"I don't think I'm easy to talk about. I've got a very irregular
head. And I'm not anything that you think I am anyway."--Syd
Barrett's last interview, "Rolling Stone, "1971 Roger Keith "Syd"
Barrett (1946-2006) was, by all accounts, the very definition of a
golden boy. Blessed with good looks and a natural aptitude for
painting and music, he was a charismatic, elfin child beloved by
all, who fast became a teenage leader in Cambridge, England, where
a burgeoning bohemian scene was flourishing in the early 1960s.
Along with three friends and collaborators--Roger Waters, Richard
Wright, and Nick Mason--he formed what would soon become Pink
Floyd, and rock 'n' roll was never the same. Starting as a typical
British cover band aping approximations of American rhythm 'n'
blues, they soon pioneered an entirely new sound, and British
psychedelic rock was born. With early, trippy, Barrett-penned pop
hits such as "Arnold Layne" (about a clothesline-thieving
cross-dresser) and "See Emily Play" (written specifically for the
epochal "Games For May" concert), Pink Floyd, with Syd Barrett as
their main creative visionary, captured the zeitgeist of "Swinging"
London in all its Technicolor glory. But there was a dark side to
all this new-found freedom. Barrett, like so many around him, began
ingesting large quantities of a revolutionary new drug, LSD, and
his already-fragile mental state--coupled with a personality
inherently unsuited to the life of a pop star--began to unravel.
The once bright-eyed lad was quickly replaced, seemingly overnight,
by a glowering, sinister, dead-eyed shadow of his former self,
given to erratic, highly eccentric, reclusive, and sometimes
violent behavior. Inevitably sacked from the band, Barrett
retreated from London to his mother's house in Cambridge, where he
would remain until his death, only rarely seen or heard, further
fueling the mystery. In the meantime, Pink Floyd emerged from the
underground to become one of the biggest international rock bands
of all time, releasing multi-platinum albums, many that dealt
thematically with the loss of their friend Syd Barrett: "The Dark
Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, "and "The Wall" are all, on
many levels, about him. In "A Very Irregular Head," journalist Rob
Chapman lifts the veil of secrecy that has surrounded the legend of
Syd Barrett for nearly four decades, drawing on exclusive access to
family, friends, archives, journals, letters, and artwork to create
the definitive portrait of a brilliant and tragic artist. Besides
capturing all the promise of Barrett's youthful years, Chapman
challenges the oft-held notion that Barrett was a hopelessly lost
recluse in his later years, and creates a portrait of a true
British eccentric who is rightfully placed within a rich literary
lineage that stretches through Kenneth Graham, Hilaire Belloc,
Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll, John Lennon, David Bowie, and on up to
the pioneers of Britpop. A tragic, affectionate, and compelling
portrait of a singular artist, "A Very Irregular Head" will stand
as the authoritative word on this very English genius for years to
come.
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