Syd Barrett's Darkest Song: Jugband Blues
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- čas přidán 7. 07. 2024
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INFO: Syd Barrett is an odd character in rock music history. He was the co-founder of the legendary rock band Pink Floyd and decided to leave the band early on despite massive success in the UK and neighbouring countries. In parallel with their early success and fame Barrett developed an erratic behaviour that people often link up to his heavy use of LSD. He stopped showing up for gigs, tv performances and overall lost the spark in his eyes. The once creative leader, songwriter and allround charismatic spirit of Pink Floyd turned into a completely different person in just the matter of months. In this video we briefly look at his story as well as his last song with the band "Jugband Blues". The song has an odd similarity structurally to how Syd's music career started, moved forward and ended.
What band or artist should be next? 🤘🎸
Dream Theater.
Or anything Progressive Metal.
Throbbing Gristle
The Hamburger Lady
Ian Curtis’s lyrics..
Captain Beefheart!
Zappa
“Jugband Blues” lyrically doesn’t really have to do with insanity, so much as dry British irony and sarcasm. “I’m wondering who could be writing this song?” is a comment on how the band were seeking to replace him. He was the lead songwriter after all. “I don’t care if the sun don’t shine, and I don’t care if nothing is mine” is about his apathy and rejection of materialism. Musically, the song does exhibit the sound of someone going mad. But I feel like lyrically it’s down to Earth.
“And the sea isn’t green” is probably a reference to The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine”, where Ringo sings, “And then we found a sea of green”. It’s Syd’s realization and acceptance that the hippie dream was dead and gone, which lyrically helps set the stage for his solo career.
The whole song is about him feeling ostracized and rejected by the band. Whether you can chalk this up to paranoid schizophrenia, or his distaste for being milked as a fairytale pop idol, or both, that’s solely up to you as the listener. But I feel like people severely overexaggerate Syd’s lack of ability to have mental self-awareness, and don’t consider that this song was actually, in a way, a diss track.
che palle
Exactly, very well put. While drugs mental instability sure might have played some role in all of this, I always thought that in the end it was just his decision to quit the band (and music career overall) because he couldn't stand it. And that by acting crazy it was just his way of saying he doesn't want to do that anymore and putting that life behind him.
@@majkel228 But it wasn't his decision to quit the band. He was pressured into it. He kept following the band around up to 1970. He drove hours to their gigs, and would attempt to get up backstage, only to get thrown off. He would point at Gilmour from the audience, and say, "That's my band". He would still show up to the band's studio sessions as late as "Atom Heart Mother". He wanted control over the band, but he didn't want to leave it. He felt deeply and personally betrayed by the other band members.
Exactly
Gosh, thank you for that. Unfortunately, whenever we say Syd Barrett people hear mental illness or crazy like stuff. But whenever you hear Syd's solo albums you see how different the reality is... I mean, in 1970 (2 years after 'quitting' the band he's there making 'Barrett' which is a really solid and creative work!)
"I'm most obliged to you for making it clear that I'm not here" and "I'm wondering who could be writing this song". It is a sarcastic comeback to the rest of the band.
Pretty stupid attitude, although it's probably just a result of his schizophrenia. If he didn't dick around during life performances and practice, and didn't go on ridiculous acid benders he would have remained. You can't actively try destroy the band and then get mad when you're kicked out.
Syd is likely my favorite artist. Thanks
How cool. No problem. Any artists you'd like to see covered in a future video?
@@LieLikesMusic
Bit obscure but - Peter Perrett (the only ones) Pete Shelley (buzcocks)
Both early punk bands but with decent lyrics.
Perrett in particular wrote about social decay and referenced Alistair Crowley.
He's definitely favorite. Nobody else comes close imo.
Defo my fave
Tributo a Syd Barret
czcams.com/video/DYp8KcSov_Y/video.html
Yes, more Syd Barrett please!!! I could hear you talk about him and Floyd for hours!!!
Tha Swami I'm glad you like it. Pink Floyd is one of my all time favorites. So i don't grow tired of it either. Cheers
YESSSS
Lie Likes Music you should do a video on their second album a Saucerful of secrets as a whole
@@LieLikesMusic Syd left the band because he was stressed out on being really famous and being pressured to write more hits. I don’t think that LSD is the main reason. Syd felt that being too famous would give him too much pressure
@@beatlesfan2884no
Syd Barrett wasn't the band's co-founder, he was THE founder and he didn't quit, he got kicked off
To be fair, Roger Waters, Nick Mason, and Rick Wright already had a band going together. But they were getting absolutely nowhere, and we would have never heard of them if Syd had not joined the band. Syd also named the band The Pink Floyd Sound, eventually shortened to The Pink Floyd, and then just Pink Floyd. He also wrote practically all the songs, so it was very much his band. They would have stuck to generic rhythm and blues if Syd had not pushed them into an artistic avant-garde direction that was more in line with his art school background, and more representative of the fledgling psychedelic counterculture that was growing around him.
No he agreed to resign. It was his idea to get Dave in in the first place
Um, the band existed before Syd joined, he just changed the name.
Barrett resigned only to save face, after the rest of the band gave him the ultimatum “Step back into the shadows, to be a Brian Wilson type character (writing songs, but nothing more) or leave”. Syd chose to keep his self respect. That is being forced out in my opinion, and semantics are meaningless with regard to this situation.
Sigma 6 or The Screaming Abdabs was not The Pink Floyd at all, in any form. It was a bland cover band, that had no vision or spark...Syd alone gave them life.
I thought Vegetable Man was Syd's darkest song.
That too is a really dark one. But i had to pick one ;)
His solo stuff has a lot of really dark songs, too. “Dark Globe”, “No Good Trying”, “No Man’s Land”, “Feel”, “If It’s In You”, “Opel”.
In terms of dark there is one song that isn’t but really gives a glimpse into his mental state/ his perception of his high drug usage: Octopus “They’ll never put me in their bag” - He will never be institutionalized “two up two down” - talking about his mental state
@@BrandonLewinter The way, I see it, "They'll never put me in their bag" is moreso about not being put into a box by other people. Not being forced to conform to other people's standards. Not everything has to be literally about his mental illness. It's moreso about non-conformity in general. I believe Syd may have been autistic, so he was always different. He was an artist who felt most comfortable around other artists and creators. As an artist, he saw himself separate from everybody else, the consumers. But yeah, "Octopus" isn't a dark song. His solo albums had a mix of dark mature songs, and more lighthearted songs. He simply hated how Pink Floyd and their management wanted him to exclusively milk out pop hits.
