NME article

[slipkid]

Originally Posted by aida

Being a Pink Floyd fan also I have read hundreds, thousands of speculations about how Syd Barrett lost his way, I think may be more than that of Peter's, and one thing that always freaked me out was this: Richard Wright, PF sadly deceased keyboardist, always claimed Syd just "changed" after a three day LSD trip, similarly to that "Munich". This is something that have always made me think, as the other members of the band and all the speculation never gave importance to that incident in particular. Just imagine how many times may have been the PF members asked about how Syd went sadly craz, and everyone always said more or less the same. How a sensitive guy he was and so on.

Only Richard Wright always said he was sure than "that" was the specific moment when Syd "changed", (you can check out how sure he looks when talking about this thing on the "PF and Syd Barrett Story" DVD). May be guilt and musical restraints are things that were there from the start and this feelings only are enough to explode the whole thing out. But may be there's something about these long way trips that we don't pretty much understand. So maybe behind all the lies that have been said about "Munich", may be there is some kind of truth, I don't know.

Syd Barrett is a tough case. Just like with Peter, he did some solo work before giving up altogether. In fact I think his post Floyd material is quite good.

I've seen the Which One's Pink documentary, and have the Syd Barrett story on DVD. You're right that it's Richard Wright who was the most shaken by Syd's mental break. In fact Wright mentions that Syd visited a doctor, only to find out he had permanent brain damage. Then there's the trip to San Francisco, where Syd didn't want to play a show. He was forced onstage, and he just stood there doing nothing, or playing one note continuously.


Peter Green never displayed that type of behavior, in fact his guitar playing was top notch till his departure (at least from the existing recordings). If you believe the rest of the band and entourage, there is evidence Peter wasn't "well" after Munich. Wolfgang's Vault has the Roundhouse Chalk Farm show (4/24/70) streaming on it's website. If you listen to the stage banter prior to the first song, Peter requests everyone to take their pictures now, and refrain for the rest of the show. Apparently if you're a victim of LSD, flashbulbs from cameras can trigger flashbacks.

I also think that being young adults (no one was older than 23 in FM at the time) you're not thinking about anyone but yourself. I'm sure if someone was really paying attention to Peter's behavior such as his sudden interest in Christianity, and his immediate interest preventing worldwide famine (all of which happened before Munich), maybe things would've been different. The Christianity phase could've been an influence from Jeremy, but feeling guilty for being paid to play music is something else. Since Peter was considered the leader, the band never questioned his authority, until money became the issue. Peter had already changed by Munich, but it's possible that experience ensured he wasn't going to return to his old self.

So to compare the cases, I think Syd's illness was much worse initially. Peter didn't completely snap until the early/mid 70's. The Bob Welch story about Peter Green and the piece of cheese in his hair for an entire weekend was probably a bad sign.