"[Syd] just looked straight through me, barely acknowledged me that I was there...He’d definitely turned a corner into madness...maybe his friends who’d been with him every day didn’t notice, but I saw a tremendous change.” - David Gilmore, recollecting a May 1967 encounter
One of the great difficulties in understanding exactly what caused Syd Barrett's tragic demise is that we don't really have a clear explanation from HIM, in his own words. The paradox in that observation seems to be contained within the assumed "fact" that his diminished mental state would have directly compromised his ability to articulate such things. I would imagine that this widely acknowledged breakdown of his would have resulted in at least a few revealing ramblings which we could today point back towards. Then again, it's probably naive to expect someone's "mental breakdown" to retroactively provide answers we are looking for today.
What we do have is a 1971 interview exerpt from Melody Maker, in which Syd seems to address the issue of his exit from the band in about as much detail as I have found so far:
"...I suppose it was really just a matter of being a little offhand about things. We didn't feel there was one thing which was gonna make the decision at the minute. I mean, we did split up, and there was a lot of trouble. I don't think the Pink Floyd had any trouble, but I had an awful scene, probably self-inflicted, having a mini and going all over England and things. Still...I only know the thing of playing, of being a musician, was very exciting. Obviously, one was better off with a silver guitar with mirrors and things all over it than people who ended up on the floor or anywhere else in London."
As short and vague as the above quote is, it does echo much of the accepted narrative regarding his exit from the group. For example:
The word "offhand" echos Nick Mason's testimony, which states the band would deal with a problem by generally pretending it didn't exist. Until finally, they dealt with the "Syd problem" by not picking him up for practice one day.
Syd seems to put the blame squarly upon his own shoulders through the "self-inflicted" wording. Tying into that is his reference to going around England in a mini [a "mini" is a type of car]. This echoes rumors that he drove around following Pink Floyd to their shows just after being fired, so it sounds like he may be confirming that.
Finally, he sees himself as "only know[ing] the thing of playing, of being a musician," which lines up with the narrative that his "mental breakdown" was at least partially the result of pressure from EMI to put out "hits" and basically have the Floyd behave more like a "commercial" band. Syd's inner artist was, by many accounts, at odds with the rapidly growing commercial interest in the group - although he obviously loved the idea of being a "rock star" initially.
ACID PUSHERS IN BRITAIN
"According to Floyd friend and graphic designer Pearce Marchbank, Britain’s “whole 60s culture” could be traced back to the art schools - “the laboratories that were making rock musicians and designers and painters.” Notting Hill became to London more or less what the Haight was to San Francisco, or the East Village to New York" - Albion Dreaming
It's interesting to note that all members of the Pink Floyd were actually studying to be architects in the 60s. That is, except Syd, who was in art school and was the primary creative force in the group. Following the line of thinking contained within Marchbank's quote above, I'm wondering, was Syd "made in a laboratory" [art school] and put into a musical vehicle, as a sort of continuation of LSD experiements, much like those carried out by British intelligence in other contexts the previous decade? It's a fair question given all of the influencial individuals with all sorts of connections who ran knee deep into London's "Swinging 60s" counterculture movement. Many of whom mingled directly with Syd and company at the infamous 101 Cromwell Road location.
[R.D.Laing, prominent advocate for LSD in pychiatric treatment during London's "Swinging 60s," once recommended to Syd by Roger Waters]
[Michael Hollingshead was a British researcher who studied psychedelic drugs, including psilocybin and LSD, at Harvard University in the mid-20th century.]
According to the book "Albion Dreaming," [A.D.] Ronnie Laing was paid a visit around 1962 by "one of the self-appointed generalissimo-guru-high-priests of the acid revolution". This visitor allegedly revealed a plan to be enacted in America where "a number of people had arranged to distribute 300,000 × 304 μg units of acid (one serious trip) in the form of pills to the 17–20 year olds especially in chosen sections of the Berkley-Bay area" and was sort of pitching the idea to Laing. Meaning: "let's do this in London too!" This visitor is thought to have been Michael Hollingshead. But whoever it was, and given that Laing was working with Tavistock at the time, it seems there was an Intelligence Operation underway to begin dosing the British Public. And while Laing claims he completely declined the proposition, it obviously occured anyway - in the very tangeable form of London's Swinging 60s psychedelic movement.
[Nigel Lesmoir-Gordon, friend and associate of Pink Floyd in the 1960s and beyond. He introduced LSD to Cambridge, according to A.D.]
In early 1965 Nigel Lesmoir-Gordon [NLG] entered the London School of Film Technique, and moved into the infamous 101 Cromwell Road flat in West London. This location became one of the early hubs of LSD distribution and consumption by the hip young individuals of the Swinging 60s scene, including Syd Barrett - who frequented there in 1965, moving into the top floor at some point. Some even state the Pink Floyd rehearsed there at times and that other members of the band may also have lived there - which is odd since none of the other members seemed to share Syd's interest in LSD.
The LSD supply which fueled NLG's 101 Cromwell operation seemed to ultimately come from Michael Hollingshead, through a chain of individuals, writer Alexander Trocchi being one of the major distributors in London at the time. The operation to dose the public was officially on, and London's psychedelic underground scene seemed to coincide with it - as did the appearance, and rapid ascent of the Pink Floyd.
[Alexander Trocchi (1925-1984), one of the first major distributors of LSD in Britain]
["Syd Barrett's First Trip," a silent short film by NLG]
The general entheuthiasm at the time to "take LSD" seemed to manifest itself pretty clearly in NLG's highly amateur film, unambiguisly titled "Syd Barrett's First Trip." Also in this video are Storm Thorgerson [designer of Floyd's album covers] and David Gale [playwright, also lived at 101 Cromwell Road for a time]. The 2nd half of the video seems to have been edited in later, and shows Pink Floyd at the EMI Records building just after having signed a deal in 1967.
”LSD came to Cambridge, and it was absolutely imperative that you take it; you had to whether you wanted or not.” David Gale, playwright and friend of Syd
"There is no way that I could play music and take any kind of drug at the same time." - Richard Wright
To say that taking acid was the "hip" thing to do in this new subculture seems like an understatement. Yet Syd seemed to be the only member of the early Pink Floyd partaking somewhat regularly of it, becoming a form of celebrity or symbol of the counterculture movement occuring around it. By extention, that made Pink Floyd an important vehicle in this short but historically significant era, and Syd appeared to be its Captain. At least, that's how it seemed in the beginning.
[Some of the Pink Floyd's earliest recordings are featured in "Tonight Let's all Make Love in London"]
Their earliest recordings seemed to coincide with the sudden influx of LSD and documentary films which were created specifically to capture [or help manufacture] the Swinging 60s: the films "San Francisco," "London '66-'67," and "Tonight Let's all make Love in London."
[Joe Boyd is an American Record Producer who did Pink Floyd's first single]
An American Record producer by the name of Joe Boyd came to London in 1964 to establish Elektra Record's UK wing [The Doors were on Elektra.] He also helped establish the famous UFO club, where Pink Floyd found their audience and made a name for themsleves. Boyd then pitched the group to Elektra, and their first big deal was in the works. Although Boyd produced "Arnold Lane," the band ended up getting snatched up by the UK based EMI records, who ultimately released it. Right about here is where the trouble with Syd begins to start.
MAY DAY
The "Games for May" Festival was Pink Floyd's first major concert. It is also regarded by some to be Syd's last performance before noticeably changing.
"[Syd] just looked straight through me, barely acknowledged me that I was there...He’d definitely turned a corner into madness...maybe his friends who’d been with him every day didn’t notice, but I saw a tremendous change.” - David Gilmore, after visiting Syd in May 1967
"No one can pinpoint exactly when Syd’s personality changed, but people tend to agree it was around April 1967, when Barrett, then with girlfriend Lindsay Corner, moved to 101 Cromwell Road, a large, dilapidated townhouse in Earl’s Court divided into flats" - Mojo
"My memory is that we were recording a radio-one show at the BBC, and Syd didn’t turn up. I think it was a Friday and no-one could find him. So we waited and waited and I think we had to cancel the recording…and then the managers went off trying to find him. And when they found Syd, which I think was a Sunday or Monday, they told us that “well, something has happened to Syd”, and something HAD happened to him- TOTAL difference. Total difference. And the summary is, and I don’t know, that he was living with a whole sort of community of people [101 Cromwell RD] who were very much believing like Timothy Leary, that acid can…get to the truth and all that stuff. And I think he may have been with this group of people and…he took too much. There were other people said, people were spiking his cups of tea…with acid. I do believe that he took a huge overdose. In my memory that- up into that point, he was outgoing, charming, wonderful, friendly, you name it…wonderful man and…for me it was a huge change, seeing him after that. The “lost weekend” where Syd was lost. Huge change, like he’d gone. He was still looking the same, but he was somewhere else…" - Richard Wright
"We couldn't find him...I mean, telling the BBC erm, sorry, we can't find the lead singer? It was unheard of! You can chart his decline through those 3 weeks. The first one he looks loveley, the last one he looks rough." - Joe Boyd, Mojo
Most of you have no doubt heard all or part of the quotes above - which pinpoint Syd's decline to within a pretty narrow window of 1967. While an overdose on LSD is presumed by many to be a key factor, that is disputed even by some close to and within the group. Where everyone is in agreement is that SOMETHING happened around this time, resulting in a major change in Syd's behavior.
[The 1970s film "the Wicker Man" has gained a cult status among fans of horror, depicting a Pagan community who tricks a visitor into playing their sacrificial lamb, in order to bring forth a successful harvest]
Pink Floyd's first major concert occured on May 12th 1967, where they debuted their as-yet unrecorded 2nd single "See Emily Play." Confusingly, the song is also known as "Games for May," which shares the name of the Festival they debuted the song at - highlighting the presumed importance of the title [or rather the season of May?]. This Festival was signifficant for many reasons - besides being Syd's last "sane" concert and Floyd's new single debut, it featured Britain's first Quadrephonic Concert Sound system, designed by EMI.
I think the significance of May is something worth pondering, from a Pagan Spiritualistic point of view. Was there something larger and more spiritual going on with Syd's situation? Was Syd perhaps being LEAD to some inevitable fate, like the character in the Wicker Man, who ends up playing the starring role in the ironic drama of his own demise?
"And I'm most obliged to you for making it clear that I'm not here..."
[Syd with Pink Floyd on BBC1]
2 days after the Games of May Festival, Pink Floyd appeared on the BBC's "Look of the Week." They perform a song or 2 and are then interviewed briefly. Syd seems perfectly normal and serene.
By July 6th 1967 reports of Syd's off behavior were now well documented, and so the above image still taken from their Top of the Pops appearance that day would seem to be the first video footage of Syd on the decline. To be fair, Syd's displeasure with doing the Top of the Pops is well documented, and so any "off" behavior detected within the above video could easily be attributed to that. However, only the first of these 3 TOTP recordings has seen the light of day, and the July 27th recording is the one we are told Syd did not show up at all to. This seems to be when the problem of Syd's behavior was officially acknowledged by their management. It should also be mentioned that one of these Top of the Pops recordings, I'm guessing the 2nd one on July 13th, was the infamous show where Syd was fed up with his hair and put a ton of hair cream in it, which ended up streaming down his face as he vacantly stared out through the hot lights on stage [The footage showing this is long gone, or othewrwise unavailable as far as I know]. In some versions of this story, Syd is said to have crumbled Mandrax pills into his hair as well - but one begins to wonder where the line between fact and fiction is drawn with these stories, given the passage of time and people's tendency to exagerrate [or forget in some cases].
THE FATAL TRIP
"When he fell off the map, it was as if he committed suicide. Suicides leave waves of guilt behind them…As you can still see I feel guilty about it all to this day. And I’m sure others do too." - Andrew King
"Perhaps he regarded his earlier self as an odd memory, Perhaps he knew it was him and perhaps he knew that if he thought about it too much it made him feel uneasy, which kind of proved it was him…you imagine this rather kind of intimidating figure with a stare. Kind of inhabited by the ghost of his former self, keeping it at bay all the time. Or else you imagine something far sadder and less exciting which is the bloke damaged his brain." - David Gale
There are roughly 2 narratives regarding Syd's mental breakdown/exit from the Floyd:
1 - Syd got too caught up with the LSD crowd at 101 Cromwell Road, and most likely took far too much LSD, either self administered, unwittingly, or both. This either caused perminent mental damage, caused a latent mental condition to manifest itself rapidly, or a combination of the two. An additional addiction to Mandrax, and possibly other drugs, fueled his descent further, even as his former bandmates seemed to try and help him record solo material.
2 - Syd was an artist through and through, and though the idea of being a rockstar/performer appealed to him initially, being locked into a contract with EMI and carrying out the routine of writing hits and touring rock venues nonstop just went against his artistic nature. His rebellion manifested itself in various ways, the most perplexing example being his attempt to show the band a song by the title of "Have You Got it Yet?" This was a song he changed everytime he showed it to the band, and eventually Roger Waters put his bass down and said "yeah. ok I've got it now."
I have a 3rd theory, but will save it for part 3, because it builds off of the last section below.
We are told that the picture on the left above was taken when Syd showed up unannounced to EMI/Abby Road Studios during the recording or mixing of the song "Shine on You Crazy Diamond," which is a song about him. This sad image of Syd partially inspired the character "Pink", in the film "The Wall." What do you suppose is going on in Syd's head in that picture? He looks profoundly lost, as if his soul has been sucked from his body. In fact, we are told it took some time for anyone to recognize him initially. They thought he was some stranger who wandered in, and they were discussing what to do about it just before realizing who he was! Who he...WAS.
[Prince Stanislas Stash Klossowski De Rola – AKA Prince Stash, allegedly accompanied Syd and a few others on his "FATAL" 1967 TRIP]
[Prince Stash, more recently]
I was going to wrap this blog series up here and give my final theory on Syd's demise, until I came across this extraordinary bit of footage of a man I had never heard of before, Prince Stanislas Stash Klossowski De Rola, aka Prince Stash. You can look him up for yourself, and you will find his life history is about as extravagant as his name suggests. I'm going to end part 2 with a story he seemed to begin telling around the year 2011. He has told it at least 2 more times since then, most recently last year [2024].
"I met Syd Barrett at the end of [19]67, we were invited with Nigel and Jenny Lesmoire Gordon, [and] this girlfriend of mine - we all went to spend the new years transition '67 to '68 at the house in the Black Mountains of Wales belonging to the management of Pink Floyd...we decided to take this fatal acid trip. Syd had a girlfriend that happened to be a strange vibe in this group of people."
"At some point Syd and I were jousting…on this trip like medieval knights [laughs] and at one point I remember that I lost my focus within the trip which was very much a magical dimension. We found ourselves in a room…it was like a nursery. It had padded walls, lined with acetate satin. Bright colors gold and red…And there was [a] bunch of toys…in this VISION room we found ourselves in. And I looked over across this nursery. There was this huge life-sized teddybear. And on top of the teddybear was Syd’s head…"
"And then we came out of it, but Syd, part of Syd’s being remained in that weird room. To the point where Syd was suddenly acting...he was looking at me and he picked up this acoustic guitar. Somehow he played completely out of tune, very badly. And he sang out of tune, “she loves you yeah yeah yeah!” You know like that. And was acting really weird and his girlfriend said “what’s the matter with you Syd you look like some wierd big Teddy bear!” And that struck [him] and it was so bizarre because he never ever came down from that and then the consequences of everything that happened, happened from that moment on..."
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