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Syd Barrett : Dark globe
Syd Barrett was an English composer and purveyor of some of the most intriguing music ever written. Famous before his twentieth birthday, Barrett led the charge of psychedelia onstage at London’s famed UFO club. With a Fender Telecaster and a primitive Binson echo unit, Barrett liberated the guitar from being, in critic Simon Reynolds’ words, ‘a riff machine, and turned it into a texture and timbre generator.’
His inspired celestial flights of improvisation, and his more structured and whimsical short songs indicated a mind of unusual inventiveness. Chief in Barrett’s mind was a Zen-like insistence on spontaneity; each performance had to be unique, and Barrett strived to push his music farther and farther out into the zone of complete abstraction.
This in-depth analysis of Pink Floyd founding member Syd Barrett’s life and work is the product of years of extensive research. Lost in the Woods traces Syd’s swift evolution from precocious young art student to acid-fuelled psychedelic rock star, and examines the myriad musical and literary influences that he utilised in composing his hypnotic, groundbreaking songs. A never-forgotten casualty of the excesses, innovations, and idealism of the 1960s, Syd Barrett is one of the most heavily mythologized men in rock, and Lost in the Woods offers a rare portrayal of a unique spirit in freefall.
His inspired celestial flights of improvisation, and his more structured and whimsical short songs indicated a mind of unusual inventiveness. Chief in Barrett’s mind was a Zen-like insistence on spontaneity; each performance had to be unique, and Barrett strived to push his music farther and farther out into the zone of complete abstraction.
This in-depth analysis of Pink Floyd founding member Syd Barrett’s life and work is the product of years of extensive research. Lost in the Woods traces Syd’s swift evolution from precocious young art student to acid-fuelled psychedelic rock star, and examines the myriad musical and literary influences that he utilised in composing his hypnotic, groundbreaking songs. A never-forgotten casualty of the excesses, innovations, and idealism of the 1960s, Syd Barrett is one of the most heavily mythologized men in rock, and Lost in the Woods offers a rare portrayal of a unique spirit in freefall.
- GenresMusicBiographyNonfiction
880 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
March 28, 2014
This is as satisfying an account of Barrett's life and music as we are ever likely to receive. Palacios has done an incredible amount of research. He is at his best recounting details of Syd's formative years, artistic and musical influences, and the mid-60s London scene in which he flourished. His sympathies for his subject do not obscure his honesty in rendering the truth of Barrett's psychological collapse, nor does he spare us the violence Syd inflicted on friends and lovers. I really enjoyed accounts of Barrett in the studio, with Floyd and solo (albeit with at least one Floydian on hand).
Palacios can be a tedious psychoanalyzer, however, and his rock criticism set my teeth on edge. So many cliches. And what critical insights he has suffers from a lack of direct quoting of Barrett's lyrics (which should fall under "fair use" protection, so the omission is puzzling.) But I forgive those excesses in light of the incredibly sensitive portrayal of Syd's private years. You get the sense of a man slowly recovering from his prolonged breakdown with the aid of love from his patient, caring sister Rosemary.
Palacios can be a tedious psychoanalyzer, however, and his rock criticism set my teeth on edge. So many cliches. And what critical insights he has suffers from a lack of direct quoting of Barrett's lyrics (which should fall under "fair use" protection, so the omission is puzzling.) But I forgive those excesses in light of the incredibly sensitive portrayal of Syd's private years. You get the sense of a man slowly recovering from his prolonged breakdown with the aid of love from his patient, caring sister Rosemary.
July 30, 2021
Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett's mental collapse when he was on the cusp of stardom with Pink Floyd in 1967 is a source of speculation and fascination after over 50 years.
Many people wrongly think that Syd Barrett developed schizophrenia as a result of dropping lots of LSD. On his YouTube channel, psychologist Dr. Todd Grande posits that Syd had schizophrenia first and used LSD to self-medicate. For me, it's plausible that Syd took the more dangerous 2,5-Dimethoxy-4-methylamphetamine (DOM) aka STP during his "lost weekend" in July 1967: see https://www.facebook.com/MenOnTheBorder/posts/5661783140560435. Julian Palacios posits other ideas.
I read this book in two days and a night. I wept as Palacios detailed Syd Barrett's mental decline, amidst hopes for improvement. I became heartened to read that Syd had improved and took to painting, reading, and gardening until his death in 2006.
Many people wrongly think that Syd Barrett developed schizophrenia as a result of dropping lots of LSD. On his YouTube channel, psychologist Dr. Todd Grande posits that Syd had schizophrenia first and used LSD to self-medicate. For me, it's plausible that Syd took the more dangerous 2,5-Dimethoxy-4-methylamphetamine (DOM) aka STP during his "lost weekend" in July 1967: see https://www.facebook.com/MenOnTheBorder/posts/5661783140560435. Julian Palacios posits other ideas.
I read this book in two days and a night. I wept as Palacios detailed Syd Barrett's mental decline, amidst hopes for improvement. I became heartened to read that Syd had improved and took to painting, reading, and gardening until his death in 2006.
January 15, 2021
I would love to read a great biography of Syd Barrett, but this didn't turn out to be it. While Barrett is (to me) one of the most compelling figures in rock history, this book felt like a slog to get through. I couldn't help but feel like it was overly long, and padded out with fluff to make up for the lack of concrete details we have about Barrett's life. Maybe there's just too much unknown to write a comprehensive biography of him? There was also a few sections that I found repeated, almost exactly, at different points in the book- could've used some closer editing probably. All that being said, there was definitely some interesting stuff in this book that I hadn't learned before, so I wouldn't say it was a waste to read it. Just wish that it could have been presented better.
November 3, 2013
Dark Globe 2010 is not an amended or appended Lost In The Woods, Palacios didn't use the easy trick Mike Watkinson & Pete Anderson fell for when they re-issued their Crazy Diamond biography, leaving the (many) errors uncorrected and just adding an extra chapter about Syd Barrett's passing. But I wouldn't go as far as the one critic who claimed that Crazy Diamond is full of 'unsubstantiated nonsense' and that it should come 'with a government health warning on the dust jacket'. Crazy Diamond still takes a soft spot in my heart as it was the first attempt at a serious Barrett biography.
