Syd Barrett was really talented

and now he's dead from either cancer or complications from diabetes. I've written before about Syd Barrett. Here's some music:

See Emily Play and Arnold Layne and Apples and Oranges are three early Pink Floyd singles which Barrett wrote. All of them are good. See Emily Play is my favorite of the bunch. Arnold Layne has the best video of the three, a really creepy affair with plastic masks. Apples and Oranges is very psychedelic-juxtapositiony. Jugband Blues is the last thing that Barrett did with Pink Floyd.

If you'd like, you can also find Interstellar Overdrive on there, too. Early Pink Floyd was known for long crazy instrumentals and freaky short pop songs. I really don't care that much for the long crazy instrumentals (like Interstellar Overdrive), while I love the short songs, particularly as they emphasize Barrett's lyrics, which are always great. (from his later solo career "mumble listen dolly drift over your mind, holly" - "the reflecting electricity eyes" - "short wheeling, fresh spring, gripped with blanched bones, moaned magnesium proverbs and sobs")

Look of the Week is an old BBC music program which features an interview with Syd Barrett and Roger Waters. It's from the early Floyd days, and features a presenter who complains about Floyd's childishness and loudness. Now, if you've watched Apples and Oranges up above, you might have the impression that Barrett was always a space cadet. In this interview, he comes across as lucid and thoughtful. It's a nice clip.

Things get a little slimmer when it comes to Syd's solo stuff. There's a dude who's on a mission, it seems, to cover all of Barrett's solo work on YouTube, but he sucks. And they've deleted the Robyn Hitchcock video that I really liked off of there. So you'll just have to make do with Graham Coxon, formerly of Blur, performing Love You.

And finally, here's a flash video for the Pink Floyd song Bike.