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It might be the media, it might be his rebellious air, or perhaps that video capturing Syd Barrett in the throes of an acid trip, but even today many are convinced that the physical and mental destruction of this genius was solely due to drug abuse. This is absolutely not the case. Syd aka Roger Keith was just a fragile person who only wanted to escape life with those six strings that made him one of the major musical exponents in late 60s Old Albion.
He couldn’t face the terrible world of the music business; he was swallowed by a vortex of pressures that quickly destroyed him, especially on a psychological level. Syd did not want to expose himself to the public, didn’t want to become a VIP or be constantly in the spotlight; he just wanted to tell his rhymes with his guitar to people, to move them, to take them away for a few minutes from everyday reality. Sure, drugs contributed to hastening his fall but the harm was already etched in his mind; there was nothing left to do but to retreat forever from the music scene after 2 significantly important albums.
Who knows, if maybe Syd could have withstood the media impact surrounding him, maybe he would still have been the historic leader of Pink Floyd, David Gilmour would be just an ordinary citizen with a failed attempt at a musical career behind him, boasting with friends at the pub in the evening about being one of Syd&company's best friends, and Roger Waters would never have destroyed Pink Floyd with his demands and claims of being the principal composer. But these are just illusions of my poor mind amid boredom and summer heat; perhaps it’s better this way, it’s also because of this that Syd Barrett continues to live in those who see themselves in him.
I know, I’ve digressed enough, let's move on to the album "The Madcap Laughs" which was released in January 1970 with the help of his two friends David Gilmour and Roger Waters. Well, what can I say... it's simply a masterpiece; many consider it inferior to the subsequent work (Barrett), but for me there are no comparisons. "The Madcap Laughs" is much more suited to Syd's personality, free to roam to distant places with his acoustic guitar, without a necessarily full-bodied accompaniment, which also helps his voice to be more profound and touching.
It starts with "Terrapin", a name taken from the fanzine of the fan club created after leaving Pink Floyd, a perfectly successful track with that slow voice and that chord progression that takes Syd Barrett away from the world for more than 5 minutes with a declaration of love with dreamlike references. It would be pointless to describe all the songs in detail; among the most successful tracks, we find "Dark Globe" with an introduction inspired by "A Hard Rain is A-Gonna Fall" by Bob Dylan, of whom Syd is a great admirer. The song talks about a desperate plea for help to a girl Syd is in love with; it's one of my favorite tracks from Syd's entire solo repertoire, "Oh where will you be now, smiling willow that smiled among these leaves? When I was alone, you promised your heart of stone".
Not to forget "Octopus", perhaps the most successful track on the album, with that no longer tender and relaxing but rather determined and aggressive guitar attack. Here we find the unmistakable Barrett style made up of analogies, wordplay, and allusions; the chorus is now etched into my brain cortex for life. And to conclude the detailed analysis of the pieces, I don’t want to forget a masterpiece like "Golden Hair", where Syd, concerning songs with references to parallel worlds, surpasses himself, with that guitar riff that penetrates the epicenter of the soul. A splendid song with a very detailed metric study of the text, " Come by the window golden hair I heard you singing in the night air ".
Perhaps I've written too much and I want to conclude without making statements like an enamored fan and similar clichés, but only with a part of the lyrics from Dark Globe.
"Won't you miss me? Wouldn’t you muss me at all?"
Yes Roger, I will truly miss you.
Shine on.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Terrapin (05:04)
I really love you and I mean you
The star above you, crystal blue
Well, oh baby, my hairs on end about you...
I wouldn't see you and I love to
I fly above you, yes I do
Well, oh baby, my hairs on end about you...
Floating, bumping, noses dodge a tooth
The fins a luminous
Fangs all 'round the clown
Is dark below the boulders hiding all
The sunlight's good for us
'Cause we're the fishes and all we do
The move about is all we do
Well, oh baby, my hairs on end about you...
Floating, bumping, noses dodge a tooth
The fins a luminous
Fangs all 'round the clown
Is dark below the boulders hiding all
The sunlight's good for us
'Cause we're the fishes and all we do
The move about is all we do
Well, oh baby, my hairs on end about you...
I really love you and I mean you
The star above you, crystal blue
Well, oh baby, my hairs on end about you...
02 No Good Trying (03:27)
It's no good trying to place your hand
where I can't see because I understand
that you're different from me
yes I can tell
that you can't be what you pretend
and you're rocking me backwards
and you're rocking towards the
red and yellow mane of a stallion horse.
It's no good trying to hold your love
where I can't see because I understand
that you're different from me
yes I can tell
that you can't be what you pretend
the caterpillar hood won't cover the head of you
know you should be home in bed.
It's no good holding your sequin fan
where I can't see because I understand
that you're different from me
yes I can tell
that you can't be what you pretend
yes you're spinning around and around in a car
with electric lights flashing very fast...
05 Dark Globe (02:02)
Oh where are you now
pussy willow that smiled on this leaf?
When I was alone you promised the stone from your heart
my head kissed the ground
I was half the way down, treading the sand
please, please, lift a hand
I'm only a person whose armbands beat
on his hands, hang tall
won't you miss me?
Wouldn't you miss me at all?