Palacios has unearthed details that no one has ever found or published before and, this has to be said as well, not all of those are relevant to the average Barrett fan.
Did you know that Syd Barrett had a job as a postman in his teenager years, delivering Christmas cards during the holidays? I didn't. Not only does Palacios reveal that but he also points out that the underwear fetishist who was immortalised in Pink Floyd's first single Arnold Layne could have been a Royal Mail post van driver.
Those familiar with the Pink Floyd's early history remember that the band lived, 64-65-ish, in Mike Leonard's house, an architect who introduced the amateurish R&B gang to light-shows and avant-garde music. Leonard also played a mean piano and replaced Rick Wright for a while, what made him think he was a member of what was ironically called Leonard's Lodgers.
Every student who has been living in a community knows that, sooner or later, food will start disappearing. Stanhope Gardens was no exception to that and Rick Wright used to keep his morning cornflakes inside a locked cupboard, fearing that Roger Waters would otherwise steal his beloved morning cereals. The mystery has lingered on for over 4 decades but Julian Palacios has finally discovered who really nicked Wright's breakfast: not Roger Waters but a boarder named Peter Kuttner. Utterly irrelevant but fun to read. The only fear I have now is that Roger Waters will probably write a concept album about it once he finds out.
Not all of this biography reads like a biography. At certain points Palacios can't hide any-more he is a writer at heart, with poetical streaks, obviously regretting that he wasn't around in those underground days. What to say about this:
The face came out from under the murky swell of psychedelic oil lights, like a frame around a picture. A pale, handsome face with thick silky hair and a white satin shirt. Something bright and small seemed to twinkle in his eyes, vanished, then winkled once more like a tiny star. (p .118)
Palacios adds many song descriptions and can get quite lyrical about chord progressions. Personally I can't be bothered as I don't hear the difference between an A and an F anyway. These parts read like a Korean DVD recording manual to me but I suppose that any amateur musician will enjoy them. Julian has been doing more than his homework and for many early Pink Floyd songs he traces back musical or textual references (today we would call that sampling), but he isn't too snotty to give due credits to where they belong.
Palacios has an encyclopaedic musical knowledge and halfway the book I regretted I didn't note down all songtitles he cites. Songs Barrett liked, songs Barrett played and rehearsed in his youth, songs that influenced some of his later work. Adding these would make a nice cd-box, not unlike the cover disks Mojo magazine sometimes issues.
Julian's observations can sometimes be a bit über-detailed. Arnold Layne, the famous song about the cross-dressing knicker-thief, contains a slight musical nod to the 1928 Ma Rainey song Prove It On Me Blues, not coincidentally another song about cross-dressing. As I am tone-deaf - a condition I share with Roger Waters, so it mustn't be all bad as he made a fortune with it - I don't hear any familiarity between both musical pieces but blues scholar John Olivar says there is and Julian Palacios acknowledges it. I simply believe them.
Other links are easier to grasp for a simple man like me, like the fact that Jennifer Gentle (the protagonist from the Lucifer Sam song) can be traced back to a medieval ballad where it goes:
There were three sisters fair and bright,
Jennifer, Gentle and Rosemary...
And they three loved one valiant knight—
As the dow [dove] flies over the mulberry-tree.
Palacios adds layers on layers of information. If you happen to be amongst the dozen or so readers who remember the 1989 Nick Sedgwick novel Light Blue With Bulges you might have wondered who was the beatnik behind the espresso machine (and with his hands in the till) of a famous Cambridge coffee bar. Don't look any further, Palacios will tell you exactly who operated the espresso machine, how the coffee bar was called and even more... reveal the brand of the Italian espresso machine... only... I would like to pass this information to you but I can't find it back right now as... and here is my biggest dissatisfaction with this book... Dark Globe contains no index.
Dark Globe is by near and by far the best Syd Barrett biography ever, but not having an index is (in my awkward opinion) unforgivable as it diminishes its traceability near to factor zero. And that's a shame... I do know that indexes are but a geeks' dream and that most people don't bother with those, but my ultimate wet dream consists of reading bibliographies that have half a dozen footnotes per page. Maybe I am the problem?
Pink Floyd was probably not the best band of the psychedelic bunch, but they surely were the loudest, even outdoing The Who in volume at the Psychedelicamania happening on the last day of 1966. A reporter of the Daily Mail, armed with a sound meter, reported on 'pop above the danger level' and warned for permanent damage to the ears.
In just a couple of months Barrett had not only shifted from quiet blues to avant-garde 120 decibel hard rock, he also traded his daily cup of earl green tea for LSD, mandrax and generally everything that could be easily swallowed or smoked.
The previous reads kind of funny but it is an infinite sad story that has been underrated by witnesses, fans and biographers alike. All kind of excuses have been used not to turn Barrett into a hopeless drug case: his father's death, the pressure of his band-mates, managers and record company, even the stroboscopic effect of the liquid light shows... (although of course all these things may have weakened his self-defence). In my opinion, Julian Palacios manages to get the tone right and he consecrates some poignantly written paragraphs to the darker side of the psychedelic summer.
Hendrix, Morrison, Jones and Joplin: 'each victim to the Dionysian excess they embodied'. Alice Ormsby-Gore: overdose (her friend Eric Clapton had more luck). Julian Ormsby-Gore: suicide. Paul Getty: heroine paralysed him for life. Talitha Dina Pol, his wife: overdose. The list is long and those who survived were not always the lucky ones...
Although there are still people who think that Syd Barrett turned avant-garde during the Floyd's first tour in America, Nick Mason, in his typical no-nonsense style, put it otherwise:
Syd went mad on that first American tour. He didn't know where he was most of the time. He detuned his guitar on stage. He just stood there rattling strings, a bit weird even for us. (Cited in Dark Globe, but originally taken from a May 1994 Mojo interview.)
