On This Day in 1968: When Pink Floyd Fired Syd Barrett
via Worried Tunes 2 / YouTube
On this day in 1968, Pink Floyd members fired Syd Barrett from the band and permanently replaced him with David Gilmour. Barrett’s work on songs like Pink Floyd’s “Jugband Blues” appears to have had a collection of underlying mental health issues whilst young. His troubles became acute due to his habit of taking drugs, mainly the hallucinogenic drug LSD, and possibly STP. He had “so called” friends in London, who used to supply him with the drug, sometimes in high doses. After one such get together, unrepairable psychological damage was done. He disappeared for several days, and when he returned, the group had a totally different person psychologically to work with.
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The Downfall of the Leading Light
He became very strange, very quickly… Also, impossible to work with. The group had just hit the big time. They had loads of work commitment to carry out – recordings to do, tours they were committed to, photo shoots, and promotional work for their next album. So much work to carry out, and suddenly the “main-man”, Leading light, and leader of the group, who wrote most of the music, played lead guitar and sang. Whilst being the charismatic front of the band, he had apparently “been abducted by aliens”, and replaced with somebody who they didn’t recognise. What could they do?
Everybody tried to cope, hoping that Barrett would get back to normal. But it wasn’t to be. On stage he just stood, staring, in a catatonic state, (“Catatonia is a state of psycho-motor immobility and behavioral abnormality manifested by stupor”). He played nothing with his guitar that was of any use to the group or audience while refusing to sing anything. The band had reached a breaking point with his erratic behavior, and the pressure of their growing fame left them with few options.
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The Transition and Decline of Syd Barrett
Eventually, the group had had enough. David Gilmour was hired in the hope of taking over on lead guitar, whilst keeping Barrett in the group as a kind of part time (when he felt well enough) band member/songwriter. Basically, Pink Floyd became a five-piece band. But it didn’t work out, and Barrett was eventually replaced, with Roger Waters taking control, as leader and front man of the group.
Syd Barrett took a break and appeared to be improving. He returned to the recording studio as his former manager decided to continue working with him. They produced two albums, but then his health problems returned. He spent a short, confusing time with a group called Stars and then disappeared, living away from the music scene, back home with his mother, and spending a short time in hospital.
Syd Barrett’s Quiet Life and the Band’s Support
He took up painting, became a diabetic, and lived a quiet life until his death on 7 July 2006. From what I’ve read or heard over the years, the rest of the group seemed to have genuinely loved the guy. They knew that he had mental health issues, and later on he became diabetic. It soon became quite obvious to them that he would not be making any kind of professional comeback.
They protected his privacy as much as they could do, speaking very rarely about him publicly. In this way, they helped him to shake off the “Syd” rock star persona, which was destroying him, whilst they tried to help him return to being plain Roger Barrett, painter/gardener, and ordinary human being. It’s also possible that they felt, rightly or wrongly, that perhaps they could have done more when he was a member of the group to protect him from what was happening. Being realistic though, with the personality that he had, it is very doubtful.
