Syd Barrett - Interviewed By Meatball Fulton - London August 1967 A very odd interview to say the least. At times, I'm not sure who is more odd, Syd, or "Meatball'
I'm just hearing an interviewer projecting on to his subject what was going on in his own mind rather than Syd's. The interviewer has an agenda that dominates the interview rather than facilitating Syd to express himself.''Your impression of me; would you care to tell me?" This guy should never have been allowed to do an interview - he didn't get the first rule: it's not about YOU Mr interviewer! Jeeees!
that's what makes syd not cautious of speaking his thoughts. so i think it is a brilliant interview technique, creating a natural and real relationship between the two.
He had such a calm soothing and kind voice. Even when he seems to have wandered off into insanity, he still sounds so nice. It's easy to picture why they all loved him 💔
Probably, expressionless, calm and reserved like his voice. And fair nuances of emotion, ie, little smirks here and there. Rapid blinking as he is concentrating on his words. Lots of eye contact and looking down.
I lived that age and saw it dozens of times in different people. THere's nothing to make sense of unless you're tripping too and seeing the faces adds nothing
I would think he was showing confusion and desperation due to the person interviewing him sounding like a person in the final throws of the death agony.
I blame this on the interviewer. Maybe he should have chosen a much less distracting location, like an airport runway. He sounds like Psychology 101 dropout. What was the reason for this? Certainly not for entertainment.
@@glenbellefonte9620 I think Syd in general was obsessive of quite a few things in life so maybe. But his ability to express himself in an inspiring and unique way and share with the world the art he was able to create was frankly unprecedented. Although influenced by many people he was able to create new ways of sound expression. I akin Syd's tracks a lot more to paintings than songs as that's how he loosely intended.
@@glenbellefonte9620 Floyd sounded worse without Barrett until they started singing about him lol.. aka dark side, wish you were here, the wall. Piper at the gates is just behind those 3 and on par with animals in my mind
Syd's first statement is quite coherent. He's basically talking about how his training in art was informing his paintings like they hadn't before. He was thinking about lessons and criticisms from teachers that he'd subconsciously taken on board, whilst painting. He was happy with a break from music and was enjoying the freedom he found as an artist. Suggesting he felt stifled as a pop musician. But then the interview goes down hill. I think the interviewer looks too deeply into that and goes off on a reverie about 'systems'? which I think Syd tries to follow for a bit. Syd seems more uncomfortable as the interview is manouvered into a more personal direction. At this point Syd clams up and the interviewer tries to reassure him that any personal information will be edited out, and how he can be trusted... but I think Syd was just about 'with it' enough not to go any further. He tried to get Syd to open up in a way that I think Syd found a bit too intimate to share with a pop interviewer on tape. Can anybody blame him? That's probably why the interview ended abruptly. I'm sure Syd was polite when he said interview over, thank you.
The interview is awkward because the interviewer is searching for hidden depths, insights and meaning, but Syd just wants to talk about his love for painting.
Having had experiences of i believe similar illnesses, I can't help but feel for Syd when I hear this. I'm very curious about whether this interview had been prearranged with Syd, maybe by others, or if the reporter had miraculously "bumped into" Syd and convinced Syd to give an interview. Today it's a fascinating rare snippet of rock history, but listening to it, personally, I get the impression that this was the exactly the kind of experience that exacerbated Syd's worsening mental health & pushed him away from the music industry and consequently Pink Floyd.
When you hear his interview in May from Look of the Week, he's so much more energetic and charismatic. I think at this point, Syd was using quaaludes and was probably on them here. He also smoked crazy amounts of hash according to the book "Dark Globe" so if he combined hash and quaaludes? It's no wonder his speech became so slowed from here into his solo albums, though his singing was still sharp since that uses a different part of your brain, kinda like how Ozzy could sing fine well after he couldn't speak well
The "interviewer" just seems to want something from Syd, a personal justification, an acknowledgement of something, what's your impression of ME? Have you got something to tell ME? Syd sounds to me like he's trying to express a sense of loss for a freedom in artistic expression, which can be beyond words. Meanwhile he's conversing with someone who purports to be on the same wavelength as him, but is really another emotional vampire. He loved the freedom of painting, of playing such far out music with his band, and writing songs about whatever took his fancy, and clearly had wanted (at least at one time) the freedom that financial success could potentially bring, but soon enough realised that when big money gets involved it's no longer about the art, the fun. He found himself on the treadmill and wanted to get off, but now you've got band members, managers, record companies, fans, all relying on you to keep delivering the goods. I'm not denying that he must have damaged himself (and/or been damaged by those around him) but like Laing said, who's the real mad man?
