CRAZY DIAMOND

In my opinion, "Crazy Diamond" is a masterpiece of a boxed set and could be rated 5/5 stars as it is slickly produced, aesthically pleasing, and infinitely completist! However, it is NOT a 'Prog Masterpiece' in the same vein as 'Foxtrot' or 'Aqualung' and therefore can not be awarded a masterpiece rating.

Basically this 3-CD collection (with over 3 hours and 18 minutes of music!) has virtually EVERYTHING Syd Barrett recorded during his solo 'career' (except for 'Bob Dylan Blues', I can't see anything else that was omitted for the purposes of this compilation).

The set includes all three main 'studio' albums (replete with both the classic and brand new artwork). Each of the albums have 6-8 bonus tracks on them of the 'alternate take/editted version' format. Most of these versions are ironically NOT repetitive. Take a listen to 'It is Obvious (Take 5)' compared to (Take 2). Like Night and Day. Think of Eric Clapton's acoustic and electric guitar versions of 'Layla' and you get the idea of how differently Syd could approach the same song.

Each disc also has a detailed listing of where/when each song/alternate take was recorded (Abbey Road, Jan 17, 1970 for instance), who played on each song, and who produced it.

An amazing 20 page oversized book comes with the set. A short, but very informative biography is contained therein, as well as numerous, striking rare Syd pictures, and psych artwork.

This is an absolutely beautiful collection, and is very professionally put together. What every fan only wishes his favourite band/artist would release!

PROBABLY THE BEST COMPILATION IN THIS SITE I remember it was xmas of the year 03'... I had listened to "the piper..." only a few times and all I knew about early Floyd was that Syd only appeared in their first album , and that he was also regarded as a kind of legend. But i've never heard before any of his solo works, i didn't even know they existed. when i started hearing it, i wondered why syd's solo material was so unknown, because i feel they are just as good as "the Piper...". I highlight: Clowns and Jugglers, Baby lemonade, Maisie, Waving my arms in the air, effervescing elephant, rats, word song, swan lee. (not saying the other songs are bad, but these ines contain the spirit of what we love of eary Floyd) Now the whole package is also great, as it contains some lyrics, great photos and an extensive article that helped me learn about Syd's time with Pink Floyd , as well as a solo artist. Highly recommended.!

*PD* Anyway, Floyd fans should not regard them as some kind of divinitie, because that it's not really understanding them, only overrating them.

The Complete Roger "Syd" Barrett (almost)

Syd Barrett was a unique recording artist who launched one of this site's most beloved bands and this is a fantastic box set of nearly all his work. Some background first: Some Floyd fans don't realize that at the beginning Syd was the undisputed leader of Pink Floyd. Not Roger or David. (At that time Roger couldn't write a decent song to save his life-sorry Rog.) In Syd's eyes the band was about the experience, the trip, the counterculture, about doing things that were not normal. It was not about fame and money and professionalism. His beliefs along with his fragile constitution made the rigors of "making it" both unpleasant and undesirable. This difference in philosophy meant his tenure would be short regardless of his personal issues. So while the story about Rog deciding not to pick Syd up for a gig is true, the fact is that Syd had for all intents and purposes made the decision for them. He wasn't going to play the game the way it needed to be played. So the Floyd were free to chase big success and Syd was free to make his trippy little psych art records. And both were better for it. Syd's solo career produced a small amount of absolutely divine material that would be undervalued for years, misunderstood by most people, and finally redeemed.

Syd is sometimes judged rather harshly by people who don't understand his approach or his style. His seemingly simple little ditties are whimsical psych-flavored magic that knew few boundaries in imagination. His style is eccentric and takes some getting used to I admit but those who do will eventually love his songs. What you have to remember is that Syd is not trying to be Pink Floyd, he's not even trying to be polished or perfect. He's actually an avant-garde artist whose muse was music briefly before it was paintings. And thus his songs are rough around the edges and are "out there." They should be judged in their own vacuum and not against conventional pop music because for a variety of converging reasons, Syd Barrett was a special case. If you're wondering why I take some space to defend an artist, it is because I get so tired of some of the exploitive garbage written about Barrett in the media and the ignorance it perpetuates.

