Do you consider yourself a Pink Floyd fan? Because if you do, you probably know about Syd Barrett and how things turned out for him. And don’t worry if you don’t know much about the late frontman since Pink Floyd recently shared a somewhat educative video about him on Instagram, so you might go and check that out.
But let me assume that you know about Syd. Then I would like to ask you a popular question most Pink Floyd fans might get during their lifetime. ‘Did you like Syd’s run with Pink Floyd, or do you prefer the post-Barrett era of the band?’ Well, even if you don’t like Syd’s style, you might agree that the band’s early works from ‘See Emily Play’ to ‘Arnold Layne’ and to the genius of ‘The Piper at the Gates of Dawn,’ were crucial to their success.
So, if you like Pink Floyd’s era spent under Syd’s creative leadership, we have some troubling news. However, if you don’t like that period at all, well, then it’s good news because Roger Waters, the man himself, said that their first few years as a band were ridiculous. He even called on to say that they were laughable and couldn’t play while chatting with Q Magazine in 1992.
“No, they weren’t,” answered Waters when the host pointed out that their ‘Arnold Layne’ era was grand. “I don’t want to go back to those times at all. There wasn’t anything ‘grand’ about it. We were laughable. We were useless. We couldn’t play at all, so we had to do something stupid and ‘experimental.’”
Then, when the interviewer reminded Rogers of how great ‘Piper at the Gates of Dawn’ was, the bassist generously paid homage to his former bandmate, Syd Barrett, by calling him a genius. However, he still didn’t want to return to that period as he said, “Well, that was Syd. Syd was a genius. But I wouldn’t want to go back to playing ‘Interstellar Overdrive’ for hours and hours.”
Thus, the musician found Pink Floyd to be laughable when they were starting in the late ’60s. Even though he firmly noted that Barrett was a musical genius, he also admitted that he didn’t want to go back to those times when they were ridiculous and thought the band couldn’t even play. So, if you happen to like the band’s earlier works with Barrett, Roger might piss you off.
