Syd Barrett

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Syd Barrett, born Roger Keith Barrett in Cambridge in 1946, was a singer, guitarist and songwriter. He played in bands from a young age and was friends with Roger Waters, who later became his bandmate. He studied painting in London and in 1965 co-founded the group that called itself Pink Floyd. He came up with that name himself.

Music and breakthrough

Barrett wrote the group's first single, Arnold Layne, about a man who steals clothes from washing lines. See Emily Play followed, and in 1967 the album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, of which he wrote eight of the eleven songs. He combined English fairy-tale lyrics with a free, experimental way of playing. On guitar he used dissonance, distortion, echo and feedback, and his influence on psychedelic rock was great. Because of serious drug problems and increasingly erratic behaviour, things went wrong in 1968. He left Pink Floyd in April, and David Gilmour took his place.

Influence

In 1970 his solo albums The Madcap Laughs and Barrett appeared, recorded with the help of members of Pink Floyd and Soft Machine. In 1974 he stopped making music. He afterwards lived in seclusion, painted and worked in the garden, and died in 2006. Pink Floyd continued to commemorate him, for example with Shine On You Crazy Diamond from 1975. What Barrett revealed in the short time of his career showed others how free a pop song could sound.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 1970Barrett
• 1970The Madcap Laughs

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

• Mixtape 4: When Rock Was Still Pop^NL Reader
• Magazine: Wish You Were Here^NL Magazine
• Magazine: Hipgnosis^NL Magazine

Mentioned in other articles

• The Piper at the Gates of Dawn AlbumSyd Barrett wrote almost all the songs.