There is the somewhat romantic viewpoint of Duggie Fields, but basically it tells just the same:
He (Syd) could lie in bed thinking he could do anything in the world he wanted. But when he made a decision that limited his possibilities.
The problem, for those who follow the hypothesis Syd had a problem, was that for Barrett there weren't any possibilities left, although record company, colleagues and friends mildly tried to lure him into the studio or invite him for an impromptu jam. But to paraphrase Sylvia Plath: Syd was too busy being insane, and all the time he was crazy that was all he was able doing.
While at different forums people are arguing, even today, that hallucinogenic drugs are harmless Palacios retaliates by simply listing musicians who had to fight drug-related-burn-outs:
Peter Green,
Roky Erikson,
Chris Kefford,
Shelagh McDonald,
Skip Spence,
Brian Wilson...
It took these people literally decades to crawl back to normal life after years of misery. Also Barrett hoped to overcome his condition one day as was proven by a handwritten note in his copy of The Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry. Syd bloody well understood what was wrong with him and we – the fans – don't fucking know how hard it was for him.
A dark spot that even Palacios can't clarify is 'Syd's lost weekend' that roughly went from 1975 to the early Eighties. The first 400 pages describe Barrett's public life from the mid-Sixties until the pivotal event in 1975 when Syd entered the Wish You Were Here recording sessions. The 30 remaining years of his life are dealt with in a mere 40 pages. Even for Palacios there is nothing to dig. (Rob Chapman managed to add some anecdotes from Barrett's Cambridge life – although some are disputed while you read this - but he didn't unearth anything new about Syd's Chelsea Cloister days either.)
Taken from: http://atagong.com/iggy/archives/2010...
Palacios has unearthed details that no one has ever found or published before and, this has to be said as well, not all of those are relevant to the average Barrett fan.
Did you know that Syd Barrett had a job as a postman in his teenager years, delivering Christmas cards during the holidays? I didn't. Not only does Palacios reveal that but he also points out that the underwear fetishist who was immortalised in Pink Floyd's first single Arnold Layne could have been a Royal Mail post van driver.
Those familiar with the Pink Floyd's early history remember that the band lived, 64-65-ish, in Mike Leonard's house, an architect who introduced the amateurish R&B gang to light-shows and avant-garde music. Leonard also played a mean piano and replaced Rick Wright for a while, what made him think he was a member of what was ironically called Leonard's Lodgers.
Every student who has been living in a community knows that, sooner or later, food will start disappearing. Stanhope Gardens was no exception to that and Rick Wright used to keep his morning cornflakes inside a locked cupboard, fearing that Roger Waters would otherwise steal his beloved morning cereals. The mystery has lingered on for over 4 decades but Julian Palacios has finally discovered who really nicked Wright's breakfast: not Roger Waters but a boarder named Peter Kuttner. Utterly irrelevant but fun to read. The only fear I have now is that Roger Waters will probably write a concept album about it once he finds out.
Not all of this biography reads like a biography. At certain points Palacios can't hide any-more he is a writer at heart, with poetical streaks, obviously regretting that he wasn't around in those underground days. What to say about this:
The face came out from under the murky swell of psychedelic oil lights, like a frame around a picture. A pale, handsome face with thick silky hair and a white satin shirt. Something bright and small seemed to twinkle in his eyes, vanished, then winkled once more like a tiny star. (p .118)
Palacios adds many song descriptions and can get quite lyrical about chord progressions. Personally I can't be bothered as I don't hear the difference between an A and an F anyway. These parts read like a Korean DVD recording manual to me but I suppose that any amateur musician will enjoy them. Julian has been doing more than his homework and for many early Pink Floyd songs he traces back musical or textual references (today we would call that sampling), but he isn't too snotty to give due credits to where they belong.
Palacios has an encyclopaedic musical knowledge and halfway the book I regretted I didn't note down all songtitles he cites. Songs Barrett liked, songs Barrett played and rehearsed in his youth, songs that influenced some of his later work. Adding these would make a nice cd-box, not unlike the cover disks Mojo magazine sometimes issues.
Julian's observations can sometimes be a bit über-detailed. Arnold Layne, the famous song about the cross-dressing knicker-thief, contains a slight musical nod to the 1928 Ma Rainey song Prove It On Me Blues, not coincidentally another song about cross-dressing. As I am tone-deaf - a condition I share with Roger Waters, so it mustn't be all bad as he made a fortune with it - I don't hear any familiarity between both musical pieces but blues scholar John Olivar says there is and Julian Palacios acknowledges it. I simply believe them.
Other links are easier to grasp for a simple man like me, like the fact that Jennifer Gentle (the protagonist from the Lucifer Sam song) can be traced back to a medieval ballad where it goes:
There were three sisters fair and bright,
Jennifer, Gentle and Rosemary...
And they three loved one valiant knight—
As the dow [dove] flies over the mulberry-tree.
Palacios adds layers on layers of information. If you happen to be amongst the dozen or so readers who remember the 1989 Nick Sedgwick novel Light Blue With Bulges you might have wondered who was the beatnik behind the espresso machine (and with his hands in the till) of a famous Cambridge coffee bar. Don't look any further, Palacios will tell you exactly who operated the espresso machine, how the coffee bar was called and even more... reveal the brand of the Italian espresso machine... only... I would like to pass this information to you but I can't find it back right now as... and here is my biggest dissatisfaction with this book... Dark Globe contains no index.
Dark Globe is by near and by far the best Syd Barrett biography ever, but not having an index is (in my awkward opinion) unforgivable as it diminishes its traceability near to factor zero. And that's a shame... I do know that indexes are but a geeks' dream and that most people don't bother with those, but my ultimate wet dream consists of reading bibliographies that have half a dozen footnotes per page. Maybe I am the problem?
