack because your explanation did let me think and today I've searched on Internet on Asperger Syndrome sites.This in order to obtain more information, it remains very interesting although Syd's situation is very bad also due to his deteriorating diabetic state (he can hardly see).

Of course I don't consider it an attack, you presented your argument in an intelligent way and you didn't slander me. It's nice to have good converation.

With that explanation you made some valid points that I have overlooked, it seems to me like he does suffer from hightened schizophrenia due to his father's death and his LSD abuse, I had just thought he had high-functioning autism because the symptoms seem to be quite similar, so I can also appreciate why the two are confused so often. I had also read somewhere that he was diabetic but I wasn't completely certain, thanks for clarifying that.

i might be the only one but i dont like his pink floyd stuff as much as his solo work

Syd Barrett: the modern Narcissus!