Good insight. I always try to put myself in context of the time and the moment. The late 60's seemed to be a heavy time, similar to now but obviously different, and people were often trying to be deep and existential and the interviewer comes off as trying to sound like some profound intellectual who can communicate with Syd on another plane. I feel like there was a good bit of that going around at the time and Syd was probably surrounded by it. I've read a good deal about Syd and while I do think he suffered from some sort of nervous breakdown from all the pressures surrounding him, I don't think he was the madman that they made him out to be. There's some theories that he was possibly mildly autistic or had Asperger syndrome which I do think is possible. The one thing I've noticed, which is apparent in his final interview with Mick Rock, is that Syd at times had difficulty communicating and speaking coherently. In fact in that interview he even apologizes to Mick Rock for not being able to speak coherently. So I think he was perfectly sane yet when it came to communicating with others he had difficulty putting his thoughts into words. Syd's nephew also mentions in an interview that Syd had a fractured way of speaking. Anyhow, it's something I've noticed about Syd that I feel could've been misconstrued or taken the wrong way and led people to believe he was some nutcase.
He was taking copious amounts of lsd! It broke him! Have you ever known anyone ruined, broken by led? I do it's heartbreaking and this interview....?is just that.
@@nifflofair6685 I don't fully buy into that. LSD may have exacerbated the underlying issue but it just doesn't seem to add up to me. Malcom Jones, who produced The Madcap Laughs before Gilmour and Waters stepped in, said that Syd seemed fine when he was working with him and that was after he got away from that scene. There's just been too many things I've read like that over the years that just don't add up to enough to simply write him off as an acid casualty.
I feel the acid haze right through this interview and the attempt to be coherent when your mind is dredging through impossible connotations every second
Syd got and still gets a bad rap about "going mad" ! all he wanted to do was paint and live off of it, and he was needled by pop culture so he bounced right out of it all. Not mad at all. Really. Took care of Mum and lived out a rather glum life, but there it is. Sheer disappointment in him is the only factor that calls him nutzo.
Very insightful and sane. Syd was branded insane by the people who relied on him to keep the rockstar gravy train going. Mind you,he had trauma issues long before Pink Floyd.
More than overwhelmed with the gravy train, I think he was just bored with what it took to sell a million records/more interested in discovering new worlds of music, which of was what the Floyd was founded. ~for a slight departure from Syd, but a similar story's Dead Kennedy's rhythm-guitarist/composer Carlos Cadona aka 6025. He had more experimental things in mind for the band, so they threw him out and said "he disappeared; he wanted to be the new Captain Beefheart, but Christian" = more bad-press is good press. 6025's few songs and the way he played gave the band a soul to steal. Who knows what ever became of him?
You're twisting things. His mother took care of him and when she died his sister did. I would say shaving his eye brows off or randomly showing up at a pink floyd session "to do his part" even though
Listening to this again I can hear someone scribbling during the interview and I think it is Syd drawing all the while this hippie babble is going on. It's very polite of Syd to try and answer the silly questions. Still, I'm grateful this interview exists.
Babble really is the best word for it. Just absolute hippy nonsense more concerned with sounding meaningful than actually being so. You can tell Syd is checked out by like third question.
R D Laing said that maybe it was the band that had the " problem" not Syd. The truth is that Syd didn't want to be a preforming monkey anymore. Syd was a artist not a monkey.
Question for everyone: What percentage of Syd’s “decline” was mental illness and drugs, and what percentage was him being repeatedly told (stigmatized) by people he trusted, that he was crazy? Then after he leaves Floyd, David G titles the first solo album “The Madcap Laughs” True. Then, his former bandmates build a massive body of music (admittedly brilliant) around a common theme of Syd being mad! How would you or any sensitive person respond? This interview is from late summer 1967, and he sure expresses himself quite well.
I agree you are into something. Exploitation of a genius by way of forcing him out then dismissing him thru media when there was no diagnosis. Tell me you rock stars who hate control like another brick in the Wall, are you a doctor with a degree and license to diagnose and or treat your so called friends/family? Yeah...sure.
I agree with you, this interviewer is clearly trying to confuse syd and provoke uncertain responses from him. He asks ambiguous and cryptic questions that are almost desired to trick syd. I think syd must have been lost to some extent and unsure about much of his perseption of himself and the world around him and this must of been distressing for him at times because I have experienced small amounts of the general innate confusion that lsd can create during and experience let alone from 100s of trips ! I do agree that he manages to cling on and answer the questions adequately in his own way considering the complexity of him as a person and the inadequacy of the questions he’s asked. Syd Barrett is an amazing person who had a rare talent and a next level understanding of music and art who was fundamentally misunderstood by everybody during the time, if they had the understanding of psychedelic drugs in the 60s that we do now syd could have flourished even more but with much less negative cognitive effects.