Great song
I’ve read a few books about Syd, and people around him have said he didn’t take that much acid. It was the people who moved into his apartment, one in particular, who doctored everything he ate and drank with acid. Even other members of Pink Floyd mentioned it; they said they didn’t dare have a cup of tea or glass of water unless they made it themselves, and even then they were very careful.
Syd is still my obsession. his guitar style is mind blowing
Dominoes especially
David Gilmour helped Syd with his Solo album and the Copyrights to Syd.
so he was the only person to help Syd.
@@vegasmona LOL if you think Waters is about being rich and driving fancy cars. Waters was the one who drove Pink Floyd to be a socially conscious band which challenged capitalism, war, and all the rest. What a load of nonsense.
@@EclecticSceptic and also broke apart the band after animals and the wall. Waters was a key member and Pink Floyd were never the same again after he became selfish
@@henrycoke I know Waters is a notoriously difficult person, but insinuating he was just in it for money and cars?
Actually Roger is the one that got him to keep going and make The Madcap Laughs.. and Roger realized the band was becoming about commercialization, which is what The Wall and The Final Cut (the last albums mostly written by Roger) were about
gilmour and barrett were childhood best friends
I think tragically Syd burnt out at an early age due to the pressures and responsibilities that were put upon him and although the band especially Gilmore tried to support him he couldn't handle it any longer.
Its truly a sad story of a young man with an abundance of talent who couldn't cope with success. 😔
His solo stuff has a lot of really dark and equally disturbing songs, too. “Dark Globe”, “No Good Trying”, “No Man’s Land”, “Feel”, “If It’s In You”, “Opel”. “Jugband Blues” is only one of his dark songs, but probably his most well-know, since few bother exploring “Vegetable Man” and “Scream Thy Last Scream”, and even fewer have explored his solo work. Few people realize Syd actually has quite a catalogue of dark and mature songs. He didn’t just write whimsical fairytale pop. He hated being pigeonholed into that genre.
On the money.
To me, his darkest moment of all is "Scream Thy Last Scream," even darker than "Dark Globe" ("I've tattooed my brain all the way.") was.
@@Gunners_Mate_Guns You’re probably right, since “Scream Thy Last Scream” is essentially about him wishing death upon an old woman who’s screaming in her final moments, as she’s being buried alive in a casket. All while being sung in a childlike infantile voice by Nick Mason, while being backed with chipmunk vocals by Syd.
Lyrically, the opening line is meant to invoke the horror elements of darker fairytales, like the original Brothers Grimm stories. It’s certainly the polar opposite of the beautiful elegant heartwarming pop of “See Emily Play”.
Of course, this kind of thing flies over the heads of most listeners. The lyrics are purposely oblique. I still haven’t quite figured out the meaning of the rest of the song myself. But I essentially see it as a piss-take on the older generation.
This song was the start of Syd deconstructing language in music, which he would further explore in his solo work. Very much influenced by the writer James Joyce. Most people dismiss it as schizo acid nonsense, but most people aren’t quite so bright either.
I think “Scream Thy Last Scream” was Syd’s way of purposely sticking it to the man, and not giving his management and record label what they want.
Syd was already making experimental uncommercial music on “Piper”, but those were instrumentals. “Scream” was his attempt to do that lyrically, too. And he was originally going to release it as a single, of all things.
The rest of Pink Floyd refused to include both “Scream” and “Vegetable Man” on “A Saucerful of Secrets”, despite the insistence of Peter Jenner and Andrew King, their managers at the time who they would soon dismiss. I guess the band saw it as too disturbing, and Syd was already on his way out anyway.
Strange, considering how disturbing sonically the title track “A Saucerful of Secrets” is, as well as Syd’s “Jugband Blues”.
As we all know, Pink Floyd became famous for being dark and moody, so it’s a shame at the time they thought of “Scream” and “Vegetable Man” as being off-limits.
@@psychedelicpiper999 It's paradoxical that both VM and STLS finally had an official release as a result of a quirk of copyright law that would have made both songs automatically become public domain if they hadn't been released officially on "The Early Years."
Long Gone is the darkest one imo. It starts of as a stereotypical 'my job died, my dog left me and i lost my girl' blues but the way he wails "and i wondered for those i love still" utterly off key gives me a sense of despair that s so chilling it might as well have been authentic. czcams.com/video/nwisdIr61e4/video.html&gl=BE
@@Gunners_Mate_Guns I feel like Vegetable Man is his darkest, though I haven't heard his solo stuff yet
The onset of schizophrenia often occurs in one’s late teens or early 20’s, and I always figured that’s what happened with Syd. Of course, psychotropic drugs can exacerbate the condition and do even more damage to one’s mental health.
As I've learned more about Barret it does look like he had schizophrenia. And the lsd use does not help. Some of his lyrics on his solo project also point to his schizophrenia. A shame to have lost a brilliant man either way.
One must keep in mind that the two states of mind share many similarities. Taking LSD, or any classical psychedelic basically provides a schizophrenic experience.
thats only true if you already have schizophrenia
@@lawsonburghart3495 learn a bit more, and you'll find it was all a hoax. Syd did not suffer from schizophrenia
@@allmapasic5620 source?
"decided to leave the band"...well, not really...they just ghosted him
Yep. And he followed them around up to 1970, but they continued to ghost him outside of his solo sessions.
@@psychedelicpiper999 haha, ok I know David Gilmour helped him produce some stuff right? but the rest? and he was Syd's replacement, not really the same. And I've never heard him 'following' them around up to 1970 either. He was the one who was always away and out of touch generally from what I've read.
If you've been around people that are seriously spun out on psychedleics you'd understand why they had to
@@sentientcardboarddumpster7900 But they didn’t have to. They could have had him take a break for a couple albums, then brought him back to play together with Gilmour. Syd was still writing songs, enough to fill 3 solo albums.
The Beach Boys still stuck by and never abandoned Brian Wilson. He spun out of control, and didn’t tour with them, but they would still find a way to incorporate a song of his or two into an album.
