Syd Barrett-Opel

Info By Wikipedia:

Opel is a 1988 compilation album consisting of unreleased and alternate versions of previously released songs, recorded by former Pink Floyd frontman Syd Barrett between 1968 and 1970.
While Barrett only released two albums in 1970, The Madcap Laughs and Barrett, the existence of unreleased studio work was widely reported. After years of demand from Barrett's considerable fan base, Opel was compiled and released. Despite its positive reviews, it failed to chart.

Syd Barrett-Opel @320 Artwork Included

Tracks 15-20: Bonus tracks
1Opel
2Clowns and Jugglers
3Rats
4Golden Hair
5Dolly Rocker
6Word Song
7Wined and Dined
8Swan Lee (Silas Lang)
9Birdie Hop
10Let's Split
11Lanky (Part One)
12Wouldn't You Miss Me (Dark Globe)
13Milky Way
14Golden Hair
15Gigolo Aunt (Take 9)
16It Is Obvious (Take 3)
17It Is Obvious (Take 5)
18Clowns And Jugglers (Take 1)
19Late Night (Take 2)
20Effervescing Elephant (Take 2)

part 1: www.zshare.net/download/97818526676b44/

part 2: sharebee.com/67480471

Syd Barrett-The Madcap Laughs

Review By Andrian Denning

Roger Waters and Dave Gilmour helped finish this album, taking over production duties and

encouraging Syd at a point where it looked like 'The Madcap Laughs' was never going to be finished at all. Syd had bought a new flat that was so close to where Dave Gilmour lived, that Dave could see right into Syd's kitchen. Although Dave had replaced Syd in Pink Floyd, he was the one member of the group that remained closest to Syd. It's often mistakenly believed that the decline of Syd Barrett occurred seemingly overnight, the first time he took LSD, which is not the case at all. Syd's consumption of LSD was large and significant in precipitating his downfall, there's no doubt about that, but Syd was predisposed to mental-illness in any event. He was uncomfortable with the level of fame he'd achieved with Pink Floyd. Those things would have been the case, LSD or no LSD. It certainly shortened his career, battling not only with images his own mind gave him, but also the bad effects of LSD must have been extremely difficult and frightening. Personally, I was once diagnosed as suffering from 'Severe Depressive Psychosis', that psychosis part worrying me especially. I had audio and visual hallucinations, and the only drugs I'd taken were a variety of prescribed anti-depressants. Mental Illness is a terrible debilitating disease that is too often misunderstood or under-estimated. Severe depression is a very difficult thing to overcome, more often than not, a life-time battle. Chances are, you'll never achieve what you were once capable of. It hurts me. When I went to university, there was a certain time a drug related to LSD was offered to me, I turned it down flat, quite aware of what it could do to me, given the way my mind was pre-disposed. At the time Syd took LSD, the after effects were a lot less well known, and his taking of this drug certainly contributed heavily to his downfall, but was not at all the only reason he became the way he became. Another myth is that Syd was artistically washed up following his departure from Pink Floyd and had nothing more to offer bar a backlog of old compositions. At least one of the songs on this album was written virtually on the spot, in the studio. Others definitely post-date his final days with Pink Floyd, and others were indeed written whilst he was still an active member of Pink Floyd. Does any of this matter? It should give everybody a greater understanding, Syd was still writing good songs all through 1968 and 1969, his decline was harrowing but gradual. One of Syd's best new songs, 'Opel' was inexplicably left off this debut set replaced by a couple of songs produced by Roger and Dave that openly let everyone see exactly how difficult it was for Syd to record these songs at all. The sound of Syd audibly breaking up on record amid the sound of pages of lyrics being turned whilst he loses his place does nobody any favours at all, least of all Syd. The other way to look at the songs, 'Feel', 'If It's In Me' and 'She Took A Long Cold Look' is that they painted an accurate picture of the state Syd was in at the time. That was the justification Dave Gilmour later gave for their inclusion, but the oversight of 'Opel' was a tragic omission, not 'corrected' until it gave it's name to a 1988 LP of out-takes. But, given the sound of a man falling apart, I've still given this album a '9'? How so? Well, plenty of the songs, the actual words and melodies, the vocal sounds and emotionally affecting qualities - are of the highest order. The sound of the music is usually sparse, certainly in comparison with Syd's Pink Floyd material, but this light, sparse feel suits the material, and suits the state Syd was in at the time. 'Terrapin' is a lovely song with nice acoustic strumming and very interesting lyrics. 'No Good Trying' features a fuller group performance with electric instrumentation, sounds messy but somehow still holds itself together. The differing rhythms and instrumentation that seemingly doesn't know what it's doing at all actually create a very satisfying and interesting musical track. 'Love You' is super-sweet and delightfully bouncy and silly, 'No Mans Land' another performance featuring bass, electric and drums and it's pretty damn fine, actually. The distortion, the lyrics, the vocals. There is something captivating about this loose, yet still just about together performance. 'Dark Globe' is Syd and guitar, the lyrics are again something striking and worthy, the vocal here reveals the strains and state of Syd's mind. There is an incredible affecting loneliness and humanity that is pretty much unsurpassed in Rock music. 'Here I Go' for a song reputedly written on the spot in the studio is pretty damn great, very charming. 'Octopus' evolved from a composition called 'Clowns And Jugglers' and it's this type of material Syd may have brought to Pink Floyd had he still been a member. It's no great stretch of the imagination to picture this as a 'Piper' styled psychedelic adventure. As recorded here, it's still a mighty good song. This albums closing sequence is difficult, beautiful, ugly, saddening - still captivating. Syd was reportedly very proud of 'Golden Hair', a James Joyce poem set to music, and very beautiful in its simplicity and pure quality it is. 'Long Gone' is Syd, a jaunty guitar figure, another good song. 'She Took A Long Cool Look', 'Feel' and 'If Its In Me' combined together..... words fail me completely. Why does 'If Its In Me' have to include Syd singing completely waywardly, before the song falls apart? On the otherhand, there's a resonance and such emotion here. This isn't a sequence of songs, especially this latter 'If Its In Me' that is easy or 'enjoyable' in the usual sense, but if you like music that affects your emotions in a way that isn't music to party or dance to, then here's a great example. The closing song on the other hand is totally 'together' in an admittedly fragile fashion. The song is soft, delicate - the guitar sounds absolutely beautiful and gorgeous, sparse, interweaving, pretty and hypnotic. There is little else in music like this 'A Madcap Laughs' album. From an objective viewpoint, it'd be hard to justify giving this a '9', but from an emotional viewpoint and a subjective viewpoint, it's easy to give this a '9'. There's something about this album, a certainly character, that is unmatched anywhere else

