Creativity and stardom often trigger or exacerbate mental illness and self-destruction. In the rock world, the list of casualties includes such names as the Rolling Stones’ Brian Jones, 13th Floor Elevators’ Roky Erickson, folk singer Nick Drake, Derek and the Dominos drummer Jim Gordon, producers Phil Spector and Joe Meek, Moby Grape’s Skip Spence and Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett.
Barrett’s story is as striking and poignant as any of them. Born in 1946 in Cambridge, England, he co-founded and named Pink Floyd in 1965 and served as its original frontman. He composed eight of the 11 tracks on the band’s psychedelic debut album, 1967’s The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, including the great “Astronomy Domine,” and co-wrote two of the others, among them the lengthy—and spacey—instrumental “Interstellar Overdrive.” He also penned the group’s memorable second single, “See Emily Play,” which incorporates typically abstruse Barrett lyrics about losing your mind, “gazing through trees in sorrow” and floating “on a river forever and ever.”
But he made more modest contributions to Pink Floyd’s sophomore LP, 1968’s A Saucerful of Secrets, and was kicked out of the band before that album’s release as his apparent mental illness and drug use intensified. After subsequently releasing two commercially unsuccessful solo records, he walked away from the music business.
Related: An interview with the author of a gripping Jim Gordon biography
Barrett, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2006 at age 60, spent most of his remaining years living in obscurity off his royalties and creating abstract paintings that he often destroyed. Pink Floyd, meanwhile, went on to become one of the world’s biggest bands, thanks to such albums as The Dark Side of the Moon, which charted for nearly 20 years and has sold close to 50 million copies, and Wish You Were Here, which includes a tribute to Barrett called “Shine On, You Crazy Diamond.”
So, what exactly happened to the group’s original leader? Was he in fact crazy? Why did he turn his back on the rock world? And why has his music had such an impact, not just on his former bandmates but on many other artists? A 2023 film that has just been released digitally and in a DVD/Blu-ray package doesn’t answer these questions definitively, but it grapples at length with all of them and gives us as full a picture as we’re likely to get of Barrett’s sad but fascinating life, career, and mercurial mindset.
Called Have You Got It Yet?: The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd, the movie features interviews with many people who knew him, among them his childhood friends, sister and girlfriends; the Who’s Pete Townshend; Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, Nick Mason and David Gilmour; and the group’s original managers. It helps that the late Storm Thorgerson, who co-directed, conducted the interviews, as he grew up in Cambridge with Barrett and was already acquainted with many of the people he spoke with for the film.
The DVD/Blu-ray set comes with several notable bonus features, including two spirited concert performances of Barrett’s “Arnold Layne,” one with Gilmour, Richard Wright and Mason in their last performance as Pink Floyd, the other featuring Gilmour and David Bowie. Among additional extras are mini-features devoted to Barrett’s paintings and lyrics, an interview with co-director Roddy Bogawa, and a film-length track with commentary by Bogawa and the producers.
The film is available to stream or purchase in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here.
A top editor at leading consumer and trade magazines for more than 40 years, Jeff has interviewed dozens of musical luminaries, including Bruce Springsteen, Steve Van Zandt, Roger McGuinn, John Sebastian, Wolfman Jack, Tommy James, Tom Waits, the Righteous Brothers, and the members of Steely Dan.
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