This is despite the fact Brian was a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic who hears voices in his head.
@@SpeedOfThought1111 You should read some Syd bios then. I recommend “Dark Globe” by Julian Palacios. I’m just sharing some common knowledge. It’s not a mystery Syd followed the band. Even Ron Geesin said he saw Syd in the studio during the “Atom Heart Mother” sessions.
Syd gave up after that, though, except for the time he showed up shaven during “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”.
Also, it was Syd who actually wanted David in the band as far back as 1965. The band knew David because he was Syd’s friend, someone Syd introduced to them. Not someone they met themselves. David visited their “See Emily Play” session because he wanted to see his friend Syd. Not Waters or the others.
David was not originally meant to be Syd’s replacement, and I feel they should have stuck with a 5-member lineup.
Easily one of my favorite songs of all time. It’s so sad in depressing. You can hear it in his voice. I fucking love Syd.
R.I.P Syd Barrett a legendary man
Shine on You crazy Diamond!
It was quite evident Syd had psychiatric problems outside of taking lsd, I have watched many documentaries about Syd and have taken a lot of lsd myself and experienced ego death. I know so many people who have improved their lives from hallucinogens.
If you already have a mental illness or are predisposed to a mental illness psychedelics exacerbate it.
Jake B they have the ability to but at depends on the person, the dosage, and the type of mental illness. for example i first tried psychedelics at the peak of my anorexia and it actually helped me get better. it has the same effect on many people but my advice to those with mental illness would be to use in smaller doses and with caution
@@jakeb3157 not mushrooms
@Church of Film I was reading your comment and I thought about Ian Curtis. You make an interesting point.
It depends on the user. syd Barrett was a schizophrenic and they don’t recommend taking lsd if you have schizophrenia it can make the symptoms worse
Syd was my hero growing up and I saw him as a complete artistic original and genius. Knowing Syd's story as young as my early teens, (in my own naivety) I summized that Syd must have come by this genius through his life experience so I figured I could possibly reach for that same genius via the same roads. I was an artist, I play guitar, I love pushing the envelope. . Sure ... "This is a good plan". Starting around 14 or 15 I began my own LSD fueled descent and took it nearly every day for 4 or 5 years, and then off and on for a few more years. I knew the risks and at the time, it seemed worth it to trade my own well being, even my own sanity for a glimpse into this genius. After a few years, I had a few bad enough trips that the thought of doing acid ever again was painful and scary. I kept going. The last 40 or 50 trips were all bad. If you have ever experienced a bad trip you know it is one of life's truly horrific experiences. It's the scariest thing I have ever been through in my life. 40 or 50 times in a row. I slowed down and eventually took it the last time on June 15th, 1995 at a Grateful Dead concert in Highgate, ME; I was 22. The years of self torture and abuse took me to my own personal Ego death. In addition to the horrific mind set it manifested in a complete and utter detachment from emotions, from relationships, from any understanding of empathy, sorrow, true happiness or any relationship with normal society. Any type of emotion at all really. It also indirectly led to me having plenty of other problems as a result of the pain I was experiencing due to my acid intake. Anything to escape it. As I hit my midish thirties I slowly emerged from this dungeon I had sent myself to. Eventually (after more then a decade) I slowly started to reconnect with reality and emotions and ever so slowly got back to something akin to normal. Today I am a happy, connected, loving father and husband and I feel incredibly lucky to be where I am. I was lucky enough to have a few people in my life that stuck by me through all those years. I feel mostly normal, most days. This song would very often bring me to tears knowing all the exact things being mentioned in this video. Not sure that I ever did get to experience the genius I set out to, but I sure as hell experienced much if not all of what Syd is talking about throughout Jugband Blues. I just feel lucky I had a chance to live a life outside of this self imposed prison. Thanks for this video.
Beautiful comment
If you're trying to escape your troubles, LSD is pretty much the last thing you should do. Most drugs may amplify your problems after you come back down, but LSD will amplify them while you're on it.
Mushrooms is better
Its a brilliant song by brilliant musicians. Syd is still my favourite, he was as uncanny.🙏🏻👍🏻🎸 Rest easy Syd and Rick 🎹
Why does syd Barrett have a otomatone in his head?
It's one of his psychedelic nightmares. Or maybe he could see into the future of instruments. I'll let you decide.
Automaton?
Also considering lsd as an escape is pretty misguided it doesn't let you escape problems or reality if anything it intensifies those things and forces you to confront them which can be amazing for you or just leave you traumatized
Which again links back to the mindset people must have to use psychedelics properly. Some people have it, others don't.
Talk about the life of Buddy Holly, and maybe "The day the music died"..?
Really cool topic/ video, this time, btw!
Yeahhhhh
RESPONSE PART 2: I am a Syd fan of nearly two decades. On the day he died, I tried to hold a bit of a vigil in a Bay Area suburb where I went to High School back then, accompanied by some local teenage fans of Syd (and I have faith there will be new teenage fan of Syd for generations to come). Early on, I too felt compelled by the tragic narrative, the romantic legend of the "fallen genius". Yet, with the years I've come to see that to put too much stock into these portrayals, one risks slipping into dishonoring or even neglecting the very reason why we are fans in the first place: Syd(Roger) Barrett's brilliance as an artist, as a singer, as a writer, as a musician, as a poet, as a storyteller, as a painter. And if we focus on the story of artistic brilliance, then we are talking about a story of transcendence, of triumph over struggles, circumstances, traumas, over paralyzing pain and bad faith, over insensitivity or blindness of intimates and peers, over oneself and all of the world's odds. For most of us who had tried to make a life as artists, it is very difficult to not become familiar with a sense that these things are the norm. And what is most insane is the sheer miracle of some artists, nonetheless, achieving anything at all that's resonant enough to last, to become rediscovered by generations and artists yet come. And for someone to have done that is a great accomplishment, a great coalescence of meaning triumphantly emerging through someone's alchemy of inspiration, craft, time, context, and vision... And it should be treasured with gratitude, for being what it is and only, and that being So Much, for being Work which was given to us, to the world, despite it all, as if just in time, and given to all time, and which is still here with us, to help us along.
