I Wonder Who Could Be Writing This Song?
A few months ago, I went on my second NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) walk. Years ago when my friend started going, the local NAMI office could have held their meeting in a cafe. This year it was held in a vast gymnasium. It is good to see more people each year, eager to break the stigma attached to a condition that strikes one in four Americans in their lifetime. If you are one of them, you aren't crazy. You are human. And you are not alone. Think of Abraham Lincoln, Edgar Allen Poe, Sylvia Plath, Winston Churchill, Earnest Hemingway, Beethoven, Michelangelo, Van Gogh -- they had mental illness. They enriched our lives.
I know many people who are artists that are "mentally ill" but I can't tell you about them yet since I was told in confidence. The stigma is still there. It is becoming okay to tell the world almost anything about your private life -- anything... but that. Our bodies are out of the closet, but that door is still shut on our minds. People don't want to admit THAT -- not even to themselves.
That got me thinking about Syd Barrett. He created Pink Floyd -- wrote all the songs and was the lead guitarist. Early on in their career he was asked to leave the group (well okay, they just stopped picking him up for recording dates) because he developed Schizophrenia. It wasn't just hard on Syd, but for the rest of the group. To them it must have seemed like they were four Ringos trying to replace Paul McCartney and John Lennon in the Beatles. Syd had written all their hit singles and invented English Psychedelic music. What had the rest of the group done at that point? Watched in awe as he became a phenomenon and then in horror as he imploded.
"Thank you for m-m-m-making it clear that I'm not here... I wonder who could be writing this song?" Syd sniped in a song he wrote, "Jugband Blues," about Pink Floyd without him. After all, to him, his former mates were abandoning him (and any chance of continued success with the group).
Pink Floyd went on to become one of the most famous groups in history -- but they never really shook the ghost of Syd. The seminal Floyd albums: The Wall, Wish You Were Here and Dark Side of the Moon are about him. He was no longer leading the group, but yet he was still shaping the group's output. He had a profound effect on their direction and music (albums about madness) even after he had left. In a way, those albums are a family dealing with the loss of a cherished loved one -- a childhood friend lost to the world and him self.
“Jugband Blues”
By Syd Barrett
A few months ago, I went on my second NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) walk. Years ago when my friend started going, the local NAMI office could have held their meeting in a cafe. This year it was held in a vast gymnasium. It is good to see more people each year, eager to break the stigma attached to a condition that strikes one in four Americans in their lifetime. If you are one of them, you aren't crazy. You are human. And you are not alone. Think of Abraham Lincoln, Edgar Allen Poe, Sylvia Plath, Winston Churchill, Earnest Hemingway, Beethoven, Michelangelo, Van Gogh -- they had mental illness. They enriched our lives.
I know many people who are artists that are "mentally ill" but I can't tell you about them yet since I was told in confidence. The stigma is still there. It is becoming okay to tell the world almost anything about your private life -- anything... but that. Our bodies are out of the closet, but that door is still shut on our minds. People don't want to admit THAT -- not even to themselves.
That got me thinking about Syd Barrett. He created Pink Floyd -- wrote all the songs and was the lead guitarist. Early on in their career he was asked to leave the group (well okay, they just stopped picking him up for recording dates) because he developed Schizophrenia. It wasn't just hard on Syd, but for the rest of the group. To them it must have seemed like they were four Ringos trying to replace Paul McCartney and John Lennon in the Beatles. Syd had written all their hit singles and invented English Psychedelic music. What had the rest of the group done at that point? Watched in awe as he became a phenomenon and then in horror as he imploded.
"Thank you for m-m-m-making it clear that I'm not here... I wonder who could be writing this song?" Syd sniped in a song he wrote, "Jugband Blues," about Pink Floyd without him. After all, to him, his former mates were abandoning him (and any chance of continued success with the group).
Pink Floyd went on to become one of the most famous groups in history -- but they never really shook the ghost of Syd. The seminal Floyd albums: The Wall, Wish You Were Here and Dark Side of the Moon are about him. He was no longer leading the group, but yet he was still shaping the group's output. He had a profound effect on their direction and music (albums about madness) even after he had left. In a way, those albums are a family dealing with the loss of a cherished loved one -- a childhood friend lost to the world and him self.
“Jugband Blues”
By Syd Barrett
It's awfully considerate of you to think of me here
And I'm most obliged to you for making it clear
That I'm not here.
And I never knew the moon could be so big
And I never knew the moon could be so blue
And I'm grateful that you threw away my old shoes
And brought me here instead dressed in red
And I'm wondering who could be writing this song.
I don't care if the sun don't shine
And I don't care if nothing is mine
And I don't care if I'm nervous with you
I'll do my loving in the winter.
And the sea isn't green
And I love the queen
And what exactly is a dream?
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