Syd Barrett

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Birth Name: Roger Keith Barrett

Born: 6 January 1946 Died: 7 July 2006

Country of origin: United Kingdom

Height: 5' 11"

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Famous people + cats (186 items)
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Published 16 years, 7 months ago

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Famous People With Mental Issues (113 items)
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Published 13 years ago

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Gone, but not forgotten (2175 items)
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Published 1 year, 10 months ago

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Blender Magazine's Top 50 Craziest Musicians (50 items)
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Published 17 years, 9 months ago

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Published 15 years, 6 months ago

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Syd Barrett Videos

David Gilmour on Syd Barrett, Mental Illness & Fame

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Added 10 years ago

Syd Barrett interview audio

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Syd Barrett - death news - BBC TV - 2006-07-11

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Description: Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett (6 January 1946 – 7 July 2006) was an English musician, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and painter, best remembered as a founding member of the band Pink Floyd. He was the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter during the band's psychedelic years, providing major musical and stylistic direction in their early work; he is also credited with naming the band. Barrett left the group in April 1968 amid speculations of mental illness exacerbated by drug use, and was briefly hospitalised. He was musically active for less than ten years, in which he recorded four singles with Pink Floyd Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett (6 January 1946 – 7 July 2006) was an English musician, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and painter, best remembered as a founding member of the band Pink Floyd. He was the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter during the band's psychedelic years, providing major musical and stylistic direction in their early work; he is also credited with naming the band. Barrett left the group in April 1968 amid speculations of mental illness exacerbated by drug use, and was briefly hospitalised.

He was musically active for less than ten years, in which he recorded four singles with Pink Floyd, the debut album (and contributed to the second one), plus several unreleased songs. In 1969, Barrett started off a solo career with the release of the single, "Octopus", which foreshadowed his first solo album, The Madcap Laughs (1970), which was recorded over the course of one year (1968–1969) with five different producers (Peter Jenner, Malcolm Jones, David Gilmour, Roger Waters, and Barrett himself). Nearly two months after Madcap was released, Barrett began working on his second – and last – album, Barrett (produced by Gilmour, and featuring contributions from Richard Wright), which was released in late 1970, before going into self-imposed seclusion lasting until his death in 2006. In 1988, an album of unreleased tracks and outtakes, Opel, was released by EMI with Barrett's approval.

Barrett's innovative guitar work and exploration of experimental techniques such as using dissonance, distortion, and feedback had an enormous legacy, with a wide variety of musicians from David Bowie to Brian Eno to Jimmy Page and more drawing influence. In his post-musician life, Barrett continued with his painting and dedicated himself to gardening, never to return to the public eye.

A number of biographies have been written since the 1980s, and Pink Floyd wrote and recorded several tributes to him after he left, most notably the 1975 album "Wish You Were Here", with tracks such as "Shine On You Crazy Diamond". ... (more)