As such, to maximize any plausible "tragic" elements of the story and, moreover, to interpret the creativity as an expression of "degradation" rather than artistic agency and vision also runs the risk of entrapping the Art within the overblown tragedy. Might not identifying with Syd as a "waste" encode a bit of defeatism of one's own? It either essentializes the artist, imagining that an ever-laughing "present" Syd would have indefinitely kept popping out variations and extrapolations on "See Emily Play" or something... If only! Or/and it kind of erases the artistic agency encoded even in the confusion, in the struggle. It doesn't always come through, sure. The artist doesn't always find their way back to the world in the same way as before. But it's a long strange trip, to be sure. And even the most self-consistent artist cognizantly chasing a vision had subtly become someone else after a few turnings, and had found their vision change with them. And, inspiration aside, it being only a piece of any puzzle anyhow, it is not just the vision as such, but the work one puts in. I suspect many of you imagine Syd's lyrics pouring automatically, right out of dead/glowing eyes, onto some toilet paper or, better yet, right onto record.
Ultimately, if I had to pick just one thing which I would love to be more acknowledged about Syd's art and story, it would be his complex Craft as an artist, the wide range of his talent and agency as a writer, musician, poet. Sure, Syd's solo albums' stylings, performances, and writings may seem to many as unusual, sometimes messily actualized (which reflects on Syd's world), sometimes self-frustrated (which does reflect his troubles). Granted, it was not his decision to leave raw takes and in-between take banter on the record of "Madcap Laughs". It arguably gives the album more "character", but also makes it all seem more unusual and crazier than it was, by most accounts (I read two biographies of Syd over the years; though it's been a while). Again, it may have been easier for everyone around Syd to have him presented as unambiguously, mysteriously, and unrepairably "crazy", rather than the more nuanced and differently messy reality of him struggling with some intense pains, situations, oscillations, instabilities, and confusions (some of them likely connected to people around him). Sure, some of the songs are genuinely shambolic and nonsensical. Yet, nonsense verse, in the traditions of Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll, and The Beatles, was a fixture of Syd's developed writing style all along. Next to it, within his Craft, lived elements he drew from folk idioms, as well as from Bob Dylan, from the Incredible String Band, from the Stones, from 19th/20th century fantasy and sci-fi lit (and TV), from dusty music hall standards, from weird jazz, from obscure blues singers, from local poets you won't find on Google, from the Canterbury scene (Soft Machine, Gong, Daevid Allen, Kevin Ayers... All of which musics y'all really ought to Google if you like Syd's work!), and from much else. All of the above are influences which Syd was consciously, complexly, and brilliantly extrapolating and borrowing from throughout his musical career. And the finesse within his craft was evident even as late as 1970, on his second solo album "Barrett" (as someone else mentioned, two years after he ceased being a member of Floyd). If the host of this channel ends up reading this, eh, essay in response to the video, I would plead with them to order one of several major Syd biographies (If I recall correctly, 'An Irregular Head" is very thorough in regards to Syd's painterly, musical, and avant-garde inspirations, whereas a newer bio, I forget the title, goes deeper into his literary sources and precursors).
"Together we stand ... Divided we fall."
-Pink Floyd
He didn't exactly leave did he? No one's even pretended that's what happened, the kicked him out.
they didn't
I would have thought his darkest songs with Floyd were “Vegetable Man” and “Scream Thy Last Scream”, but Jugband was already moving in that direction.
Syd discoverd that he had diabetes which causes sudden period of tiredness, thirst and muscular pain. Without the proper energy or help he needed, he felt a complete disconnection with the world around him. The only mention of this sickness was when he died in 2006. He was the youngest member of the band and the first to leave this world before Richard Wright in 2008.
I still believe this song was his way of saying fuck you to the band for the way they were treating him, I believe he was aware of everything going on around him, and did til the day he died. He was like most genius, just too smart for the rest of the world, so he was labeled crazy, cause he wasnt normal to the standards.
So smart that he would refuse to play or play one note for 30 minutes 🤣
@@HondaBetter You do not understand statement art.
@@kikiki4592 haha yeah I’m messin about. I’ve got much respect for syd and he fascinates the hell out of me. Like I wish I could’ve been there
Although Syd might have been losing it at the time of its writing, that doesn't mean that Jugband Blues was merely the product of an incoherent, checked-out nutter.
In fact, despite the song's numerous structural and compositional eccentricities (a strangeness perhaps captured best in the anarchic sound of a mostly improvising salvation army street band), I'd argue that it isn't the supposed incoherence of Syd's songwriting here that makes Jugband Blues such an unsettling affair - rather, for me personally, it lies in the irony that - despite all of the mounting evidence that Syd's mental health was, by then, in a state of rapid decline - his revelations in the song are actually so thoroughly and ridiculously self-aware, they become almost unbearable.
This general perception of Syd having, by then, lost his mind is therefore momentarily thrown into question as Jugband Blues effectively paints the portrait of man whose prescient understanding of reality was so commanding that it actually bordered on the uncanny.
Take, for instance, the first stanza, oft-cited as being a tangible display of Syd's lunacy. I never read it that way.
When he sings, "It's awfully considerate for you to think of me here, and I'm most obliged to you for making it clear that I'm not here", I never really read that as being some kind of tacit admission of psychosis, but rather - to me - a very clear and bitter display of passive-aggressive and petulant sarcasm. It should be remembered that by the time that the song was being written, his bandmates had begun to regularly leave him out of the loop on shows and rehearsals.
So, when Syd notes how "awfully considerate" it is that his bandmates *think* of him as being there (as opposed to him *actually* being there), I believe that he was facetiously chastising them for having removed him from most of the band's affairs. By not picking him up for rehearsals or shows, or involving him nearly as much in the process of their songwriting, I think that Syd felt that they'd made it painfully clear to him that he was *literally* not there most of time. Afterall, 'thinking' about someone being there and 'wanting' them to actually be there are two altogether different things, and for the former, he expresses a sarcastic debt of obligation.
Regarding the room being so big and the moon being so blue - I believe that he was poetically describing how easy it is to assume what something will be like prior to actually experiencing it, only to realize just how different things can be once reality replaces expectation. In this case, I believe that he's perhaps confessing that being in a big "psychedelic pop group" was not all that he had hoped it would be.
