Goodnight, Syd

Although you've probably heard, it is with great sadness I announce Syd Barrett's passing last Friday due to complications from diabetes. He was 60.

Although I was never a great fan of Syd's songs, often ranging from campy to pop-psychedelia, his impact on music and Pink Floyd was immeasurable. For me, Pink Floyd is the pinnacle of AOR music, and there would have been no Pink Floyd without him.

I recently finished reading Inside Out, Nick Mason's personal history of Pink Floyd and the band members, and Syd was positively their cornerstone. As time went on and the ravages of drugs eroded his rationale, the other members of the band simply didn't pick him up for a gig one day, and that was the end of his association with Pink Floyd.

The remaining band members are true humanitarians. Amid long standing acrimony between them, Floyd made sure that royalties still went to take care of Syd. They understood his belligerence and irrationality was due to abuse of drugs, and although they could no longer work with him, they took great pity upon him. Even the David Gilmor-Roger Waters rift didn't change that.

Syd lived a reclusive life with his mother in Cambridge his remaining years. He enjoyed painting and gardening, and was generally a peaceful and quiet man. Although he was silenced more than 30 years ago, his influence is trancendent, and now, that has become eternal. Although you never knew it, you influenced many lives. Goodnight, poor Syd.