Wikipedia:

The Madcap Laughs was Syd Barrett's first solo album after being replaced in Pink Floyd by his old school friend David Gilmour. After leaving his parent group, Barrett began recording sessions with former Pink Floyd-turned-Syd Barrett manager Peter Jenner in May 1968. Although the sessions were brief, and they produced some fine material, the project was abandoned for almost a year while Barrett spent much of the year as a recluse.
In April 1969, Malcolm Jones took over the project and Barrett began working on newer material, while reworking the 1968 recordings. Session musicians, namely, members of The Sof Machine, as well as Humble Pie drummer Jerry Shirley were also called in to augment Barrett's songs. It is still a mystery why Jones abandoned production responsibilities, at the end of May ,so soon after having assumed them.The Making of the Madcap Laughs Jones recollections of the sessions, show that he and Barrett got on well together and had in fact completed half of the album before the new producers took over. Roger Waters and David Gilmour were in the process of completing Pink Floyd's ambitious Ummagumma album when they got involved with The Madcap Laughs that July and helped Barrett finish his album, "in a two-day sprint" according to Rick Sanders author of 'Pink Floyd' (Futura Publications, 1976). .
The album featured a rather unorthodox recording process, in which Syd would provide a backing track of his own singing accompanied by acoustic guitar, over which the session musicians would overdub the rest of the arrangement. Unfortunately, Syd's playing and singing were highly erratic and unpredictable--he skipped or added beats seemingly at random, or otherwise he would strum on a single note for a long time before unexpectedly reverting back to the main portion of the song. This was all much to the frustration of the session musicians; a close listen to several tracks [in particular "No Good Trying" and "Love You"] will reveal the backing band hovering uncertainly here, or being caught off-guard by a chord change there. (During an interview, Robert Wyatt recounted that musicians would ask "What key is that in, Syd?" and Barrett would reply "Yeah", or "That's funny") Syd would not allow the musicians to rehearse or re-record their overdubs, insisting that they sounded fine. After several months of intermittent recording, the album was finally deemed complete.
"Octopus" was released as a single in November 1969 and the album itself followed in January 1970. It reached #40 in the UK at the time[1] and was fairly well-reviewed