"And I'm grateful that you thre away my old shoes and brought me here instead dressed in red." - I would view this as Syd complaining about the constant, superficial pressures that were being put upon him by management and the label and possibly even his bandmates. He was no longer allowed to dress as he had wanted to - he had to look and act a certain way. Like before, his expression of "gratefulness" was clearly sarcastic to the extreme.
As another case of what I would view as being a possible misinterpretation of Syd's state of mind, the above video posits a theory that when he wrote, "And I'm wondering who could be writing this song?", that it must have been a reference to LSD-fueled ego death, or perhaps a simple expression of nonsensical insanity. Personally though, I don't think that Syd was referencing or displaying either of those things. Similar to the song's opening salvo, I believe that the line represents yet another clear example of Syd's dry, inimitable, cleverly sardonic wit. So when, in a profoundly intentional, self-aware meta display of irony, he asks who had written the song, I always assumed that the question was rhetorically passive aggressive, and represented a clever, thinly veiled reminder to his bandmates that - despite his recent personal struggles, he was STILL in the band, and clearly, he was STILL writing songs. And, in case they should forget, it was his songwriting which had - until recently - been their vehicle for all of the mainstream successes that they'd thus far achieved. I think Syd may have also been ironically pointing out the fact that despite having written nearly everything on Piper, by the time work on Saucerful was well underway, his role in the songwriting process had become so diminished that one might wonder if he had written any of the songs. In either case, I believe that that particular line was less a reflection of psychosis and more an expression of bitterly lucid sarcasm.
The bit about not caring about whether the sun would shine or not, I think that he was more or less trying to reassure himself that if he ever did leave the band and exit the limelight, that he would be just fine. The songs he wrote, the things that he purchased as a result of his fame - none of those things were inherently meaningful to him and so, others could have them as they pleased. Syd was, by all accounts, a very generous person and would sometimes give away expensive things like TV sets and record players to total strangers.
When he says, "I don't care if I'm nervous with you, I'll do my loving in the winter" - I always thought he was speaking of the band as an entity: he was feeling increasingly uncomfortable with the Floyd in general, but resolved that if he should maybe leave the band by the winter (which he did), then he could focus on other interests in his life, particularly ones that he loved more than music (ie painting). And like I said regarding why he would use winter, perhaps he knew his days were numbered and simply put a season to it.
The last line of song takes all of these sentiments and ties them together rather neatly. So when he had asked, "What exactly is a dream? And what exactly is a joke?" I believe that he was drawing attention to the fact that, in life, the line between profound success and grave failure can be rather tenuous, and that - as a result - he realized now how very easily one could be confused for the other. Did his youthful ambitions achieve anything of lasting importance, or was all of it just a joke at his expense? Unfortunately, it would appear as though Syd adopted the more cynical view of his circumstances.
Interesting break down glad I read through it. There's a box set called pictures of Syd Barret you should check out. It's got octopus on a 7" and then a large photo book
Great analysis
it does. he is/ was certifiatable
Brilliant interpretation, you should have wrote and directed this video!
If only the video maker could put as much time and effort into understanding Syd and this song as he did into animation he may have come close to providing something as valuable as your comment. Thank you for clearing this up, impressive analysis!
To me he is one of the most mysterious characters in the music industry to date. He started one of the most known rock bands in the world, the band showed to him that ”ghosting” is not so new thing after all, then he just... disappeared, after making two albums and that’s it
It's time to talk about Rush.
This!
RIP to the Professor.
Rip Neil Peart.
I love syd and his work so much, he had so much to give this world and we only got a glimpse
jugband blues is such a beautiful song
he was asked to leave
this song is not his darkest but it is his saddest
I just love how Syd had the look that bands like the Cure tried to make themselves up like as.
I cry everytime I listen to this song. It reminds me of Syd’s sad story and a lost loved one
What exactly is a dream, what exactly is a joke
So poignant.
3:58 Syd Barrett's eyes were also referred to in Poles Apart from The Division Bell album. The first verse and chorus of that song were written about Syd. Here are the lyrics:
"Did you know
It was all going to go, so wrong for you?
And did you see
It was all going to be so right for me?
Why did we tell you then
You were always the golden boy then?
And that you'd never lose that light in your eyes"
Note: Waters also referenced Syd with the line "Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?". Cold steel rail comes from the 1970 Syd song 'If It's In You' lyric "Please hold on to the steel rail" from The Madcap Laughs.
Thank you for this. There's something eerily haunting when learning about Syd Barrett and his life. Hard to put into words, but I loved this video :)
Syd is so closer to me & my heart... When I started to hear songs of Pink Floyd.. I really taking drugs & it's helping me to understand the feeling's..
What's going on.. but it's was too cool.. To breathe in this suffocated world..
Syd Barret can't be forgotten in his band.. & even thoughout the world
I always saw Jugband Blues as a double whammy in a way.
I saw it as both a moment of lucidity for him seeing where he is going mentally (and lamenting the loss of his old self), mixed with a kind of “fuck you” to his old band mates, because I’m pretty sure they encouraged his LSD usage (if not downright dosed him at times), all while using it as a type of marketing gimmick, all while riding the train of success at Syd’s expense without so much as a nod. At least, initially.
You can see it in such lines “and I’m wondering who could be writing this song.” It’s tongue-in-cheek British irony used to mock his band mates (as if to say “if I’m not here, who wrote this thing, you jackasses”) while also being a lamentation of the loss of himself.
I could be wrong but I always saw the song as much more self aware than it let on.
In 2013 occurred an explosion due to gas conection failure in my city. An entire department explode, 22 people died, the brigaders were looking for survivors for days. The son of a friend of my mom died in there. I remember being surrounded by people in front of the building when the labours of rescue was in march, and I couldn´t think in other thing that the marching-orchestra part of the song. That's dark.
Wow this video is amazing... I love how well you broke down this song, and I’ve listened to Jugband Blues the most out and any Syd Barret song and I never realized how dark it was and how much meaning there really was behind the lyrics and even music... I don’t think I’ll be able to listen to it the same anymore!
Madcap laughs, Barrett and Opel are fantastic albums with truly incredible songs on them. In addition, there is Bob Dylan blues, a brillant little tune. Syd had much left to say after Floyd.
Rip. Syd.. millions worldwild suffer from mental illness and your music will live on!
