David Gilmour’s regrets about Syd Barrett: “Syd and I might have gained something”
If Syd Barrett had held on to his sanity, Pink Floyd, as we know them today, could have looked very different. Long before the band became kings of progressive rock, Barrett’s approach to songwriting was indebted to the world of psychedelia, playing off of the same sounds coming out of the swinging side of London at the turn of the 1960s. Then again, psychedelia can do a number on one’s state of mind if they aren’t careful.
While Barrett was able to work with Floyd off the strength of their debut album, Piper at the Gates of Dawn, his intake of various psychedelic drugs started to take its toll on his mental health. Throughout the band’s touring schedule, Barrett would continue to devolve, struggling to hold onto his guitar pick and in one particular show, he just stared at the audience, frozen in time, not singing a single word.
As the band tried to work around Barrett on A Saucerful of Secrets, guitarist David Gilmour was brought in to fill in on guitar, eventually becoming a full-time member alongside Roger Waters. Although Barrett would be out the door a few months after the album was released, Gilmour did have some regrets about how he handled his relationship with Floyd’s songwriter.
After falling out with Floyd, Barrett continued on his musical journey, putting out a handful of solo albums before going into hermit-like seclusion for the rest of his life. When talking about their final days with Barrett, Gilmour, in reflection, carried some regrets, believing he could have been in touch more often, recalling in the documentary Have You Got It Yet, “I never went to see him, even though his family kind of discouraged it, and I regret that I never went up to his house and knocked on the door. I think both Syd and I might have gained something out of one or two people popping ’round to his house.”
Even though Gilmour didn’t go out of his way to see Barrett then, his lingering presence would inform the rest of the band’s music going forward. Outside of their prog-rock epics, Waters would chronicle his feelings about Barrett on the album Wish You Were Here, lamenting that Barrett was never around to see the band’s success.
Throughout the album, it’s easy to hear the band grieving about the loss, with ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ being a eulogy track for their friendship that had gone sour. While the spirit of Barrett may have felt like a ghost from the past, no one expected that ghost to appear in the flesh.
Amid the recording, Barrett would eventually turn up at the sessions for the album, appearing unrecognisable to the rest of the band. While the band were friendly during his visit, it would be the last time any member would see Barrett alive, returning to seclusion before passing away in 2006.
In the wake of Barrett’s death, Gilmour did feel a sense of relief, telling Uncut: “The reality was terribly sad. Even if me and the rest of the band had been grieving for him for over 30 years. The thing was that the Syd I knew hadn’t been around for a long time.” Barrett should have been destined for prog-rock stardom, but his years lost to drugs turned him into a casualty of the music industry.
