Having been exiled from the group he started and who became more famous because of his legacy than he did in his own lifetime, Syd Barrett struck out in early 1970 to leave one last token gesture of his genius and the frightening accuracy with which he recorded his recession into mental instability. That record is The Madcap Laughs; the title, derived from the lyrics of one of the songs featured on the album (“Octopus”) is a perfect and somewhat prescient nom de guerre — Barrett’s own war with reality had begun some two years prior when he was ousted from Pink Floyd and replaced with long time friend David Gilmour. As the story goes, Syd’s already volatile personality was now being further warped due to his massive hallucinogenic intake and he became more and more unstable, failing to even be able to perform. In a last ditch effort to coerce Barrett into some semblance of musical stylings, a solo effort was initiated, and propped up by his friend and replacement, Barrett and Gilmour took to recording. It was in 1969 though that the tortured process of an even more tortured soul finally began to form something of a sound, and Gilmour pushed Barrett to finish it. Little did he know that the creative outpouring, including such fancifully psyched out tunes as “No Good Trying” or the dozy-effervescence of “Terrapin”, would essentially drive Syd into an even more reclusive state, though not before he made one last stab at a publicly musical lifestyle. The album is full of misstarts and half-formed thoughts, and it is essentially the diary of a deteriorating mind—serenely blighted. Barrett, without a doubt, was one of the most prolific songwriters of the psychedelic British music scene, creating childishly brilliant and complexly stunted ditties and ballads, and as it stands to this day, The Madcap Laughs is his swan song; eerily beautiful and haunting and apropos of his life.
Listen to “No Good Trying” and “Love You”
Download “The Madcap Laughs”
