Crazy Diamond gets a fresh setting
Alan Hutchins | Denver, CO | 11/26/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Roger "Syd" Barrett was the guitarist, lead vocalist and a founding member of Pink Floyd who wrote the A-side songs for the first three Pink Floyd singles as well as almost all of the songs on the first Pink Floyd LP The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Syd's time with the band ran from the 1964 amateur/student beginnings of the group through their 1967 EMI recordings and extensive touring, up to early 1968, when as a result of his downward-spiraling mental health and increasingly unhinged behavior, he was first supplemented by and then replaced by Dave Gilmour. Though no longer a band member band before the spring of 1968, Syd's influence and impact on Pink Floyd has lasted almost throughout their entire career. Such 70's Floyd albums as Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here or The Wall are chock full of references to him, and central to each of these albums is the concept of a (Syd's) decent into insanity. Even their 2 disc career retrospective collection from 2002 entitled Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd contains 5 of his songs, plus several that reference him, such as "Shine On Crazy Diamond", the song that contains the lyrics that give this tribute disc its title. Thus, a very high percentage of the compilation is Syd-related given only about one year's worth of EMI recordings with Syd's involvement in Floyd's long, storied history.
Syd's brief time with Floyd resulted in a total of 16 officially-released, fairly psychedelic, Syd-written or co-written songs; 1 pre-EMI soundtrack song called "Nick's Boogie"(if you're searching, this and an eariler version of "Interstellar Overdrive" can be found on Tonite Let's All Make Love in London) , 10 on "Piper At The Gates Of Dawn", four on the first three singles (not counting "Scarecrow", which was also on "Piper...", or "Paintbox", which was written by the recently-deceased Rick Wright; the singles can be found on the 1967 Singles Sampler (Limited Edition) ) and a final song on the second LP A Saucerful of Secrets. In addition, some other Syd-penned songs were known to have been recorded or demoed with the band but have never officially been released, including "Vegetable Man". Post-Floyd, Syd began a drug-addled, patchy, sporadic solo career that resulted in two albums released in 1970, The Madcap Laughs and Barrett (both heavily assisted by Dave Gilmour), along with a later compilation of outtakes and BBC sessions entitled Opel (and some repackaging of these items with additional, increasingly incoherent outtakes trickling out since then). As the 70's waned, Syd further loosened his grasp on reality and eventually returned to his mother's house in Cambridge, where he lived off of Floyd/Solo royalties and maintained a quiet, music-business-free existence until his death in 2006 at age 60.
"Black Holes in The Sky" is made up of versions of nine Floyd songs (8 of the 16 officially-released Syd-written/co-written songs plus a version of "Vegetable Man") and four from Syd's solo albums (three from "The Madcap Laughs" and one from "Barrett"). It is not exactly clear why this tribute wasn't solely made up of Syd-penned Floyd songs; if you're going to do 9, why not make it all 13? Several more could have been included here--some great ones such as "Candy and a Currant Bun", "Jugband Blues" "Scream Thy Last Scream" or "Apples And Oranges" are unrepresented. Likewise, some of the more coherent solo songs were overlooked---but the real test of a tribute like this is what the performers do with the songs chosen, not in what missed the cut.
The versions present in the collection are remarkably diverse yet blend together pretty well. They generally reflect a sonic updating and toughening up of the original material. The 1967 version of Pink Floyd was a full-on British psychedelic act with whimsical, acid-trip lyrics, experimental-sounding keyboard-driven instrumental passages and a near Grateful-Dead-like propensity to jam. The general approach by the various artists here is to downplay the whimsy, throw out the swirling keyboards and go with the visceral gut-punch of distorted, sometimes detuned guitar and head-banging tempos. The songs generally come off as much more "metal" than Syd/Floyd's sound ever was, and for the most part, this helps give the somewhat dated-sounding songs a modern dusting-off (and sometimes, butt-kicking).
Special mention among these 13 songs: Stinking Lizaveta turns the lightweight "Matilda Mother" into a dirge-tempo, guitar-heavy grunge-fest. Similarly strengthened is the ultra-whimsical "Flaming"--Pentagram retains vocals similar to Syd's, yet draw from the deepest well of guitar distortion for an interesting blend of the old and new in their version. "Lucifer Sam" rather brilliantly alternates tempos between a snail-paced main riff, and pure speed-metal verses as laid down by Yakuza. Jesu makes "Chapter 24" much more trippy than the original with vocal delays and a synthesizer-like bassline. A more quiet moment is provided by Circle doing "Rats" with minimal, acoustic instrumentation. Syd's lyrics in this one essentially provide evidence of his slipping mental state, with lines such as, "Bam, spastic, tactile engine heaving, crackle, slinky, dormy, roofy, wham I'll have them fried bloke..." (No, I am not making these up!)
Less successful are a few more "out there" versions, such as Giant Squid's "Johnny Rotten on meth" vocals dominating a stomach-churning psychotic deconstruction of "Octopus" (admittedly a tough song to fix up) or the moping, goth-like "Late Night" turned in by Jarboe. Zodiac make a difficult, dense-sounding hash of "See Emily Play" to close the disc, the one time in this collection that "heaviness" seems to have overwhelmed the source material.
In all, though, the batting average for this tribute is fairly high and the interesting and well-done versions of Syd's songs outweigh the hard-to-take ones by at least 3-to-1. Any fan of "heavier" music that also likes Syd-era Floyd will get a kick out of the re-imaginings of these 40-or-so year old songs. Do your paisley-adorned self a favor and hunt this one down for its inventive reinvention of the work of one amazingly talented, tragically altered key figure in Pink Floyd, 60's Psychedelia, and Rock music in general.
"
Worth a listen for Syd fans...
Waikiki | Honolulu, Hi | 01/02/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I agree -- this collection is, on balance, worth a listen. I immediately deleted Octopus -- painful -- and Emily is just overdone. I wish Dominoes and Wined and Dined were on here, but they might be too basic musically, needing a more profound lyrical approach -- not easy. Of course, nobody seems to want to touch Scream Thy Last Scream, which I have always thought was one of Syd's best songs....."
Track Listings (13) - Disc #1