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A Very Irregular Head: The Life of Syd Barrett
“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.
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.
465 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 26, 2010
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May 17, 2011
While I was reading this book I saw Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys on Jools Holland. I had mixed feelings about it; on one level I was glad to see him still being able to perform but on another level I felt uncomfortable as he looked ill at ease as he launched into California Girls. Would Syd Barrett, founder of Pink Floyd and a source of dodgy myths, have ended up like that if he'd been persuaded out of retirement?
There have been several biographies of Syd Barrett over the years; some content to rehash old tales of acid casualty Syd who had it all and fried his brain or, as in Lost In the Woods, pose the question, Art or Commerce which do you choose? In this book, Rob Chapman does Barrett a real service by dispelling the weird stories and the rumours and recreating him as a flesh and blood person who became sidetracked into the music business from a career as a painter, crashed and burned spectacularly, withdrew from the world and managed to make a life for himself that suited him. Chapman puts Barrett in the context of English whimsy and surrealism by using quotes from The Wind in the Willows as chapter headings and comparisons with Edward Lear, Hillaire Belloc and Lewis Carroll. English psychedelia was based on child like notions and a return to the nursery whereas American psychedelia came out of a garage band tradition.
Barrett entered the music business just as things were about to change in the acid haze of the mid-60's and soon found himself with the role of hitmaking lyricist and guitarist. It was a time of package tour music, money hungry promoters, interviews, publicity and when's the next hit Syd? Creativity and commerce don't always go together and if you're not going to play the game you're not going to last long. Morrissey does it on his terms and gets called miserable and unco-operative. Barrett's time in the spotlight was brief as serious problems began to emerge and no-one seemed quite sure whether it was his acid intake or underlying mental health problems which were accelerated by the drugs. The over-riding feeling I got from the interviews and comments by people in the book who knew him was that they could see he wasn't waving but drowning and they couldn't, or didn't know, how to help him. He walked away from it all after making 2 solo albums and eventually returned to his home town of Cambridge. He lived there until his death at 60 in 2006 when he made front page news which surprised me and maybe it would have surprised him.
I first encountered Syd Barrett through Nick Kent's 1974 NME article The Cracked Ballad of Syd Barrett which established a lot of the legends and myths which this book lays to rest. Barrett fascinated me; good-looking, charming, talented, founded one of the biggest bands ever and then vanished into madness or that's what I thought. I enjoyed The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, bought the solo LPs, a bootleg and a couple of biographies. Chapman was
lucky enough to see Syd playing live post Floyd and always remembered the impression that it made on him. But who was Roger, who became Syd, and then Roger again? I met Chapman at the City Wakes event when he mentioned the book and and I remember thinking then that this might actually do Barrett justice which it does.
I attended a recent exhibition of Barrett's artworks from pre- and post Floyd and was really impressed. He always burnt his finished work after photographing it. It seemed that creativity on its own terms was enough for him. Chapman suggests that Barrett ultimately, with the support of his family, found a life for himself that he wanted and was happy with. Syd had vanished with the 60's and bad memories. Like Captain Beefheart, aka Don Van Vliet, he had renounced music for painting.
When I finished the book I felt that Barrett had come alive as a flesh and blood person instead of some crazy diamond or failed acid head loser. He seemed an inspiring figure in that above all else he wanted, and managed to create, until the end of his life.
Chapman cites Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac who suffered similar problems and returned to
There have been several biographies of Syd Barrett over the years; some content to rehash old tales of acid casualty Syd who had it all and fried his brain or, as in Lost In the Woods, pose the question, Art or Commerce which do you choose? In this book, Rob Chapman does Barrett a real service by dispelling the weird stories and the rumours and recreating him as a flesh and blood person who became sidetracked into the music business from a career as a painter, crashed and burned spectacularly, withdrew from the world and managed to make a life for himself that suited him. Chapman puts Barrett in the context of English whimsy and surrealism by using quotes from The Wind in the Willows as chapter headings and comparisons with Edward Lear, Hillaire Belloc and Lewis Carroll. English psychedelia was based on child like notions and a return to the nursery whereas American psychedelia came out of a garage band tradition.
Barrett entered the music business just as things were about to change in the acid haze of the mid-60's and soon found himself with the role of hitmaking lyricist and guitarist. It was a time of package tour music, money hungry promoters, interviews, publicity and when's the next hit Syd? Creativity and commerce don't always go together and if you're not going to play the game you're not going to last long. Morrissey does it on his terms and gets called miserable and unco-operative. Barrett's time in the spotlight was brief as serious problems began to emerge and no-one seemed quite sure whether it was his acid intake or underlying mental health problems which were accelerated by the drugs. The over-riding feeling I got from the interviews and comments by people in the book who knew him was that they could see he wasn't waving but drowning and they couldn't, or didn't know, how to help him. He walked away from it all after making 2 solo albums and eventually returned to his home town of Cambridge. He lived there until his death at 60 in 2006 when he made front page news which surprised me and maybe it would have surprised him.
I first encountered Syd Barrett through Nick Kent's 1974 NME article The Cracked Ballad of Syd Barrett which established a lot of the legends and myths which this book lays to rest. Barrett fascinated me; good-looking, charming, talented, founded one of the biggest bands ever and then vanished into madness or that's what I thought. I enjoyed The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, bought the solo LPs, a bootleg and a couple of biographies. Chapman was
lucky enough to see Syd playing live post Floyd and always remembered the impression that it made on him. But who was Roger, who became Syd, and then Roger again? I met Chapman at the City Wakes event when he mentioned the book and and I remember thinking then that this might actually do Barrett justice which it does.
I attended a recent exhibition of Barrett's artworks from pre- and post Floyd and was really impressed. He always burnt his finished work after photographing it. It seemed that creativity on its own terms was enough for him. Chapman suggests that Barrett ultimately, with the support of his family, found a life for himself that he wanted and was happy with. Syd had vanished with the 60's and bad memories. Like Captain Beefheart, aka Don Van Vliet, he had renounced music for painting.
When I finished the book I felt that Barrett had come alive as a flesh and blood person instead of some crazy diamond or failed acid head loser. He seemed an inspiring figure in that above all else he wanted, and managed to create, until the end of his life.
Chapman cites Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac who suffered similar problems and returned to
August 23, 2021
I only finished this book out of this weird pathological need to keep arguing with it.
It's a shame, too, because I was looking forward to this book. Pink Floyd has been my favorite band since I was 12. I didn't really encounter Syd's music from the early years of the band until I was in my early 20s, and though it never really spoke to me in the way the band's later work did, I found it intriguing. And even more interesting to me was Syd's haunting story--one of very charming, quirky young man's quick stardom that unraveled into an apparent breakdown before culminating in decades of seclusion.
The author of this book is a big Syd fan but to the point he is incapable of being evenhanded in writing about his subject. He constantly places Syd on a pedestal to the expense of everyone else, and in my opinion, it really erodes his credibility as a writer. He also has the bizarre tendency to just unequivocally assert that something is amazing or awful with no real explanation of why, and I usually ended up having the opposite opinion. I still have no clue why he thinks some lyrics that sound like absolute tripe to me are profound or why lyrics I've always found incredibly perceptive and moving are apparently tripe to him since he just seems to think his opinion is a universal law.
More damningly to his credibility, though, is his tendency to leave out inconvenient facts that don't support his version of events. He also doesn't even seem to have a coherent point that he is trying to make.
At times, he claims that Syd wasn't "crazy" at all and was just rebelling against the demands of a pop star and taking control of his own life. But his only evidence for this, despite credible stories he acknowledges comes from people without a motivation to make Syd look bad of how unhinged Syd was behaving, is that he doesn't *look* unwell.
He then turns right around and admits that Syd was clearly unwell and unable to function and accuses the band of jettisoning him cruelly, despite the fact that they actually did attempt to get him to see psychologists and even tried to keep him on as a songwriter with no performing duties before kicking him out and then afterward ensured he received his royalties, tried to assist him with solo projects, and ultimately respected his wishes that he wanted to be left alone.
One of the facets of this book that was most frustrating to me was that, even when addressing Syd's mental state, the author is clearly uncomfortable with the extent of Syd's behavior (particularly his increasing capacity for violence) and just skirts around that entirely. Like, he spends pages on incredibly tenuous theories about Syd and literature (more on that below) but only addresses his documented violent outbursts briefly in 2 paragraphs.
I'm all for acknowledging that Syd's condition and story is probably more complex than it is usually treated--as one of incipient schizophrenia exacerbated by heavy LSD use. I do think Syd had some mental health issues (and a lot of the stories about him have always sounded like depression to me, based on personal experience) that were compounded by the fact that he was ill suited to his sudden rise to pop stardom in the late 1960s and miserable as a result. Syd disliked the strain of touring and seemed to struggle with the discipline required for recording.
He was spontaneous in his creativity and not particularly disciplined in his approach to creating music--painting was his first love. The author seems to idealize this in a way that I--as someone who is both creative and has had to manage creative people--find pretty naïve. Syd disliking routines and schedules and wanting to paint more than make music doesn't make him a bad person anymore than the fact that his bandmates could show up on time, do what they were hired to do, and being interested in a career in music make them sellouts, but don't tell this author that.
And I don't think anyone, even the members of Pink Floyd, deny that Syd's exit from the band was messy and not always well handled (at a time when mental illness was not well understood) by a bunch of young men who never developed real skills at handling conflict even well into middle age. (See their messy split from each other in the 80s.)
But I don't really think anyone is the villain in the story, and I have never doubted that Syd's breakdown had a tremendous impact on all of his former bandmates. Even beyond the frequency that Syd is evoked in their songs, one only has to watch interviews with them about Syd even now to see how profoundly it still disturbs and haunts them (which even the author reluctantly admits seems sincere).
The author argues at times that everyone else in the band were talentless hacks who were jealous of Syd and nothing without him while also seeming perplexed that Syd visibly flailed around in his solo efforts without them. Hmm. Maybe they had some talent of their own after all? He also at times seems to believe that Syd's exit was an obvious coup attempt to make the band more commercial in appeal. Despite the fact that even at its most popular, the band was always pretty un-radio-friendly and wallowed in several years of confusion about what to sound like after Syd's exit because they had lost their songwriter (and their first managers, who followed Syd in the wake of the divorce in the mistaken belief that once he'd recovered he would make them way more money than the Floyd ever would). It's not really the makings of a coup and a quest to be the kings of pop. Compare that to the Rolling Stones after Brian Jones was jettisoned.
It's one of his lesser crimes against good nonfiction writing, but the author also loves to incorporate long, tedious diversions into the text. As mentioned earlier, he strains to connect Syd's writing to English literature as a whole and also brings in a lot of random critical texts that have nothing to do with the topic. It reminds me of bad literary criticism I had to read in grad school. Some of these diversions are not uninteresting or unmerited trains of thought, but this guy just doesn't know when to stop. He also loves to insert himself into the story, even when it has nothing to do with him.
To be fair, there is some good stuff lurking in here, despite the author. Essentially, when he gets out of his own way and just lets his interview subjects talk from Syd's childhood and early life, it's quite an interesting read that gives a lot of good context for his middle-class upbringing in Cambridge and his early years in London's underground music scene. (The lack of interviews with anyone else from the band is pretty noticeable, though.) In those anecdotes of his early years, you can see the Syd that people tended to find so endearing, which the author's tedious pontifications never really bring out.
I also thought the author made a fair point that some of Syd's songs are now always immediately interpreted as sure signs of madness, to the point that it overshadows the creativity behind them, and I can certainly see his point about Syd's former band writing so much about his sanity as seeming a bit exploitative, even if that was not the intent. (Though he seems rather un-self-aware of how exploitative and creepy his own possessive fixation on Syd can come across.)
Really, this book's biggest problem is the author desperately insists that Syd's story is always oversimplified, but he is just as guilty of this as anyone else. Syd Barrett deserves a better biography that treats him as a person rather than an idol or a madman.
As to quote a later Pink Floyd song--which I am sure this author hates because Syd didn't write it--this book is nearly a laugh, but it's really a cry.
It's a shame, too, because I was looking forward to this book. Pink Floyd has been my favorite band since I was 12. I didn't really encounter Syd's music from the early years of the band until I was in my early 20s, and though it never really spoke to me in the way the band's later work did, I found it intriguing. And even more interesting to me was Syd's haunting story--one of very charming, quirky young man's quick stardom that unraveled into an apparent breakdown before culminating in decades of seclusion.
The author of this book is a big Syd fan but to the point he is incapable of being evenhanded in writing about his subject. He constantly places Syd on a pedestal to the expense of everyone else, and in my opinion, it really erodes his credibility as a writer. He also has the bizarre tendency to just unequivocally assert that something is amazing or awful with no real explanation of why, and I usually ended up having the opposite opinion. I still have no clue why he thinks some lyrics that sound like absolute tripe to me are profound or why lyrics I've always found incredibly perceptive and moving are apparently tripe to him since he just seems to think his opinion is a universal law.
More damningly to his credibility, though, is his tendency to leave out inconvenient facts that don't support his version of events. He also doesn't even seem to have a coherent point that he is trying to make.
At times, he claims that Syd wasn't "crazy" at all and was just rebelling against the demands of a pop star and taking control of his own life. But his only evidence for this, despite credible stories he acknowledges comes from people without a motivation to make Syd look bad of how unhinged Syd was behaving, is that he doesn't *look* unwell.
He then turns right around and admits that Syd was clearly unwell and unable to function and accuses the band of jettisoning him cruelly, despite the fact that they actually did attempt to get him to see psychologists and even tried to keep him on as a songwriter with no performing duties before kicking him out and then afterward ensured he received his royalties, tried to assist him with solo projects, and ultimately respected his wishes that he wanted to be left alone.
One of the facets of this book that was most frustrating to me was that, even when addressing Syd's mental state, the author is clearly uncomfortable with the extent of Syd's behavior (particularly his increasing capacity for violence) and just skirts around that entirely. Like, he spends pages on incredibly tenuous theories about Syd and literature (more on that below) but only addresses his documented violent outbursts briefly in 2 paragraphs.
I'm all for acknowledging that Syd's condition and story is probably more complex than it is usually treated--as one of incipient schizophrenia exacerbated by heavy LSD use. I do think Syd had some mental health issues (and a lot of the stories about him have always sounded like depression to me, based on personal experience) that were compounded by the fact that he was ill suited to his sudden rise to pop stardom in the late 1960s and miserable as a result. Syd disliked the strain of touring and seemed to struggle with the discipline required for recording.
He was spontaneous in his creativity and not particularly disciplined in his approach to creating music--painting was his first love. The author seems to idealize this in a way that I--as someone who is both creative and has had to manage creative people--find pretty naïve. Syd disliking routines and schedules and wanting to paint more than make music doesn't make him a bad person anymore than the fact that his bandmates could show up on time, do what they were hired to do, and being interested in a career in music make them sellouts, but don't tell this author that.
And I don't think anyone, even the members of Pink Floyd, deny that Syd's exit from the band was messy and not always well handled (at a time when mental illness was not well understood) by a bunch of young men who never developed real skills at handling conflict even well into middle age. (See their messy split from each other in the 80s.)
But I don't really think anyone is the villain in the story, and I have never doubted that Syd's breakdown had a tremendous impact on all of his former bandmates. Even beyond the frequency that Syd is evoked in their songs, one only has to watch interviews with them about Syd even now to see how profoundly it still disturbs and haunts them (which even the author reluctantly admits seems sincere).
The author argues at times that everyone else in the band were talentless hacks who were jealous of Syd and nothing without him while also seeming perplexed that Syd visibly flailed around in his solo efforts without them. Hmm. Maybe they had some talent of their own after all? He also at times seems to believe that Syd's exit was an obvious coup attempt to make the band more commercial in appeal. Despite the fact that even at its most popular, the band was always pretty un-radio-friendly and wallowed in several years of confusion about what to sound like after Syd's exit because they had lost their songwriter (and their first managers, who followed Syd in the wake of the divorce in the mistaken belief that once he'd recovered he would make them way more money than the Floyd ever would). It's not really the makings of a coup and a quest to be the kings of pop. Compare that to the Rolling Stones after Brian Jones was jettisoned.
It's one of his lesser crimes against good nonfiction writing, but the author also loves to incorporate long, tedious diversions into the text. As mentioned earlier, he strains to connect Syd's writing to English literature as a whole and also brings in a lot of random critical texts that have nothing to do with the topic. It reminds me of bad literary criticism I had to read in grad school. Some of these diversions are not uninteresting or unmerited trains of thought, but this guy just doesn't know when to stop. He also loves to insert himself into the story, even when it has nothing to do with him.
To be fair, there is some good stuff lurking in here, despite the author. Essentially, when he gets out of his own way and just lets his interview subjects talk from Syd's childhood and early life, it's quite an interesting read that gives a lot of good context for his middle-class upbringing in Cambridge and his early years in London's underground music scene. (The lack of interviews with anyone else from the band is pretty noticeable, though.) In those anecdotes of his early years, you can see the Syd that people tended to find so endearing, which the author's tedious pontifications never really bring out.
I also thought the author made a fair point that some of Syd's songs are now always immediately interpreted as sure signs of madness, to the point that it overshadows the creativity behind them, and I can certainly see his point about Syd's former band writing so much about his sanity as seeming a bit exploitative, even if that was not the intent. (Though he seems rather un-self-aware of how exploitative and creepy his own possessive fixation on Syd can come across.)
Really, this book's biggest problem is the author desperately insists that Syd's story is always oversimplified, but he is just as guilty of this as anyone else. Syd Barrett deserves a better biography that treats him as a person rather than an idol or a madman.
