10 Greatest Rock Music Frontmen Of The 60s
5. Syd Barrett
Among the many tragedies in the life of Syd Barrett: his era of Pink Floyd is often the least well remembered. Classic rock stations and the public at large tend to think of the Waters and Gilmour-led prog days of Dark Side Of The Moon and The Wall, but the brief tenure with Syd Barrett at the helm produced arguably their best and most interesting music.
Where Gilmour and Waters approached their songcraft in a considered, intellectual fashion, Barrett was a true musical free spirit. He led the band on a merry jig through their debut record The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, with experimental freakout “Interstellar Overdrive” perhaps the highlight. The US version also included psych-pop masterpiece “See Emily Play”, a pearl of a tune that later Floyd would seldom approach.
Barrett would find incredible sounds on stage and in the studio, using a Zippo lighter as a guitar slide, his mirror-studded Telecaster giving him an otherworldly presence to counter his otherwise-buttoned down bandmates.
Barrett’s subsequent struggles with mental health are well documented, but the man was a true innovator who made everything he touched more interesting.