The meteoric career of Pink Floyd’s madcap founder Syd Barrett has birthed a legend and influence that seems to grow more with each passing year. Syd was the songwriter/singer/guitarist for little more than the band’s watershed 1967 debut album, Piper At the Gates of Dawn, and two equally influential but barely selling solo discs, The Madcap Laughs and Barrett (both 1970), a lyrical and instrumental savant who was virtually gone upon arrival.
Was he an acid casualty? A victim of early adult-onset mental illness? Or did he just almost immediately tire of the pressures of pop stardom, the endless gigging and demand for the next hit single as soon as he began to achieve fame? And what became of him when he left the music world – retreating back into his family’s home in Cambridge to paint and then destroy his works, a hermit who rarely left his house, a singular musical voice who would never pick up a guitar again?
Barrett has been the subject of several fine books and documentaries but none as thorough and sensitive to his struggles as “HAVE YOU GOT IT YET?” Directed by award-winning filmmaker Roddy Bogawa (Taken By Storm: The Art of Storm Thorgerson and Hipgnosis) and the late, acclaimed album art designer Storm Thorgerson (Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Paul McCartney, Black Sabbath), this long-awaited documentary will have its U.S. debut at NYC’s Quad Cinema, from July 14 – 17. Director Bogawa will be present for Q&As during several of the 14 NYC screenings.
“HAVE YOU GOT IT YET?” is a chronicle of the mosaic of Barrett’s creative and destructive impulses, his captivating presence and absence – a portrait of the complex puzzle that was his life. His story is told by a multitude of family, friends and associates, many who have never shared their experiences. These include childhood schoolmates, his caretaker sister Rosemary, former girlfriends, 60s musical contemporaries like Pete Townsend, the younger musician he influenced like Stone Roses’ John Squire and, of course, his fellow Floyds – David Gilmour, Roger Waters and the late Rick Wright.
Syd’s story begins with what is described as a charmed childhood in bucolic Cambridge, England, the son of a doctor who was strikingly handsome, charismatic and, most of all, talented in the arts. According to his first girlfriend Libby Gauden: “Life was too easy for him, everything worked — his painting, his friendships, everything.” With his entrance into the Cambridge School of Art in 1962, he gets into “the Beats, Beatles and The Stones.” Born Roger, he will borrow the name “Syd” from a local bass player, Syd “The Beat” Barrett, for his professional career. He will eventually move to London to continue his art studies and into a flat with bandmates-to-be Rick Wright and Roger Waters. They will soon begin playing together and, with the arrival of LSD in his diet, morph from a band copying Bo Diddley-styled R&B into something far more unique, improvisational and adventurous.
The documentary contains a remarkable collection of never-before-seen photos and film clips from his childhood and musical career. The latter includes the legendary 8mm reportedly shot during Syd’s first acid trip, along with the legendary Friday nights gigs at London’s UFO club. Of these, Pete Townsend says: “The only time I missed a Who gig was to take acid and see Syd and the Floyd at the UFO.” Townsend goes on to praise Syd’s unique guitar technique, his use of two Binson echo units, generating a syncopated throb which he calls “spectacular psychedelic heavy metal.” There are other great memories of these gig and the Floyd’s impact on Swinging London related by the band’s psychedelic light show creator Pete Wynne Wilson, legendary photographer Mick Rock and their managers Peter Jenner and Andrew King. Another great video find is a color remaster of the early promotional film for “Scarecrow” from their debut disc. The Dream Academy’s Nick Laird-Clowes goes on to compare the Syd of this halcyon era to a switched-on Lewis Carroll or Hilaire Belloc, “an English romantic wearing a psychedelic cloak.”
Shortly after their February 1967 signing to EMI Records, Syd and Pink Floyd would find themselves recording their debut album at the label’s famed studio, now known as Abbey Road, as The Beatles were working on Sgt Pepper in an adjoining studio. Their debut single, “Arnold Layne” would make the Top 20 and the album would reach #6 on the charts. By the time of their second single, the #5 “See Emily Play,” trouble would be brewing as Syd would balk at appearing to mime their hit on the weekly TV countdown show, Top of the Pops. He would say: “John Lennon doesn’t have to do this, so why should I?” He would make the first two episodes and skip out on the third.
According to Floyd drummer Nick Mason, Syd “didn’t want to be a pop star.” His use of LSD, grip on reality and his irresponsibility would escalate with a move to a flat on 101 Cromwell Road, a true “den” of perversion according to those on the scene. Here, he would be regularly dosed by hangers-on according to his girlfriend of the time, Lindsay Korner. By this time, Syd would also stop playing and singing in the middle of gigs. A mini-tour of U.S. designed to pull the band back together would be a disaster. The low lights? They were a horrendous performance at the Fillmore West and bizarre appearance by a virtually catatonic Syd on “Dick Clark’s American Bandstand.”
The turmoil in his brain would manifest itself in singles that were recorded but not released, “Vegetable Man” and “Scream Thy Last Scream.” In the later part of 1967, the band would bring in Syd’s longtime friend David Gilmour as a support guitarist. Syd Barrett would be out and the five-man Floyd is over when they decided not to pick him up to play a gig at Hastings Place in January 1968.
Gilmour and Waters who would come to the rescue and help Syd finish his debut album, The Madcap Laughs. In the documentary, Gilmour states his belief that “the writing was better than Piper,” praising its “truly fascinating lyrics.” Gilmour and Wright would come to his aid to complete his second and final studio album, Barrett.
After a few aborted attempts at more recording and live gigging and an unsettling visit by a vastly overweight and unrecognizable Syd visit as the band was recording their Syd tribute, “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” in 1975, Barrett would finally head back to Cambridge – walking the 50 miles from London. According to his sister Rosemary, who was his caretaker until his death from pancreatic cancer in 2006, “he didn’t want to be reminded of it; he wasn’t Syd anymore.” Indeed, he was Roger again, a man who largely kept to himself and painted, then promptly destroyed, most of his work.
Anyone who has listened to Syd’s music or that of his many musical disciples like Robyn Hitchcock and David Bowie, know that his unique lyrical whimsy and naïve instrumental genius have had a massive impact on the music that came after his brief time in the spotlight. While they do touch base on some of the unseemly episodes in his life, the film is really a tribute to Barrett’s unique and lasting impact on pop’s more creative edge.
At the conclusion of the film, it’s the great playwright Tom Stoppard who sums it up best. “Tragic tales resonate more than tales of triumph.” And while Bogawa and Thorgerson’s film frames the tragedy, it’s their take on his singular talents that will resonate with viewers, like the long tale of his comet-like career and genius.”
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