As to quote a later Pink Floyd song--which I am sure this author hates because Syd didn't write it--this book is nearly a laugh, but it's really a cry.
September 16, 2010
My heart sank when I heard the news in 2006 that Syd Barrett passed away. Yet for many he has been dead since the early 1970's. Overall he left one Pink Floyd album and two solo albums - plus various singles - and all I think are quite magnificent.
Anyone who loves the rock mythology knows the Syd Barrett legend. Man burned out by LSD, and became a total eccentric recluse - which is basically true, but the important aspect of him is not his life really, but his music. And that, according the author (and I agree)is not caused by his mental problems or madness.
Barrett was a man who knew what he was doing. Insane, perhaps, but there was logic behind his insanity. The author Rob Chapman pretty much poo poos over all the legendary stories about Barrett, like he tried to stop a jet from taking off as if he was causally calling for a cab, or mixing pills & hair cream for his hairdo for a tv appearance and other such tall tales.
I think one of the appealing aspects of this book is Chapman has such a strong love for Barrett's work - that he gets upset regarding the half-truths, the no-truths, and just basic silly gossip. So, perhaps this is the first biography of the man who is not honored for his 'eccentricity' but for his skills as a songwriter and performer.
Chapman does a good job in interviewing old chums of Syd as well as interviewing Barrett's sister. A great rock bio on a truly great genius. Even though it lasted for only a little while.
Anyone who loves the rock mythology knows the Syd Barrett legend. Man burned out by LSD, and became a total eccentric recluse - which is basically true, but the important aspect of him is not his life really, but his music. And that, according the author (and I agree)is not caused by his mental problems or madness.
Barrett was a man who knew what he was doing. Insane, perhaps, but there was logic behind his insanity. The author Rob Chapman pretty much poo poos over all the legendary stories about Barrett, like he tried to stop a jet from taking off as if he was causally calling for a cab, or mixing pills & hair cream for his hairdo for a tv appearance and other such tall tales.
I think one of the appealing aspects of this book is Chapman has such a strong love for Barrett's work - that he gets upset regarding the half-truths, the no-truths, and just basic silly gossip. So, perhaps this is the first biography of the man who is not honored for his 'eccentricity' but for his skills as a songwriter and performer.
Chapman does a good job in interviewing old chums of Syd as well as interviewing Barrett's sister. A great rock bio on a truly great genius. Even though it lasted for only a little while.
November 20, 2021
Chapman delivers an extremely thorough biography on Pink Floyd's founder Roger Keith Barrett the second youngest child of five in Cambridge, England who like most at that time eventually went onto art school.
Chapman separates the reality from the myth in Syd Barrett's life researching and interviewing important people including Syd's own sister Rosemary in getting facts straight and not relying lazily on what has come before. The focus is on Syd first and the group Pink Floyd is secondary.
Chapters lead off with quotes from Kenneth Grahame's book "The Wind in the Willows" which sets the tone being a favored book in Barrett's life and among the key sources of his song lyrics and writing along with such authors as Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear, and Charles Dodgson to name a few.
The small sample size of Barrett's offerings before his descent into mental illness is analyzed and given its proper due.
Chapman separates the reality from the myth in Syd Barrett's life researching and interviewing important people including Syd's own sister Rosemary in getting facts straight and not relying lazily on what has come before. The focus is on Syd first and the group Pink Floyd is secondary.
Chapters lead off with quotes from Kenneth Grahame's book "The Wind in the Willows" which sets the tone being a favored book in Barrett's life and among the key sources of his song lyrics and writing along with such authors as Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear, and Charles Dodgson to name a few.
The small sample size of Barrett's offerings before his descent into mental illness is analyzed and given its proper due.
December 29, 2017
Several problems I had with this book:
- Chapman seems to repeatedly stress an argument that there isn't much filmed evidence of Syd Barrett being unhinged. Ergo, maybe he didn't have psychological problems after all (he does concede some slightly odd behaviour in the later years, grudgingly). But he doesn't seem to acknowledge that being mentally ill doesn't actually mean you're a rampaging, drooling lunatic 24/7. He apparently doesn't know you can have long, lucid periods between bad days. That those bad days can in fact be few and far between, but when they do occur, they cause problems. The fact that Barrett may have tried to behave in front of cameras - or that there may have been controls in place during a still fairly conservative period to keep that sort of thing off the screen, to "protect the public" - doesn't occur. Just seems to equal no photographic evidence, therefore, no proof. Never mind the fact that the members of the band that kicked him out wrote numerous songs about the fact he went a bit off the rails. But then, see point three.
- Long, long, incredibly tedious sections which don't even mention Syd Barrett. There is absolutely no need to discuss Rachmanism in this book, at any length, but Chapman does. Which really feels like filler, to make up for the next point.
- There is very little input from the actual members of Pink Floyd. Where's the Floyd, yo? A couple of comments from Gilmour (who obviously came in too late to really comment on what the title implies is the main focus of the book) and a couple of bits literally pasted from Wright's autobiography, I think. Seems like no one really wanted to talk to Chapman. Not that I blame them - it would have been turned into a pretty boring essay if they had.
- There's an overemphasis on overanalysing quite a lot of information that doesn't bear too much thought. People read these biographies for a keyhole look into a person's character - there should be much more of the funny little stories (the stuff about his love letters to his teenage sweetheart is endearing), far less joyless meditation on whether it was this edition of that volume of children's verse which inspired half of that line, or another. WHO CARES.
- He also makes references to photographs which don't actually appear in the images. Again, I'm wondering if there's something up and nobody likes Chapman, because the photos he describes do appear in the other biography, Crazy Diamond: Syd Barrett and the Dawn of Pink Floyd, so I'm wondering whether he was denied permission to use them because there was ill feeling against him or something. Bizarrely, there are actually quite a few images of Barrett's emptied home when its contents went up for auction after his death. It just feels ghoulish.
Edit: there's also quite a disapproving tone on Chapman's part, towards other biographers or even just other fans. He actively tries to insert himself into Barrett's life story (he went to a gig; he misremembered a story which was then printed, though he's disparaging enough against anyone else who doesn't check their facts first), and he seems to believe that by dragging in some fairly pretentious referencing (Susan Sontag name-drop, anyone?) he can justify what seems very much to be plain old snobbishness by one nerdy, tedious fan against another.
Not very good.
- Chapman seems to repeatedly stress an argument that there isn't much filmed evidence of Syd Barrett being unhinged. Ergo, maybe he didn't have psychological problems after all (he does concede some slightly odd behaviour in the later years, grudgingly). But he doesn't seem to acknowledge that being mentally ill doesn't actually mean you're a rampaging, drooling lunatic 24/7. He apparently doesn't know you can have long, lucid periods between bad days. That those bad days can in fact be few and far between, but when they do occur, they cause problems. The fact that Barrett may have tried to behave in front of cameras - or that there may have been controls in place during a still fairly conservative period to keep that sort of thing off the screen, to "protect the public" - doesn't occur. Just seems to equal no photographic evidence, therefore, no proof. Never mind the fact that the members of the band that kicked him out wrote numerous songs about the fact he went a bit off the rails. But then, see point three.
- Long, long, incredibly tedious sections which don't even mention Syd Barrett. There is absolutely no need to discuss Rachmanism in this book, at any length, but Chapman does. Which really feels like filler, to make up for the next point.
- There is very little input from the actual members of Pink Floyd. Where's the Floyd, yo? A couple of comments from Gilmour (who obviously came in too late to really comment on what the title implies is the main focus of the book) and a couple of bits literally pasted from Wright's autobiography, I think. Seems like no one really wanted to talk to Chapman. Not that I blame them - it would have been turned into a pretty boring essay if they had.
- There's an overemphasis on overanalysing quite a lot of information that doesn't bear too much thought. People read these biographies for a keyhole look into a person's character - there should be much more of the funny little stories (the stuff about his love letters to his teenage sweetheart is endearing), far less joyless meditation on whether it was this edition of that volume of children's verse which inspired half of that line, or another. WHO CARES.
- He also makes references to photographs which don't actually appear in the images. Again, I'm wondering if there's something up and nobody likes Chapman, because the photos he describes do appear in the other biography, Crazy Diamond: Syd Barrett and the Dawn of Pink Floyd, so I'm wondering whether he was denied permission to use them because there was ill feeling against him or something. Bizarrely, there are actually quite a few images of Barrett's emptied home when its contents went up for auction after his death. It just feels ghoulish.
Edit: there's also quite a disapproving tone on Chapman's part, towards other biographers or even just other fans. He actively tries to insert himself into Barrett's life story (he went to a gig; he misremembered a story which was then printed, though he's disparaging enough against anyone else who doesn't check their facts first), and he seems to believe that by dragging in some fairly pretentious referencing (Susan Sontag name-drop, anyone?) he can justify what seems very much to be plain old snobbishness by one nerdy, tedious fan against another.