Pink Floyd was probably not the best band of the psychedelic bunch, but they surely were the loudest, even outdoing The Who in volume at the Psychedelicamania happening on the last day of 1966. A reporter of the Daily Mail, armed with a sound meter, reported on 'pop above the danger level' and warned for permanent damage to the ears.
In just a couple of months Barrett had not only shifted from quiet blues to avant-garde 120 decibel hard rock, he also traded his daily cup of earl green tea for LSD, mandrax and generally everything that could be easily swallowed or smoked.
The previous reads kind of funny but it is an infinite sad story that has been underrated by witnesses, fans and biographers alike. All kind of excuses have been used not to turn Barrett into a hopeless drug case: his father's death, the pressure of his band-mates, managers and record company, even the stroboscopic effect of the liquid light shows... (although of course all these things may have weakened his self-defence). In my opinion, Julian Palacios manages to get the tone right and he consecrates some poignantly written paragraphs to the darker side of the psychedelic summer.
Hendrix, Morrison, Jones and Joplin: 'each victim to the Dionysian excess they embodied'. Alice Ormsby-Gore: overdose (her friend Eric Clapton had more luck). Julian Ormsby-Gore: suicide. Paul Getty: heroine paralysed him for life. Talitha Dina Pol, his wife: overdose. The list is long and those who survived were not always the lucky ones...
Although there are still people who think that Syd Barrett turned avant-garde during the Floyd's first tour in America, Nick Mason, in his typical no-nonsense style, put it otherwise:
Syd went mad on that first American tour. He didn't know where he was most of the time. He detuned his guitar on stage. He just stood there rattling strings, a bit weird even for us. (Cited in Dark Globe, but originally taken from a May 1994 Mojo interview.)
There is the somewhat romantic viewpoint of Duggie Fields, but basically it tells just the same:
He (Syd) could lie in bed thinking he could do anything in the world he wanted. But when he made a decision that limited his possibilities.
The problem, for those who follow the hypothesis Syd had a problem, was that for Barrett there weren't any possibilities left, although record company, colleagues and friends mildly tried to lure him into the studio or invite him for an impromptu jam. But to paraphrase Sylvia Plath: Syd was too busy being insane, and all the time he was crazy that was all he was able doing.
While at different forums people are arguing, even today, that hallucinogenic drugs are harmless Palacios retaliates by simply listing musicians who had to fight drug-related-burn-outs:
Peter Green,
Roky Erikson,
Chris Kefford,
Shelagh McDonald,
Skip Spence,
Brian Wilson...
It took these people literally decades to crawl back to normal life after years of misery. Also Barrett hoped to overcome his condition one day as was proven by a handwritten note in his copy of The Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry. Syd bloody well understood what was wrong with him and we – the fans – don't fucking know how hard it was for him.
A dark spot that even Palacios can't clarify is 'Syd's lost weekend' that roughly went from 1975 to the early Eighties. The first 400 pages describe Barrett's public life from the mid-Sixties until the pivotal event in 1975 when Syd entered the Wish You Were Here recording sessions. The 30 remaining years of his life are dealt with in a mere 40 pages. Even for Palacios there is nothing to dig. (Rob Chapman managed to add some anecdotes from Barrett's Cambridge life – although some are disputed while you read this - but he didn't unearth anything new about Syd's Chelsea Cloister days either.)
Taken from: http://atagong.com/iggy/archives/2010...
August 9, 2014
Dark Globe 2010 is not an amended or appended Lost In The Woods, Palacios didn't use the easy trick Mike Watkinson & Pete Anderson fell for when they re-issued their Crazy Diamond biography, leaving the (many) errors uncorrected and just adding an extra chapter about Syd Barrett's passing. But I wouldn't go as far as the one critic who claimed that Crazy Diamond is full of 'unsubstantiated nonsense' and that it should come 'with a government health warning on the dust jacket'. Crazy Diamond still takes a soft spot in my heart as it was the first attempt at a serious Barrett biography.
Palacios has unearthed details that no one has ever found or published before and, this has to be said as well, not all of those are relevant to the average Barrett fan.
Did you know that Syd Barrett had a job as a postman in his teenager years, delivering Christmas cards during the holidays? I didn't. Not only does Palacios reveal that but he also points out that the underwear fetishist who was immortalised in Pink Floyd's first single Arnold Layne could have been a Royal Mail post van driver.
Those familiar with the Pink Floyd's early history remember that the band lived, 64-65-ish, in Mike Leonard's house, an architect who introduced the amateurish R&B gang to light-shows and avant-garde music. Leonard also played a mean piano and replaced Rick Wright for a while, what made him think he was a member of what was ironically called Leonard's Lodgers.
Every student who has been living in a community knows that, sooner or later, food will start disappearing. Stanhope Gardens was no exception to that and Rick Wright used to keep his morning cornflakes inside a locked cupboard, fearing that Roger Waters would otherwise steal his beloved morning cereals. The mystery has lingered on for over 4 decades but Julian Palacios has finally discovered who really nicked Wright's breakfast: not Roger Waters but a boarder named Peter Kuttner. Utterly irrelevant but fun to read. The only fear I have now is that Roger Waters will probably write a concept album about it once he finds out.
Not all of this biography reads like a biography. At certain points Palacios can't hide any-more he is a writer at heart, with poetical streaks, obviously regretting that he wasn't around in those underground days. What to say about this:
The face came out from under the murky swell of psychedelic oil lights, like a frame around a picture. A pale, handsome face with thick silky hair and a white satin shirt. Something bright and small seemed to twinkle in his eyes, vanished, then winkled once more like a tiny star. (p .118)
Palacios adds many song descriptions and can get quite lyrical about chord progressions. Personally I can't be bothered as I don't hear the difference between an A and an F anyway. These parts read like a Korean DVD recording manual to me but I suppose that any amateur musician will enjoy them. Julian has been doing more than his homework and for many early Pink Floyd songs he traces back musical or textual references (today we would call that sampling), but he isn't too snotty to give due credits to where they belong.