This is crazy, i was literally thinking about ur last video about Syd Barrett just today, so i look u up to rewatch ur video and i see u have uploaded another vid on him, today!
And i havent listened to Pink Floyd in months untill earlier today
I suspect mandrax played a much bigger role in his dazed state. He was disallusioned by acheiving his goals at a young age. All of his bandmates and management were relying on his songwriting and applying tons of pressure. He was a sensitive person surrounded by career minded people. I think his "craziness" is played up by people who were involved to alleviate the guilt of their callous behavior. Syd seemed much happier not being a rockstar. I see no evidence of him acting abnormal for the later part of his life, even though he went around town all of the time. He was incredibly smart and avant garde, and I think many of the odd things he did were passive aggressive acts of retaliation against the people around him, that they simply did not "get".
7:25 exactly. You placing the blame on lsd is disingenuous, for you clearly have no experience with it, nor knowledge of what it does. That ego death explanation...come on lad 😂
I wanted to say Something about it But theres no point To do that😂
Exactly!! Fentanyl is an opioid , LSD is a psychedelic . Opioids do help you forget your pains but You don’t do LSD to forget about your problems. When you do LSD all the things you do wrong on a daily basis come at you 100 times harder so by no means anyone can keep doing LSD to run away from problems of fame or whatever. Please if you want to make content do your research properly.
Man, im kind of convinced that Syd Barret had schizophrenia or some sort of mental health problem that was potentiated by LSD. You don't take lsd to escape your problems, you can't do this lol. Plus, the tolerance of it is so escalates so quickly that you can't really abuse it that much.
@@vinicius6385 pretty sure i read somewhere once he did LSD 7 days in a row. While IMO being the most positive drug that much time out of reality is bound to mess with someones head.
vinicius bastos pellegrini You can take it multiple times in a row if you keep adding on to the dosage. I thought I was Syd Barrett when I was in high school...
I like this new style of yours
I love the animation
Awesome! I like it too. It takes a lot more work, but it looks way better than before i think.
@@LieLikesMusic yeah it's more astheticly pleasing
It always chills me how in between “when you were young” and “you shone like the sun” there’s amused laughter in the left channel, making it feel like there’s a ghost reminiscing about the times mentioned in the song
Wonderful stuff!!! Great job!! It's a lot of pressure on these young artists and they look for anything that may help and eventually it gets them. We are all so fragile!
Not a fan of Pink Floyd but even I think the Barrett era and Wish You Where Here album are amazing.
I like Pink Floyd fine, but I'm more of a Syd Barrett fan than a Pink Floyd one really.
@@luismarioguerrerosanchez4747 It's so interesting to have people that like Syd more here. Personally i think i dig Floyd more. Simply because they had the chance of releasing more music.
When he questions who wrote the song it really communicates this feeling Syd must have felt of losing identity and who he was. Like we know he wrote it, but which iteration of himself was it?
I think it shows his self awareness of his encroaching schizophrenia
@@teethgrinder83 I feel that, it's almost like it is his last moment of true clarity before the plunge.
@@ilovecody7514 absolutely, it must have been so scary for him to be self aware enough to see what was happening but unable to stop it 😔
@@teethgrinder83 I think in this line Syd is displaying sarcasm. He had his problems but it's a common misconception that Syd just went bonkers. I'm not sure what "plunge" you guys were talking about since he came out with 2 albums after leaving Floyd
@@laussethecat yes and and that 2 albums he made was a difficult 2 albums which he needed a lot of help with. Also im not sure what you mean by a common misconception-of course he didn't just wake up one day and suddenly he was mentally ill, it was a decline in his health but noone can deny he unfortunately had mental health problems for which he was on medication for the rest of his life
Syd Barrett recorded two solo records and had a career as a fine artist, people seem to forget about that.
Yea if you look at his discography its four very good albums.
Piper at the gates of dawn (with pink floyd)
Saucer full of secrets (with pink floyd)
The madcap laughs (solo)
Barret (solo)
And you can count (opel ) since it has unrealized songs and his best solo hits.
He managed to give us 4(5) albums so he has a solid good discography. To think with four great albums and he wasnt even at his peak yet. Its crazy to wonder how pink floyd woulda turned out with syd staying. To think we got an album with Syd and david on it before he left. Idk why syd isnt in the fore front of psychedelic music.
imo he should be up there with hendrix and jefferson airplane. He had the musicianship, best example being the pink floyd records and the lyrics, best example being his solo work although he was great with pink floyd as well.
Thanks for promoting his genius, more people need to know about Syd!
Sgt Peppers was recorded in the same studio and at the same time as Piper At The Gates Of Dawn and both albums feature the same Salvation Army band who appear to be true jazz musicians since when Pink Floyd told them to play anything they come out with something coherent.
Taking lots of psychedelics is completely different to taking loads of Xanax, don't make claims you dont know about and assumed a lot of things in this video, base things more in facts dude.
it don't make you cool to be a drug- taker....first of all you need a modicum of artistic ability
@@royferguson3909 that has nothing to do with what bob said, besides syd already had some sort of mental illness, psychedelic just made his condition worsen more quickly, in reality psychedelics had nothing to do with his decline it was going to happen anyways lsd just made it come on quicker. you could smoke dmt all day every day for months and be completely fine so long as you don't already have a mental illness.
@@skywalkersworld this. If mental illnesses like schizophrenia and psychosis are common in your family, don't take LSD.
@@Tyler-uc4ye this is just my opinion but i think that statement is only subjectively true, ive givin psyches to all sorts of people including skitzethrencs and people with multiple personallys and even psychopaths and pretty much all of them later told me that it really helped there mental state actually, but i can see how it could also make them much worse. even one is different
@@skywalkersworld LSD is a drug that revolves on the user's surroundings, and mental state. A bad LSD trip could really, fuck someone up if they have some sort of mental illness, you could just have that thought, and completely change how you look at others and your life. It's very easy for people with mental illnesses to be manipulated by themselves, let alone LSD.
I would say the ultimate song is 'have you got it yet?' Pretty dark and was his way of telling the band that he was done..(Roger mentions it in interviews)
Such a sad song. One of my all time favorite songs. Great upload.
Thank you for watching. Definitely one of the most memorable songs from the Syd era of Floyd imo.
good vid aswell, I always thought that jugband blues was syd’s slip in sanity - but lot’s of people consider the song to be syd dissing the band for leaving him out of writing sessions and stealing ideas from him.