Not very good.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 3, 2016
This is THE definitive biography of Syd Barrett. Well written and exhaustively researched, it also benefits from being written after Barrett's death in 2006 and so paints a complete picture of the legend's life. Chapman cuts through the mythology and puts to rest - though he admits it won't be permanent - all of the more hyperbolic tales of Syd's post-breakdown existence.
In addition to complete - or as complete as available - detail of Syd's life, the book delves deeply into Syd's lyrics both with Pink Floyd and as a solo artist. It offers an inside look into their meaning and Syd's influences. This can be a bit tedious to get through, especially if you aren't already familiar with late 19th and early 20th century British art and poetry, but the picture wouldn't be complete without the inclusion of this information.
An additional treat - many interviews with Syd's relatives, friends and former girlfriends as well as those who credit him as an influence. Interviews with the man himself - long out of print - are also available in great detail, as well as quotes and reminiscence by the journalists who conducted them.
This is a complete portrait of the artist and an excellent read.
In addition to complete - or as complete as available - detail of Syd's life, the book delves deeply into Syd's lyrics both with Pink Floyd and as a solo artist. It offers an inside look into their meaning and Syd's influences. This can be a bit tedious to get through, especially if you aren't already familiar with late 19th and early 20th century British art and poetry, but the picture wouldn't be complete without the inclusion of this information.
An additional treat - many interviews with Syd's relatives, friends and former girlfriends as well as those who credit him as an influence. Interviews with the man himself - long out of print - are also available in great detail, as well as quotes and reminiscence by the journalists who conducted them.
This is a complete portrait of the artist and an excellent read.
February 5, 2013
Biography of Pink Floyd founder and frontman Syd Barrett.
Solid biography paints a compelling portrait of his life and evokes the psychedelic era in London, based on plenty of interviews with Barrett's friends and contemporaries. Chapman's efforts to contextualize Barrett's work and analyze his influences are maybe a bit too wordy and need to be organized better. He also explores the influence his subject had on the larger world of pop and rock music via interviews with Robyn Hitchcock and Blur guitarist Graham Coxon.
Chapman is a staunch defender of Barrett's body of work, and his contempt for Pink Floyd's non-Barrett output is obvious. He also works to rehabilitate Barrett's image as an "acid casualty" and to debunk many of the myths that have grown up around him, although a few are based on his own conjecture as opposed to any anecdotal evidence. (He does imply rather strongly that the other Floyd members--particularly Roger Waters and David Gilmour--and their associates exaggerated their accounts of Barrett's behavior for their own purposes.)
Overall, a flawed but exhaustive and engaging portrait of this most enigmatic figure.
Solid biography paints a compelling portrait of his life and evokes the psychedelic era in London, based on plenty of interviews with Barrett's friends and contemporaries. Chapman's efforts to contextualize Barrett's work and analyze his influences are maybe a bit too wordy and need to be organized better. He also explores the influence his subject had on the larger world of pop and rock music via interviews with Robyn Hitchcock and Blur guitarist Graham Coxon.
Chapman is a staunch defender of Barrett's body of work, and his contempt for Pink Floyd's non-Barrett output is obvious. He also works to rehabilitate Barrett's image as an "acid casualty" and to debunk many of the myths that have grown up around him, although a few are based on his own conjecture as opposed to any anecdotal evidence. (He does imply rather strongly that the other Floyd members--particularly Roger Waters and David Gilmour--and their associates exaggerated their accounts of Barrett's behavior for their own purposes.)
Overall, a flawed but exhaustive and engaging portrait of this most enigmatic figure.
December 6, 2010
Very good, partly because it was written competently and literately, but largely because so much of what has been written about Mr. Barrett has been so full of urban legend and freakshow fascination that the person behind the stories is entirely eclipsed - as if on the dark side of the moon. This book provides much more verifiable detail, and debunks a goodly portion of the untruthful "conventional wisdom" with a measure of compassion. A bit hard to find in the States, but worth the effort for this American fan of the earliest Pink Floyd.
March 13, 2024
A brilliant book. Not only did the author interview practically every living person that remembered Syd but quoted them verbatim. The author met Syd a few times starting back in the sixties when the author was a teenager. The author did not paint Syd to be anything other than a man. Many myths were dispelled and others explained. This biography is very respectful and honest. I think this author comes as close to understanding Syd as anyone ever did. A must read for Pink Floyd fans and artists of all types.
November 23, 2022
There is perhaps no other figure in rock music so shrouded in mystery and legend than Roger "Syd" Barrett, one of the founding members of Pink Floyd. With his distinctive looks and quirky, one-of-a-kind song writing and guitar playing, Syd was the creative guiding force that launched Pink Floyd out of the underground London art and music scene and onto the charts.
However, just when it seemed that Syd and Pink Floyd were poised for a successful career, he lost the plot and succumbed to mental illness barely one year and one album in, spending the next four decades as a remote figure of interest, mystery, and in many unseemly cases, obsession until his death in 2006. Author Rob Chapman aims to lay bare all of the myths, half-truths, and flat-out inaccuracies of Syd's life and sad demise while giving a greater appreciation of his creative gifts in his comprehensive biography A Very Irregular Head: The Life of Syd Barrett.
Pink Floyd was one of the biggest and most commercially and critically successful bands of all time, releasing their greatest works throughout the 1970s. However, their origins in the mid-1960s show a much different band that could have gone in a far different direction had that short-lived configuration stayed together longer than it did; this was down to one man, Syd Barrett.
A Very Irregular Head is the story of Syd's long, sad, and confusing life, from his idyllic childhood in Cambridge, his years as a popular and talented student and artist, and his stint in Pink Floyd, to his sudden decline and collapse, the public deterioration of his mental health, and his final decades in seclusion when he became a reluctant and unwitting icon. Starting with detailed background on young Roger Barrett's birth and childhood in Cambridge, Chapman uses the extensive research he's done and the numerous interviews he's conducted with Syd's siblings (especially sister Rosemary, who was Syd's caretaker for the final 25 years of his life), friends, teachers, and colleagues in order to paint the picture of a boy who was very popular.
With his striking good looks, cultivated manner (being the product of a comfortable middle-class upbringing), and eccentric but charming personality, Syd (a nickname he picked up during his teenage years) by all accounts was a normal, well-adjusted young man. The death of his equally eccentric father when he was sixteen affected him as it would anyone, but it wouldn't be until years later that the true impact of this loss was seen by those around him. A talented artist, Syd followed in the tradition of so many other of his rock music peers in 1960s England and attended art school, in his case Camberwall in London.
A very interesting revelation made by his close friends and families when discussing those years was their surprise that he ever made a foray into music. While he had a great love of music and played passable guitar, everyone around him was stunned by his talents as an artist and claimed that, in agreement with them, Syd considered himself first and foremost an artist who played in music and not the other way around.
By 1965 he'd met up again in London with old friend Waters and two of Waters' classmates at architecture school, Nick Mason and Rick Wright. Forming a band and initially playing R&B and pop covers of the day, after several name changes Syd gave them the name with which they would eventually find eternal fame: Pink Floyd. During this same time, they began to play gigs in and around the London underground scene as Syd developed his highly idiosyncratic guitar technique and song writing talent. (Let me note here that I will not be giving a potted Pink Floyd history in this review, nor does the book do this...it's been done before and isn't relevant seeing as Syd was in the band for less than three years). Eventually attracting management eager to guide them in recording some demo tapes, they were signed to EMI in 1966 and proceeded to release two seminal psychedelic singles ("Arnold Layne" and "See Emily Play") and their epochal debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. However, with fame came an increased workload of promotion and touring and Syd was ill-equipped to handle this.
Fairly early on the cracks began to appear and by the end of 1967 his behavior had become so erratic, unpredictable, and potentially career-damaging that the drastic measure of bringing in another of his childhood Cambridge friends, David Gilmour, made the band a five-piece until the end of January 1968 when Syd was jettisoned in a frankly cowardly manner (something the four remaining members of the band have acknowledged in subsequent years). What the book makes clear in a way I had never thought of before is that the decision was driven more by a rather ruthless desire to save their burgeoning young careers than an altruistic attempt to help Syd, although it should be noted that they did try to help him. Unfortunately, you can only help people who want to be helped and Syd, whether knowingly or as a victim of his illness, did not want to be helped.
After his expulsion from Pink Floyd, it still seemed as though Syd had a promising solo career in front of him. With his unique song writing gifts and the anything-goes musical climate of the late 1960s, Syd could have been a more eccentric and electric/eclectic version of Ray Davies or Bob Dylan with his observational songs. Instead, he sank deeper into mental illness, exasperating numerous producers (including David Gilmour, Roger Waters, and Rick Wright, all three of whom helped to produce Syd's two solo albums) such that the tortured and torturous sessions for the albums The Madcap Laughs and Barrett would be the last music he would ever make.
