Syd Barrett: Barrett

Syd Barrett: Barrett

1970

Harvest/Capitol Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl and Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Baby Lemonade  2. Love Song  3. Dominoes  4. It Is Obvious  5. Rats  6. Maisie  7. Gigolo Aunt  8. Waving My Arms in the Air  9.  I Never Lied to You  10. Wined and Dined  11. Wolfpack  12. Effervescing Elephant

Barrett's second (and final) solo album, released shortly before his lifelong exile from music and public life...This album seems a little more fleshed out and listener-friendly than "The Madcap Laughs" but the unexpected zigs and zags are still everywhere...

The album opens with one of the best songs Barrett ever recorded...After a cool spy guitar intro, "Baby Lemonade" blooms into a wide-eyed psychedelic pop song.  It instantly struck me that this is the type of material that was missing from "The Madcap Laughs." Same goes for "Gigolo Aunt." It showed that he could still write an effective pop track.  His earlier Pink Floyd material always had these types of oddball hooks...It's not as adorned with lavish production like  "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" is but I actually prefer this to most of the Pink Floyd tracks...There's just something so unguarded about it...It also helps that Syd had such a likable voice...

The tone of this album doesn't seem as visceral and emotional as "The Madcap Laughs" as Syd somehow sounds even more out of it...dead-eyed, reeling off long lines of abstract text and nursery rhyme melodies...This all culminates in the slippery, mysterious "Dominoes." Which, like I stated yesterday, reminds me of the bleak throb of mid 70's Floyd...but I like this even more...

Syd even tried out a couple of blues numbers...but  it goes without saying that "Rats" and "Maisie" are utterly unlike any blues songs you've ever heard before. He moans "Maisie" in some bizarre, yet-disinterested deep voice...and "Rats" is just zonky.

Despite some of the tracks stretching on a wee bit long after the vocals have ended, this album is a much more pleasant listen than "The Madcap Laughs" but I can't bring myself to say I like it more...Honestly, you've got to check out both of them...I flip back and forth over which one I prefer...

On a personal note, I bought a red vinyl copy of this album at Eastside Records in Tempe, Az. Eastside Records was one of my favorite places in the world... The place was so absolutely jam packed with punk vinyl that you could hardly move...and the guys behind the counter would let you bring in beer and drink it while you shopped, as long as you shared with them! I'm telling you, the place was irreplaceable...I was so distraught by their closing that I wrote and recorded a  song about the place and my undying love of the red vinyl copy of "Barrett" that I bought there... There's even a photo of the record inside the album cover...I just put a TA-80 label over it...

The song's called "Red Candy Vinyl." My wife Amy wrote the music and I wrote the words...You can check out our song here...

But I was very happy to find out they re-opened! Yay!

Alright...Let's listen to "Baby Lemonade" by Syd Barrett...Enjoy...