ABOUT SYD

The last "stat-of-the-art" coffee-table book is of course a must for who loves to see Syd Barrett's legacy in detail, both as man and artist. Here "artist" means not only musician but also painter, sketcher... and writer of love-letters as well.



Barrett

Russell Beecher and Will Shutes

Contains the largest collection of Syd Barrett related images ever assembled, including hundreds of unseen and rare photographs of Syd and Pink Floyd, Syd's personal love letters and all of Syd's original artworks. The book offers an unprecedented insight into Syd's life.

Authors Russell Beecher and Will Shutes draw on their research to show Syd's work and life, resulting in a comprehensive study of Syd the artist. Includes comments from, and archive interviews with, many of Syd's friends and colleagues including Joe Boyd, Barry Miles, Libby Gausden-Chisman, Nigel Lesmoir-Gordon, Jenny Spires, and many more. Published on Friday 18th March 2011. Available from barrettbook.com.

While the last two biographical works are no less a must-read, also for the complete overview they offer on Syd's music, in a really flowing style. You can't know how Syd became such a great musician if you don't read these books!

Really superb references, full of information, the two below are indispensable books for who search facts and first-hand accounts in chronological order. The latter covers also the whole Pink Floyd story.



A Very Irregular Head

Rob Chapman

Published in May 2010, this biography focuses on Syd's artistic influences and includes many new source interviews.

Published by Faber & Faber.



Lost in the Woods

Julian Palacios

This June 1998 book was fully revised in September 2010, under the new title of Dark Globe, and is a detailed look at Barrett's life and music.

Published by Plexus Publishing.



Random Precision

David Parker

A chronological look at Barrett's recording sessions from early Floyd in 1965, to his final solo sessions in 1974, accompanied by interviews with producers and engineers involved in the recordings.

Published by Cherry Red Books.



Echoes

Glenn Povey

In an oversized edition, lavishly illustrated, this book presents all about Pink Floyd's concerts and a biographical account of their careers. Upgraded in a 2016 book...!

Published by Mind Head Publishing.

Of course, many other important books have benn written. Some of them are shortly overviewed below, then follows a complete list.



Crazy Diamond

Mike Watkinson and Pete Anderson

The first major biography of Syd Barrett was published in 1991, and updated in 2006 with detail on the story behind his later years, his illness, and death.

Published by Omnibus.



Madcap

Tim Willis

From 2002, this aimed to dispel some of the more outlandish myths, and bring balance and reality to Syd's story.

Published by Short Books.



London Live

Tony Bacon

This January 1998 book is long out-of-print, and looks at the live concert scene in the UK capital between the 1950s-70s, with memorabilia and eyewitness accounts.



Saucerful of Secrets

Nicholas Schaffner

Originally published in 1992 (revised March 2003), this heavily detailed book looks at the band's history, with a heavy focus on the early days.

Published by Helter Skelter Publishing.



The Piper at the gates of dawn

John Cavanagh

This 2003 small book combines interviews and recording-studio nitty-gritty to vividly capture the first and last flush of Syd's psychedelic genius on the Floyd's '67 debut.

Published by Continuum.



Syd Barrett: Legend

Bob Cairns

Printed in July 2009, this looks at Syd's rise to stardom, through to his death, and includes lyrics to his full solo material, with analysis of their meaning.

Published by Pegasus Elliot Mackenzie Publishers.



Syd Barrett: Le premier Pink Floyd

Emmanuel Le Bret

This text-only French book was printed in January 2009, and provides a thorough analysis of his life, looking at each aspect in detail.

Published by Editions du Moment.



Syd Barrett: Le Genie Perdu De Pink Floyd

Tim Willis

A 2005 French translation of Willis's 2002 book.

Published by Pegasus Elliot Mackenzie Publishing.

LIST OF ALL BOOKS ABOUT SYD BARRETT Some Pink Floyd books are included here if they give the most complete and updated information about Syd Barrett, or if a substantial part of them is about him, or if some important parts are or were unavailable in other books. The translated editions are listed within the original in bold. If a book has tipped-in pages (plates/portaits) they are included in the page count.

A number of other books have been published by self-publishing or print on demand, e.g. by PageKicker (Syd Barrett MiniBio, Syd Barrett MiniBriefing) or by General Books LLC (Syd Barrett Songs, Syd Barrett Albums), but they don't represent proper works about Syd Barrett, because of the lack of editing work in the material copyed from other sources, or the lack of authorship in the factual information reported.

If we want to sketch an historiographical path of what was the documented public knowledge about Syd Barrett in the 70s and the 80s, we should have to seek among magazines and fanzines, seeing that the first related Pink Floyd books arrived rather late, also because extended musical biographies were not what they bacame in the 90s. Making an entire book on the then enigmatic figure of Syd Barrett would have been an editorial challenge. As you can see in the list above, the first example would be the now legendary hand-typed book by Malcolm Jones, which he had to publish himself in 1982: talking about Syd's recordings, and what was behind them, was not as interesting as the more sensational magazine articles were. You can feel what it meant by reading the essay "Green fridges, homeless and mushrooms", by the Italian musical biographer Luca Ferrari (from the original: the essay, as all of his works on Syd, is not very well translated). After some travel in London to interview some people involved in Syd's life, Ferrari saw his book Tatuato sul Muro published in January 1986 and solding well.

However, some of those articles were not all that bad, as you can see by reading them from the below list which contains also all the interviews Syd did on press, radio and TV. Some of the essays published here and there are also included, while those treating just Syd's music are listed also in the sub-section MUSIC/REVIEWS. By the way, in 5 further books there is a chapter on Syd Barrett, namely: Cult Rockers by Wayne Jancik and Tad Lathrop, Rock Bottom by Pamela Des Barres, Unknown Legends of Rock 'n' Roll by Richie Unterberger, Songs in the Key of Z by Irwin Chusid, and Pink Floyd and Philosophy by Brandon Forbes.

In the digital era, the works which fans dedicated to Syd have moved from the old fanzines to the internet blogs:

Fans constructed also well followed websites, like Astral Piper, Dolly Rocker or The Syd Barrett Archives, creating online communities like The Laughing Madcaps, once a Yahoo group. They are listed in the LINKS section. Both the blogs and the websites now often have a related Facebook group or page that fans use to share things: it's the same for our site at www.facebook.com/Syd.Barrett/.

Going out from the typed world, the works of the major artists, releasing albums or songs on Syd, are listed in the sub-section MUSIC/DEDICATED TO SYD, as well as the most important cover versions they did from Syd's songs. And to not forget the major paintings and artworks on Syd, go to the sub-section ART/PORTRAITS OF SYD.

Very similar versions of the lists above, with sources and references for each entry, are in a work in progress Wikipedia user's page, with some of the pages became actual Wikipedia entries. The same user has made also the present prototype of the new official Syd Barrett website.