A Legend And A Martyr

Syd Barrett died. Now; I hated his music. I hated his version of Pink Floyd, I hated his solo albums, and I hated his attitude. But I find myself amazed nonetheless that his impact on the band carried as much weight as it did. He created and gave birth to the indomitably experimental and free-associative nature of the band, the rest of which fleshed his ideas out with actual talent. The album Wish You Were Here was his living requiem, a song for the damned and a forceful reminder of the dynamism of Pink Floyd. I don't even really listen to Floyd anymore, certainly not anything Syd wrote. I don't even like a lot of the stuff they did after he was ousted. But Floyd being more than Roger Waters and David Gilmour, especially in matters of essence, suffice it to say that its founder and decisive member is now as physically gone as he had been mentally for nearly forty years.

Here is a small collection of interviews with Syd over a five-year span. See for yourself how truly sad his decline was for anyone who cared about Pink Floyd, least of all its other members.