There was a time when Syd Barrett was Pink Floyd. He was the principal singer and songwriter and it is safe to say there would absolutely be no Pink Floyd without Syd. This time was very brief and is often forgotten due to the insane heights the band would reach without him and the dark depths that Syd would reach alone.

Syd was born Roger Keith Barrett in England today in 1946. Syd was interested in all types of art as a child, though primarily drawn to drawing, painting and music. He learned to play piano as a child and picked up guitar in his early teens. Syd was in a handful of bands before teaming up with Roger Waters, Nick Mason and Rick Wright in Pink Floyd.

Waters, Mason and Wright were architecture students at the same school and began playing together. Through some lineup changes and a variety of band names – Sigma 6, the Screaming Abdabs, the Meggadeaths – they finally became the Tea Set and Syd joined in 1964. The Tea Set ran into a bit of a problem in 1965 when they were booked to play a show with another band called the Tea Set. Syd and the boys were forced to change their name and Syd came up with The Pink Floyd Sound. The name was a combination of two American bluesmen that Syd listened to – Pink Anderson and Floyd Council.

Pink Floyd began as a lot of English bands did at the time, playing covers of American blues, R&B and rock and roll.  Syd started pulling the band in a new direction and the band quickly evolved into a leader in London’s underground psychedelic scene. Through 1966 the band was picking up steady gigs in London clubs, including a Sunday afternoon residency at the famous Marquee Club. In early 1967 Pink Floyd signed a record deal and started recording their debut album at Abbey Road Studios.

“The Piper at the Gates of Dawn” was released on August 5, 1967 to great acclaim. The album reached #6 on the UK album chart and cracked the Top 200 in the US. As the band’s successes mounted, Syd became more and more erratic. He had long been a bit mentally unstable and was by this time a heavy user of LSD and tranquilizers. The combination often rendered him motionless and mute on stage and Syd was quickly becoming a liability for the band.

In late 1967 Pink Floyd was opening for Jimi Hendrix on a tour of England and Syd would either fail to show up for gigs or he’d show up and be useless. Floyd brought on an additional guitarist from a band called The Nice. After the tour the band recruited one of Syd’s college friends, David Gilmour, to be a second guitarist with the idea of being a five-piece and keeping Syd for his compositional abilities.

Syd’s behavior on stage kept getting worse. He’d alternate between stumbling on stage one show to standing on stage in a catatonic state the next show. The band finally had enough. On January 26, 1968 Waters was driving Gilmour, Mason and Wright to a gig in Southampton, England. Someone in the vehicle asked if they should stop and pick up Syd. They decided against it and continued on to the show. Syd Barrett would never perform with Pink Floyd again.

Syd launched a brief solo career and released two albums in 1970, “The Madcap Laughs” and “Barrett”. The recording of the albums was very difficult due to Syd’s habit of never playing anything the same way twice. Syd had also spent some time in a psychiatric hospital between 1968-70. After being released he moved into an apartment next door to David Gilmour. There was no animosity between Pink Floyd and Syd and the band felt sorry to see their friend declining.

Gilmour and Waters helped produce parts of “The Madcap Laughs”. Gilmour and Wright played on “Barrett” along with Humble Pie drummer Jerry Shirley and Gilmour also produced the album.  In 1972 Syd tried to get a new band together but the results were terrible. After reading a poor review Syd decided to quit the music business. He signed over his rights to any claim to future Pink Floyd activities but retained his current royalties. This money sustained him for a while and he made a brief flirtation with music again in 1974 but it only lasted a few days.

 On June 5, 1975 Pink Floyd was at Abbey Road for the “Wish You Were Here” recording sessions. This particular day they were working on the song “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”, which Rogers had written as a tribute to their old friend. During the recording Syd entered the studio and watched the band record. Syd’s appearance was unrecognizable to his former bandmates but his behavior was not. As Syd watched the recording he brushed his teeth inside the studio. Rather than use his hand to maneuver the brush inside his mouth, Syd kept his arm still and jumped up and down for minutes on end.

By 1978 money had run out on Syd and he moved to Cambridge to live with his mother. Syd would return to London briefly a few years later but would soon move back to Cambridge for good. As if to close the door fully on his former life Syd walked 60 miles from London back to his mother’s house. From 1982 until his death of pancreatic cancer in 2006, he avoided contact with the media and the public and focused on art and painting.

Syd Barrett was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006 as a member of Pink Floyd but he did not attend the ceremony. Syd’s career was incredibly brief for the impact he had on rock music. David Bowie, Marc Bolan, Pete Townshend and Paul McCartney all site Syd as an influence and he launched Pink Floyd on a trajectory that would place them among the most influential bands in rock and roll. While many people have forgotten Syd Barrett music has not.

Pink Floyd – “Arnold Layne” single 1967:

Pink Floyd – “Astronomy Domine” off the album “Piper at the Gates of Dawn (UK version)” 1967:

Pink Floyd – “See Emily Play” off the album “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (US version)” 1967:

Pink Floyd – “Jugband Blues” off the album “A Saucerful of Secrets” 1968:

Syd Barrett – “Octopus” off the album “The Madcap Laughs” 1970:

Syd Barrett – “Baby Lemonade” off the album “Barrett” 1970: