What do you think of Syd Barrett?

[Alucard]

He was one of the founding members of Pink Floyd and the one who came up with the name of the band. His mental health started to gradually decline soon after forming the band (Probably hastened by his LSD use). Around 1968, the other band members kicked him out because of his mental state. He went on to do a bit of solo work, but soon vanished from the public eye. In 1975, 7 years after the other members of Pink Floyd kicked him out, he randomly walked into Abbey Road studios where Pink Floyd were recording their Wish You Were Here album. Nobody in the studio recognized him because he had a shaved head, shaved eyebrows and he'd put on a load of weight (I read somewhere that his shaved head and eyebrows were because he had cancer and had recently gone through chemo). One guy did recognize him and told everyone it was Syd. Everyone was in shock seeing the state that he was in after 7 years of no contact with him. They tried to talk to him, but he was just too far gone. Anyway, after that he basically became a shut-in for 30+ years right up until he died. His story is pretty sad in my opinion. I feel like he tried to rekindle his fire after he was kicked out of Pink Floyd with his solo work, but it's like every time he tried, it started raining. I personally know how that feels. I also know how the alienation and the sense of not belonging anywhere must have felt after they kicked him out. I think he might have had Asperger's, but he went undiagnosed because they didn't diagnose it back in those days. Apparently his sister thinks so too. As someone who has it themself, I can definitely see traits of it in him.

 

[Descartes]

I really like the guy, and yes, his story is pretty sad. A lot of valuable people have internal conflicts and end up having mental issues and problems like drug addiction

 

[Gremlincel]

One can't be blamed for losing their mind, in a world like this.
My favorite song from them, they probably wrote it in honor of Syd.

 

[blickpall]

You definitely oversimplified and misconstrued some elements of his life. It is way more likely that he was a schizophrenic or shizoid than Aspberger's, or at the very least the former leading to a diagnosis of the latter. I haven't looked at his history in years but I am pretty sure that his schizo diagnosis is more or less confirmed unless memory is playing tricks on me.

Did he set the course for one of the greatest bands of all time? Absolutely. He was central to their success in the hyper-competitive era that Piper debuted in. Did his contributions have a lasting effect? From Echoes to Shine On to the Wall, absolutely. But is he the central reason for why Pink Floyd is my favorite band of all time? Absolutely not. He was like the Napster to the Limewire/Kazaa and then torrent era. A predecessor, and a visionary. But one whose vision was less ambitious than what had been achieved based off of it.

 

[blickpall]

One can't be blamed for losing there mind, in a world like this.
My favorite song from them, they probably wrote it in honor of Syd.

Confirmed to be written for Syd. The entire album was.

To add to the story in the OP, he didn't just show up in the recording studio, he picked up a guitar and started playing. But the band knew that despite their personal inclinations, they couldn't just let that slide.

A more modern parallel would be Layne Staley (Alice in Chains) in the year before his suicide.

 

[Gremlincel]

Confirmed to be written for Syd. The entire album was.

To add to the story in the OP, he didn't just show up in the recording studio, he picked up a guitar and started playing. But the band knew that despite their personal inclinations, they couldn't just let that slide.

A more modern parallel would be Layne Staley (Alice in Chains) in the year before his suicide.

Damn, I didn't know. I'll have to do some research on it all.

 

[Alucard]

You definitely oversimplified and misconstrued some elements of his life. It is way more likely that he was a schizophrenic or shizoid than Aspberger's, or at the very least the former leading to a diagnosis of the latter. I haven't looked at his history in years but I am pretty sure that his schizo diagnosis is more or less confirmed unless memory is playing tricks on me.

Did he set the course for one of the greatest bands of all time? Absolutely. He was central to their success in the hyper-competitive era that Piper debuted in. Did his contributions have a lasting effect? From Echoes to Shine On to the Wall, absolutely. But is he the central reason for why Pink Floyd is my favorite band of all time? Absolutely not. He was like the Napster to the Limewire/Kazaa and then torrent era. A predecessor, and a visionary. But one whose vision was less ambitious than what had been achieved based off of it.

He was never diagnosed with anything. He stayed away from doctors. Roger Waters drove him to a psychiatrist's office, but he refused to get out of the car. That was the closest he ever came to getting any type of diagnosis. Apparently all of the members of Pink Floyd later went to the same psychiatrist with a tape containing a recording of Syd and the psychiatrist just said he was "uncurable". To this day his family deny that he had any mental health issues. Like I said, his sister just suggests that he might have had Asperger's. She also says he didn't actually become a shut-in, which may be true actually because there's quite a few pictures of him cycling and generally doing things out and about in his post-Floyd years.

 

[blickpall]

He was never diagnosed with anything. He stayed away from doctors. Roger Waters drove him to a psychiatrist's office, but he refused to get out of the car. That was the closest he ever came to getting any type of diagnosis. Apparently all of the members of Pink Floyd later went to the same psychiatrist with a tape containing a recording of Syd and the psychiatrist just said he was "uncurable". To this day his family deny that he had any mental health issues. Like I said, his sister just suggests that he might have had Asperger's. She also says he didn't actually become a shut-in, which may be true actually because there's quite a few pictures of him cycling and generally doing things out and about in his post-Floyd years.

What about the time he spent in the psych ward? They gave him an admittedly outdated diagnosis of psychosis and/or schizophrenia then if memory serves correct. The bit you said about LSD only goes to further the hypothesis as it is known that it exacerbates some mental conditions while placating others.

 

[Alucard]

What about the time he spent in the psych ward? They gave him an admittedly outdated diagnosis of psychosis and/or schizophrenia then if memory serves correct. The bit you said about LSD only goes to further the hypothesis as it is known that it exacerbates some mental conditions while placating others.

I wasn't aware that he spent time in a psych ward. I'd take everything you read about him with a grain of salt tbh. There seems to be a lot of made up stuff about him, especially that news article that was written by his supposed neighbour, David Sore. If you haven't read it yet, you should. Some parts of it are pretty funny actually, which makes me feel like it was intended to be satire.

 

[blickpall]

I wasn't aware that he spent time in a psych ward. I'd take everything you read about him with a grain of salt tbh. There seems to be a lot of made up stuff about him, especially that news article that was written by his supposed neighbour, David Sore. If you haven't read it yet, you should. Some parts of it are pretty funny actually, which makes me feel like it was intended to be satire.

This is of course a fair point but by the same token you can't trust his family members to be objective storytellers either. I'll try to find the book I read this in to give a more thorough response.