Was the interviewer asking to be interviewed? He asked Syd what his impression of him was. And after that awkwardness, he further tells Syd to be completely honest in measuring him up. If the interviewer can find no reason to use his answer, he let's Syd know that he will edit it. Jesus, after that interview, I'm starting to question who the real madcap was.
This interviewer is completely ridiculous in the ways that he's asking questions that make no sense....he's trying to reach into his soul instead of interview the musician in him... He's confusing and probably took poor Syd for a ridiculous ride making him uncomfortable and leaving him in a state of "what is going on"
What a creepy interviewer. Syd obviously didn't want to have to give his impression and the Meatball kept pushing it. What was his looking for, compliments?
According to a friend he lived with in 70 he was more into mandrex, or as some know it as quaalude, than anything else.. he’d stay locked up in his room for days at a time I think this makes more sense than that the acid caused him to break.
WHAT CAUGHT HIS FRIENDS´ ATTENTION IS THAT AT THE BEGINNING HE WAS AN INTELLIGENT AND COMPLETELY NORMAL PERSON...NOW, THE ATTITUDES HE BEGAN TO HAVE LATER, WERE ABSOLUTELY UNTHINKABLE........Greetings fron Argentina
You all should read amazing book "A Very Irregular Head" and stop falling for the myth of crazy Syd, whose brain was burned by acid. It is simply not true. Today we know that LSD cannot do this. Mandrax was (major) part of the problem, but Syd's addiction was no worse than Eric Clapton's, Ringo's, John Lennon's and other musicians who took drugs like candy at the time. The real problem was Pink Floyd. Waters and co didn't care much about Syd's mental health, they just wanted him to keep making hits, so the only thing they did - they took him on holidays in Ibiza. I mean, they cared about their frontman, but not about friend. But Syd really was an artist, he just wanted to do an art, and not the first lines in the charts and a huge amount of money. The band often cited as an example of his madness that he detuned guitars during performances, but he started doing this in 1965, so according to them he "went crazy" even before they did their first album.. In America Syd was sabotaging those shows on purpose as a way of protesting against the other members (who didn't mind about lip sync). But on one night, he was electrocuted on stage and this is often referred to as the one where he stood there limp armed. He was just getting ready to sing See Emily Play, all there, with it, and the mic shocked him. Instead of helping their friend, they simply abandoned him and... literally monetized him. Pink Floyd, or really mostly Waters took advantage of him. Leaving those false starts and mistakes in the final album is nothing short of insulting. Sure, Syd was by all means deteriorating but Waters and Gilmour I think fed into it to get a better story. They weren’t the only ones doing this to him, unfortunately, some of his friends did the same. I don’t know how much I believe that they deliberately sabotaged Syd’s albums, but there are some interesting interviews, Gilmour's one: "Perhaps we were trying to show what Syd was really like," David Gilmour confessed, years later, "but perhaps we were trying to punish him", and Shirley's one: "I was never convinced that he was quite as nutty as a lot of people assume him to be, because there were definitely times when I personally witnessed him using his nuttiness if you like, faking it almost." He definitely had mental problems and his own character made it even worse, but he wasn't crazy or insane. And as Nick said: “I think we’ve always maintained that Syd probably was an acid casualty and that we were pretty weak at sort of looking after or understanding how to deal with,” Mason tells Billboard. Barrett, who died in 2006 at age 60, founded the group in 1965 in Cambridge, England, and left during the spring of 1968, ostensibly due to mental health issues. “I think more now than then, the feeling is that probably what happened with Syd is he just worked out this is not what he wanted to do. So it was a protest. He realized he didn’t actually want to be in a rock band. Really what I think he wanted to do was to go back and paint and be an artist. But we never understood that and didn’t grasp that, which made things far more difficult. I think that probably played as much a part in his sort of collapse as any LSD trips.”
Confirmation received, but he knew all along what he was doing. A dance with the devil himself. Most possible evil in our world. An incredible sacrifice, Golgotha was a children's game compared to this horror, no one would notice. No one knows how it feels being caught in an endless and dark tunnel.
I personally feel like the interviewer is bad at what he does. He essentially is putting words into Syds mouth and interpreting what he thinks of him and asking Syd about that. All the interviewer had to do was talk to him like a normal person. This interview is hard for me to listen to. Oh and the question near the end "What do you think of me?" Like seriously???