A few more aborted attempts at recording and performing new music (including a VERY short-lived band, Stars) resulted in nothing of substance; Syd was by this point almost impossibly difficult to work with. A final collapse led to one of the most famous myths about him that turned out to be true: he walked back to his mother's house in Cambridge and, barring a few stints living in London hotels throughout the 1970s, remained there for the rest of his life.
There was the famous occasion an overweight and cleanshaven (including head and eyebrows) Syd showed up unannounced and unrecognized at a 1975 Pink Floyd recording session, as well as an encounter with a journalist friend who didn't recognize him when attempting to visit him at the hotel he was living at, but otherwise he never saw anyone from the old Cambridge scene ever again apart from his first love, Libby Gausden. Syd (reverting back to his true name of Roger and discarding any vestiges of his past life as a rock star) lived the remainder of his days in a mundane but relatively peaceful existence in Cambridge, disturbed only by his declining mental health and the obsessive door-stepping and stalking by "fans" that, frankly, was disgusting, cruel, and intrusive. His ill health (both physically and mentally) eventually claimed his life in 2006, but did nothing to dispel the interest in his life and career and, if anything, actually heightened it.
Chapman's book is more than just a telling of Syd's life and career; it's also a scholarly look into the influences that affected his work and the its attributes. As both an artist and musician, Syd left behind a very small but unique and rich body of work and Chapman sifts through it with an almost overzealous attention to detail in his analysis. In fact, oftentimes it seems he goes a bit overboard reading too much into some of Syd's more nonsense/throwaway lyrics.
There are also several passages dedicated to miniature history lessons on many of the writers and artists who influenced Barrett, so much so that the book begins to feel like an esoteric biography on these figures before Chapman reels himself back to Syd's story. While these sections don't ruin the book, they do make it a slog in places and almost (notice that I said almost) make it feel as though they were included in order to pad the page count. I'll admit to being initially surprised that a book about someone who made only three albums in his entire career and then disappeared weighed in at over 400 pages.
However, the book does excel at painting a rich and detailed portrait of the Cambridge arts scene of the 1960s, as well as the underground London scene of 1964-1967, drawing on new interviews with nearly all of the central figures who give a vivid picture of those heady times. The only figures who were not involved in these discussions were the four members of Pink Floyd, who though they were quoted extensively, did not contribute directly to Chapman's research.
Chapman also uses many parts of the book to play Mythbuster for the various "Syd Stories" that have popped up over the decades, using a combination of dogged research and logical empirical thinking to determine that for every story like Syd walking back to Cambridge or physically abusing one of his girlfriends in a drug-induced stupor (both true) there are many that are false (Syd being locked in a cupboard during a bad acid trip or crushing Mandrax and Bryllcream in his hair onstage, among others). These are valuable pieces of truth to finally have, although I do think the author's bias shows a bit as he tries to dispel myths about Syd's hopelessness in the studio post-Pink Floyd when a thorough listen to the same albums he uses as proof shows that while Syd wasn't completely incapacitated, he also was clearly not in complete control of his faculties.
Finally, there are many theories discussed as to the mental illness(es) Barrett suffered from and whether they were caused by LSD (not fully) or were exacerbated and irreversibly triggered by it (more plausible, in my opinion). Had Syd been born in 1976 instead of 1946, societal attitudes and the mental health profession would have been much better equipped for understanding and treating him successfully, but unfortunately in the 1960s there was a stigma attached to mental illness as well as a warped romance of madness, neither of which did Syd any favors at all.
A Very Irregular Head is the story of just that: Syd Barrett's strange, sad life and the aura around his decline. But it's also the story of a young man who, even if he hadn't been sick, was most likely not equipped to deal with the sudden pressures of stardom, fame, and the 1960s music industry.
It also brings up the poignant question of whether Syd's life could have or would have been different had he stuck to art and become one of the famous young 1960s artists he appeared destined to be. While there's the danger that the pressures of the art world could have been equally as damaging, it can't be denied that the music industry was (and still is) far more unforgiving than the art world.
However, had that alternate history happened it's more than likely that Pink Floyd as we know them would not exist. Since I've not read any other books on Syd Barrett, I can't say for sure whether this book is definitive (although I think it would be safe to assume it is based on the depth of the author's research), but Rob Chapman's book is a dense, information-packed, and scholarly look at a true creative genius who burned brightly for a short burst before tragically and slowly flaming out over a lifetime. It's absolutely a must-read read for any Barrett and Pink Floyd fan.
However, just when it seemed that Syd and Pink Floyd were poised for a successful career, he lost the plot and succumbed to mental illness barely one year and one album in, spending the next four decades as a remote figure of interest, mystery, and in many unseemly cases, obsession until his death in 2006. Author Rob Chapman aims to lay bare all of the myths, half-truths, and flat-out inaccuracies of Syd's life and sad demise while giving a greater appreciation of his creative gifts in his comprehensive biography A Very Irregular Head: The Life of Syd Barrett.
Pink Floyd was one of the biggest and most commercially and critically successful bands of all time, releasing their greatest works throughout the 1970s. However, their origins in the mid-1960s show a much different band that could have gone in a far different direction had that short-lived configuration stayed together longer than it did; this was down to one man, Syd Barrett.
A Very Irregular Head is the story of Syd's long, sad, and confusing life, from his idyllic childhood in Cambridge, his years as a popular and talented student and artist, and his stint in Pink Floyd, to his sudden decline and collapse, the public deterioration of his mental health, and his final decades in seclusion when he became a reluctant and unwitting icon. Starting with detailed background on young Roger Barrett's birth and childhood in Cambridge, Chapman uses the extensive research he's done and the numerous interviews he's conducted with Syd's siblings (especially sister Rosemary, who was Syd's caretaker for the final 25 years of his life), friends, teachers, and colleagues in order to paint the picture of a boy who was very popular.
With his striking good looks, cultivated manner (being the product of a comfortable middle-class upbringing), and eccentric but charming personality, Syd (a nickname he picked up during his teenage years) by all accounts was a normal, well-adjusted young man. The death of his equally eccentric father when he was sixteen affected him as it would anyone, but it wouldn't be until years later that the true impact of this loss was seen by those around him. A talented artist, Syd followed in the tradition of so many other of his rock music peers in 1960s England and attended art school, in his case Camberwall in London.
A very interesting revelation made by his close friends and families when discussing those years was their surprise that he ever made a foray into music. While he had a great love of music and played passable guitar, everyone around him was stunned by his talents as an artist and claimed that, in agreement with them, Syd considered himself first and foremost an artist who played in music and not the other way around.
By 1965 he'd met up again in London with old friend Waters and two of Waters' classmates at architecture school, Nick Mason and Rick Wright. Forming a band and initially playing R&B and pop covers of the day, after several name changes Syd gave them the name with which they would eventually find eternal fame: Pink Floyd. During this same time, they began to play gigs in and around the London underground scene as Syd developed his highly idiosyncratic guitar technique and song writing talent. (Let me note here that I will not be giving a potted Pink Floyd history in this review, nor does the book do this...it's been done before and isn't relevant seeing as Syd was in the band for less than three years). Eventually attracting management eager to guide them in recording some demo tapes, they were signed to EMI in 1966 and proceeded to release two seminal psychedelic singles ("Arnold Layne" and "See Emily Play") and their epochal debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. However, with fame came an increased workload of promotion and touring and Syd was ill-equipped to handle this.
Fairly early on the cracks began to appear and by the end of 1967 his behavior had become so erratic, unpredictable, and potentially career-damaging that the drastic measure of bringing in another of his childhood Cambridge friends, David Gilmour, made the band a five-piece until the end of January 1968 when Syd was jettisoned in a frankly cowardly manner (something the four remaining members of the band have acknowledged in subsequent years). What the book makes clear in a way I had never thought of before is that the decision was driven more by a rather ruthless desire to save their burgeoning young careers than an altruistic attempt to help Syd, although it should be noted that they did try to help him. Unfortunately, you can only help people who want to be helped and Syd, whether knowingly or as a victim of his illness, did not want to be helped.
After his expulsion from Pink Floyd, it still seemed as though Syd had a promising solo career in front of him. With his unique song writing gifts and the anything-goes musical climate of the late 1960s, Syd could have been a more eccentric and electric/eclectic version of Ray Davies or Bob Dylan with his observational songs. Instead, he sank deeper into mental illness, exasperating numerous producers (including David Gilmour, Roger Waters, and Rick Wright, all three of whom helped to produce Syd's two solo albums) such that the tortured and torturous sessions for the albums The Madcap Laughs and Barrett would be the last music he would ever make.
A few more aborted attempts at recording and performing new music (including a VERY short-lived band, Stars) resulted in nothing of substance; Syd was by this point almost impossibly difficult to work with. A final collapse led to one of the most famous myths about him that turned out to be true: he walked back to his mother's house in Cambridge and, barring a few stints living in London hotels throughout the 1970s, remained there for the rest of his life.
There was the famous occasion an overweight and cleanshaven (including head and eyebrows) Syd showed up unannounced and unrecognized at a 1975 Pink Floyd recording session, as well as an encounter with a journalist friend who didn't recognize him when attempting to visit him at the hotel he was living at, but otherwise he never saw anyone from the old Cambridge scene ever again apart from his first love, Libby Gausden. Syd (reverting back to his true name of Roger and discarding any vestiges of his past life as a rock star) lived the remainder of his days in a mundane but relatively peaceful existence in Cambridge, disturbed only by his declining mental health and the obsessive door-stepping and stalking by "fans" that, frankly, was disgusting, cruel, and intrusive. His ill health (both physically and mentally) eventually claimed his life in 2006, but did nothing to dispel the interest in his life and career and, if anything, actually heightened it.
Chapman's book is more than just a telling of Syd's life and career; it's also a scholarly look into the influences that affected his work and the its attributes. As both an artist and musician, Syd left behind a very small but unique and rich body of work and Chapman sifts through it with an almost overzealous attention to detail in his analysis. In fact, oftentimes it seems he goes a bit overboard reading too much into some of Syd's more nonsense/throwaway lyrics.
There are also several passages dedicated to miniature history lessons on many of the writers and artists who influenced Barrett, so much so that the book begins to feel like an esoteric biography on these figures before Chapman reels himself back to Syd's story. While these sections don't ruin the book, they do make it a slog in places and almost (notice that I said almost) make it feel as though they were included in order to pad the page count. I'll admit to being initially surprised that a book about someone who made only three albums in his entire career and then disappeared weighed in at over 400 pages.
However, the book does excel at painting a rich and detailed portrait of the Cambridge arts scene of the 1960s, as well as the underground London scene of 1964-1967, drawing on new interviews with nearly all of the central figures who give a vivid picture of those heady times. The only figures who were not involved in these discussions were the four members of Pink Floyd, who though they were quoted extensively, did not contribute directly to Chapman's research.
Chapman also uses many parts of the book to play Mythbuster for the various "Syd Stories" that have popped up over the decades, using a combination of dogged research and logical empirical thinking to determine that for every story like Syd walking back to Cambridge or physically abusing one of his girlfriends in a drug-induced stupor (both true) there are many that are false (Syd being locked in a cupboard during a bad acid trip or crushing Mandrax and Bryllcream in his hair onstage, among others). These are valuable pieces of truth to finally have, although I do think the author's bias shows a bit as he tries to dispel myths about Syd's hopelessness in the studio post-Pink Floyd when a thorough listen to the same albums he uses as proof shows that while Syd wasn't completely incapacitated, he also was clearly not in complete control of his faculties.
Finally, there are many theories discussed as to the mental illness(es) Barrett suffered from and whether they were caused by LSD (not fully) or were exacerbated and irreversibly triggered by it (more plausible, in my opinion). Had Syd been born in 1976 instead of 1946, societal attitudes and the mental health profession would have been much better equipped for understanding and treating him successfully, but unfortunately in the 1960s there was a stigma attached to mental illness as well as a warped romance of madness, neither of which did Syd any favors at all.
A Very Irregular Head is the story of just that: Syd Barrett's strange, sad life and the aura around his decline. But it's also the story of a young man who, even if he hadn't been sick, was most likely not equipped to deal with the sudden pressures of stardom, fame, and the 1960s music industry.
It also brings up the poignant question of whether Syd's life could have or would have been different had he stuck to art and become one of the famous young 1960s artists he appeared destined to be. While there's the danger that the pressures of the art world could have been equally as damaging, it can't be denied that the music industry was (and still is) far more unforgiving than the art world.
However, had that alternate history happened it's more than likely that Pink Floyd as we know them would not exist. Since I've not read any other books on Syd Barrett, I can't say for sure whether this book is definitive (although I think it would be safe to assume it is based on the depth of the author's research), but Rob Chapman's book is a dense, information-packed, and scholarly look at a true creative genius who burned brightly for a short burst before tragically and slowly flaming out over a lifetime. It's absolutely a must-read read for any Barrett and Pink Floyd fan.
June 19, 2020
A very well researched thesis on Syd's dehabilitation, thinking, and psychological condition. Interesting theory and bizarre similarities with the poet John Clare. I also liked the final "constructed lifestyle cover" theory expressed by others too.
More interesting, was the Wind in the Willows connection (the Willows has its own bizarre piper/Pan scene within) which seems relevant to what happened to Syd:
"It's gone!" sighed the Rat, sinking back in his seat again. "So beautiful and strange and new! Since it was to end so soon, I almost wish that I had never heard it, for it has roused a longing in me that is pain, and nothing seems worthwhile but just to hear that sound once more and go on listening to it forever. "
"The mole, greatly wondering, rowed on, "I hear nothing?".
The rat never answered, if indeed he heard, Rapt, transported, trembling, he was possessed in all his senses by this new divine thing that caught up his helpless soul and swung and dandled it, a powerless but happy infant in a strong sustaining grasp" ....The Wind in the Willows/ Piper at the Gates of Dawn...
More interesting, was the Wind in the Willows connection (the Willows has its own bizarre piper/Pan scene within) which seems relevant to what happened to Syd:
"It's gone!" sighed the Rat, sinking back in his seat again. "So beautiful and strange and new! Since it was to end so soon, I almost wish that I had never heard it, for it has roused a longing in me that is pain, and nothing seems worthwhile but just to hear that sound once more and go on listening to it forever. "
"The mole, greatly wondering, rowed on, "I hear nothing?".
The rat never answered, if indeed he heard, Rapt, transported, trembling, he was possessed in all his senses by this new divine thing that caught up his helpless soul and swung and dandled it, a powerless but happy infant in a strong sustaining grasp" ....The Wind in the Willows/ Piper at the Gates of Dawn...
July 30, 2019
i’d definitely recommend this book if you are interested in a) pink floyd b) schizophrenia/mental illness c) psychedelic culture. it concerns the life of syd barrett, the mercurial original frontman of pink floyd who wrote their first songs and subsequently was forced out of his own group after having a “nervous breakdown” from which he never recovered. the book definitely tries (and mostly succeeds) to subvert the conventional wisdom about barrett that mythologizes him an acid casualty whose tragic regression ironically led his band to create some of their most critically acclaimed work. the author humanizes an often-misunderstood figure by providing insights on the “real” syd’s personality, his insecurities and musical ambitions. i thought it was a great read not just as an insufferable pink floyd fan, but as someone who’s always been fascinated by the original frontman’s psychology and wanted to understand the factors besides drug use that led to his abandonment of music altogether.
it includes some really obscure interviews/anecdotes from syd’s family and friends that give great insight into the immensely creative and precocious person he was. sometimes it feels like there’s too much extraneous info (personally i didn’t really care about the english poets he was into in grade school) but i don’t think it necessarily detracts from the reader’s understanding of the biography.
the biggest takeaway that i gleaned is that the development of severe mental illness isn’t some inevitable, genetically-determined linear phenomenon catalyzed by drug use. it can be halted like any illness with intervention and treatment. unfortunately in syd’s time “madness” was poorly understood and people were constantly giving him psychedelics even as his behavior grew more erratic, so by the time he finally got professional help it was deemed too late. after reading about his regression you begin to understand why his departure was so traumatic for everyone else in pink floyd and how his specter inspired them to write “wish you were here” and “the wall,” just to name a few floyd albums that approach themes of mental illness and isolation.
it includes some really obscure interviews/anecdotes from syd’s family and friends that give great insight into the immensely creative and precocious person he was. sometimes it feels like there’s too much extraneous info (personally i didn’t really care about the english poets he was into in grade school) but i don’t think it necessarily detracts from the reader’s understanding of the biography.
the biggest takeaway that i gleaned is that the development of severe mental illness isn’t some inevitable, genetically-determined linear phenomenon catalyzed by drug use. it can be halted like any illness with intervention and treatment. unfortunately in syd’s time “madness” was poorly understood and people were constantly giving him psychedelics even as his behavior grew more erratic, so by the time he finally got professional help it was deemed too late. after reading about his regression you begin to understand why his departure was so traumatic for everyone else in pink floyd and how his specter inspired them to write “wish you were here” and “the wall,” just to name a few floyd albums that approach themes of mental illness and isolation.
January 20, 2022
A thorough and thoughtful study of an intriguing character and eternal inspiration.
