Syd Barrett is dead.
Trip to heave and ho, up down, to and fro’
you have no word
trip, trip to a dream dragon
hide your wings in a ghost tower
sails cackling at every plate we break
cracked by scattered needles
the little minute gong
coughs and clears his throat
madam you see before you stand
hey ho, never be still
the old original favorite grand
grasshoppers green Herbarian band
and the tune they play is “In Us Confide”
so trip to heave and ho, up down, to and fro’
you have no word
Please leave us here
close our eyes to the octopus ride!
Isn’t it good to be lost in the wood
isn’t it bad so quiet there, in the wood
meant even less to me than I thought
with a honey plough of yellow prickly seeds
clover honey pots and mystic shining feed…
well, the madcap laughed at the man on the border
hey ho, huff the Talbot
“Cheat” he cried shouting kangaroo
it’s true in their tree they cried
Please leave us here
close our eyes to the octopus ride!
The madcap laughed at the man on the border
hey ho, huff the Talbot
the winds they blew and the leaves did wag
they’ll never put me in their bag
the seas will reach and always seep
so high you go, so low you creep
the wind it blows in tropical heat
the drones they throng on mossy seats
the squeaking door will always squeak
two up, two down we’ll never meet
so merrily trip forgo my side
Please leave us here
close our eyes to the octopus ride!
He was…unique.
The death of anyone diminishes us a bit. Syd was a great creative talent. Fred was a wonderful neurosurgeon. Why do you have to “rank” their value Charlie? Pathetic.
PZ, I’m impressed that you could so quickly discover a Syd Barrett/Octopus connection. Did you already know about his octopus lyrics?
and charlie, it seems misanthropic of you to thumb your nose at someone else’s little tribute to a person now dead. Not many of us have lives that “really matter” in any objective sense.
The loss of Syd Barrett is indeed a loss Charlie, as is the loss of Fred Epstein. Both contributed to the world in their own way, as do we all.
Syd had a great influence on “rock” music and through that influenced the attitudes and thoughts of millions. I loved his work and still enjoy much of it today.
Great lyrics PZ.
How could I not? I’m a major fan of the Floyd and old Syd — I could also find connections to bikes and gnomes and elephants, if you wanted.
And Charlie, you can stop now. Everytime you post your attempt to spit on Syd Barrett’s corpse, I’ll delete it…and one more time, and I’ll ban you, too.
:( Very sad. One of rock’s tragic stories. His mind was lost to drugs far too early.
PZ – I just learned that Syd was dead from your site. Sad – I was quite a fan back in the day.
Some above mentioned Syd’s musical progeny. Robyn Hitchcock is one of the more clearly Barrett-influenced musicians – and wrote a song that I think you’d enjoy, PZ, called “Victorian Squid” – are you familiar with it?
Can’t stop playing Dark Globe and Arnold Layne and Lucifer Sam and See Emily Play and… over and over and…
Not a good day.
CanuckRob wrote: ”
“The loss of Syd Barrett is indeed a loss Charlie, as is the loss of Fred Epstein. Both contributed to the world in their own way, as do we all.”
It’s hard to be objective when it’s personal. I walked through the pediatric ward on the 9th floor of NYU Medical Center and past Fred’s door at Beth Israel many times. Because of doctors like Fred Epstein and Alex Berenstein, things like this are possible:
http://charliewagner.blogspot.com/2006/07/july-8-2006.html
Charlie:
I’m pretty sure people were having babies – maybe even twins – long before Fred Epstein(or any doctors) wes born.
So what’s your point?
Wintermute wrote:
So what’s your point?
My daughter was in an automobile accident that nearly took her life. The doctors at NYU and Beth Israel gave her back her life. Like I said, it’s personal.
Paul wrote:
“And Charlie, you can stop now. Everytime you post your attempt to spit on Syd Barrett’s corpse, I’ll delete it…and one more time, and I’ll ban you, too.”
I reposted it because I thought it didn’t upload on the first try. Had I known you had deleted it, I would not have reposted it.
Anyway, I wasn’t “spitting on Syd Barrett’s corpse” I was merely putting his death in the context of it’s importance to me personally.
But you need not be concerned about me, I have no interest in a quarrel with you. There will be no need to “ban” me, I will voluntarily refrain from posting here again.
Best wishes to you and your family and may you attain perfect peace, contentment and enlightenment.
I hadn’t heard of Hitchcock before, but I just found a short clip of Victorian Squid on the web — oooh, very Syd-like.
R.I.P. — the most important British musician of the 20th century.
Charlie:
Well, that makes more sense. Thanks for the context. When you simply linked to a picture, all I could think of was “Dr Fred Epstein makes BABIES happen!” which was somewhat confusing.
Without knowing what you posted that got deleted, I’d like to say that I’m sure everyone appreciates that you are sad that someone you admire / respect / owe a lot to has also died, but that doesn’t make the grief that other people feel for the death of someone else any less real or poignant. I would never dream of telling someone in mourning of “the context of it’s importance to me personally” (ie “Your wife’s dead you say? Well, I never met her, so I couldn’t care less. Byeee.”), and if others did so, I’d probably assume that they were deliberately attempting to insult both the bereaved and the departed.
I think we can all agree that death is a bad thing, whether it happens to a doctor or an artist, or even a creationist.
I’ve been a Robyn Hitchcock fan ever since “Can of Bees” (pun intended) and I just couldn’t find a single one of his songs that really does justice to his whole career.
