1. Octopus Listen Listen
2. Late Night Listen Listen
3. Terrapin Listen Listen
4. Swan Lee (Silas Lang) Listen Listen
5. Wolfpack Listen Listen
6. Golden Hair Listen Listen
7. Here I Go Listen Listen
8. Long Gone Listen Listen
9. No Good Trying Listen Listen
10. Opel Listen Listen
11. Baby Lemonade Listen Listen
12. Gigolo Aunt Listen Listen
13. Dominoes Listen Listen
14. Wouldn't You Miss Me (Dark Globe) Listen Listen
15. Wined And Dined Listen Listen
16. Effervescing Elephant Listen Listen
17. Waving My Arms In The Air Listen Listen
18. I Never Lied To You Listen Listen
19. Love Song Listen Listen
20. Two Of A Kind Listen Listen
21. Bob Dylan's Blues Listen Listen
22. Golden Hair Listen Listen
syd barrett is the lost genius behind the first pink floyd album and one of the most original recording artists of the late sixties. as a lyricist, he is without peer, his words never fail to strike a chord and are more poetry than song. this album represents a selection from his output recorded after leaving the floyd. syd was apparently not in good mental health at the time and many of the tracks here are unfinished but no less beautiful for all that.
syd is (did you guess?)one of my heroes, so why the low rating? Well, this is an odd collection which omits some of his best songs whilst including some weaker ones (swan lee, for example) and i would advise buyers to go for either the double cd of the original two solo albums ("the madcap laughs" and "barrett") or the triple cd which couples the afore mentioned with the out takes album "opel" (there's not much to write home about on opel). BUT this album is doubly annoying because it includes the reputedly excellent and long lost track "bob dylans blues" which has never been released before and which i have never heard. AND THAT MEANS I WILL PROBABLY BUY IT AND I HATE THAT!!!
cleverer people than me might be advised to hang back on that though because there apparently exist a few more lost tracks (not to mention the unreleased floyd tracks) and these are bound to come out on another collection soon.
a new decade, another repackage. thankfully, the sleeve notes are up to snuff and the research is well done. the selections are the right ones, but as others have stated, the absence of that last fabled missing track, 'living alone', currently in the hands of one david gilmour and the lack of the unreleased pink floyd era 'vegetable man' and 'scream thy last scream' leave us waiting for something a bit more authorative. a nice companion to palacios' 'lost in the woods', though. and if you have never dug into the man's music, now is the time.
This is indeed a great selection of Syd Barrett's solo material, and if you buy one Barrett album this is it.
However, his best work is what he did with Pink Floyd on their early singles and "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" album. The ideal Syd Barrett tribute would include some of this material, as well as the unreleased gems "Vegetable Man" and "Scream Thy Last Scream". Those two tracks are far more interesting than the only previously unknown track included here.
Still, the music is good but this compilation could have been better.
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