Palacios has an encyclopaedic musical knowledge and halfway the book I regretted I didn't note down all songtitles he cites. Songs Barrett liked, songs Barrett played and rehearsed in his youth, songs that influenced some of his later work. Adding these would make a nice cd-box, not unlike the cover disks Mojo magazine sometimes issues.
Julian's observations can sometimes be a bit über-detailed. Arnold Layne, the famous song about the cross-dressing knicker-thief, contains a slight musical nod to the 1928 Ma Rainey song Prove It On Me Blues, not coincidentally another song about cross-dressing. As I am tone-deaf - a condition I share with Roger Waters, so it mustn't be all bad as he made a fortune with it - I don't hear any familiarity between both musical pieces but blues scholar John Olivar says there is and Julian Palacios acknowledges it. I simply believe them.
Other links are easier to grasp for a simple man like me, like the fact that Jennifer Gentle (the protagonist from the Lucifer Sam song) can be traced back to a medieval ballad where it goes:
There were three sisters fair and bright,
Jennifer, Gentle and Rosemary...
And they three loved one valiant knight—
As the dow [dove] flies over the mulberry-tree.
Palacios adds layers on layers of information. If you happen to be amongst the dozen or so readers who remember the 1989 Nick Sedgwick novel Light Blue With Bulges you might have wondered who was the beatnik behind the espresso machine (and with his hands in the till) of a famous Cambridge coffee bar. Don't look any further, Palacios will tell you exactly who operated the espresso machine, how the coffee bar was called and even more... reveal the brand of the Italian espresso machine... only... I would like to pass this information to you but I can't find it back right now as... and here is my biggest dissatisfaction with this book... Dark Globe contains no index.
Dark Globe is by near and by far the best Syd Barrett biography ever, but not having an index is (in my awkward opinion) unforgivable as it diminishes its traceability near to factor zero. And that's a shame... I do know that indexes are but a geeks' dream and that most people don't bother with those, but my ultimate wet dream consists of reading bibliographies that have half a dozen footnotes per page. Maybe I am the problem?
Pink Floyd was probably not the best band of the psychedelic bunch, but they surely were the loudest, even outdoing The Who in volume at the Psychedelicamania happening on the last day of 1966. A reporter of the Daily Mail, armed with a sound meter, reported on 'pop above the danger level' and warned for permanent damage to the ears.
In just a couple of months Barrett had not only shifted from quiet blues to avant-garde 120 decibel hard rock, he also traded his daily cup of earl green tea for LSD, mandrax and generally everything that could be easily swallowed or smoked.
The previous reads kind of funny but it is an infinite sad story that has been underrated by witnesses, fans and biographers alike. All kind of excuses have been used not to turn Barrett into a hopeless drug case: his father's death, the pressure of his band-mates, managers and record company, even the stroboscopic effect of the liquid light shows... (although of course all these things may have weakened his self-defence). In my opinion, Julian Palacios manages to get the tone right and he consecrates some poignantly written paragraphs to the darker side of the psychedelic summer.
Hendrix, Morrison, Jones and Joplin: 'each victim to the Dionysian excess they embodied'. Alice Ormsby-Gore: overdose (her friend Eric Clapton had more luck). Julian Ormsby-Gore: suicide. Paul Getty: heroine paralysed him for life. Talitha Dina Pol, his wife: overdose. The list is long and those who survived were not always the lucky ones...
Although there are still people who think that Syd Barrett turned avant-garde during the Floyd's first tour in America, Nick Mason, in his typical no-nonsense style, put it otherwise:
Syd went mad on that first American tour. He didn't know where he was most of the time. He detuned his guitar on stage. He just stood there rattling strings, a bit weird even for us. (Cited in Dark Globe, but originally taken from a May 1994 Mojo interview.)
There is the somewhat romantic viewpoint of Duggie Fields, but basically it tells just the same:
He (Syd) could lie in bed thinking he could do anything in the world he wanted. But when he made a decision that limited his possibilities.
The problem, for those who follow the hypothesis Syd had a problem, was that for Barrett there weren't any possibilities left, although record company, colleagues and friends mildly tried to lure him into the studio or invite him for an impromptu jam. But to paraphrase Sylvia Plath: Syd was too busy being insane, and all the time he was crazy that was all he was able doing.
While at different forums people are arguing, even today, that hallucinogenic drugs are harmless Palacios retaliates by simply listing musicians who had to fight drug-related-burn-outs:
Peter Green,
Roky Erikson,
Chris Kefford,
Shelagh McDonald,
Skip Spence,
Brian Wilson...
It took these people literally decades to crawl back to normal life after years of misery. Also Barrett hoped to overcome his condition one day as was proven by a handwritten note in his copy of The Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry. Syd bloody well understood what was wrong with him and we – the fans – don't fucking know how hard it was for him.
A dark spot that even Palacios can't clarify is 'Syd's lost weekend' that roughly went from 1975 to the early Eighties. The first 400 pages describe Barrett's public life from the mid-Sixties until the pivotal event in 1975 when Syd entered the Wish You Were Here recording sessions. The 30 remaining years of his life are dealt with in a mere 40 pages. Even for Palacios there is nothing to dig. (Rob Chapman managed to add some anecdotes from Barrett's Cambridge life – although some are disputed while you read this - but he didn't unearth anything new about Syd's Chelsea Cloister days either.)
Taken from: http://atagong.com/iggy/archives/2010...
Palacios has unearthed details that no one has ever found or published before and, this has to be said as well, not all of those are relevant to the average Barrett fan.
Did you know that Syd Barrett had a job as a postman in his teenager years, delivering Christmas cards during the holidays? I didn't. Not only does Palacios reveal that but he also points out that the underwear fetishist who was immortalised in Pink Floyd's first single Arnold Layne could have been a Royal Mail post van driver.
Those familiar with the Pink Floyd's early history remember that the band lived, 64-65-ish, in Mike Leonard's house, an architect who introduced the amateurish R&B gang to light-shows and avant-garde music. Leonard also played a mean piano and replaced Rick Wright for a while, what made him think he was a member of what was ironically called Leonard's Lodgers.