MultiDimensionalEnTT ㄣ⃒ ㄣ⃒ ㄣ⃒ The first few lines definitely sounds like a diss. It can also sound like a slip in sanity. That's why i dig the song and the story. It's a mystery.
People don’t usually go “insane” they were always insane but suddenly they couldn’t handle it.
How on Earth could you possibly know about insanity without being insane yourself? Especially since apparently it isn't something that happens to you, according to your expertise.
Gluemonkey because... thats literally the science behind it. Whats up with the stick up your ass? Why you gotta be so defensive dude? You dont have to be a scientist to say the sun is a star. Thats a fact, && this is the same lol
i love your floyd videos!! please more! they’re wonderful.
I was under the impression that he wasn't always self-medicating but was being spiked by his friends to lift him out of depression. This would of course quickly lead to more serious mental health illnesses.
a video on nick drake would be quite interesting!
👍👍👍
I second that, just listened to Pink Moon for the first time last month and it blew me away.
Awesome suggestion!
yes !!!
yes!!!!
The compiled backing track for this vid is done really well 👌
MultiDimensionalEnTT ㄣ⃒ ㄣ⃒ ㄣ⃒ Thanks!
@@LieLikesMusic did I hear some sort of acapella version of pow.r.toc h in there? Where did you get that?
Thanks for continuing your exploration of Britain prog and pop, Bowie and Floyd are the reason I found your channel.
You encapsulated this all very well, thanks :)
I would say his darkest song is Dark Globe, an apt title about the cold world and his unstable mind. It's a clear cry for help, and gives me the same vibes as the protagonist in The Wall.
Bike is for sure another dark one, maybe the most haunting, with the end of the song being the room of musical tunes that choke up his mind as he attempts to tame and simplify some of the sounds (aka unceasing thoughts) into art: "Let's go into the other room and make them work."
"It's awfully considerate of you
To think of me here
And I'm most obliged to you for
Making it clear that I'm not here"
What if this is not a statement about one's own breakdown of sanity, but of feelings of growing isolation?
Oh how i love your Pink Floyd videos!
He’s an example of how moderation and never using substances as an espace but for enjoyment and occasions
Heyyy lie... a SYD video :(_______) my fav pink floyd band member....super awesoommeee looking forward for more
I knew you'd like it dude :) Take care. How's guitar practice going btw?
@@LieLikesMusic oooeee things are going really awesome i have sent you something check it out
Can we get more Peter Gabriel please? There was a great episode, and i miss it
IMPORTANT FACT is that without SYD Barrett Pink Floyd would not exist.
It's amazing how little people understand about each other but it doesnt stop a quick judgement.
Even Animals has a touch of Syd Barrett, as it is the band's increasing awareness on how manipulative the world was and why it caused Syd's downfall and they felt like Sheep in world full of Dogs and Pigs.
Syd’s solo song “Wolfpack” is proto-“Animals”, if you think about it. “Howling the pack in formation appear”.
Jimmy page and his occult obsession
Alejandro Parra could you please elaborate on this? I’m curious?
Ash S he bought aleisters crowleys Loch Ness house, he had a collection of occult books and he engraved the quote “do what thou wilt“ into copy’s of Led Zeppelin III
Aquatic Highs yes absolutely
@@Alejandro72433 also his famous dragon stage outfits were Crowley's, used by Crowley for his "sorcery". Crowley was smaller than Page (as hard as that may be to believe), so that's why they looks somewhat undersized on him.
@@johnnyrottenpiss Um....no. they were not Crowley's. Inspired by perhaps.
The best song I loved Syd forever
Great video dude. This is a story I have truly revered and I connect the same way to Jugband blues and Shine on. I tell this story to people in person. Glad you made a video out of it. One thing.. I was hoping to see the last line.. "What exactly is a dream, what exactly is a joke." 😉
Everytime I hear Jugband Blues i just get an big need to hug him and tell him that he's not alone
Damn, I feel that dude
I really disagree with any of the insanity/schizophrenic theories, because 1. he was never diagnosed, and 2. he went on to record 2 solo albums. He wasn't some sort of mental patient after his music career ended either, he began painting again for the remainder of his life, which is what he was in school for in the first place.
He stopped getting picked up and eventually got the hint
Thanks! hearing this song,even chopped up and seeing that album cover gave me a flashback.
You should talk about A Saucerful of Secrets the whole album.
Syd actually visited the studio during the vocal recording of Shine on You crazy Diamond. He had gotten fatter and shaved off all his hair, eyebrows, body hair, everything. It was to the point that the rest of the group genuinely had no idea who he was at first. Reports vary as to who it was - either David or Nick - who stopped and said "that's Syd." Roger asked him about the song to which he said "sounds a bit old, doesn't it?"
He had a few solo albums (my favourite solo effort from a member of Pink Floyd) but...yeah, I see the song as a giant "I'm not interested anymore!"
I really love how your tellin stories. Keep goin
Imagine the your friends kicking you off in the band and suddenly a years later they would write an album just for you
Same as me: my favorite Pink Floyd album is Wish You Were Here
Same
🙌
Love Syd! Great video.
Beautiful.... I do always cry in Jugband Blues
A different interpretation: the lyrics about who wrote the song could be syd pointing to the band saying I’ve wrote most of the music, what are you going to do without me? And then the lyrics about the sun not shining imo is syd telling the band he doesn’t care about becoming successful and is just doing it for the music (cliche I know but still). I think this is a big reason why syd became so erratic, he was growing tired of the band’s push for commercial success and, in turn, dropped out of society through lsd. Lsd was a new thing no one knew what damage could do. Something to back this point up could be the fact that syd spent the rest of his life painting and never once tried to sell it. It wasn’t for a career, just to make art.
All in all great video. Syd truly embodied the message of the psychedelic movement, even if it led to his destruction.
Please make a video about Jackson C Frank
Syd is some of my fucking biggest artist inspiration
Syd Barrett didn't go apathic from his use of LSD. He got deeper and deeper into Xanax and Benzos, and these were the things that catapulted him into total ego death.