The box set provides all three of Syd's albums The Madcap Laughs, Barrett, and Opel. Each of the three discs contains available alternate takes of various tracks from his two early albums. Syd usually did multiple takes of each track live in the studio until he and Waters/Gilmour/Jones/Jenner were satisfied with the results. Since Syd never did a song quite the same way twice these alternate bonus tracks are like new songs and are sometimes just as good as the "official" version. I really enjoyed hearing some of these alternate takes on songs I was familiar with, knowing that he was consciously (in Gilmour's opinion) trying to present something different each time. Really fascinating. And I also like the laid back banter that occurs here and there, it lends a very intimate touch to the listening experience. The CD booklets carefully detail which take is presented, the recording dates, and which producers were involved on a given song. My biggest complaint is the rather silly and clichéd box artwork that was dreamed up by someone. They should have used Syd's art or actual photographs instead. Also, they could have included "Bob Dylan Blues" here so that completists wouldn't need both this box and the "Wouldn't You Miss Me?" compilation.

Highlights of the extras for me are "Golden Hair" on the first disc. It is take 5 from June of 1968 (a '69 version was used on Madcap) and features a haunting and rare harmony track. This version was produced by Jenner while the Madcap version was produced by Gilmour and Syd. Again, it's fun to hear the differences between sessions, producers, and Syd's moods. On the second disc, among the seven bonus tracks are takes 1 and 2 of "Dominoes." Take 3 appears on Barrett and you get to hear the progression of the song. The third disc features an instrumental "Late Night" version and yet another take of the wonderful child-like "Effervescing Elephant."

This box set should perk the ears of two groups of people. First, those who are big Piper/Syd fans who will appreciate the 20+ page booklet of early Floyd history and great photographs. True it's not big enough for my taste but it is passable. The text was written by Brian Hogg and provides a pretty good overview of Syd's work during this period. There are rare photos and reprints of old papers advertising the gigs, posters, singles sleeves, and the like. There are copies of producer's studio notes and a few song lyrics. The second group for whom this release should appeal are those who know they like Syd but haven't yet purchased his solo albums. These are the people who will benefit most because they will get all 3 of his full length albums, the booklet, and all of the extra tracks in one nice package. For the people who already have his three albums the box may not be worth it unless you are a big fan who has to hear the other versions of his songs.

I'm not a fan of compilations but this box is a special case. Because the bonus alternate tracks will likely never be assembled as a stand-alone release, and because there will never be more Syd to look forward to, I rate this quite high for those who have not already purchased the Madcap, Barrett, and Opel separately. Get it while you can. Eventually this will be tough to track down.

And for those still interested in some true comments about the real Roger Barrett as opposed to the dark crazy hermit stories the press uses to sell mags, here's a little more for you since I'm on a roll here! I find the following fascinating and uplifting and I hope that in future reissues of the box set they will use some of what follows in the booklet: Syd's sister summed up her brother's post-music life like this [the following are some excerpted quotes from the Willis article mentioned below]

"So much of his life was boringly normal," said Rosemary. "He looked after himself and the house and garden. He went shopping for basics on his bike - always passing the time of day with the local shopkeepers - and he went to DIY stores like B&Q for wood, which he brought home to make things for the house and garden. Actually, he was a hopeless handyman, he was always laughing at his attempts, but he enjoyed it. When Roger was working he liked to listen to jazz tapes. Thelonious Monk, Django Reinhardt, Charlie Parker and Miles Davis were his favourites - he always found something new in them - but apart from the early Rolling Stones, he'd lost interest in pop music a long time ago. He read very deeply about the history of art and actually wrote an unpublished book about it, which I'm too sad to read at the moment. But he found his own mind so absorbing that he didn't want to be distracted. He did have leisure interests. He took up photography, and sometimes we went to the seaside together. Quite often he took the train on his own to London to look at the major art collections - and he loved flowers. He made regular trips to the Botanic Gardens and to the dahlias at Anglesey Abbey, near Lode. But of course, his passion was his painting. Roger worked in a variety of styles - though he admired no one after the impressionists - and you could say he came up with his own type of conceptual art. He would photograph a particular flower and paint a large canvas from the photograph. Then he would make a photographic record of the picture before destroying the canvas. In a way, that was very typical of his approach to life. Once something was over, it was over. He felt no need to revisit it. That's why he avoided contact with journalists and fans. He simply couldn't understand the interest in something that had happened so long ago and he wasn't willing to interrupt his own musings for their sake. Roger was unique; they didn't have the vocabulary to describe him and so they pigeonholed him. If only they had seen him with children. His nieces and nephews, the kids in the road - he would have them in stitches. He could talk at length and he played with words in a way that children instinctively appreciated, even if it sometimes threw adults. He showed his personality in lots of different ways - which some outsiders found confusing - but underneath he was solid as a rock. It may have been a responsibility to look out for him, but it was never a burden." [Above quotes from the 2006 article by Tim Willis titled "My lovable ordinary brother Syd" at the Syd Barrett website. www.sydbarrett.net]