Which Pink Floyd albums feature Syd Barrett?
Every band usually needs at least one driving force behind the group. Although many acts try to label themselves as a democracy in every sense of the word, it’s impossible to have four engaging people onstage and not have everyone vying for the spotlight at every turn. While Pink Floyd had an ace in the hole with Syd Barrett behind the microphone in the late 1960s, his days were numbered from the minute they released their first record.
For a band coming up amid the ‘Summer of Love’, though, Barrett was everything one could have asked for in a frontman. Aside from having a great off-kilter voice, his whimsical tales on songs like ‘See Emily Play’ were exactly what people wanted to hear as people started moving towards psychedelic rock.
And when Barrett did step out in full force on The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, every piece of his sound was already in place. While not everything was played perfectly in time or anything, Pink Floyd’s debut thrives off of Barrett being allowed to do whatever he wanted with his songs, whether telling the rock and roll equivalent of a fairytale on ‘Bike’ or spreading things out into space-rock territory on ‘Astronomy Domine’.
As they were about to become the biggest psychedelic band this side of The Beatles, though, Barrett began to fall apart. Even though he had the ability to make some of the greatest songs of his generation, he ended up falling from grace and being kicked out of his own band before he could build a legacy of his own.
So, why did Syd Barrett leave Pink Floyd?
While all of Pink Floyd’s greatest works were defined by psychedelics, the combination of Barrett’s dwindling mental health and his use of drugs led to him falling out of step with the group. Everyone wanted to work with him on a new album, but whether it was during shows or in rehearsal, Barrett began slowly deteriorating, whether that was struggling to hold onto his guitar pick or looking absent-mindedly at the crowd throughout a concert.
With David Gilmour being brought in as a replacement for Barrett, A Saucerful of Secrets would be the final album with Barrett’s contributions before he left. And even though it’s easy to tell which songs are his, hearing him play along to ‘Jugband Blues’ is heartbreaking, knowing that he would be forced out of the group soon.
Look no further than when they had to play the track on television. Everyone is playing to the best of their ability, but whereas most people grew to love the man responsible for lighthearted ditties, that signature twinkle in his eyes is suddenly gone, instead replaced with a bored thousand-yard stare.
Despite only working on one and a half albums, though, Barrett would never stop haunting Pink Floyd, whether that was the band paying tribute to him in songs like ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’, shaping The Wall around his story, or appearing in some of their later singles like ‘What Do You Want From Me’. Barrett could certainly excite a crowd when he wanted to, but his sudden downfall was a case of someone shining way too brightly way too quickly.