RESPONSE PART 1: Though I generally love this channel and its takes, I am a bit disappointed in this video for rehashing some of the same sensational legends masterfully crafted by myth-makers like the 1970’s rock critic Nick Kent and thoroughly exploited by Roger Waters's career-long splattery pen. Isn't it just such a fortunate stroke of luck for a musical artist with a penchant for dark satirical high concept and elaborately constructed mythos/iconography to be leading and writing for a band formerly led by an "absent innovative fallen icon with an easily romanticizable character and photogenic “dead poet” looks", and, on top of it all, completed by a real-life "myth-ready fall from celebrity mill grace" wasted-genius narrative? How could Waters, or anyone really, have resisted?! After all, even by the early 70’s (when Waters’ writing came into its own) Syd’s legend had already become 1960's British rock's equivalent to what the legend of the fellow short-career artistic innovator, the poet Arthur Rimbaud, was to the Symbolist avant-garde of 19th century France. Of course, the comparison to Rimbaud is very loose (though poet Paul Verlaine's sensational farming and subsequent mythologizing of his former lover's verse-works within a Verlaine-curated anthology called "The Damned Poets" (Les Poetes Maudits) does bear some echoes). Anyhow, I'm not trying to moralize Waters or other people who would splice together and predominantly promote the most convenient (to the myth) "insanity" framing possible. But I think one ought to look at who benefits, how, and from which narratives.
I won't go too deeply into cross-comparisons, however. Rather, I would attempt to convey what I've gathered over many years as a fan compelled by the story. On one hand, we have Syd(reverted to Roger)’s real eccentricities of character. A "born artist" is how his family and closest friends continue to characterize him. In this, they would be speaking not just about the musician and songwriter, but also about the youthful painter, as well as about then middle-aged/elderly reclusive painter Roger Barrett, who would destroy his paintings after preserving their memory with a Polaroid picture. "Insane" or weird/eccentric/avant-garde? Then we have a murky area of Syd-Roger's emotional history, the full nuances of which died with the artist himself in 2006. Sure, the narratives we tend to hear do suggest real mental health challenges. But their character might be more ambiguous than most commentators seem to assume. Most significantly (per the implications of accounts given by Rosemary, his sister), we have Syd Roger's real history of trauma. The known medical and family-expressed facts are that Syd/Roger, despite having had a long history with the medical establishment and numerous inquiries and varied alarms, was never diagnosed with any form of severe mental illness.
However, as Syd-Roger's sister maintains, for the rest of his life after his retreat from London to his family house in Cambridge in the mid-70s, he would experience intense traumatic associations become triggered by any direct evocations of his musical years. All of this to me suggests that most of the behaviors attributed to his ostensible "insanity" could be explained in terms of symptoms of complex post-traumatic stress and related depression, anxiety, as well as possibly some related mood disorders and/or exacerbated or previously dormant neuroses. Such experiences are not too uncommon among the general populace today. Now ask: How might something like this manifest in the life of an already highly eccentric artist? Generally speaking, unresolved complex PTSD could and often does, logically enough, lead to patterns of selective avoidance, self-isolation, and intense (if gradual) personality and habit changes. The accounts of "dead eyed Syd" would also be consistent with post-traumatic shell-shock. Despite what some seem to believe, one doesn't have to be in the war-zone to become subject to severe complex PTSD. Given the wild character of a musician’s life in the London “scene” where Syd was enmeshed, situational opportunities for traumatic breakdowns might have been ample. Such a breakdown might have been indeed preceded or even enabled by gradually accumulated stress, by a lack of general understanding about neurocausalities among peers and medical professionals alike at that time, and possibly, though not definitively, might have been a situation directly exacerbated by drugs. Syd's drug use, however, could have been - and perhaps just as plausibly - a failed attempt at self-medication, rather than a primary, or even a contributing, cause of what he was experiencing… Pop star pressures and overwhelms, relationship dramas, personal (and/or band) betrayals could, in any combo, have been more than enough in their own right. Some people have nervous breakdowns and develop complex PTSD during divorces! Everyone has different thresholds and potentialities regarding these things. What is tragic is not some inevitability of the situation, but a lack of real understanding about how much of an impact upon the psyches of particularly-wired and perhaps simply emotionally sensitive persons could be made by the same situations that may feel commonplace, normal, and bearable to most of their peers. What one person experiences as normal interactions and situations could profoundly wear down on, or to shock, another person (one with otherwise seemingly analogous basic markers and similar characteristics to the first) and sometimes to prompt intensely life-changing and personality-resculpting (within a certain range) consequences (and especially during the late teens/early 20s, when the brain is still maturing). Sometimes the actual cause is not even clear or identifiable to either the sufferer or the people around them without substantial specialized inquiry. Some aspects of these realities and causalities are, alas, only coming to light through 21st century research in Psychology and related disciplines.
Over the years, Syd-Roger's sister would characterize him as someone with a very unusual mind and as someone unusually sensitive as well as eccentric. Of course, to simply stop at "eccentric" and "sensitive" would be another form of deceptive simplification. Clearly, Syd-Roger went through a great period of suffering, disorientation, confusion, struggle, and re-evaluation of his life throughout the 1970s, as his untreated neuroses and anxieties seemed to have become too strong for him to remain a working artist. Thankfully, he eventually went back to his first artistic medium: painting. Another thing which his sister would maintain after his death is that Syd-Roger was a painter throughout his whole life, and it was his musical career that was the detour from his innermost and truest creative muse. Who knows? Maybe? There are plenty of semi-reclusive neurotic painters in the world. Most of them are not considered incurably "insane" due to seeming like "different people' at age 30 or 60 than age 20, or due to NOT persisting as a singer-songwriter, poet, or experimental instrumentalist-composer. Typically, it is rather to persist in these brave, precarious, and seldom rewarded artistic and existential paths which puts one at risk of being called "insane'.
Hey man, are you on Facebook? If you haven’t joined the Syd Barrett group “Birdie Hop”, I highly recommend doing so. Your input there would be greatly appreciated. I fully agree with you100%, and your comments are worth saving.
wow what an interesting insight. thanks!
Video on the 60's psych group, Love? A bit on their album Forever Changes would be sweet.
Colin
Nice 👍....
I don’t think he’s questioning who wrote the song if it was him or not, I think he’s questioning who could be writing the song instead when he’s replaced.
Thanks again 😊👍