The problem wasn't w/ Syd in this interview....it's the interviewer and his lousy questions. Talk about making someone feel uncomfortable, and awkward? This was a lost opportunity to explore Syd's psyche and mindset.
The band gets mad at Syd for not finishing an album in 2 days yet they take 9 months to finish dsotm? I can’t believe the majority of fans can’t see how cruel waters and gilmore are
@Mitch McTurtle But Gilmore and Waters helped produce his first solo album, and David Gilmore and the Floyd keyboard player were essential in helping with his second album. I think it was schizophrenia that changed Syd’s life. His music is wonderful both with Pink Floyd and his three solo albums (Opel being the third with wonderful outtakes and some additional new songs). What a marvelous music Syd left for all of us to enjoy! God bless Syd Barrett, and we’ve all got faults, and God bless all of Pink Floyd.
@@sfender2182 Only Manson had enough balls to admit that PF were wrong with treating Syd. Stop making diagnoses based on photographs; he never had schizophrenia, my bet you have never seen or interacted with schizophrenics. Waters and Gilmore produced the album terribly, and for good reason - if Syd suddenly became a hit solo artist, then we could say bye-bye, pink floyd. he had good records for Stars that can be found on bootlegs, much more interesting than what Pink floyd did before the Wall.
@talrasha1985 Actually I have interacted with a schizophrenic before. My brother is schizophrenic. Of course I can’t say for sure if Syd had this disease; it just sounds like it from what I’ve read about his life, and the similarities to my brother’s behavior that I have seen, but it is only a guess on my part. I disagree that David Gilmore didn’t want to really help Syd in making his (wonderful and brilliant, and yes, sometimes unfinished sounding) solo albums with him. As for Stars recordings with Syd; I had no idea that there were any recordings with Syd during his brief association with Stars. I hope they will see the light of day, one day; and get an official release, that would be great!
This is just my personal opinion: there are many factors we must keep in mind when we listen to this audio interview. After World War 2, the UK had countless people who were so traumatized that they became insane or just traumatized. Most families were broken and lost, in "survival" mode if you like. Most of the population became alcoholics in the 50s, and in the late 60s, drug addicts. Back then, science had no idea what those drugs did to the human brain. Let's face it: the government, the royalty, was incompetent because of their ignorance, just like science anyway. That said and strangely enough, the government knew what was the impact on people with opium back in the 1880s. And then, one day, Syd Barett, a sensitive, creative, and intelligent person was born ... in this very traumatized society in the UK after World War 2, with drugs and alcohol everywhere. Even in the 1880s, kids were smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol because there were no laws to protect those kids. They had no human rights until 1989 (only in 1989!). So, to me ... and because of those really important facts, Syd Barett was a victim of this "bizarre" society and became ... completely lost.
Once Roger Waters was walking with Barrett through San Francisco....and Barrett told him...´´HOW BEAUTIFUL IT IS SO WALK HERE IN LOS ANGELES....ha ....Poor Syd....he didn´t even know where he was.....Waters said that once in a video
I think this "interview" was summed up pretty well when Syd said "Very strange to meet you." If the questions have no substance, then the answers will follow suit.
I am Autistic, and Syds Speech pattern reminds me of myself. I have no problem understanding his speech , and what he is talking about for some reason . I think all of Syds answers are straight forward and to the point . And I don’t think Syd or Even me can fill in the blanks what this interviewer is asking . The questions seem very odd. And not very human . Syd to me seems normal . The interviewer seems to be speaking some strange language with lots of things missing in his questions . And lots of things that should not be there .
The more I read and about Syd and Rick Wright ,the more I suspect they’re on the spectrum like me ,I am not a Doctor so it’s just my opinion. But I am a musician.
Every interview with someone cool and in the public eye some Autistic person will be in the comments guaranteed diagnosing that said person as being the spectrum.
I'm also autistic and after listening to this interview I can honestly say that I fully understood Syd, however the interviewer seemed somewhat aloof and detached.
I was just thinking the same thing. Then came to the comments to see if its just me and yours was the first I see. I think Syd was fine until this interview and during this interview he went crazy. The interviewer is wacko
The interviewer is the oddball . Syd is wary and rightly so . He knows he's not to be trusted. Somebody said the interviewer was ' creepy ' & that's about right . Syd is perfectly sane and coherent , just very guarded .
Exactly, under the condition of being psycho-analysed like in therapy but in kind of a negative way, Syd was holding it up pretty well. Not single question about Syd's music. I had to stop listening after a few minutes.
