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Syd Barrett is probably more talked about than listened to these days, though he remains a seminal influence on British indie psychedelia and countless of wannabe Pipers at the Gates of Dawn. This compilation brings together most of the material from his two official Harvest albums, The Madcap Laughs and Barrett, plus a few tracks from the outtakes collection Opel. There's little of the acid fuelled guitar abuse that drove Barrett's contribution to Pink Floyd's first album, and whereas Barrett-penned Floyd singles like "See Emily Play" and "Arnold Layne" had been superbly assured slices of Brit psychedelia, here the songs are looser and more exploratory. Barrett (along with Ray Davies and Robert Wyatt) was one of the first singers to give English rock a uniquely un-American voice, and his lyrics here owe much to a literary tradition that takes in Edward Lear, William Blake and Hilaire Belloc. Surrealism, pastoral whimsy and a strain of bedsit melancholia run through many of the songs here, and again a peculiarly English obsession with wordplay (see "Octopus" for details).
Though some of the performances (particularly those drawn from Opel) show evidence of Syd's well documented instability, the songs themselves are sharply honed and transcend their sometimes erratic delivery. "Baby Lemonade" and "Gigolo Aunt" are as catchy as Legionnaire's disease and show that Syd's talent for writing great pop songs hadn't died with the Floyd's "Apples and Oranges", while "Dominoes" is exquisitely melancholic. Completists will want this set for the previously unavailable "Bob Dylan Blues" (appropriate in the year of Bob's 60th birthday and containing the immortal lines; 'I've got the Bob Dylan Blues My hair and my hat's in a mess But I don't give a damn about that'), and for others it's a good place to start. --Peter Marsh
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
damn those marketing men!,
This review is from: Wouldn't You Miss Me: the Best of Syd Barrett (Audio CD)
syd barrett is the lost genius behind the first pink floyd album and one of the most original recording artists of the late sixties. as a lyricist, he is without peer, his words never fail to strike a chord and are more poetry than song. this album represents a selection from his output recorded after leaving the floyd. syd was apparently not in good mental health at the time and many of the tracks here are unfinished but no less beautiful for all that.syd is (did you guess?)one of my heroes, so why the low rating? Well, this is an odd collection which omits some of his best songs whilst including some weaker ones (swan lee, for example) and i would advise buyers to go for either the double cd of the original two solo albums ("the madcap laughs" and "barrett") or the triple cd which couples the afore mentioned with the out takes album "opel" (there's not much to write home about on opel). BUT this album is doubly annoying because it includes the reputedly excellent and long lost track "bob dylans blues" which has never been released before and which i have never heard. AND THAT MEANS I WILL PROBABLY BUY IT AND I HATE THAT!!! cleverer people than me might be advised to hang back on that though because there apparently exist a few more lost tracks (not to mention the unreleased floyd tracks) and these are bound to come out on another collection soon.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Send a cage through the post..,
By A Customer
This review is from: Wouldn't You Miss Me: the Best of Syd Barrett (Audio CD)
...a new decade, another repackage. thankfully, the sleeve notes are up to snuff and the research is well done. the selections are the right ones, but as others have stated, the absence of that last fabled missing track, 'living alone', currently in the hands of one david gilmour and the lack of the unreleased pink floyd era 'vegetable man' and 'scream thy last scream' leave us waiting for something a bit more authorative. a nice companion to palacios' 'lost in the woods', though. and if you have never dug into the man's music, now is the time.
7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Cd From The Unforgotten Hero,
By A Customer
This review is from: Wouldn't You Miss Me: the Best of Syd Barrett (Audio CD)
This Album Contains the best tracks from Syd,s 2 studio albums "Madcap Laughs" and "Barrett" and outakes album "Opel" And the up to now regarded as a myth track "Bob Dylans Blues". Really not his best song but.. its "fresh" material so you got to have it !! This Best-of Album is definitly the Syd record which is the best buy!!
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