Every student who has been living in a community knows that, sooner or later, food will start disappearing. Stanhope Gardens was no exception to that and Rick Wright used to keep his morning cornflakes inside a locked cupboard, fearing that Roger Waters would otherwise steal his beloved morning cereals. The mystery has lingered on for over 4 decades but Julian Palacios has finally discovered who really nicked Wright's breakfast: not Roger Waters but a boarder named Peter Kuttner. Utterly irrelevant but fun to read. The only fear I have now is that Roger Waters will probably write a concept album about it once he finds out.
Not all of this biography reads like a biography. At certain points Palacios can't hide any-more he is a writer at heart, with poetical streaks, obviously regretting that he wasn't around in those underground days. What to say about this:
The face came out from under the murky swell of psychedelic oil lights, like a frame around a picture. A pale, handsome face with thick silky hair and a white satin shirt. Something bright and small seemed to twinkle in his eyes, vanished, then winkled once more like a tiny star. (p .118)
Palacios adds many song descriptions and can get quite lyrical about chord progressions. Personally I can't be bothered as I don't hear the difference between an A and an F anyway. These parts read like a Korean DVD recording manual to me but I suppose that any amateur musician will enjoy them. Julian has been doing more than his homework and for many early Pink Floyd songs he traces back musical or textual references (today we would call that sampling), but he isn't too snotty to give due credits to where they belong.
Palacios has an encyclopaedic musical knowledge and halfway the book I regretted I didn't note down all songtitles he cites. Songs Barrett liked, songs Barrett played and rehearsed in his youth, songs that influenced some of his later work. Adding these would make a nice cd-box, not unlike the cover disks Mojo magazine sometimes issues.
Julian's observations can sometimes be a bit über-detailed. Arnold Layne, the famous song about the cross-dressing knicker-thief, contains a slight musical nod to the 1928 Ma Rainey song Prove It On Me Blues, not coincidentally another song about cross-dressing. As I am tone-deaf - a condition I share with Roger Waters, so it mustn't be all bad as he made a fortune with it - I don't hear any familiarity between both musical pieces but blues scholar John Olivar says there is and Julian Palacios acknowledges it. I simply believe them.
Other links are easier to grasp for a simple man like me, like the fact that Jennifer Gentle (the protagonist from the Lucifer Sam song) can be traced back to a medieval ballad where it goes:
There were three sisters fair and bright,
Jennifer, Gentle and Rosemary...
And they three loved one valiant knight—
As the dow [dove] flies over the mulberry-tree.
Palacios adds layers on layers of information. If you happen to be amongst the dozen or so readers who remember the 1989 Nick Sedgwick novel Light Blue With Bulges you might have wondered who was the beatnik behind the espresso machine (and with his hands in the till) of a famous Cambridge coffee bar. Don't look any further, Palacios will tell you exactly who operated the espresso machine, how the coffee bar was called and even more... reveal the brand of the Italian espresso machine... only... I would like to pass this information to you but I can't find it back right now as... and here is my biggest dissatisfaction with this book... Dark Globe contains no index.
Dark Globe is by near and by far the best Syd Barrett biography ever, but not having an index is (in my awkward opinion) unforgivable as it diminishes its traceability near to factor zero. And that's a shame... I do know that indexes are but a geeks' dream and that most people don't bother with those, but my ultimate wet dream consists of reading bibliographies that have half a dozen footnotes per page. Maybe I am the problem?
Pink Floyd was probably not the best band of the psychedelic bunch, but they surely were the loudest, even outdoing The Who in volume at the Psychedelicamania happening on the last day of 1966. A reporter of the Daily Mail, armed with a sound meter, reported on 'pop above the danger level' and warned for permanent damage to the ears.
In just a couple of months Barrett had not only shifted from quiet blues to avant-garde 120 decibel hard rock, he also traded his daily cup of earl green tea for LSD, mandrax and generally everything that could be easily swallowed or smoked.
The previous reads kind of funny but it is an infinite sad story that has been underrated by witnesses, fans and biographers alike. All kind of excuses have been used not to turn Barrett into a hopeless drug case: his father's death, the pressure of his band-mates, managers and record company, even the stroboscopic effect of the liquid light shows... (although of course all these things may have weakened his self-defence). In my opinion, Julian Palacios manages to get the tone right and he consecrates some poignantly written paragraphs to the darker side of the psychedelic summer.
Hendrix, Morrison, Jones and Joplin: 'each victim to the Dionysian excess they embodied'. Alice Ormsby-Gore: overdose (her friend Eric Clapton had more luck). Julian Ormsby-Gore: suicide. Paul Getty: heroine paralysed him for life. Talitha Dina Pol, his wife: overdose. The list is long and those who survived were not always the lucky ones...
Although there are still people who think that Syd Barrett turned avant-garde during the Floyd's first tour in America, Nick Mason, in his typical no-nonsense style, put it otherwise:
Syd went mad on that first American tour. He didn't know where he was most of the time. He detuned his guitar on stage. He just stood there rattling strings, a bit weird even for us. (Cited in Dark Globe, but originally taken from a May 1994 Mojo interview.)
There is the somewhat romantic viewpoint of Duggie Fields, but basically it tells just the same:
He (Syd) could lie in bed thinking he could do anything in the world he wanted. But when he made a decision that limited his possibilities.
The problem, for those who follow the hypothesis Syd had a problem, was that for Barrett there weren't any possibilities left, although record company, colleagues and friends mildly tried to lure him into the studio or invite him for an impromptu jam. But to paraphrase Sylvia Plath: Syd was too busy being insane, and all the time he was crazy that was all he was able doing.
While at different forums people are arguing, even today, that hallucinogenic drugs are harmless Palacios retaliates by simply listing musicians who had to fight drug-related-burn-outs:
Peter Green,
Roky Erikson,
Chris Kefford,
Shelagh McDonald,
Skip Spence,
Brian Wilson...
