Syd Barrett

In 1978, he left the music world and stayed out of the limelight for the rest of his life. He moved in with his mother in Cambridge. He took up painting and started gardening. During his later years, he interacted only with his sister, Rosemary.

Although it is believed that he suffered from mental illness, he was never officially diagnosed with any mental disorder.

Syd Barrett was born on January 6, 1946, in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, to Winifred Barrett and Arthur Max Barrett, who was a pathologist. His father died of cancer in December 1961, when Barrett was almost 16.

When he was a child, he played the piano, ukulele, banjo, and guitar. He also loved drawing and writing poetry and won awards for his poetry in high school.

Initially, he attended Morley Memorial Junior School. In 1957, he started attending Cambridgeshire High School for Boys, and in 1962, he joined the Cambridge Technical College.

He formed a band called Geoff Mott and The Mottoes, which was short-lived. Around that time, he was influenced by the Beatles and sang their songs at parties and picnics. He also started writing songs during that time. As a young man, he enrolled himself in Camberwell College of Arts in London to study painting.

In London, Syd Barrett reconnected with Roger Waters, his school friend from Cambridge. Waters had formed a band with Richard Wright and Nick Mason, which was called The Sigma 6. When one of the members left, Barrett joined the band, which went through several name changes and was finally named Pink Floyd by Barrett in 1965, after two U.S. blues musicians, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council.

In 1965, the band recorded Beatles covers and three songs by Barrett—‘Double O Bo’, ‘Butterfly’ and ‘Lucy Leave’. Barrett also had his first acid trip in 1965, which marked the beginning of the end of his career.

In 1967, Pink Floyd released their debut album, ‘The Piper at the Gates of Dawn’. Barrett wrote most of the songs for the album and also the songs that were later included in his solo albums. The album was praised as one of the best rock albums of the year.

By mid-1967, Barrett had started behaving in an erratic manner due to his drug abuse. He did not contribute any songs to the band’s future albums and was not serving the band as a productive member. He did write some songs, but they were not featured on any of the band’s albums.

During Pink Floyd’s 1967 tour, the band had to hire a substitute guitarist as Barrett didn't turn up for the tour. They hired David Gilmour as the second guitarist as Barrett’s behavior became increasingly erratic. On April 6, 1968, Pink Floyd expelled Barrett from the band.

The album ‘The Piper at the Gates of Dawn’ was Syd Barrett’s best work. There were the US as well as the UK versions of the album. The singles ‘See Emily Play’, ‘Astronomy Domine’ and ‘Interstellar Overdrive’ became quite popular. In 2012, the album was voted 347th on Rolling Stone magazine's list of 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.