As you may know, I have a taste for the psychedlic. Well it really doesn't get much better than this:
http://www.feedthehead.net/
Persevere my friend, it is well worth it.
Edwyn Collins is back after a long period of illness. Read this article at eMusic and be sure to check out the link to the new video in the last paragraph.
So, before we get to the video here's a quick explanation of it's background.
During the late sixties Syd Barrett formed and led Pink Floyd. A handsome chap, a talented songwriter and an incredible guitarist it seemed that the world was his oyster. Unfortunately, his enthusiastic consumption of LSD led to a mental breakdown.
Syd would leave the recording studio seemingly at random. He became increasingly erratic at gigs, sometimes playing a different song to the rest of the band. He became distant from his fellow band members and, by all accounts, everyone else as well.
This scared the almighty shit out of the rest of the band as they were nothing without Syd, but Syd was a liability. The band came up with a cunning plan. Firstly they'd hire Dave Gilmour to stand in for Syd while they were on the road. Secondly they'd only need Syd to write songs and after that they could probably work around him in the studio.
Syd was not pleased. When the band first played live with Gilmour, Syd stood in the front row and glowered at him for the entire show.
And, as you can hear from this track, Syd made his feelings fairly clear (or at least as clear as he was capable of) in Jugband Blues: "I'm most obliged to you for making it clear that I'm not here"
The sadness of all of this is compounded by the video. In the past Floyd videos had been four lads mucking about in a field. Here, they stand very still and in isolation. Syd is still handsome but his eyes are dead and the edits indicate to me that he may have had trouble miming along. Nevertheless this is one of Syd's most beautiful and poignant songs.
Enjoy!
What's not to like.
(crikey, I've been away from here far too long)
