First to mention. A beautiful cover with inner sleeve that adds much to understanding the lyrical life of Syd. One complements the other very well.
Well documented is the slide into musical anonymity that happened with Syd. So what you get here is a summary of the life of Syd Barrett which is fascinating. Of all the compositions, does it get any better than ‘Terrapin’? What a magnificent track, so simple it is untrue. And does it really matter that the lyrics require a philosophy degree to understand them? And you get a follow up in ‘Love You’ that jingles along as if it was knocked off before breakfast. And that is how this LP goes. Not every track may be to your taste but does it matter? Every track offers an insight into a life that demands an ear or two. Probably no more so than ‘Here I go’ which I guess we have all experienced. What a great song and story. No idea whether it was true but you surely believe / want it to be.
And that is what this LP offers. It takes you places you don’t necessarily want to be taken. Musically it is not especially challenging but isn’t that what we sometimes need with our music? It really is a great selection of songs. You may think from reading this, that I once ran his fan club. Far from it. To be honest I knew very little about the guy except that he flunked out of Floyd at an early stage. So, I’m fresh into this and I urge you to follow the same path. You don’t need to like Floyd, but I guarantee you will come away from this collection with an equal measure of fascination and education. It is a long way from Dark Side of the Moon, but it’s comforting to think this is what exists on the brighter, lighter side.
Fabulous.