January 24, 2022
A well-written, deeply researched, and interesting biography that focuses on separating Syd Barrett the human being and artist from his Acid Casualty Myth. One of the most interesting parts of the book is Chapman's engagement with writers who theorize silence in the arts (e.g., Susan Sontag's "The Aesthetic of Silence") to help understand Barrett's retreat from society and public speaking. At times Chapman gives Barrett a little too much credit, it seems to me, by favorably comparing his often incomprehensible or simplistic lyrics to the work of modernist writers such as Pound, Eliot, and Joyce, to the French symbolist poets, and to avant garde painters. Indeed, a lot gets a pass as "avant garde," a movement which embraces genius and nonsense in equal measures. At other times, Chapman is clear-eyed about Barrett's shortcomings. Barrett clearly had a lot of talent and potential -- but at the height of his creativity he was still a kid in his early 20s who spent much of his time tripping . . . so, not exactly James Joyce. Chapman's obvious love of Barrett also leads him to bizarre put-downs of much better songs than Barrett's, such as Pink Floyd's "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" ("overblown," "overwrought," "littered with sixth-form imagery") and The Beatles' "Lady Madonna." These quibbles aside, the book is a must-read for anyone interested in Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd, or the 60's underground scene and counter-culture.
August 29, 2023
Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett was the singer, guitarist and co-founder of Pink Floyd. However, he didn't last long in the band because, apparently, he developed mental issues as a consequence of his acid abuse. I say apparently because no one really knows for sure what was wrong with Barrett. He never had a formal diagnose and despite being institutionalised a few times, he was always discharged without meds or any kind of therapy. He is one of those mysteries that plague the music industry and as such, lots of myths surround his figure. Rob Chapman, the author of this biography, tries to dispel all the mythology around Barrett and make him a flesh and bone individual. It succeeds, at least partly.
Chapman is clearly a fan and this biography reads like a labour of love but, as it usually happens when you are very fond of your subject matter, impartiality goes out of the window. Chapman revers Barrett and he reads too much into his lyrics, to the point that he goes on tangents that have little to do with Syd himself and read like endless ramblings about, at least to me, obscure writers and painters that don't interest me in the least despite their connection to Barrett.
Chapman effectively dismisses some of the most outlandish myths surrounding Barrett, but he seems to reject the idea that he was already mentally ill in his last days with Pink Floyd simply because he had very productive days and there is no recorded evidence of his odd behaviour. Well, you see, mentally ill people have good days and bad days, and the bad ones can be an absolute nightmare, so no wonder that Syd's bandmates were concerned, even frightened.
Another thing that rubbed me the wrong way was Chapman's obvious contempt for post-Barrett Pink Floyd. He bashes Shine On You Crazy Diamond, the song the band wrote to pay homage to their lost friend, describing it as"overblown" and "overwrought". He grudgingly concedes that "the tribute is heartfelt and the sentiments sincere" but he clearly despises anything the Floyd did after Syd's departure, sneering their "attention to detail, formal principles, sequential logic, (and) linearity". So what were they supposed to do then? I mean, they had to find their own way after their main songwriter left, and it took them years to find it because Syd's shadow was very long. Barrett didn't have an easy time after leaving the band, but neither did the band (have you ever listened to Ummagumma? Ugh.)
So, in general this was a mixed bag for me. I liked that it showed Syd Barrett as a person and not as the raging loony that all the myths helped to create, but I was quite bored throughout the bits overanalysing Syd's lyrics and trying to find all the influences he had on his writing because I don't really need that to enjoy his music.
Chapman is clearly a fan and this biography reads like a labour of love but, as it usually happens when you are very fond of your subject matter, impartiality goes out of the window. Chapman revers Barrett and he reads too much into his lyrics, to the point that he goes on tangents that have little to do with Syd himself and read like endless ramblings about, at least to me, obscure writers and painters that don't interest me in the least despite their connection to Barrett.
Chapman effectively dismisses some of the most outlandish myths surrounding Barrett, but he seems to reject the idea that he was already mentally ill in his last days with Pink Floyd simply because he had very productive days and there is no recorded evidence of his odd behaviour. Well, you see, mentally ill people have good days and bad days, and the bad ones can be an absolute nightmare, so no wonder that Syd's bandmates were concerned, even frightened.
Another thing that rubbed me the wrong way was Chapman's obvious contempt for post-Barrett Pink Floyd. He bashes Shine On You Crazy Diamond, the song the band wrote to pay homage to their lost friend, describing it as"overblown" and "overwrought". He grudgingly concedes that "the tribute is heartfelt and the sentiments sincere" but he clearly despises anything the Floyd did after Syd's departure, sneering their "attention to detail, formal principles, sequential logic, (and) linearity". So what were they supposed to do then? I mean, they had to find their own way after their main songwriter left, and it took them years to find it because Syd's shadow was very long. Barrett didn't have an easy time after leaving the band, but neither did the band (have you ever listened to Ummagumma? Ugh.)
So, in general this was a mixed bag for me. I liked that it showed Syd Barrett as a person and not as the raging loony that all the myths helped to create, but I was quite bored throughout the bits overanalysing Syd's lyrics and trying to find all the influences he had on his writing because I don't really need that to enjoy his music.
July 24, 2011
Very interesting to read about the intelligence and incredible talent (and genius?), of the musician/songwriter who formed Pink Floyd. There are so many mysteries and myths surrounding him, especially his in regard to his mental illness, but this author relies instead on research and 'evidence' to give an accurate and balanced portrayal of the life of Syd Barrett.
October 12, 2020
He spends fifty pages on Syd’s childhood and that says it all. This book could’ve been 200 pages shorter and 200x more interesting. Unbelievably dull, parochial, long winded book that made me realise maybe Syd Barrett isn’t that interesting and the author is definitely too much of a fan.
September 16, 2024
Chapman’s coverage of Syd Barrett’s life is fantastic. He is able to beautifully convey the emotional turmoil that plagued Syd’s life, whilst also adding in humour that mirrors Syd’s own.
Even when discussing the remarkably unclear details of Barrett’s legend, Chapman is transparent and truthful. He does not sensationalise the mystery, nor does he offer novel anecdotes. In fact, he even recognises and condemns the actions of his younger self for spreading empty (though admittedly harmless) fallacies about Syd’s latter day musical activities.
Listening to Kevin Ayers’ song “Oh! Wot a Dream” whilst reading the closing chapter highlighted to me the undeniable sadness of Syd’s collapse. To dismiss Barrett as merely another ‘acid casualty’ of the 60s is a gross oversimplification of the erosion of a man’s mental wellbeing. This song is a far more appropriate and moving homage to his own group’s “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”; an observation Chapman himself makes.
This was a gripping read from cover to cover. A thorough and emotional retelling, analysis, and tribute of Pink Floyd’s first ringleader.
Even when discussing the remarkably unclear details of Barrett’s legend, Chapman is transparent and truthful. He does not sensationalise the mystery, nor does he offer novel anecdotes. In fact, he even recognises and condemns the actions of his younger self for spreading empty (though admittedly harmless) fallacies about Syd’s latter day musical activities.
Listening to Kevin Ayers’ song “Oh! Wot a Dream” whilst reading the closing chapter highlighted to me the undeniable sadness of Syd’s collapse. To dismiss Barrett as merely another ‘acid casualty’ of the 60s is a gross oversimplification of the erosion of a man’s mental wellbeing. This song is a far more appropriate and moving homage to his own group’s “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”; an observation Chapman himself makes.
This was a gripping read from cover to cover. A thorough and emotional retelling, analysis, and tribute of Pink Floyd’s first ringleader.
May 12, 2011
It is common wisdom that the clarion call that ushered in the advent of psychedelic rock began with the Beatles and their “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” opus. Yet, it could be argued that the movement was quietly developed by another band on the English rock scene – Pink Floyd. After all, while the Beatles (and all other recording artists of the era) were recording like it was a job – daytime hours from 9 to 5pm, it was The Pink Floyd (yes, they had the ‘the’ in their name back then) that broke the mold as the first band to utilize EMI’s famed Abbey Road Studios from dusk until dawn. Such are among the many stories in the development of progressive rock as revealed in the book “A Very Irregular Head: The Life of Syd Barrett.” (The title is a direct quote from an interview Barrett once gave to a British journalist.)
Long thought of as a mysterious reclusive after his dismissal from the group that he founded, Barrett returned to the interests that formed before the band began – painting, art and jazz. Close friends describe him as sometimes sitting for long periods of silence while things were working in his head. Ian Barrett describes Syd, not as a reclusive, but rather as someone who spent much time by himself but did venture out to art shows or to gather supplies for his DIY projects.
Author Rob Chapman has compiled press reports, interviews with those who knew Syd throughout various stages of his life as well as on-the-record recounts from bandmates, family members and historians into a definitive pastiche of the oft-misunderstood, and perhaps reluctant kingpin of British underground rock (a term borrowed in 1967 from the independent filmmakers of the New York scene before it was applied to music).
If there is a most singular factor in the evolution of Barrett (and thus, the band), it would be the introduction of psychedelic drugs – particularly LSD – into the mix with Barrett. Those in the know recant that Syd, along with fellow members of his Cambridge scene, ingested rather large quantities of the drug which occurred at the same time the band transformed from a run-of-the-mill R&B combo to the leading progenitors of the psychedelic rock movement. Ultimately, of course, Syd’s condition proved too much for the remaining members of the band, who unceremoniously booted him out in 1968, only to resurrect his memory in their themes from “Wish You Were Here” to “Shine on You Crazy Diamond.” Barrett’s last work is chronicled here including his short-lived band Stars as well as his final, four-day recording session which, to the frustration of his producers, yielded nothing of value.
