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Rating: I have always found strength in his music to keep moving forward, his stories, the sparse yet fascinating music, have always impressed me more than all those two-bit singers who think they can enchant you with their failed love stories...
The crazy diamond fell silent softly when everyone had forgotten about him enough not to talk about him every day, but not enough to erase him from their minds; I had bought this record about four days ago and it had become the soundtrack of my mornings, between cigarettes and guitar, it spun on my turntable making my day different, positive, there are songs in it, just whistling them makes me imagine trees dancing in time with these suggestive nursery rhymes...
All this until tonight, the record keeps spinning, but the needle conveys a new side of the Barrettian melodies to me, the sad one, tormented by being trapped in the cage of not being able to communicate with anyone because they think you are crazy...
Usually, I don't appreciate posthumous collections very much because of exhumations of unfinished or poorly played pieces, but this is different: it seems a complete album in every respect, it may falter in the decision to include tape parts with Barrett's voice talking about the song, but the material is valid despite being outtakes, showcasing his compositional genius...
Syd is dead and even though he hasn't released anything for more than thirty years, the void he leaves is enormous, the last true artist in a world of poor and commercial music has flown to the sky, and this makes one reflect on how music is increasingly Paris Hilton and less and less Syd Barrett...
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Opel (06:26)
On a distant shore, miles from land
stands the ebony totem in ebony sand
a dream in a mist of grey...
on a far distant shore...
The pebble that stood alone
and driftwood lies half buried
warm shallow waters sweep shells
so the cockles shine...
A bare winding carcase, stark
shimmers as flies scoop up meat, an empty way...
dry tears...
crisp black squeaks tore reeds
make a circle of grey in a summer way, around man
so don't ground...
I'm trying
I'm trying to find you!
To find you
I'm living, I'm giving,
To find you, To find you,
I'm living, I'm living,
I'm trying, I'm giving
03 Rats (03:13)
Got it hit down
spot knock inside a spider
says: "That's love yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!"
"That's love yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!"
says: "That's love - All know it
TV, teeth, feet, peace, feel it...
"That's love yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!"
"That's love yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!"
like the fall that brings me to
I like the fall that brings me to
I like the cord around sinew
I make a cord around sinew
Duck, the way to least is less
Tea craving of the metal west
'ell tomorrow's rain and test
'ell tomorrow's rain and test
Love an empty son and guess
Love an empty son and guess
pimples dangerous and blessed
Heaving, arriving, tinkling
mingling jets and statuettes
seething wet we meeting fleck
seething wet we meeting fleck
lines and winds and crib and half
each fair day I give you half
of each fair day I give you half
I look into your eyes and you,
flathe in the sun for you...
Bam, spastic, tactile engine
heaving, crackle, slinky, dormy, roofy, wham
I'll have them, fried bloke
broken jardy, cardy, smoocho, moocho, paki, pufftle
sploshette moxy, very smelly,
cable, gable, splintra, channel
top the seam he's taken off
rats, rats lay down flat
we don't need you, we act like that
and if you think you're un-loved
then we know about that...
rats, rats, lay down flat!
yes, yes, yes, yes, lay down flat!
07 Wined and Dined (03:03)
Wined and dined
Oh it seemed just like a dream
Girl was so kind
Kind of love I'd never seen
Only last summer, it's not so long ago
Just last summer, now musk winds blow
Wined and dined
Oh it seemed just like a dream
Girl was so kind
Kind of love I'd never seen
Only last summer, it's not so long ago
Just last summer, now musk winds blow
Wined and dined
Oh it seemed just like a dream
Girl was so kind
Kind of love I'd never seen
Chalk underfoot, life I should prove
Dancing in heat, our love and you
Wined and dined
Oh it seemed just like a dream
Girl was so kind
Kind of love I'd never seen
08 Swan Lee (Silas Lang) (03:14)
Swan Lee got up at the Running Foot pow-wow,
heading from the fire to his waiting canoe.
Chattering Squaw untied the wigwam door,
the chief blew smoke rings two by two!
The land in silence stands...
Swan Lee, his boat by the bank in the darkness,
loosened the rope in the creek is entwined.
A feather from the wing of a wild young eagle,
pointed to the land where his fortune he'd find
The land in silence stands
Swan Lee paddled on from the land of his fathers,
his eyes scanned the undergrowth on either side.
From the shore hung a hot, heavy, creature infested
tropic, Swan Lee had a bow by his side
The land in silence stands
Swan Lee kept time, half on land, half on water,
Grizzly bear and raccoon his fare.
He followed his ears to the great water fall,
Swan Lee knew deep down that his squaw was there!
The land in silence stands....
Suddenly the rush of the mighty great thunder,
confronted Swan Lee as his song he sang,
In the dawn, with his squaw, he was battling homewards
It was all written down by Long Silas Lang.
The land in silence stands...
The land in silence stands...
The land in silence stands.
13 Milky Way (03:07)
What'd you ever say today when you're in the milky way
Oh tell me please just to give you a squeeze
If I met you I told you what to do
Seems a while since I could smile the way you do
How many times, if I try, if I may when you're in the milky way
Half of your time beside me only
Atmosphere, the singular
Seems a while since I could smile the way you do, oh
What can anyone mean to you standing in the milky way
Take life easy, I mean so easy
Why so empty? I told you I can tell you what to do
When I hold you and I tell you I love you
I feel that I'm way you do...
Give a grasp of life today when you're in the milky way
Oh, try to please! Knock on wood of the trees
Glad you, mold you, mold you and hold you
Means five miles and everyway for you
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