After reading lots of stuff about Pink Floyd over the holidays, I've spent the last couple of weeks reading about their founder and muse Syd Barrett. His death in 2006 released a new wave of writing and re-evaluation of his life and legacy. I've just read two quite detailed and thoroughly researched examples - Julian Palacios' Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd: Dark Globe and Rob Chapman's A Very Irregular Head: The Life of Syd Barrett. Pink Floyd had a rapid rise to fame. In early 1966 they were playing R&B covers at university socials. By the end of 1967 they had a top 10 hit and successful first album, were playing concerts in USA and Europe and were at the forefront of the new wave of psychedelic music that was sweeping the Western world. Most of this success was down to Barrett. He played lead guitar, operated as the main singer and wrote most of the songs. The creative vision that made them so successful was almost totally his. Floyd were the darlings
'Contemplating the teeming life of the shore, we have an uneasy sense of the communication of some universal truth that lies just beyond our grasp.' - Rachel Carson