Crazy Diamond by Mike Watkinson

Author:Mike Watkinson [Watkinson, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-85712-122-6
Publisher: Music Sales Limited
Published: 1988-08-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Wish You Were Here

Ironically, during this period of inactivity, Barrett’s personal income began to grow. The arrival of a fat royalties cheque for the Floyd compilation album ‘Relics’ - released in May 1971 - allowed him to stay briefly on the top floor of London’s Hilton Hotel. David Bowie’s version of ‘See Emily Play’ on his 1973 album ‘Pin-Ups’ coupled with the re-packaging of Floyd’s first two albums as ‘A Nice Pair’, in December 1973, also served to increase his wealth.

Bowie was a Floyd fan during the UFO days but in a 1973 interview he said that after Syd left, “For me, there was no more Pink Floyd.” His controversial version of Barrett’s best known song drew a varied response from the critics. Ian McDonald of New Musical Express felt Bowie had ruined the song but Andrew Wood of International Times declared it the best track on the album, saying: “It screams of Syd Barrett.” Kevin Ayers had already included a more personal Barrett tribute on his ‘Bananamour’ album. The song ‘Oh, Wot A Dream’ was about, and dedicated to, Syd and briefly available as a single. Ayers commented: “The sincerest form of flattery being imitation, it’s quite deliberately sung in Syd Barrett’s style. What I tried to do was get some of the feeling that’s unique to him, just to show him that although we don’t talk or meet, I have a certain closeness to what he’s doing and can relate to it.”

Once more the unwitting object of public attention, Barrett moved back to London in search of a new flat. He was bored with Cambridge and somewhat irritated by the steady stream of callers to his door. The prospect of anonymity in the big city was very appealing.

Syd plumped for a large two-bedroom flat at the exclusive Chelsea Cloisters apartment block, just off the Kings Road. While the legend around him continued to grow out of all proportion to his recorded output, he spent his days sprawled in front of a huge bubble-shaped television set which hung from the ceiling. Over the previous two years, various sources had claimed that he was 1) working part-time in a factory; 2) had tried to enrol as an architectural student; 3) was growing mushrooms in a basement; 4) was living the life of a tramp; 5) had spent two weeks busking in New York, and 6) had tried to become a Pink Floyd roadie.

The mystique surrounding Barrett led in late 1972 to the formation of The Syd Barrett International Appreciation Society which produced a magazine called Terrapin and had area secretaries in Britain, Canada and the United States. The society clearly had Barrett’s best interests at heart, though Nick Kent of NME acidly described it “as trivial as it is fanatical,” and Barrett never even acknowledged its existence. The society’s raison d’être was to encourage Syd to go back into the recording studio. It folded in mid-1974 amid a series of internal squabbles which were gleefully reported by the music press.

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