It took these people literally decades to crawl back to normal life after years of misery. Also Barrett hoped to overcome his condition one day as was proven by a handwritten note in his copy of The Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry. Syd bloody well understood what was wrong with him and we – the fans – don't fucking know how hard it was for him.
A dark spot that even Palacios can't clarify is 'Syd's lost weekend' that roughly went from 1975 to the early Eighties. The first 400 pages describe Barrett's public life from the mid-Sixties until the pivotal event in 1975 when Syd entered the Wish You Were Here recording sessions. The 30 remaining years of his life are dealt with in a mere 40 pages. Even for Palacios there is nothing to dig. (Rob Chapman managed to add some anecdotes from Barrett's Cambridge life – although some are disputed while you read this - but he didn't unearth anything new about Syd's Chelsea Cloister days either.)
Taken from: http://atagong.com/iggy/archives/2010...
August 9, 2019
Second time of reading this. Very well researched, tastefully handled. Palacios manages to catch the sense of momentum the Pink Floyd were gathering through the latter end of '66 and the early months of '67.
Scored a 4 simply cos it's rock biography, so let's not get carried away here.
There'll be more books and writings about Roger Keith Barrett for many years to come. This sets the standard tho. A fine, heartfelt record.
Scored a 4 simply cos it's rock biography, so let's not get carried away here.
There'll be more books and writings about Roger Keith Barrett for many years to come. This sets the standard tho. A fine, heartfelt record.
August 2, 2020
Solidne i w miarę wyważone, chociaż z początku zapowiadało się na hagiografię.
October 25, 2024
Superb book, well-written with a huge amount of research. Recommended.
May 10, 2016
http://www.musicformyeyes.pl/2016/05/...
Przymiotnikiem "legendarny" szasta się teraz na lewo i prawo. Legendarne są już kosmetyki, sprzęty gospodarstwa domowego, a w odniesieniu do branży muzycznej, to mało kto jest teraz nielegendarny, podczas gdy - moim zdaniem - określenie to jest tak naprawdę adekwatne do niewielkiej grupy artystów. Syd Barrett, bo dzisiaj o nim mowa, z pewnością należy do tej elitarnej gromadki.
Zanim jednak świat będzie bił się w licytacjach o pamiątki po nim, a na słowo Pink Floyd co druga osoba się ożywi, Syd przebędzie długą i ciężką drogę ze sobą samym.
COŚ NOWEGO
Syd uwielbiał rysować i malować, doskonale wyczuwał balans pomiędzy światłem i cieniem, był mistrzem w szybkich rysunkach. Od małego wykazywał zdolności artystyczne, a kiedy muzyka stała się kolejnym środkiem wyrazu nikt z jego bliskich specjalnie się nie zdziwił. Na początku dobrze dogadywał się z kolegami z Pink Floyd, był głównym odpowiedzialnym za kompozycje. Chłopcy uczyli się siebie i od siebie. Od początku chcieli stworzyć coś odważnego, nowego, coś, co będzie ich elementem rozpoznawczym. Dzisiaj wiemy, że im się to udało.
OTWORZYĆ DRZWI PERCEPCJI
Powstanie i duża część działalność Pink Floyd przypadła na lata, w których eksperymentowanie z narkotykami było w pewnych kręgach na porządku dziennym. Mało było wiadomo o ich skutkach ubocznych, a chociażby TIMES donosił, że LSD wykazuje cechy terapeutyczne w leczeniu alkoholizmu. Rozkwit narkotykowych wojaży i metafizyczne doznania to nieodłączne części muzyki Barretta i spółki. Awangarda Londynu napędzana była wtedy przez LSD i haszysz.
Arcyważnym elementem składowym muzyki Floydów było echo, czyli powtórzenie dźwięku spowodowane odbiciem fal dźwiękowych. Grali mocno, głośno, energetycznie, wprowadzając w trans słuchaczy. Bez względu na to, czy ktoś preferował styl ich grania czy nie, to zawsze wywoływali jakieś emocje używając do tego efektów dźwiękowych i świetlnych. Ich spektakle to tryumf mechaniki i agresywnej awangardy.
"Uważamy, że muzyka i światła to część jednej całości. Jedno uzupełnia i rozwija drugie.
W przyszłości zespoły popowe będą musiały zaoferować coś znacznie więcej niż zwykły koncert. Będę musiały zaproponować dopracowany spektakl" powie Barrett w 1967 roku.
David Bowie wspomina Syda Barretta jako pełnego charyzmy i hipnotyzującego na scenie artystę: "Pierwszy z muzyków rockowych, którego widziałem w makijażu i który dobrze w nim wyglądał. (...) Widziałem Pink Floyd w Marquee i to zainspirowało mnie do tworzenia musicali".
CZŁOWIEK, KTÓRY CZUŁ ZA BARDZO (?)
Z czasem u Syda problemy natury psychicznej pogłębiają się. Efektem tego jest eskalacja dysonansów w zespole i zmiany personalne w zespole, które Barrett źle znosi. Jak to się stało, że wesoły, pełny życia i pasji człowiek, zamyka się w sobie, izoluje od bliskich mu osób i zaczyna życie w świecie równoległym?
Książka "Syd Barrett i Pink Floyd. Mroczny świat" jest fantastycznym zestawieniem życia tego artysty. Autor wykonał niemożliwą z pozoru pracę: dotarł do osób, do źródeł, przez to całość jest niezwykle solidnie udokumentowanym obrazem życia Syda Barretta. To też niezwykły kąsek dla wszystkich wielbicieli muzyki Pink Floyd, w którym znajdą szczegółowe techniczne informacje związane z samą tylko muzyczną płaszczyzną twórczości grupy. Fragmenty opisujące to jak krok po korku powstawały te fantastyczne kompozycje są gratką dla wszystkich fanów.
Niezwykła osobowość. Niezwykła książka. 5/5!
