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Rating: The Madcap Laughs... And what laughs! Cheerful, hysterical, desperate. Laughs that have kept us company since 1970 and that, perhaps, will never fade. This is Syd Barrett: an incomprehensible artist, strange, crazy, drugged, but unique in his genre. A young man who stood out for having created the most significant psychedelic album and who, just a few years later, in solitude, disowned all that, creating two solo works that are "just" a deep and immense gash in his soul, musical autobiographies, declarations sometimes hidden and other times as clear as the sun.
And what is "The Madcap Laughs" if not the first, and perhaps the most evocative, part of this autobiography? Indeed, the elements needed to define it as such are not lacking: the work is a melting pot of emotions, an immense cauldron in which lie, mixed and confused, all the most disparate thoughts and sensations. There is love, confusion, fear of loneliness, despair, euphoria, adolescent romanticism, and childlike innocence. Nothing is missing. So why does someone stubbornly see it only as an "insignificant" album written by an unstable person? This might never be understood. "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. But this is precisely why it's a unique masterpiece capable of describing like few others the genius of its creator.
It begins with "Terrapin", an innocent declaration of love ["I really love you and I mean you the star above you, crystal blue, well, oh baby, my hairs on end about you"] sung in a sweet and absent-minded tone that unwinds on a slow, simple, and repetitive rhythm. Then comes "No Good Trying", in my opinion, one of the album's gems, with a clear and decisive tone and an insistent rhythm, featuring a strongly predominant drum that is insistently heard until the end of the track. The next track is "Love You", a lively ballad characterized by a text full of assonances and a strong taste of a nursery rhyme ["Honey love you, honey little, honey funny sunny morning, love you more funny, love in the skyline baby"], both typical elements of Barrett's compositional style. And follows "No Man's Land", another gem, sung with a confident voice and highlighted by a fairly solid instrumental base. The spoken ending is said to have been accidental, but once he heard it, Syd liked it, so it was not eliminated.
And so far, "The Madcap Laughs" seems like a completely normal album written by a perfectly healthy singer-songwriter with no problems or hints of despair. This other aspect of its composer begins to manifest with the track following "No Man's Land", "Dark Globe". Here the intonation is often wrong, too high; the voice begins to show the first veins of despair and madness. The lyrics express all Barrett's fear of being forgotten; he seems to almost ask for pity, declaring he's "only a person" ["I'm only a person whose arm bands beats on his hands, hang tall. Won't you miss me? Wouldn't you miss me at all?"]. But everything returns to normal with the beginning of "Here I Go", a nice and serene little song with a lively rhythm and lyrics that represent a sort of modern fairy tale (it's said that Syd wrote it in the studio in just a few minutes). Next is "Octopus", a track that encapsulates the childlike spirit of its author, the love for carousels typical of a little boy, a boy that in Barrett never fully grew up. A small curiosity, "Octopus" was the only track from the album to be released as a single and reached number 40 in the UK chart.
The next song is "Golden Hair", lyric 5 of "Chamber Music" by James Joyce. The poem was turned into a song during the Pink Floyd era, but only with his first solo work did Barrett have the opportunity to release it. The rhythm used is slow and relaxing, the voice sweet and soothing. It is followed by "Long Gone", with a fairly repetitive and simple rhythm. Here you can see a man beginning to lose control. The singing is not at all engaged, the tone almost unmotivated. Then follows "She Took A Long Cold Look", in my opinion, somewhat irrelevant. The first imperfections begin to be noticed; in fact, at the end, an external voice is clearly heard, and the track itself ends abruptly. "Feel", as off-key and imperfect as it is, is, in my opinion, very expressive. Syd seems abandoned to himself, and the only consolation is perhaps strumming his guitar and pushing his sensations outward. Once again, the track is cut off immediately, and at the end, the singer's voice is distinctly heard saying something. And after "Feel" comes Barrett plummeting into the abyss of despair. The first song that witnesses this is "If It's In You", the embryo of something that might have touched decency, but in its current state, it only manages to astonish. The voice is blatantly off-key; whether this was done on purpose or not is unknown, but certainly, the result is not the best. One might wonder why Dave Gilmour, who was entrusted with releasing the work, included this track and discarded others much more serious and rational that were later published on "Opel". The question might remain unanswered, but meanwhile, the doubt, or rather, the astonishment, remains. After the carnage of "If It's In You" comes "Late Night", the last song (and pearl) of the album. The tone is between depressed, imploring, and sobbing. There are no smudges; everything is perfect, sad, and despairing. It's said that the song was written by Barrett right after his departure from Pink Floyd. Indeed, taking a close look at the lyrics, certain lines would confirm this ["Inside me I feel alone and unreal"].
And so the album has ended. Amid insecurities, euphoria, and despair, Syd managed to create a true masterpiece. A different masterpiece, more introspective, but still unique.
Tracklist Lyrics 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 endriu
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.
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.
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.
