ABOUT SYD
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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 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. |
Really superb references, full of information, the two below are indispensable books for who search facts and first-hand accounts in chronological order. |
A Very Irregular Head 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 A 2005 French translation of Willis's 2002 book. Published by Pegasus Elliot Mackenzie Publishing. |
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.
Note: this table is sortable by date/surname/text, by clicking below | ||||
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Pub. | Title | Author(s) | pp. | Notes |
1976 | The Pink Floyd | Rick Sanders | 159 | Biography, 1 transl. ed., pub. by Futura Publications |
1978 | '67 Pink Floyd: The Early Years | Barry Miles | 64 | Song book, with photos, sheet music, introduction, comments, pub. by Wise Publications |
1982 | Syd Barrett: the making of 'The Madcap Laughs' | Malcolm Jones | 31 | Memoir on the recording, re-ed. in 2003, self-pub., pub. by Orange Sunshine Press (1986), Brain Damage (2003) |
1985 | Pink Floyd | Luca Ferrari | 192 | Collection of interviews/articles, discography, lyrics of unreleased songs, in Italian, pub. by Arcana Editrice |
1986 | Tatuato sul Muro: L'enigma di Syd Barrett | Luca Ferrari | 131 | Biography, re-ed. in 1991 and 1995 (144 pp.), in Italian, pub. by Gammalibri, Edizioni Blues Brothers (1995) |
1988 | Syd Barrett: Where is the madcap called Syd... | Luca Ferrari | 90 | Song book, with chronicle, interviews/articles, 2 tribute songs on 7", in Italian, pub. by Stampa Alternativa |
1990 | Pink Floyd: Dizionario Rock | Luca Ferrari | 174 | Reference work with articles on songs, places, studios, venues, in Italian, pub. by Arcana Editrice |
1991 | Crazy Diamond: Syd Barrett & the Dawn of Pink Floyd | Mike Watkinson, Pete Anderson | 184 | Biography, re-ed. in 2006 (208 pp.), ebook ed. (2009, 192 pp.), 9 transl. ed., pub. by Omnibus Press |
1991 | Saucerful of Secrets: The Pink Floyd Odyssey | Nicholas Schaffner | 348 | Biography, re-ed. in 2003, 5 transl. ed., pub. by Harmony Books, Helter Skelter Publishing (2003) |
1993 | The Mick Rock Photo-Sessions | Mick Rock | 48 | Photo-book for the box set Syd Barrett: The Madcap Laughs, text by Pete Anderson, pub. by UFO Books |
1994 | Pink Floyd / Syd Barrett: Volume primo | Paolo Bertrando | 198 | Song book, with introduction, transl. of lyrics, in Italian, pub. by Arcana Editrice |
1996 | Crazy Diamond | Ted Shuttleworth | 130 | Screenplay for a film never made, registered WGAw |
1996 | Syd Barrett: A fish out of water | Luca Ferrari | 118 | Biography, with interviews, monograph on the artwork, 2 songs on CD, transl., pub. by Stampa Alternativa |
1998 | London Live: From the Yardbirds to Pink Floyd to the Sex Pistols | Tony Bacon | 192 | Partially about places and bands related to Pink Floyd, pub. by Backbeat Books |
1998 | Lost in the Woods: Syd Barrett and the Pink Floyd | Julian Palacios | 352 | Biography, pub. by Boxtree Ltd |
1998 | The Pink Floyd Encyclopedia | Vernon Fitch | 456 | Reference work, re-ed. in 1999 (448 pp.), 2005, 1 transl. ed., with Hawkwind CD, pub. by CG Publishing |
2001 | Psychedelic Renegades | Mick Rock | 160 | Photo-book, re-ed. in 2007 (142 pp.), 1 transl. ed., pub. by Genesis Publications, Rebel Arts (July 2007) |
2001 | Random Precision: Recording the Music of Syd Barrett 1965-1974 | David Parker | 295 | Reference work with articles on studio recordings, with interviews, pub. by Cherry Red Books |
2002 | Madcap: The half-life of Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd's lost genius | Tim Willis | 186 | Biography, 1 transl. ed., pub. by Short Books |
2003 | The Piper at the gates of dawn | John Cavanagh | 132 | Monograph on the 1st album and the story behind it, with interviews, ebook ed., 2 transl. ed., pub. by Continuum |
2004 | Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd | Nick Mason, Philip Dodd | 360 | Biography, re-ed. in 2005 (384 pp.), ebook ed. (2011, 448 pp.), 10 transl. ed., pub. by W&N, Phoenix (2005) |
2006 | Pink Floyd: The Early Years | Barry Miles | 160 | Biography, ebook ed. (2011, 128 pp.), pub. by Omnibus Press |
2006 | Terrapin | Rick Salsman | 272 | Collection of the fanzines Terrapin, with introductions, ebook ed. (2011), pub. by Central Studios |
2007 | Echoes: The Complete History of Pink Floyd | Glenn Povey | 368 | Reference work on concerts, with photos, discography, 4 transl. ed., pub. by Mind Head Publishing |
2007 | Le canzoni di Syd Barrett | Alessandro Bratus | 202 | Reference work with articles on songs, in Italian, pub. by Editori Riuniti |
2007 | Pigs Might Fly: The Inside Story of Pink Floyd | Mark Blake | 424 | Biography, re-ed. in 2013 (454 pp.), ebook ed. (2011, 200 pp.), 4 transl. ed., pub. by Aurum Press |
2007 | Scattered Needles | Daniel Raymond Nass | 129 | Sheet music of orchestral versions of 4 songs, with commentary on music and lyrics, pub. by ProQuest |
2008 | Syd Barrett: Le premier Pink Floyd | Emmanuel Le Bret | 281 | Biography, in French, pub. by Editions du Moment |
2009 | Syd Barrett: Legend | Bob Cairns | 176 | Biography, pub. by Pegasus Elliot Mackenzie Publishers |
2010 | Syd Barrett: A Very Irregular Head | Rob Chapman | 476 | Biography, ebook ed. (460 pp.), 2 transl. ed., pub. by Faber and Faber |
2010 | Syd Barrett & Pink Floyd: Dark Globe | Julian Palacios | 472 | Biography, revision of Lost in the Woods (1998, 352 pp.), 1 transl. ed., pub. by Plexus Publishing |
2011 | Barrett | Russell Beecher, Will Shutes | 272 | Photo-book, with monograph on the artwork, comments, 2 vol. ed. (272 pp., 72 pp.), pub. by Essential Works |
2011 | Syd Barrett: The Photography Of Mick Rock | Mick Rock | 128 | Photo-book for the box set of the same name, with Octopus on 7", pub. by EMI Records (prod.: Palazzo Editions) |
2013 | The Music Scene of 1960s Cambridge | Warren Dosanjh, Mick Brown | 70 | Partially about places and bands related to Syd Barrett, revision of a 2009 ed. (16 pp., 5 ebook ed.), self-pub. |
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.
LIST OF ALL ESSAYS / INTERVIEWS / ARTICLES ABOUT SYD BARRETT → | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Only the most important articles are listed (e.g., the title appeared on a front cover). The interviews are with Syd Barrett where not specified otherwise.
Among the various articles on the internet not published in Books or magazines, there are the transcriptions from the interviews in the documentary The Thing About Syd (July 2007) and from the 1967 Syd Barrett interview by Thomas Lopez (Nov. 2007) (which was trascribed also by Rob Chapman in an unpublished part of his biography). |
Instead the documentaries, together with some of the films dedicated to Syd, are listed separately:
LIST OF ALL DOCUMENTARIES / FILMS ABOUT SYD BARRETT → | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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In this list the word movie is used for a fictional film, while a work has to be considered a documentary if not otherwise specified. If no director was credited, who had a major role in the creation is listed (to be precise, Elliot Riddle was the editor of the work, while Mark Radcliffe, John Harris and Chris Berrow were the presenters). Note that the titles may have beeen changed through the various editions ramaining basically the same work, like for the 2001 documentary Syd Barrett: Crazy Diamond, changed in The Pink Floyd & Syd Barrett Story for its DVD release.
Four works with short homemade footages where Syd Barrett was filmed in 1966, 1967, 1969, and 1998 are omitted in the list above because of the lack of independent (non-Syd Barrett) work required in their creation in order to consider them proper works about Syd Barrett, although a bit of extra footage and non-original music have been added in order to adorn their public release in more recent years. Them would be part of the Syd Barrett videography, in this case practically a poor addition to the Pink Floyd videography until 1968. Anyway they are listed here separately:
Among the other works not properly published but available on the internet, there are these two 10-minutes documentaries by IndicaUnlimited:
Then, it would follow the third IndicaUnlimited's video Magnesium Proverbs 3, edited basically to accompany "Astronomy Domine". |
In the digital era, the works which fans dedicated to Syd have moved from the old fanzines to the internet blogs:
LIST OF ALL BLOGS / FANZINES ABOUT SYD BARRETT → | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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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.