Przymiotnikiem "legendarny" szasta się teraz na lewo i prawo. Legendarne są już kosmetyki, sprzęty gospodarstwa domowego, a w odniesieniu do branży muzycznej, to mało kto jest teraz nielegendarny, podczas gdy - moim zdaniem - określenie to jest tak naprawdę adekwatne do niewielkiej grupy artystów. Syd Barrett, bo dzisiaj o nim mowa, z pewnością należy do tej elitarnej gromadki.
Zanim jednak świat będzie bił się w licytacjach o pamiątki po nim, a na słowo Pink Floyd co druga osoba się ożywi, Syd przebędzie długą i ciężką drogę ze sobą samym.
COŚ NOWEGO
Syd uwielbiał rysować i malować, doskonale wyczuwał balans pomiędzy światłem i cieniem, był mistrzem w szybkich rysunkach. Od małego wykazywał zdolności artystyczne, a kiedy muzyka stała się kolejnym środkiem wyrazu nikt z jego bliskich specjalnie się nie zdziwił. Na początku dobrze dogadywał się z kolegami z Pink Floyd, był głównym odpowiedzialnym za kompozycje. Chłopcy uczyli się siebie i od siebie. Od początku chcieli stworzyć coś odważnego, nowego, coś, co będzie ich elementem rozpoznawczym. Dzisiaj wiemy, że im się to udało.
OTWORZYĆ DRZWI PERCEPCJI
Powstanie i duża część działalność Pink Floyd przypadła na lata, w których eksperymentowanie z narkotykami było w pewnych kręgach na porządku dziennym. Mało było wiadomo o ich skutkach ubocznych, a chociażby TIMES donosił, że LSD wykazuje cechy terapeutyczne w leczeniu alkoholizmu. Rozkwit narkotykowych wojaży i metafizyczne doznania to nieodłączne części muzyki Barretta i spółki. Awangarda Londynu napędzana była wtedy przez LSD i haszysz.
Arcyważnym elementem składowym muzyki Floydów było echo, czyli powtórzenie dźwięku spowodowane odbiciem fal dźwiękowych. Grali mocno, głośno, energetycznie, wprowadzając w trans słuchaczy. Bez względu na to, czy ktoś preferował styl ich grania czy nie, to zawsze wywoływali jakieś emocje używając do tego efektów dźwiękowych i świetlnych. Ich spektakle to tryumf mechaniki i agresywnej awangardy.
"Uważamy, że muzyka i światła to część jednej całości. Jedno uzupełnia i rozwija drugie.
W przyszłości zespoły popowe będą musiały zaoferować coś znacznie więcej niż zwykły koncert. Będę musiały zaproponować dopracowany spektakl" powie Barrett w 1967 roku.
David Bowie wspomina Syda Barretta jako pełnego charyzmy i hipnotyzującego na scenie artystę: "Pierwszy z muzyków rockowych, którego widziałem w makijażu i który dobrze w nim wyglądał. (...) Widziałem Pink Floyd w Marquee i to zainspirowało mnie do tworzenia musicali".
CZŁOWIEK, KTÓRY CZUŁ ZA BARDZO (?)
Z czasem u Syda problemy natury psychicznej pogłębiają się. Efektem tego jest eskalacja dysonansów w zespole i zmiany personalne w zespole, które Barrett źle znosi. Jak to się stało, że wesoły, pełny życia i pasji człowiek, zamyka się w sobie, izoluje od bliskich mu osób i zaczyna życie w świecie równoległym?
Książka "Syd Barrett i Pink Floyd. Mroczny świat" jest fantastycznym zestawieniem życia tego artysty. Autor wykonał niemożliwą z pozoru pracę: dotarł do osób, do źródeł, przez to całość jest niezwykle solidnie udokumentowanym obrazem życia Syda Barretta. To też niezwykły kąsek dla wszystkich wielbicieli muzyki Pink Floyd, w którym znajdą szczegółowe techniczne informacje związane z samą tylko muzyczną płaszczyzną twórczości grupy. Fragmenty opisujące to jak krok po korku powstawały te fantastyczne kompozycje są gratką dla wszystkich fanów.
Niezwykła osobowość. Niezwykła książka. 5/5!
February 10, 2019
A must read for any rock fan.
One of the best books about a rock artist I've ever read. A reconstruction filled with details, infos, notes and references; musical analyses are correct and not exaggerated; and, above all, it puts things in context, relating them with all the other great artists and events of those years in the psych/experimental rock field: the influence of The Byrds and The Fugs on Barrett's songwriting, the role of DJ John Peel, gigs, live performances, strange friends, etc. You'll never read a book like this about, say, The Beatles, because real comparisons would make them sound much more naive and less original than what the mainstream still think they were, but Barrett was truly one of the giants, so even his fans will enjoy a necessary historical perspective.
I strongly recommend this 2nd edition, Dark Globe (an improved version of Lost in the Woods, title of the 1st edition), to any fan of rock music in general, not only of Barrett or Floyd.
One of the best books about a rock artist I've ever read. A reconstruction filled with details, infos, notes and references; musical analyses are correct and not exaggerated; and, above all, it puts things in context, relating them with all the other great artists and events of those years in the psych/experimental rock field: the influence of The Byrds and The Fugs on Barrett's songwriting, the role of DJ John Peel, gigs, live performances, strange friends, etc. You'll never read a book like this about, say, The Beatles, because real comparisons would make them sound much more naive and less original than what the mainstream still think they were, but Barrett was truly one of the giants, so even his fans will enjoy a necessary historical perspective.
I strongly recommend this 2nd edition, Dark Globe (an improved version of Lost in the Woods, title of the 1st edition), to any fan of rock music in general, not only of Barrett or Floyd.
October 4, 2013
Very detailed, well written, very passionate account of Syd Barrett. It seems thorough in the research and gives a grounding for understanding the man, the times, and the 'illness'. Would have liked a complete discography and some times the dates were left out which made it difficult to read. Overall, fans will enjoy.
Read
September 1, 2016Brilliant! Moving and poignant. Syd, the enigma.
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