There have been perhaps more mysteries surrounding Syd Barrett than any other figure in the history of rock. Chapman’s book goes the distance in separating the fact from myth while giving a sufficiently well sourced and detailed account of the icon’s life – both musically and personally – from its beginning to its unremarkable end.
Long thought of as a mysterious reclusive after his dismissal from the group that he founded, Barrett returned to the interests that formed before the band began – painting, art and jazz. Close friends describe him as sometimes sitting for long periods of silence while things were working in his head. Ian Barrett describes Syd, not as a reclusive, but rather as someone who spent much time by himself but did venture out to art shows or to gather supplies for his DIY projects.
Author Rob Chapman has compiled press reports, interviews with those who knew Syd throughout various stages of his life as well as on-the-record recounts from bandmates, family members and historians into a definitive pastiche of the oft-misunderstood, and perhaps reluctant kingpin of British underground rock (a term borrowed in 1967 from the independent filmmakers of the New York scene before it was applied to music).
If there is a most singular factor in the evolution of Barrett (and thus, the band), it would be the introduction of psychedelic drugs – particularly LSD – into the mix with Barrett. Those in the know recant that Syd, along with fellow members of his Cambridge scene, ingested rather large quantities of the drug which occurred at the same time the band transformed from a run-of-the-mill R&B combo to the leading progenitors of the psychedelic rock movement. Ultimately, of course, Syd’s condition proved too much for the remaining members of the band, who unceremoniously booted him out in 1968, only to resurrect his memory in their themes from “Wish You Were Here” to “Shine on You Crazy Diamond.” Barrett’s last work is chronicled here including his short-lived band Stars as well as his final, four-day recording session which, to the frustration of his producers, yielded nothing of value.
There have been perhaps more mysteries surrounding Syd Barrett than any other figure in the history of rock. Chapman’s book goes the distance in separating the fact from myth while giving a sufficiently well sourced and detailed account of the icon’s life – both musically and personally – from its beginning to its unremarkable end.
November 24, 2021
Syd Barrett: A Very Irregular Head is something of a mixed bag. The chapters about Syd’s early life and the bohemian scenes in Cambridge and London in the sixties really bring the times and places to life. The section on Syd’s post fame years in Cambridge is also very interesting and features many family interviews.
Discussion of Syd in his prime, however, is rather limited and it doesn’t give you a good feeling of what he was actually like.
More importantly, Syd’s music and lyrics both with Pink Floyd and in his solo albums are overanalysed in a very long and pretentious manner, comparing Syd’s work to various poets, writers, artists and philosophers in a fairly unconvincing and tenuous way. The author describes the song Love you, for example, as “a breathless and giddy outpouring that accelerates into hyperactivity and all but loses the listener in its dizzying blur. The effect is akin to being spun round on a fairground ride and flung off at a different point each time to be greeted by a freshly scrambled perspective, vaguely reminiscent of the previous place but somehow unconnected and unacceptable.” There are dozens and dozens of pages like this.
The author is also rather unkind to the post-Syd Pink Floyd. It is suggested that Syd’s disenchantment with pop-stardom and desire for a successful career on the part of the other members was the main motivator for Syd’s removal from the band rather than his mental health deterioration. This is very unconvincing.
When criticising later Pink Floyd, the author also fails to acknowledge that the success of the Gilmour and Waters led band has led to far more people taking an interest in Syd and listening to his music than would have been the case if the band had wound down in 1967.
Altogether, rather disappointing and not the best Barrett biography.
Discussion of Syd in his prime, however, is rather limited and it doesn’t give you a good feeling of what he was actually like.
More importantly, Syd’s music and lyrics both with Pink Floyd and in his solo albums are overanalysed in a very long and pretentious manner, comparing Syd’s work to various poets, writers, artists and philosophers in a fairly unconvincing and tenuous way. The author describes the song Love you, for example, as “a breathless and giddy outpouring that accelerates into hyperactivity and all but loses the listener in its dizzying blur. The effect is akin to being spun round on a fairground ride and flung off at a different point each time to be greeted by a freshly scrambled perspective, vaguely reminiscent of the previous place but somehow unconnected and unacceptable.” There are dozens and dozens of pages like this.
The author is also rather unkind to the post-Syd Pink Floyd. It is suggested that Syd’s disenchantment with pop-stardom and desire for a successful career on the part of the other members was the main motivator for Syd’s removal from the band rather than his mental health deterioration. This is very unconvincing.
When criticising later Pink Floyd, the author also fails to acknowledge that the success of the Gilmour and Waters led band has led to far more people taking an interest in Syd and listening to his music than would have been the case if the band had wound down in 1967.
Altogether, rather disappointing and not the best Barrett biography.
February 28, 2021
Chapman wrote 10,000 word obituary about Syd Barrett when he passed away in 2006. In this book, he added about another 120,000 words to his memory. Yes, Barrett was a creative founder of Pink Floyd, and yes, his song writing helped to define the underground London music scene of the mid 1960s.
However, you almost have to hold your nose while reading this book because Chapman is an unabashed uber fan of Barrett. How much so? He proudly boasts that Barrett's songwriting abilities were greater than those of the rest of Pink Floyd without him (going so far as to call the band's tribute to him in Shine on you Crazy Diamond as overblown and sappy), the Beatles' works after Revolver (Yes, that includes Sgt. Pepper, Abbey Road and the White Album), Sir Paul McCartney's works with Wings, the Rolling Stones entire catalog after Their Satanic Majesties Request (!!!) and David Bowie, among others.
That's going WAY out there, given that Barrett's work only appeared on the first two Floyd albums and on two solo albums. I would have a hard time recommending this book.
However, you almost have to hold your nose while reading this book because Chapman is an unabashed uber fan of Barrett. How much so? He proudly boasts that Barrett's songwriting abilities were greater than those of the rest of Pink Floyd without him (going so far as to call the band's tribute to him in Shine on you Crazy Diamond as overblown and sappy), the Beatles' works after Revolver (Yes, that includes Sgt. Pepper, Abbey Road and the White Album), Sir Paul McCartney's works with Wings, the Rolling Stones entire catalog after Their Satanic Majesties Request (!!!) and David Bowie, among others.
That's going WAY out there, given that Barrett's work only appeared on the first two Floyd albums and on two solo albums. I would have a hard time recommending this book.
December 28, 2012
Chapman does a superb job of demystifying all the absurd myths and rumors about the "madman" Barrett and offers a very human and poignant portrait of a man with considerable creative juice who lost it to drugs or mental illness or both, or just simply burned out all he had to give very quickly. Chapman's admiration of and affection for his subject is obvious. He tries unconvincingly to tie Barrett's "genius" to giants of English literature and western art. A fascinating, sad story.
May 12, 2017
What an experience to read a story you think you know, only to find the reality completely different...less dramatic but more humane and interesting. Chapman does an excellent job of separating fact from fiction and giving Syd a voice and personality. My only quibble is the amount of quotes from Robyn Hitchcock vs other peers. It is clear that many who were a part of the picture were unwilling to participate in this book and that is a shame.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 3, 2010
A very good insight into the life of Syd Barrett. Delves very deeply into his childhood and teenage years with early Pink Floyd and talks in great detail about his solo work. Gets rid of all the myths and untruths to give us Syd as he was very intelligent, and genius who had frame thrust upon him far too soon.
January 15, 2013
Syd has always been a bit of a novelty for me. I enjoyed his work with the Floyd, and was amused by his solo work, but I never really considered myself a fan until I read Rob Chapman's book. Chapman humanizes Syd, and for a casual fan like me, it is a breath of fresh air. Finally, I see what all the fuss is about.
November 16, 2010
Best ever biog of the fragile genius. Syd flamed brightly and briefly, and left a comet's tail of glorious and beautiful songs, that portrayed his descent into mental chaos and tragedy with poignancy and genius. Chapman's book chronicles his fatal trip with elegant, insightful prose.
January 24, 2011
I think that if I were a Syd devotee I might have felt differently about this book but I was new to his story and felt like there was a lot Chapman tried to make out of Barrett's life that is pretty difficult, since Barrett was a cipher in so many ways.
August 2, 2011
A very detailed and sympathetic portrait. Chapman forgoes the sensationalism of many previous biographies and debunks some of the more outrageous myths that have surfaced around Syd. The man's life and work are finally put into the proper context.
August 5, 2012
A thoroughly engaging read, Rob Chapman brings in the 60's vibe and the whole movement that Syd was involved in, rather than just going he did this, then that, then went mad. He sensitively covers the period after Syd left Pink Floyd (Left, yes...!).
July 29, 2012
Incredibly well-written and researched.
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