Got a new Pyjamarama show that should be going on at 1pm today, perfect thing to listen to after following the big Verizon iPhone press conference. If you haven’t already guessed from it’s title (and the pic), I just finished reading Rob Chapman’s book Syd Barrett: A Very Irregular Head. I’ve read a few books about Syd before, if you don’t know me well you may not realize that I’ve been a totally obsessed Syd Barrett fanatic since I was like 12 years old. Hearing classic rock Pink Floyd staples on WNEW radio while trying to fall asleep helped get me into classic rock in a period when middle school/junior-high kids didn’t really listen to classic rock (that changed with the Oliver Stone Doors movie). And not long after discovering Pink Floyd I started buying all their records. For some reason your average pot-smoking teenager was content to stick with the 70s mega-albums, but I didn’t smoke pot and I wasn’t even a teenager yet, so I got them all, and I will never forget the moment I put Piper at the Gates of Dawn on the stereo in the living room. Mind=blown. The combination of space-age exploration, free-noise freakout, melancholy twee, snarling R&B riffs, killer rock and amazing pop. Then and there I knew what kind of Pink Floyd fan I was.

Going further I heard Arnold Layne and See Emily Play on Relics, then got the Dark Side of the Moo bootleg with Candy and a Currant Bun and Apples and Oranges. And finally I got the double LP compilation of Syd’s two solo albums. I also got a bootleg of most of the material that would later end up on the Opal compilation, featuring Robyn Hitcock’s cartoon of Vegetable Man as it’s cover. Along with lo-fi versions of Opal, Clowns & Jugglers, Silas Lang etc, it featured two songs that confused me to no end. The first was called What A Shame, Mary Jane and the other was called Singing a Song in the Morning and neither sounded quite like Syd to my young ears, but similarities were there. Only many years later did I learn what they were. The first was more commonly known as What’s the New Mary Jane, a song written and recorded by John Lennon and some other people from the Beatles world. It’s been often said that Syd was involved but that’s been debunked. My take on it, and the Beatles in general, is that their entire M.O. was to hear things that turned them on, and then with a strange mix of adulation and condescension, would do a cynical but superior version of the very same thing, and I think this song is John Lennon having a lot of fun with Syd Barrett’s style, but I’m not sure if he’s doing it in homage or farce, probably a bit of both!

The second song I loved immediately but knew it couldn’t be Syd and only sorted this out years later when I finally started getting into the first few Kevin Ayers solo records. Having played with Pink Floyd many times while still a member of the Soft Machine, they were likely friends. Apparently pretty late in Syd’s career, Ayers invited him over to play guitar on a song he was working on called Religious Experience. That song would finally be released as a single called Singing a Song in the Morning, however without Syd’s guitar playing on it, despite what the bootlegs say (and my Syd boot definitely had the released version). What one does learn from the Kevin Ayers’ Joy of A Toy CD is that Syd did come by and record lead guitar, and that version is on the CD. But then Ayers decided to wipe it off and replace it with himself playing a clearly Syd-styled guitar part, and I have to admit, Kevin’s version is better, so that’s the one I included to end this playlist!

So the playlist revolves around Syd and the early Floyd but stretches in both directions. Most of it is very UK circa 67, with some selections pointing a bit more to the R&B rave-up roots and some further into psychedelic whimsy. It’s also got the under-appreciated post-Syd Pink Floyd single Point Me At the Sky and some early Soft Machine. And it opens with Syd and Pink Floyd’s first recording, Lucy Leave, and if you haven’t heard that…

I would definitely recommend the book, but be prepared to learn way more then you’d ever expect about obscure british art scenesters from the 60s and whimsical late 19th century british poets and children’s book authors. All great for context, but sometimes a bit much! I really loved the last chapter, where Rob started going in many directions and managed to debunk many Syd myths, and theorize about the failings of Rock, and really explore what may have been going on in Syd’s head at various times. I was also excited to learn that the book’s author was the lead singer of the first phase of the Glaxo Babies, a band I once tried to reissue. I offered two separate CD releases covering their whole career and was ignored, and instead they got a single CD best-of on Cherry Red!

But yeah, Syd. Really an amazing story (is Johnny Depp going to make his biopic? better hurry before he’s too old), but even without the drama, just absolutely my favorite music ever. This playlist doesn’t include any solo Syd as it’s more of a 67 thing mostly, but don’t take that to mean I have no love for those records. They are timeless and have dated extremely well. Which is to say they could’ve come out yesterday. Relic of the 60s? Hardly.

1. Pink Floyd – Lucy Leave
2. Pink Floyd – Candy and a Currant Bun
3. The Move – Night of Fear
4. Tomorrow – My White Bicycle
5. Pink Floyd – Scream Thy Last Scream
6. The Beatles – What’s the new Mary Jane
7. Caleb – Baby Your Phrasing is Bad
8. Jeff Beck – Hi Ho Silver Lining
9. The Yardbirds – Shapes of Things
10. The Who – See My Way
11. The Creation – I Am The Walker
12. Small Faces – (Tell Me) Have You Ever Seen Me
13. The Pretty Things – Walking Through My Dreams
14. The Zombies – She Does Everything for Me
15. The Soft Machine – We Know What You Mean
16. Pink Floyd – Point Me at the Sky
17. The Soft Machine – Hibou Anemone and Bear
18. Kevin Ayers – Singing a Song in the Morning