That's basically a synopsis of what lead to Syd's decline, enablers with no real concern for him in the process. It's very sad still, he was so brilliant.
Syd barrett seems to be an intelligent lovely bloke and to imagine planet earth without pipers at the gates of dawn would be unthinkable, my teen years getting high listening to pipers sent me into my own world and words fail my to describe how good of an album it is, there will never be another Syd Barrett.
I think the interviewer was dosed more than Syd. Lol. This dude asked creepy heady questions . Instead of asking "what you working on inside yourself Syd" he could have just simply asked. 'Hey Syd?' 'What are you working on these days'? But he is trying to get inside his head and I can tell Syd is uncomfortable with it by just not trying to answer him and ultimately ending communication with him. Good on you Syd. This guy is a obvious creep who should not have been allowed nowhere near him .
Bloody Yank! Always got to compartmentalise mental health look what America have done throughout 20th century and to the 21st.Make money out of peoples' distress. Over and over. Take care everyone. Love to the Barrett family.
I agree 100%. Syd sounds lucid Who would ask these stupid questions other then someone making a joke of someone it’s seems really stupid interview Syd was very pleasant & nice. I would have told him bugger off & ended interview.
Reminds me of those Bob Dylan interviews from around this time. Of course Barret and Bob have very different personalities, but you can see how people would project on to them these ideas of who they were, and look to them for profound answers. Both Barrett and Bob react in somewhat similar ways to the strangeness of the situation.
That was excruciating. Poor Syd, he was too polite to tell this stoned and rambling American to get lost. Clearly though he was not particularly enjoying this encounter.
Hmmm. This is pretty terrible interview. I can definitely understand when Nick Mason quoted the doctor they took Syd to when he opined "Are you sure this is "Syds" problem. Lol. Sounds like to me that the cat just wanted to be left alone to paint. Crappy leading questions. Crappy questions period. Who cares what he thinks of you guy? Interview is supposed to be about Syd, not some half ass psychoanalysis, which fails miserably at both! Pity. Thank anyhow. Just my humble b.s. opinion. Pay no mind. Lol
Forget what you know or think you know about Syd-- his acid use or abuse, his mental/emotional issues, etc.--and the interviewer easily comes off as more bizarre in this interview than his subject.
@@tinycreature1749 yea these prodding questions seem so psychoanalytic that it feels like hes an experiment. im sure they had some behind the scenes people doing tests on him to see what would happen giving him sketchy drugs and such. also getting lost behind the looking glass seems pretty par for the course in music industry
Thank you for the interview! It seems to me more and more that everyone wanted a piece of Syd. The interviewer took words Syd was saying about his process of making a recent painting and twisted it into some kind of interpretation that made sense to him. Syd was rather giving in his words at the beginning until the interviewer started acting like he had to figure him out and interpret what he was saying to an audience. The questions seemed to be manipulative and even became presumptuous of what might be found deep down. I hear Syd trying to call him out on it in a very nice way and trying to be clear in calling him a "strange interviewer". I will agree with the interviewer that Syd was vulnerable. I don't blame Syd at all for not talking much after he noticed the interviewers intentions. It's pretty clear there was an agenda in his questions. He sounded like a forensic psychological used car salesman. Although, I do appreciate being able to hear an interview with Syd. For that I am grateful. It might have been longer if he just let Syd share his thoughts. Thanks for uploading this and sharing it!
Always loved Syd since I was 13 & used to stare into his eyes on album covers wandering if I could gain some sort of deep knowledge or understanding of what he was seeing.Such a great influence on many in the 60's & such a shame he couldn't be looked after better back then. Still love his music & his style. Nick Mason & band do a fantastic job of bringing the early Floyd songs back to life & they are just as good & relevant today, especially Point Me At The Sky!
