Shine on...

The latest issue of Uncut arrived this morning, and it contains a surprisingly moving tribute to Syd Barrett, who died last month as the issue was going to print. Long forgotten, at least by most music fans, Syd Barrett was the madcap leader of Pink Floyd when they recorded a couple of the great early 'psychedelic' singles of the mid-to-late '60's - Arnold Layne and See Emily Play. I'd forgotten just how important music was to me back then..... and those years from 1966 until, say, 1975 produced some of the most inventive and spectacularly creative music I've ever heard.

OK, a lot of it had to do with drugs, but to paraphrase Bill Hicks, I've had some really good times on drugs. And a lot of time was spent listening to all those early, now long forgotten Pink Floyd albums. LSD never did me any harm, and it seems a stunning irony that LSD enabled so many doors to open for Syd Barrett, only to slam them shut as he plummetted so tragically into mental illness. And now, as with Warren Zevon, all we've got is the music and the memories.

Where's that copy of Piper at the Gates of Dawn.......