Pink Floyd’s Barrett dies aged 60

Syd Barrett, one of the original members of legendary rock group Pink Floyd, has died at the age of 60 from complications arising from diabetes. The guitarist was the band’s first creative force and an influential songwriter, penning their early hits. He joined Pink Floyd in 1965 but left three years later after one album. He went on to live as a recluse, with his mental deterioration blamed on drugs. “He died very peacefully a couple of days ago,” the band’s spokeswoman said.

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Pink Floyd founding member Syd Barrett (2nd from right) with other members of the band, from left, Roger Waters, Nick Mason and Rick Wright. Photo: AP

Floyd ‘true to Barrett’s legacy’

When Pink Floyd released their career retrospective Echoes in 2001, almost one fifth of the songs were written by Syd Barrett despite him having left the band more than three decades earlier. He was the band’s co-founder and initially its undisputed leader and principal songwriter – he even came up with the name, reportedly inspired by US bluesmen Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. But he departed the group while battling mental illness after just one album, The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, which he had largely written.

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Shine on you crazy diamond

Syd Barrett, the most famous recluse in rock, is dead. It would be easy to mourn the founder of Pink Floyd as a casualty of drugs and mental illness, says Nick Kent – but his songs will inspire musicians for generations. Syd Barrett’s musical career lasted barely seven years – from 1965 to early ‘72 – and the past 32 years saw him resolutely refusing to record new music or venture near a concert stage. But Barrett, who died of cancer last Friday at the age of 60, will go down in history as one of the most uniquely inspired creative talents to have sprung up from the pop revolution that gripped Britain in the late 20th century. More specifically, he was the golden boy of the mind-melting late-60s psychedelic era, its brightest star and ultimately its most tragic victim.

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_____

Remember when you were young,

you shone like the sun.

Shine on you crazy diamond.

Now there’s a look in your eyes,

like black holes in the sky.

Shine on you crazy diamond.

You were caught on the crossfire

of childhood and stardom,

blown on the steel breeze.

Come on you target for faraway laughter,

come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!

You reached for the secret too soon,

you cried for the moon.

Shine on you crazy diamond.

Threatened by shadows at night,

and exposed in the light.

Shine on you crazy diamond.

Well you wore out your welcome with random precision,

rode on the steel breeze.

Come on you raver, you seer of visions,

come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine!

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