elijah’s adventure

Syd Barrett, one of the founding members of Pink Floyd, was often heralded as a creative genius. Unfortunately, Syd became rather erratic, and eventually had a mental breakdown. Some say this is due to excessive LSD usage, but David Gilmour once said “In my opinion, his breakdown would have happened anyway. It was a deep-rooted thing. But I’ll say the psychedelic experience might well have acted as a catalyst. Still, I just don’t think he could deal with the vision of success and all the things that went with it.” In any case, Syd used to perform a song called Jugband Blues, which is a tremendously sad account of his slipping away:

It’s awfully considerate of you to think of me here
And I’m almost obliged to you for making it clear that I’m not here
And I never knew the moon could be so big
And I never knew the moon could be so blue
And I’m grateful that you threw away my old shoes
And brought me here instead dressed in red
And I’m wondering who could be writing this song
I don’t care if the sun don’t shine
And I don’t care if nothing is mine
And I don’t care if I’m nervous with you
I’ll do my loving in the Winter
And the sea isn’t green
And I love the queen
And what exactly is a dream?
And what exactly is a joke?

In this video of Syd performing Jugband Blues, he stares vacantly into the audience.

After Syd died of diabetes on July 7th of 2006, John Frusciante (the guitarist of Red Hot Chili Peppers) played Jugband Blues during one of their shows:


And for comic relief, I’ve included a rather humorous animation of Syd Barett visiting his accountant while on LSD: