Set the controls for the heart of the sun

R.I.P. Syd Barrett (January 6, 1946 – July 7, 2006)



Damn. Syd Barrett died.

:(

The later Pink Floyd stuff was all great, but the original Syd Barrett era I remember so particularly poignantly...

Syd's was there on all the real trippy Floyd tracks from my hazy days, nearly 20 years after he left the band in 1968 - Arnold Layne, Remember A Day, the simple riffing of the main reprise on the epic space rock Interstellar Overdrive, Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun and particularly freaky - two of my favourite tracks covered on LPs that I hankered for, and recovered over the last 6 months - Astronomy Domine, as covered most excellently by Voivod on their awesome Nothingface LP, which I lost the vinyl of many years back (try picking up the CD for a decent price!) but luckily found a cassette copy kicking around, and The Gnome, as picked up on Neil's Heavy Concept Album...

Syd man - reclusive, talented, burnt-out, trippy, acid hero Syd. We'll miss you, dude.