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Topic ClosedDo you think syd barrett is overrated

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Kepler62 View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 14 2017 at 12:42
Thing is that Pink Floyd would have been quite different had Syd not lost his mind. I was pretty much done with them by The Wall. The losing your mind themes wore pretty thin. DSOTM has to be the most overplayed album of all time. How many times do I have to hear Comfortably Numb? You never hear any of Syd's stuff on mainstream radio nor do they ever mention him. By far my favourite album by Floyd is  Animals. 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 14 2017 at 14:10
Pink floyd is overrated, not Syd. 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 16 2017 at 07:23
Hi,

I'm not sure what "overrated" really means, but as a "writer" of poetry and stories, I would suggest that Syd Barrett stands way up there ... however, we don't always think of rock music as an artistic endeavor and think that lyrics that TELL YOU what they are about are more interesting than a story about a mouse that I call Gerald, the humor and satire of which is way out there in terms of literature. 

Let's face it ... how do you compare one of those early songs, with a Chuck Berry song in terms of lyrics ... you don't. One is not about your willy, so to speak. It's about something else that most poetry and writers work on, even if you call it "cleverness" or something else. Like the Oxford/Cambridge connection is not similar and almost the same.

I would not use Syd Barrett's solo albums as an example at all, although some lyrics are OK, however, the music used was no longer "interpretive" of the words, as the earlier songs were, and the adventure and the liveliness and fun that was with some of his early lyrics, was wasted, and I think that this is what hurt his words, more than anything else. But that way of interpreting his early work, must give a lot of care and attention to the other three members that nurtured the songs so well. On Syd's solo albums, maybe one or two songs were nurtured and the rest was just throw away stuff that made Syd look bad and out of it, which of course, history seems to tell us he was.

I'm sure there were other writers and artists that were much more out of it, that were also "underrated" and "overrated". But most "song writing" in the rock music era, is not that artistic and that intelligent, though some of them are very pointed and strong. And some are way out there to the point that no one knows what it means ... heck, folks are still trying to interpret Milton and Shakespeare, and all come off differently!
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 16 2017 at 12:05
In terms of Pink Floyd or just him in general? I assume the former. If so, yes I think he is. People who think Piper is PF's best album are mental imo. He was a fairly competent psych musician for his time, but he wasn't really anything too special.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 16 2017 at 13:00
I read the initial post as framing overrated in terms of Syd Barrett's influence on rock music generally being overstated, and not just in terms of his influence on Pink Floyd or just for his contribution to Pink Floyd. I don't know what most people think who are aware of him, but I do believe that his influence on indie rock as well as other forms of music is not to be sneezed at.

Edited by Logan - April 16 2017 at 13:02
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 17 2017 at 06:56
Originally posted by aglasshouse aglasshouse wrote:

In terms of Pink Floyd or just him in general? I assume the former. If so, yes I think he is. People who think Piper is PF's best album are mental imo. He was a fairly competent psych musician for his time, but he wasn't really anything too special.

If Pink Floyd hadn't capitalized on his freaking out he would have been lost to time and if he didn't freak out Pink Floyd would have turned out quite different. Maybe they would have just become a washed out psychedelic band. For me Syd's solo albums are un-listenable.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 17 2017 at 11:13
I don't think his material is that unlistenable, though I admit, I would rather hear a version "If It's In You" arranged in the style of My Favorite Things-era John Coltrane than the creaky original.
He looks at this world and wants it all... so he strikes, like Thunderball!
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 17 2017 at 20:48
I do love some of the covers Gilmour has done of Barrett songs.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 18 2017 at 07:18
Hi,

"Overrated in Britain, underrated elsewhere..."

I agree and disagree, being multi-national and having lived in 3 different countries. In both england and America, since the 1960's, the media has been exceedingly strong, and in love with themselves to the point where anything they said, "was right", and in the end, it was in the name of commerciality ... which benefitted both countries really well when it came to their artists, and films as well. Even Fellini, did not get as much attention in Italy, for example, since even their studio couldn't stand him, and the same thing in Tokyo with Akira Kurosawa.

That made it more difficult for other countries to be reviewed and written about, on par with many of these continentals (American and British), which I think created a two headed monster that pretty much states, nowadays, it all has to be in English, or its crap. many fans, here, still cringe about the foreign languages thing, as if the emotion and the feel of the music itself required any lyrics to show up and talk to you!

Thus, it is easier to think that Syd Barrett is this and that, and others are not. And the fact that PF went on about him in at least two other albums, made it look like there was something to it all in the back of everyone's mind, that the band had to deal with.

There is an issue, even here, of undcerstanding and getting some information as how/what happened, even in the 1960's, and our Southern California FM radio experience during that time, that was hard to recognize even by Dean standards. And it became the history of the "progressive music" by default, by the Brittish, and anyone else saying anything is not correct and few people are even capable of adding to it, subrtracting, and not get involved in the personal thing. I can tell you what I saw and experienced. I can not argue with anyone that thinks that what I went through as a person during that time, is not a valid experience, because their view is more complete and important than mine!

We're all right, and at the same time, we're all also wrong. What happened to one is not the same as another, but what sometimes I think that someone is objecting to, is that a foreigner is talking about their Gods ... and they are not my Gods ... and we already know how that discussion goes around the world. Stupid and worst results in the name of essentially ignorance.

IF, we want to expand our "progressive music", we have to allow and expand, on our views and critical studies. Making fun of them, and breaking up the thread, should not be allowed and that should be on the hand of the moderators, who tend to favor their friends, and not the subject at hand.

Over-rated or not ... depends on our complete view of the whole thing, not just as a favorite, but other than a handful of us, I have not met many who appreciate the early material as much as the later material. I have preferencesm yes I do, but the writing and quality of the poetry and wording in Syd's pieces, and almost second to none in the history of pop music, and they are very special, and show a side of English/British literacy that is not always visible in a lot of their material ... what with the media's interest in the fad's ... instead of the art of it all.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 26 2017 at 02:07
Yes, I think he is VERY overrated.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 29 2017 at 02:45
I'm pretty sure competency, conventional ability or even influence have nothing to do with the continuing fascination for Syd Barrett. He had a way of combining words, chords and melody that no-one had ever done previously or since.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 29 2017 at 04:32
^Simple as.

I can't help but think most of these overrated threads merely are eufemisms of 'I don't like Floyd/Genesis/Everly Brothers/Burt Reynolds/Margareth Thatcher/Mozart/Pol Pot and if you do - you're about as thick as a bluewhale of the cloth.'
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 29 2017 at 05:18
^ Pretty much.
What?
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 29 2017 at 05:40
I love the 'Barrett' album. May even give it a spin real soon......
He's no genius, but a truly unique and artistic individual you either like him or you don't.....
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