Faber & Faber

Syd Barrett: Rob Chapman

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Synopsis:

By February 1972, it was effectively all over for Syd Barrett, founder member and guiding creative force behind the original Pink Floyd. In the summer of 2006 he died at the age of sixty, a remote and sensitive individual whose psychedelic footprints left a trail back to the mid-sixties and the height of the London underground.

With exceptional style and gusto, Syd Barrett dismantles the myth of Loony Syd the Acid Casualty and reveals a young man whose psychedelic parameters expanded too fast, too soon, as his early success with the album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn shocked him into a frenetic pop world he was not yet ready for - and perhaps never even wanted. Maybe, just maybe, Syd was not cut out for the rock ’n’ roll long haul; maybe, like a comet, he was destined to burn bright and leave a long train.

This book is a gateway to a vision of one man’s Arcadia, an exploration of a genius songwriter and artist whose musical influence resonated through punk, post-punk and the artier end of Britpop. Including for the first time extensive interviews with the Barrett family, and with reference to his letters, juvenilia, and work as an artist, Syd Barrett is, finally, the book this most extraordinary of English eccentrics deserves.

Tags:

Categorised as:

Non-fiction

Sub-categories:

Biography & Memoir; Popular Music

Genres & Themes:

Counterculture; Icons; Psychedelia; Rock 'n' Roll