Syd Barrett-The Madcap Laughs @320

Tracks 14-19: Bonus tracks
1Terrapin
2No Good Trying
3Love You
4No Man's Land
5Dark Globe
6Here I Go
7Octopus
8Golden Hair

9Long Gone
10She Took a Long Cold Look
11Feel
12If it's In You
13Late Night
14Octopus (Takes 1 & 2)

15It's No Good Trying (Take 5)
16Love You" (Take 1)
17Love You" (Take 3)
18She Took A Long Cold Look At Me (Take 4)
19Golden Hair (Take 5)

Part 1: ifile.it/3airfdu

Part2: ifile.it/hldg2is

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Syd Barrett-Barrett

Info From Wikipedia:

After leaving Pink Floyd, Barrett distanced himself from the public eye. However, at the behest of EMI and Harvest Records, he did have a brief solo career, releasing two solo albums, The Madcap Laughs and Barrett. Much of the material on both albums dates from Barrett's most productive period of songwriting, late 1966 to mid 1967, and it is believed that he wrote few new songs after he left Pink Floyd

Barrett was the second and final studio album of new material released by former Pink Floyd member Syd Barrett. In February 1970, shortly after releasing his first album, The Madcap Laughs, Barrett appeared on John Peel's Top Gear radio show where he presented only one song from the newly released album. Two days later, he began working on his second album in the Abbey Road Studios.It was produced by David Gilmour and featured Gilmour on bass guitar, Rick Wright on keyboard and Humble Pie drummer Jerry Shirley.

Review By George Starostin:

A good chance wasted. The barrel was far from being empty - maybe Syd's new ideas were getting more and more messed up as he was falling further into insanity, but his back catalogue was not yet depleted, and the second album promised to be at least as good as the first, if not better. Some of the first-rate material here proves it, actually: 'Baby Lemonade', 'Dominoes', 'Gigolo Aunt' all have that fire in them, being as madly beautiful as the Madcap material.But there was a problem. Dave Gilmour and Rick Wright, who had already took the informal position of Syd's musical curators, made a fatal mistake by deciding to make Syd's second album more 'commercial': that is, take most of the material and develop it to a certain state that would be acceptable by the general public, like writing some tight arrangements, inserting some generic keyboard solos and mixing out all of Syd's mistakes and lapses. This proved to be a double-sided decision. On one hand, this really contributes to the album's listenability: this I would never deny. Some of the songs here do sound like real and true rock songs instead of sounding like personal raving confessions of a schizophrenic. This probably explains why some people rate this as Syd's finest hour - just because they're not able to stomach Madcap and run for cover into the company of more 'normal' arrangements. In another world I would probably have done likewise, as I'm always in favour of the "golden middle" - a nice balance between the 'weird' and 'traditional'. Hell, I gave Zappa's Freak Out a 10, after all, just for that reason.
But unfortunately, there's no true "golden middle" here. The problem is that what the Floydsters did was contorting Syd's real image and personality in favour of rather dubious 'acceptability'. Yes, rockers at heart will probably appreciate this second album more, but goddamn is it boring. Maybe if they had let Syd mess around in the studio alone with his guitar, the results would have been more satisfying (actually, this is proved by some of the outtakes on Opel). As it is, lots of songs are stuffed with half-spirited instrumental passages that have nothing to do with Syd (indeed, as Dave later admitted, quite a lot of work was done on the songs after Syd had already left the studio) but instead have everything to do with a nearly-comatose, totally uninspired Rick Wright. The worst blow comes on the would-be good, classic tune 'Gigolo Aunt', an upbeat pop rocker where Syd seems to come to his senses and deliver something nice and 'stable'; but it ends in a lengthy jam and goes on for almost six minutes when it should have certainly been limited to three. Is this really Syd Barrett?
However, if it were just for the instrumental passages, the situation would have been tolerable where it really isn't. The reason is that the lame Pink Floydsters manage to overshadow Syd on virtually every track - the vocals are buried so low that sometimes they're hardly audible at all. I mean, it is understandable that Syd could hardly be coped with at the time - most of the period he was in total prostration, only coming out once in a while, but wouldn't that mean that the people around him were obliged to make the best of his abilities? Yet they wouldn't, instead letting him rave and rant and then muddying up his vocals even further which leads to such freak-outs as the mumbling 'Rats' where Syd sounds like a person in total delirium muttering incoherent words on his deathbed.
The throwaways here are even more throwaway than the ones on Madcap ('Waving My Arms In The Air', 'It Is Obvious' and 'I Never Lied To You', for instance, never seem to do jack for me), and as it is, there are only about three or four finished songs. 'Baby Lemonade' is probably the best of these, recalling Syd's childish stuff on Piper, and 'Gigolo Aunt' and 'Wined And Dined' are also very good. The latter even has something Beatlesque about it, don't you think?
Finally, 'Dominoes' should probably hold the record as Syd's saddest song, certainly written in a particular fit of melancholy. Speaking of Beatles, it also reminds me of Paul McCartney's 'Junk' a little, in the atmosphere department - so sad, personal and deeply moving for no particular reason. And the record closes with one of Syd's earliest compositions, 'Effervescing Elephant', which is just about one minute long and is very very funny indeed.
My personal favourite here, though, is not very Syd-dish: it's a heavy, bluesy tune with menacing booming drums ('Maisie'), where Syd unexpectedly adopts a very low growl and is obviously just having fun, I mean, real fun. Face it, it's interesting to hear a madman having fun. It's not much of a song, and it's certainly not representative at all, but it has a dark charm of its own: like a generic blues song reinterpreted by a schizophrenic. Or, rather, a schizophrenic trying to concoct a generic blues and captured in the process of struggling with the melody and lyrics...
I fully understand that quite a lot of people would never agree with me in my assessment of this album. Well, tastes are tastes, but one thing's obvious: if Syd's nature and Syd's genius is what you're looking for, this is not the first place to stop. Better still, just keep listening and re-listening to Madcap until its mad brilliancy soaks deep into you, and you'll be surprised at how dull and ultimately predictable and generic this second record is, even with all the high points

Syd Barrett-Barrett @320 Artwork Included

All songs by Syd Barrett.
1) Baby Lemonade – 4:10 Take 1, Recorded 26 February 1970

2)Love Song – 3:03 Take 1, Recorded 17 July 1970, overdubs added 17 July
3)Dominoes – 4:08 Take 3, Recorded 14 July 1970
4)It Is Obvious – 2:59 Take 1, Recorded 17 July 1970 overdubs added 20 July
5)Rats" – 3:00 Recorded 7 May 1970, overdubs added 5 June
6)Maisie" – 2:51 Take 2, Recorded 26 February 1970
7)Gigolo Aunt" – 5:46 Take 15, Recorded 27 February 1970, overdubs added 2 April
8) Waving My Arms In The Air" – 2:09 Take 1, Recorded 27 February 1970 overdubs and new vocal track 2 April
9)I Never Lied To You" – 1:50 Take 1, Recorded 27 February 1970, overdubs and new vocal track 2 April
10)Wined And Dined" – 2:58 Take 10, Recorded 14 July 1970
11)Wolfpack – 3:41 Take 2, Recorded 3 April 1970
12)Effervescing Elephant" – 1:52 Take 9, Recorded 14 July 1970

Bonus Tracks

13)Baby Lemonade Take 1
14)Waving My Arms In The Air Take 1
15)I Never Lied To You Take 1
16)Love Song Take 1
17)Dominoes Take 1
18)Dominoes Take 2

19)It Is Obvious Take 2

Part 1: mihd.net/mxiq1f

Part 2: mihd.net/bdkmwf

PS: echoesof-the-past.blogspot.com