Are you my unknown twin brother? I'm 19, too! I think I first heard Floyd when I was 15, so it's cool. I definitely agree with you about others missing out on the best Floyd experience and being annoyed about it. You definitely sound like me in that respect. And yeah, I've definitely been obsessed with the Syd Barrett era. The Piper at the Gates of Dawn was my most overplayed album.
I think I might be!! There's just something about the Barrett era Floyd, and Barrett himself thats so appealing. I can honestly say I've never came across anyone in history, musically orientated or not, who's been a bigger influence on me than him. It was listening to Piper, Madcap Laughs and Barrett that made me pick up a guitar and start writing songs again. And it's not to say that Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall aren't outstandingly well made peices of, well, art really, because they are, but there's deffinately a lot that people are missing if these are the only things they've heard.
Yeah I've got his solo albums as well. In fact, I've got some audio footage of Syd Barrett-era Floyd playing live. Really amazing to hear them improvise. I have some unreleased tracks as well. I even have a fan DVD called "Pink Floyd Video Anthology Rev.A", and the first disc is dedicated to Syd Barrett. All the highest quality video footage compiled in the best way. You can tell I was really into him. haha I've been picking up a lot of other influences since, though. But I certainly spent the longest time with Mr. Barrett's work. (Well unless you count my Gorillaz phase when I was younger, which lasted forever, but I'm not really much a fan of them anymore. 'Twas before I discovered The Beatles, Pink Floyd and onwards.)
I'm guessing the live footage stuff is the footage from the "Tonight lets all make love in london" film by Peter Whitehead? Wearing the red and black stripe top and whatnot. If so, that is my FAVOURITE footage i've seen of him playing, he just gets so in to the music. I'm not exaggerating when I say I have an almost full Syd Barrett collection when it comes to his music. Every demo that never got released for his solo albums, including the recordings made when he tried to make a 3rd album in '74 (Worth a listen, purely on the basis that it shows how much he had diminished mentally, and tallent wise), and ALMOST every bootleg recording known of Live Syd era Floyd. You shoud DEFFINATELY try and get your hands on "A Tree Full of Secrets" if you can. Its a 9 Volume (Yeah, 9!!!) collection of "Pink Floyd Rarities" spanning from Barrett era with Bob Klose to the contempary line ups solo rarities. Has some really interesting and good stuff on it!! I must say I've not came across that DVD before, maybe I have under another name, but you've made me realise I've still allot more to get before I can say I've got everything there is! haha He's the biggest influence on me musically, but I listen to far too many different bands/genres/whatever to not have other influences too haha! Honestly never enjoyed the Gorillaz either. I liked the idea of them, just never liked them ha!
Well, there's the live-in-the-studio footage for the "Tonite Let's Make Love in London" film. There's also the Copenhagen and Rotterdam concerts which are available on the bootleg "What Syd Wants". And there's also the higher quality Stockholm audio footage which was more recently leaked. (Features "See Emily Play" live). Yeah, his 3rd album demos are definitely worth a listen, but I feel like it's not fair to completely ride them off and say Syd had no talent by then. I mean, the guy still continued painting marvelous artwork. I guess his soul just wasn't in creating that type of music anymore. From what I understand, he was only listening to the occasional blues or jazz or Stones or something like that by then. My memory's a bit fuzzy in that area. I think he undoubtedly heard "Dark Side of the Moon", though, which most likely prompted his visit to Abbey Road when they were recording "Wish You Were Here". I think I might have a copy of Tree Full of Secrets. But I've got a lot of assorted Syd Barrett-related boots. At one point I was going to gather what I considered the best-sounding sources from all the boots into one place, but then I procrastinated and put it off. Harvested's "Dawn of the Piper Rev.A" as well as their BBC collection is definitely worth grabbing. I highly recommend the site http://www.yeeshkul.com/, if you don't already know about it. Although I'm guessing you're very familiar with it from the way you described your collection. This site is pretty much the epicenter for all this stuff with things that aren't on other sites. You can actually grab the DVD from the Video Anthology I mentioned there.
Yeahh I've seen the What Syd Wants stuff too, some really good footage in there. I guess my wording was too harsh there, I didnt mean no talent at all, I meant, and though I'm a huge Syd fan and it's sad to say it, that he had reverted to just playing run of the mill blues riffs and stuff towards this time. There's a lack of the creativity, and the total exploration that used to be present in basically all his work, and it's really sad at times to listen to the much later recordings because of this I feel. Have you seen a copy, or do you have a copy, of "The Definitive Visual Companion..."? it has a collection of allot of his art works in it and stuff like that, as well as a photo led biography, but it's by far the best book when it comes to his Art work anyway! What other books have you read? Another favourite of mine is "Random Precision" which is just a complete compilation of all the Recording session sheets, notes, and timings from the first time they went in to the studio as Pink Floyd, to the recordings in '74. It's also got running interviews with Managers, Engineers, Producers and the like who worked with him in the studio. Yeeshkul is my bible, haha! If it wasn't for that site I'd of had a much harder time making up my collection. Huge supporter of that site! I'll look out that Video Anthology just now!
No, I don't have any books on him unfortunately. But I've heard a lot about "Barrett", the definitive visual companion. I was certainly aware of it when they first announced it, and when they were still working on it. But I'm broke to be able to afford it. Definitely looks tantalizing, though. By the way, do you own the 3-Disc 40th anniversary edition of Piper? That's the best one. I feel like Syd Barrett fans are hugely missing out if they haven't heard the mono version, which is included there.
Yeahhh I know they're really pricey! I managed to pick my copy up for half price when the website that sells them did a special offer for the weekend, which I was pretty pleased about! If you haven't heard the Mono version of Piper, you haven't heard Piper. The cut to stereo was a last minute, rushed in one night, by one person, with a very sloppy effort done. I mean, it misses out a whole Organ solo. How can you forget to mix a solo?!
I'm telling you dude, you're my twin brother! That's EXACTLY how I feel about it, and I feel pretty strongly about it, too. The stereo version sounds like an incomplete demo. Too many overdubs and effects missing. I think I read it took like 8 hours for some amateur engineers to pull it off. Plus it was released a month after the original mono release. I highly doubt Syd cared or ever heard the stereo version. But the mono version he worked hard on perfecting, and it shows. Studio masterpiece, indeed. I'm sick of record labels these days releasing 60's albums in stereo for the sake of stereo. Instead of giving priority to the mix that was more thought out and planned. Luckily, there's been more people showing interest as of late, hence The Beatles and Bob Dylan mono box sets. "A Saucerful of Secrets" has a really good stereo mix, though, and after that album Pink Floyd switched to stereo-only releases. But in most cases, 1967 and prior it's gotta be mono.
True, if they say they're fans then they're fans. But what if I say I'm a fan of broken windows, or stale bread, or something everyone's forgotten. Am I REALLY a fan of those things?
Yes. It's funny to me that subpar minds get defensive and territorial over something they have zero part in creating. Happens all the time. Especially among the young'uns. Remember: there was a point in all our lives when we hadn't heard of PF or The Doors or whatever...arrogance is always a turn off. So...
I'm rather an exception in Switzerland... a country where people are less rock n roll experts and fans than in the usa or uk... I know the Doors since around 10-11y.o ... the pink floyd and the stones since...since i'm born... my father was a "true fan" of both bands even before my birth...
well... if they are fan they are fan ok... but to be a FAN (in capital letters) is all about passion... if you are passionate you just look & search beyond the clichés "the wall" and "dark side of the moon"... this is just logical... curiosity won't overkill your time