I recommend “I Often Dream of Trains” and “A Star for Bram” (solo albums that are favorites).
He does a great cover of “Vegetable Man,” which brings me to the question: anybody know the correct lyrics to this tune? I found this version:
In yellow shoes I get the blues
Though I walk the streets with my plastic feet
With my blue velvet trousers, make me feel pink
There’s a kind of stink about blue velvet trousers
In my paisley shirt I look a jerk
And my turquoise waistcoat is quite out of sight
But oh oh my haircut looks so bad
Vegetable man how are you?
So I’ve changed my dear, and I find my knees,
And I covered them up with the latest cut,
And my pants and socks all point in a box,
They don’t make long of my nylon socks,
The watch, black watch
My watch with a black face
And a big pin, a little hole,
And all the lot is what I got,
It’s what I wear, it’s what you see,
It must be me, it’s what I am,
Vegetable man.
++++++
Second version:
In my paisley shirt
I look a jerk
And my turquoise waistcoat is quite outta sight
But oh, oh, my haircut looks so bad!
Vegetable Man! Where are you?
So I change my gear
And I cover my knees
And I cover them up with the latest cut
My pants and socks are bought in a box
It don’t take long to buy darn old socks
++++++++++
It’s been a long time since I listened to this song, but I think the second version is closer to what I remember, except maybe for the nylon socks from the first version (I think it’s “It don’t take long to buy nylon socks”).
Version 2 certainly makes more sense from a Brit slang perspective — “change my gear.”
However, I even found a version that said “I bugger my knees,” which I think is anatomically impossible. I think.
The first version, however, is All Over the Internet. It was featured in approximately the first 15-20 Google hits.
‘Scuse me while I kiss this guy … ?
Re: Hitchcock
Flesh Number One (Beatle Dennis) is possibly my favorite track of his. Queen Elvis is nice,
Madonna of the Wasps, Airscape, One Long Pair of Eyes, Brenda’s Iron Sledge, My Wife and My Dead Wife, Satellite, Raymong Chandler Evening… So much of his stuff means a lot to me.
The Soft Boys stuff is wonderful and the stuff with Captain Sensible, too.
Good, good stuff.
=-0!!!!! Are you forgetting John Lennon and Paul McCartney? I can’t rank Syd over them when Syd only contributed to one or two of PF’s albums.
In other Pink Floyd news, the P*U*L*S*E DVD came out today, and I snapped it up and watched it at home. WHOA. The first part of the concert (it’s split over the two discs) was a little underwhelming, although I found the psychedlic lights on “One of These Days” to be outstanding. The second part, including all of DSotM, was electric. Awesome. Flat awesome.
I just read the story about 5 minutes ago at BBC’s web site. I love the Floyd, and even though I liked their work better after he left I still respect the work he did, especially since it was his songs that first put them on the charts. Almost a tragic figure, really.
May the lunatic rest in peace below the grass.
Call me a horrible person, but I didn’t even know Syd was still alive!
While I’m not exactly a huge Floyd fan, I recognize their influence on modern music and thus am saddened by the loss of a luminary (whom I didn’t know was still alive…).
Shine on you crazy diamond. I’ll wear my Syd Barrett shirt all day tomorrow.
There was a special on Syd’s life as well as loads of early Pink Floyd and his solo stuff on my local classic rock station. It was a nice tribute. He will truly be missed.
Incidentially, I saw Roger Waters live two weeks ago. Being that I’m far too young to have seen PF back in the day, it really made an impact on me. The only tune they he didn’t play that I wish he would’ve was Bike.
Syd will be missed.
Best song title:
“Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict”
In the days before Google it drove me and my friends crazy trying to figure out what the heck a Pict was.
False Prophet:
Me either. This news was a shocker to me because I thought he had died of a drug overdose years ago.
Pict is just Roger. Syd had left the band at that point. Bike was always my favorite Syd song. I made a short film based on it in college, and, embarrasingly, sang it to my girlfriend in an effort to woo her (also recited the entire script of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, because, well, I am a huge nerd.)
Here’s a video of the early Floyd performing Astronomy Domine.
This just makes me so sad. Pink Floyd was the first band I really discoverd on my own. I listened to them obsessively while everybody else was into hair metal. Totally got me through high-school.
Robyn Hitchcock is the closest you’re going to find to Syd. His old band, The Soft Boys, covered Vegetable Man, and if you dig around on the internet, there are a number of bootlegs of him covering Syd’s songs.
Of course a lot of other people owe him a debt. I even remember reading somewhere that the Sex Pistols tried in vain to track him down to get him to produce their album. Somehow, that makes sense.
Charlie is a Stevie Nicks fan, and not just the young, cute Stevie, either. The late reconstructed Stevie too.
The death of Syd struck a chord with me and my mid-month podcast at The Best Radio You Have Never Heard (http://www.bestradiopodcast.com) is a tribute to the great rock visionary.
“Here To Do My Parts” is a tribute to Syd Barrett. Even though of course there is some Pink Floyd music in the show, it is more of a tribute to Syd’s vision. I like to think of it as traveling music for Syd’s iPod as he makes the trek to the Gates of Dawn, or perhaps some gardening music for the great beyond as, in his recent past, gardening was one of Syd’s few hobbies.
Have a listen and let me know what you think.
Perry/Chicago
http://www.bestradiopodcast.com