As a 17 year old who’s only recently learned about this after listening to pink Floyd for a couple years I have the same wonder I’m slowly losing my grip on reality and I somewhat sympathise with him although I don’t think it’s the same
Interview by Meatball Fulton (1967) Transcription by Mark Jones SYD: Well I’ll, I’ll say… for example, painting at an art school. Or painting, say, in infant’s school. The initial desire to paint or initial suc-first successes at painting arised, I think, out of a very genuine basic, um, drive one way or another. So, an-and because of family and social set ups are channeled into success or otherwise and, er, er, through schools and such like and one gets different things. And I think un-and, course, one comes across teachers and people like that, teaching and, sort of, instruction and to talk to and there came, and I feel now that having left art school that there are a lot of things… um… that I could do. A lot of things I see now, a lot of things went in to me, into my head and thinking that these would, perhaps, changing and altering things. For instance I made a painting the other day… and… it’s, I could see and hear very clearly, sort of, different instructions and different criticisms going in to the picture which were in fact p-um-criticisms that I could relate back to art schools and teachers and various things that’d come at that time. So… maybe… this would be very valuable, this break. I don’t know… and, er, sort of, to… try painting again after a break of going in to pop music and going to… playing this sort of music… just might work out that, get more, sort of, basic freedom. I don’t know, it’s something to d-, just things like shape of the paper and, er… seem to be a lot of assumptions taken place. INTERVIEWER: When you were saying criticisms you had, criti-, your own criticisms of your work is that what you (??) outside other people? SYD: Um, criticisms that I, I, I, really, d- yeah… INTERVIEWER: Of your own criticisms of your own work… SYD: Yeah. INTERVIEWER: …that were, sort of, put in to you by teachers and so on. SYD: They were what I was channeling into my own criticisms, yah, they were wh-, they were what were governing what I was doing, in to pai-,er, why it was happening. INTERVIEWER: Do you ever… get… I don’t know… frightened by, I use this word because it’s, it applies to me by, er, the systems that, I mean this, in a sense, I don’t know, could be better worded, this in a sense, you know, is a system, when, when you’re, realise that the criticisms that you’re using… on… have been put in to you, y’know, sort of, conditioned. But, but when you realise more and more what it is that controls all the systems that, you know, system upon system, sort of, working your way through one in to another and another..does this really…bother you…or even frighten you? The feeling that you’ll never be free, that you’ll always be a prisoner? But, maybe you don’t have that feeling? SYD:……Yeah I do!…. INTERVIEWER: Do you think that you can be free if you can realise, I mean, get to a point where you realise…you know, more and more and more systems (??) SYD: Er yeah. I think, er, m-maybe, maybes… INTERVIEWER: The realisation’s, sort of, freeing you on and that… SYD: Yeah, well, yes, in slowly in time, ya know, it’s-ss, well it happened with this painting, I mean-er, I finished a picture I got through… a lot of things… I wanna, it’s quite enjoyable, you know… and the idea is, to, I would like to get hold of that and be able to assimilate the, um, the system as it comes in, rather than… um… ss-you know, see it as it goes out. INTERVIEWER: Yep….. Do you find yourself in patterns and constantly repeating the same patterns over and over? SYD: Mmmmm! (Long pause) INTERVIEWER: What are you.. working on at the moment in… inside yourself?… Do you know? SYD: (Pause) Yeah. INTERVIEWER: Do you care to say? SYD: Umm, I carn- er, sort of… I can’t really say, because it’s obviously taking too much time to think about it. I don’t, I, ss-um…..(pause) It’s not really difficult. (Long pause) INTERVIEWER: Do you ever feel when you see people, or do you often feel when you see people that you could tell them something about themselves that they don’t already know (??)? Or do you look at people that way?… I feel you do, that you really sort of observe people… Do you? SYD: Nah I think it’s something about… um.. wow, really gets… pretty… involved… this stage… I can’t… see… yeah there is a, I certainly do get a ss-feeling of what people are like and, er… it really, the really, the, the complication comes out in talking, but this only comes out at certain times because of a feeling that talking is, in fact, a much, a far less, er, valuable thing than, er, and it’s almost superfluous, to…wha-… to… to everything else, you know, to sort of, general, as-s, I don’t know, sensing people (??) value of people… But the same time, it’s a contradiction that the wor-, that words and talking to the people should be difficult in any way. So one… goes, one is hesitant to say ‘No I can’t say anything’, you know… An- an I know as well this is something that occurs only at times, ya know, other times it doesn’t… and it’s cool. INTERVIEWER: Yeah maybe that I think more in terms of words when I, ya know, see someone and have an impression. I mean like, your impression of me… which you must have… on… would you care to tell me? And be like absolutely honest… Do you have one? SYD: In words? INTERVIEWER: Yeah. (Pause) SYD: Um…Wow! INTERVIEWER: (Laughs)… I mean really be honest. And I’m asking this cos you may have something to give me, I don’t know. (Long pause) INTERVIEWER: Not the general things, I mean whatever, mean what the main thing that sort of hits you. And I-I’m not asking for a personality critique, ya know, cos I know enough about myself that I don’t need that. SYD: Well… (mumbles) there’s so many different things, that on different levels, that I could… say, that of impressions of you, so I give us, I don’t know, I just, maybe the most strange thing is, um… meeting you, talk, sort of s-saying… eh… very strange to meet you… Well it tisn’t really strange, it’s not many people that…that sort of… one can…wr-interviewers and such like, as, as, and you came in to that class. Erm… sort of, used to, I mean generally it just sort of say hello and to get to say the questions and go again… I don’t know… very, I don’t know (laughs) Wow. INTERVIEWER: (Laughing) I see you’re holding back. SYD: Yeah, yeah… er. INTERVIEWER: I mean, I mean I don’t c-, you know, it maybe something that sends me back, I don-, maybe, you know, probably not anything I’m going to want, want anyone to hear… and it’s sort SYD: No- (Laughs) Not at all! I, I understand. I think I learn a lot from you… and er… (stammers) the thing, th-th-that you see, there’s the… I… I’m not, I know I feel from you that in, you not,really, that I could say anything and do anything and you would st-, I mean, you are recording it and that’s cool and, er… But I could… and I know that applies to you, to me and you, you know, cos really I, I, you are, I assure you, you can do anything you want, but… And in talking, I mean, that includes if… I want to… if I wanted to say nothing or if I… I want to act in an extr-extraordinary way… then I feel that that too is justified INTERVIEWER: You have your relatives? (cut in tape) Syd Barrett on everything happening all at once INTERVIEWER: Because, I don’t know, ya know maybe in a sense there’s something I could tell you I don’t know what it would be. And the same thing, ya know, I’ve done this a couple of times, not, not in interviews.. . but ya know, when I met someone who, you can see in their eyes this-s, depth, what am I saying… do you have anything to tell me? SYD: (Laughs) (Pause) INTERVIEWER: Mmmmm SYD: (deep breath) (tape cuts off)
After reading this and the groupie comments under this video.. no wonder he couldn't get help when he needed it. He was disturbed, but people were too busy treating him like a "God." Perhaps if he had gotten psychiatric help at this point, he may have gotten better. This is sad.
@@Granger15 I think he needed help but the interviewer was asking really strange questions that were worded very oddly as well. I don’t think anyone would’ve answered the questions very well either
I think the questions are probably a bit deeper than Syd expected and that made him a little anxious about how much he should reveal as he mentions it is being recorded. He is definitely wary and somewhat uncomfortable... as I would be myself if asked some of these questions. He's not beyond return here. It's a shame that they were all so young when this was all going down. Nowadays he would have got some professional help earlier than the point of no return.
These are questions you probably shouldn't ask someone on acid - being a "prisoner", being "afraid", "personality critique", etc. Kind of negative thread, there, which probably put him into a weird frame of mind. He was trying, though.
Syd says, "the complication comes out in talking, but it only comes out in certain times. it seems talking is far less valuable and somewhat superfluous" (for you youngsters, "superfluous" basically means excessive and redundant). if that isn't the most spot-on statement from a young artist exploring new ways of expression, but it also hints at his state -of-mind perhaps? I hate to try to project my own thoughts onto a guy I never met, but he went on to basically cease talking over the next decade until he only expressed himself thru art. Meanwhile, the Floyd would later release a song called, "Keep Talking (Why Won't You Talk to Me)". An Artist with a capital A was Roger Keith Barrett.
What's with these questions?? Can't understand a thing the interviewer is attempting to ask. No wonder there are long gaps of silence. Syd, like us, is trying to figure out what in the world the interviewer wants to know.
I'd wager that it was just this type of absurd, fawning, spaced-out questioning from a so-called 'journalist' that led Syd to get out of the 'pop' business as soon as he possibly could. Impossible for him to answer these 'questions' in any cogent way, though he tries his best in his touchingly middle-class, polite, Cantabrigian way.
This American bloke, despite his US music scene hipster credentials - for what they're worth - can barely form a coherent sentence. He's an intellectual newt compared to Mr. Barrett.
He makes perfect sense (in his sometimes halting way) when talking about his (visual) art. Also, some of the questions were perhaps more appropriate for a therapy session, and something tells me that "Meatball" was not exactly qualified to play that role.
@@smwokk he does sound like a acid head the interviewer and judging by the questions it wouldn't suprise me if they both dropped that day but that would ve gone down in syds history
To me, this is very coherent and beyond the thoughts of many, especially in these modern times. I think the interviewer is just asking difficult questions. Obviously, Syd was a very deep thinker, and putting these thoughts into words had proven to be quite difficult for him to express in such time restraints. He even expressed his acknowledgment of this during the interview as well as how different this interview was compared to the normal type he was accustomed to. Was he mentally ill? I don't know. I myself believe we live in a mentally ill reality in which people are quite mad. I'm particularly speaking of those in power and the direction in which the masses are being led. These realities to such a man might cause him to want to escape from it all. Hide behind a door with a lock and no key in which to enter. People who are different and behave abnormally are often dismissed as being mentally ill. Some of these people have a better grasp of reality than many others. These are just my personal beliefs, of course. Thank you for sharing this video❤❤❤
I had to stop myself, from tumbling down inside him'.. wow....I have been mentally ill, since 1980....from military service... PTSD & Manic Depression...i can feel this interview....in America, those that live on disability, even military disability, are shunted to the curb...people have told me directly, 'there is nothing wrong with you'....being retired, at 25, i have had time to read classic works of the West....the book that best describes America is, 'The Protestant Ethic & Spirit of Capitalism'...Max Weber, 1905...
Take large doses of magnesium citrate liquid gel caps... I recommend Kratom as well... I went through hell as a child and a young man I'm 51 years old and I've kicked three drug habits by using a combination of vitamins and herbs... Just trying to help
''Your impression of me; would you care to tell me?" This guy should never have been allowed to do an interview - he didn't get the first rule: it's not about YOU Mr interviewer! Jeeees!
I understood what he wanted to say and do with his life. His mind was just as loose as it can get while also concerned with what he tells the interviewer, the guy would have probably gotten something deeper if Syd wasn't recorded. Plus Syd is hinting that he communicates better without talking. There's something artistic about that and the secret that Meatball was looking for.
Yeah, this interviewer sounds more like hes a mental health counsellor! Syd sounds perfectly sane to me in this. Articulate..thinking before he speaks...sounds more normal than the interviewer...and are they having this interview on the hard shoulder of some motorway? 😂
Syd answered the first question coherently and then upon realizing what the interviewer was trying to do he shut down. I think he is playing with him. Meatball is asking leading questions and attempting to tell Syd why he may do things he does, I don't think he appreciated it.
This interview proves that Syd's breakdown was not a sudden acid induced bad trip but rather him not coping with how fame was treating him. This interviewer was obviously aware of the actual cause of Syd's condition and taunting him with it. Having watched a few documentaries on Syd's life on youtube its obvious to me that the other members of Pink Floyd meant well but overlooked the pressures Syd was under and put him under more pressure with hopes that Syd would get back to normal with help from his friends.
Why doesn’t this have more views? Ive been wondering why theres so few interviews with syd barrett and here is a great one with barely any views...very sad...i suppose people are to caught up in the trash music of today 🙄
This is the stuff that starts conspiracy theories. The interviewer seems more like some kind of MK Ultra doctor implamenting thought patterns into the patient (realistically that sort of stuff was more prevalent back then than we will most likely ever know). I bet I go look up this 'Meatball' now and find little traces that could lead to such assumptions.
@@evermore7458 The whole Syd saga is very strange. You hear a lot of vague statements about his mind set during this time but nothing real concrete. Nothing specific like "He thought the world was after him" or "He thought he was God". Just things like "he would just stand on stage and do nothing..." how about a follow up like "when we asked him what was going on, he said...". I've been a huge Floyd fan for almost 30 years now and this is the first interview i've ever heard with Syd; and the interviewer is more bizarre than he is.
@@MegaSeth22 The "Dark Globe" Syd bio talks a lot about Syd being paranoid over selling out after the UFO Club crowd accused him of doing so for writing pop songs. It also talks about him having arguments with the band, mocking them for being normies for not enjoying the band AMM, whose guitarist Keith Rowe he got the zipper lighter slide effect from. Also, the rest of Pink Floyd considered money, girls, and popularity as the most important goals for them as musicians, while for Syd, it was art, above everything else. It's strange how this is almost never talked about otherwise.
Ok.....is it me or is this interviewer really attempting to activate Sides psychosis......he says his eyes were huge ....so it appears he knew syd was most likely tripping......and you start asking about PATTERNS and Systems in. Systems and fear of systems? NOT COOL!!
"very odd" is an understatement. It's a shame we don't have the interviews with the others to compare to this. In general, it is a conversation between 2 very introspective people. I have no idea what the topic/purpose of the interview was? Not music anyway. With regard to Syd Barrett, halucinogens can vastly change ones perspective, and it seems that he lost interest in making music and returned to art/painting, and although he seems to have had mental health issues, I wonder what most of us would think in this situation, being asked these bizarre questions?
It shows nothing, jez, would you like to be judged by an edited ancient idiotic interview when you were in your 20s? Struggling with drugs and being replaced in your band by a good friend? and who appear to be selling their souls for cash n fame? They didnt help him , he didnt help himself? Who knows.