The poppy birds way
swing twigs coffee brands around
brandish her wand with a feathery tongue
my head kissed the ground
I was half the way down, treading the sand
please, please, please lift the hand
I'm only a person with Eskimo chain
I tattooed my brain all the way...
Won't you miss me?
Wouldn't you miss me at all?
07 Octopus (03:48)
Trip to heave and ho, up down, to and fro'
You have no word
Trip, trip to a dream dragon
Hide your wings in a ghost tower
Sails cackling at every plate we break
Cracked by scattered needles
The little minute gong
Coughs and clears his throat
Madam you see before you stand
Hey ho, never be still
The old original favorite grand
Grasshoppers green Herbarian band
And the tune they play is "In Us Confide"
So trip to heave and ho, up down, to and fro'
You have no word
Please leave us here
Close our eyes to the octopus ride!
Isn't it good to be lost in the wood
Isn't it bad so quiet there, in the wood
Meant even less to me than I thought
With a honey plough of yellow prickly seeds
Clover honey pots and mystic shining feed...
Well, the madcap laughed at the man on the border
Hey ho, huff the Talbot
"Cheat" he cried shouting kangaroo
It's true in their tree they cried
Please leave us here
Close our eyes to the octopus ride!
The madcap laughed at the man on the border
Hey ho, huff the Talbot
The winds they blew and the leaves did wag
They'll never put me in their bag
The seas will reach and always seep
So high you go, so low you creep
The wind it blows in tropical heat
The drones they throng on mossy seats
The squeaking door will always squeak
Two up, two down we'll never meet
So merrily trip forgo my side
Please leave us here
Close our eyes to the octopus ride!
08 Golden Hair (02:00)
Lean out your window, golden hair
I heard you singing in the midnight air
my book is closed, I read no more
watching the fire dance, on the floor
I've left my book, I've left my room
For I heard you singing through the gloom
singing and singing, a merry air
lean out the window, golden hair...
09 Long Gone (02:50)
She was long gone, long, long gone
she was gone, gone, the bigger they come
the larger her hand 'till no one understands
why for so long she'd been gone.
And I stood very still by the window sill
and I wondered for those I love still
I cried in my mind where I stand behind
the beauty of love's in her eyes...
She was long gone, long, long gone
she was gone, gone, the bigger they come
the larger her hand 'till no one understands
why for so long she'd been gone.
And I borrowed the page
from a leopard's cage
and I prowled in the evening sun's glaze
her head lifted high to the light in the sky
the opening dawn on her face...
She was long gone long, long gone
she was gone, gone, the bigger they come
the larger her hand 'till no one understands
why for so long she'd been gone.
And I stood very still by the window sill
and I wondered for those I love still
I cried in my mind where I stand behind
the beauty of love's in her eyes...
She was long gone long, long gone
she was gone, gone, the bigger they come
the larger her hand 'till no one understands
why for so long she'd been gone.
She was long gone long, long gone...
11 Feel (02:36)
You feel me
away far too empty, oh so alone!
I want to go home
Oh find me inside of a nocturne - the blonde
how I love you to be by my side
they wail...
the crowd on her side
she straggled the bridge by the water...
She misses her crawl
far ley grew
heady aside in a dell
inside an eye be the lonely one, my bride
how I leave on the waddling wheel
they flail...
a gasp shringing
a bad bell's ringing
the angel - the daughter...
You feel me...
13 Late Night (03:17)
When I woke up today
and you weren't there to play
then I wanted to be with you
when you showed me your eyes
whispered love at the skies
then I wanted to stay with you
inside me I feel alone and unreal
and the way you kiss will always be
a very special thing to me...
When I lay still at night seeing
stars high and light
then I wanted to be with you
when the rooftops shone dark
all alone (I) saw a spark
spark of love just to stay with you
inside me I feel alone and unreal
and the way you kiss will always be
a very special thing to me...
If I mention your name
turn around on a chain
then the sky opens for you
when we grew very tall
when I saw you so small
then I wanted to stay with you
inside me I feel alone and unreal
and the way you kiss will always be
a very special thing to me...
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Other reviews
By giov
"You play without rules and keep thinking that your guitar on 'Here I Go' is pretty out of tune. Someone, in the future, will think it’s some strange seventh chord and that you’re a genius."
"You are the most suffocating spark at this precise moment. You are the walrus. You are ‘The Walrus.’"
By .ZoSo.
The Madcap Laughs is a completely naked and raw work, a snapshot of Barrett’s mind, sometimes romantic and poetic and other times desperate and pessimistic.
Amid insecurities, euphoria, and despair, Syd managed to create a true masterpiece. A different masterpiece, more introspective, but still unique.
By Valeriorivoli
Madcap Laughs is the psychotic diary of an artist on a no-return journey within himself.
To be listened to in all its genuine madness on foggy and gloomy days, hoping for a sunny dawn to dispel the ghosts.
By gluca1985
"The songs on 'The Madcap Laughs' are in continuous evolution, suspended in a dimension accessible only to Barrett."
"He gifts us not an album but rather a piece of himself, a snapshot of his life."
By luludia
I want to live here, in this magic bubble, in this limping and crooked grace.
The songs from 'Madcap' were for me the luminous appearance of something I didn’t think existed, a stripped-down and lazy, amateurish and childlike music, capable, like few others, of caressing the heart and soul.
