List of songs about or referencing Syd Barrett

Syd Barrett was known to be reclusive.^[1][2][3] Reclusiveness may coincide with mental disorders and some persons may have speculative diagnoses of schizophrenia (see List of people with schizophrenia), but this doesn't mean that Barrett's songs, and the songs about him, concern reclusion: for example, the instrumental "Interstellar Overdrive" exemplify Pink Floyd's early psychedelic period.

Barrett left Pink Floyd less than a year after the release of their first single, "Arnold Layne". He played with the band only on their first album (The Piper at the Gates of Dawn), recording two albums in 1970 (The Madcap Laughs and Barrett) which failed to chart. In 1975 the Pink Floyd album Wish You Were Here became a popular screed against music business with its theme the loss of Barrett.^{[lower-alpha 1]}

With the decline of the record industry^{[lower-alpha 2]} and changes in the music business,^{[lower-alpha 3]} Barrett's alienation remains relevant.^[4][5] The following list is indicative of Barrett's legacy.^[6]

Songs

Released	Title	Writer(s)	Artist	Notes
1979[7]	"What's the New Mary Jane"	John Lennon	The Beatles	Aug 1968 outtake, supposedly inspired by Barrett,[8][9] released in 1996
Apr 1999[10]	"Incarceration of a Flower a Child"	Roger Waters[11]	Marianne Faithfull	1968 composition supposedly about Barrett,[12][13] or perhaps a revision of it[14]
Nov 1972[15]	"Oh! Wot A Dream"	Kevin Ayers	Kevin Ayers	About Barrett[16]
Mar 1973[17]	"Brain Damage"	Roger Waters	Pink Floyd	References Barrett[18]
Sep 1974[19]	"Mr. Barrett"	John Steele [20]	Flaming Star	From a self-produced album dedicated to Barrett[20]
Sep 1975[21]	"Shine On You Crazy Diamond"	Roger Waters, Richard Wright, David Gilmour	Pink Floyd	About Barrett[22]
1978[23]	"Psychedelic Punkeroo"	Twink [24]	Twink And The Fairies	About Barrett[25]
Jan 1981[26]	"I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives"[27]	Dan Treacy	Television Personalities	About Barrett[28]
Apr 1981[29]	"The Man Who Invented Himself"[30]	Robyn Hitchcock	Robyn Hitchcock	Wrongly supposed to be about Barrett[31][32][33]
May 1984[34]	"Song For Syd Barrett"	Martin Newell	The Cleaners from Venus	About Barrett[35][36]
1986[37]	"Stolen Letters"	Magic Y, Uncle T[38]	Peter Sellers and the Hollywood Party	About Barrett[39]
1987[40]	"Spun Out Of A Mind"	Magic Uncle[41]	Peter Sellers and the Hollywood Party	Barrett lyrics in title[42]
June 1992[43]	"Song For Randy Newman Etc."	Martin Phillipps[44]	The Chills	Barrett mentioned[45]
Mar 1994[46]	"High Hopes"	David Gilmour, Polly Samson	Pink Floyd	Refers to Barrett[47]
Feb 1996[48]	"A Star Too Far (Lullaby for Syd Barrett)"[49]	Genesis P-Orridge, Larry Thrasher	Genesis P-Orridge and Psychic TV[50]	About Barrett[6][48]
May 1996[51]	"My Man Syd"	Anton Newcombe, The BJM [52]	The Brian Jonestown Massacre	About Barrett[53]
Oct 1998[54]	"1974"[55]	Robyn Hitchcock	Robyn Hitchcock	Refers to Barrett[56]
Nov 1998[57]	"Hyperdrive Reprise"	Dave Brock	Hawkwind	Instrumental for Pink Floyd book, partial cover[58]
2000[59]	"Anyday-Anyway (Encore)"[60]	Kevin Coyne, Achim Goettert[61]	Kevin Coyne	From a self-distributed live album about Barrett[62][63]
Dec 2000[64]	"Ya znayu, gde zhivet Syd Barrett"	Umka & Bro [65]	Umka & Bro	Russian version of "I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives"[64]
June 2004[66][67]	"Syd Barrett Blues"	Rod Webber	Rod Webber	About Barrett[68]
Oct 2005[69][70]	"Gente de Barrett"[71]	Sidonie	Sidonie	About Barrett[72]
Feb 2006[73][74]	"Syd Barrett"[75]	Alain Pire [76]	Michel Drucker Experience[77]	About Barrett[78]
Sep 2006[79]	"Scarecrows In The Rain"[80]	Mystery Jets	Mystery Jets	About Barrett[81]
Oct 2008[82]	"Oranges and Apples"	The Trash Can Sinatras[83]	The Trash Can Sinatras	About Barrett[82]
Nov 2008[84]	"Dark Asteroid"[85]	The Damned[86]	The Damned	Dedicated to Barrett[87][88]
Dec 2008[89]	"Nobody Home"	Phil Judd, Rod Leith	Phil Judd	Refers to Barrett[90]
2009[91]	"We Know Where Mr. Barrett Lives"[92]	Michael Svidén[93][94]	Michael Swidén	Revision of a July 2006 MP3 about Barrett,[95] released in 2010[96]
Sep 2010[97]	"Morts-Vivants"	Katerine[98]	Katerine	Mentions Barrett (in French)[99]
Mar 2012[100]	"When Your Garden's Overgrown"[101]	Paul Weller, Simon Dine[102]	Paul Weller	About Barrett[103]

Other songs

The above list may be incomplete, and subtle references may be found in songs not included above (especially Pink Floyd songs such as "Fearless")^[13] which would be more explicit in "Brain Damage"^[18] and songs in The Wall such as "Hey You" and "Nobody Home".^[104] Some claimed Barrett references turn out to be spurious.^[105][106] The Shamen credit their song "It's All Around" to Barrett^[107] and some bands, like Jennifer Gentle, are named for Barrett songs (in this case, from a line in "Lucifer Sam");^[108] two bands are known as Baby Lemonade.^[109] Italian band Birdy Hop is named for a Syd Barrett song;^[110] the title of their debut album, Welcome To The Insanity Ride, recalls a line from "Octopus"^[111][112] and producer and singer-songwriter Amerigo Verardi^[113] has been compared to Barrett.^[114]

Cover versions of Barrett songs

Of the many cover versions of Syd Barrett songs,^[14][115] the best-known are David Bowie's 1973 "See Emily Play",^[116] The Jesus and Mary Chain's 1984 "Vegetable Man",^[117] R.E.M.'s 1989 "Dark Globe"^[118] and the Smashing Pumpkins' 1991 "Terrapin".^[119]

Internet songs

Sharing and streaming over the Internet has resulted in a number of unreleased Barrett tributes, including the 1999 mp3 "Elephant" by Rex Tangle on his website,^[120] the 2000 instrumental MP3 "A Tribute to Syd" by The Worms on disc 18 of Have You Got It Yet?,^[14] a 2007 video of "There's A Man In Cambridge (Song for Syd Barrett)" by "Alec" on YouTube,^[121] and a 2007 parody cover video ("Pink Floyd - Paying The Piper") by "Pauldullson", also on YouTube.^[122]

Notes

The following are references cited in order to link to explanatory information. The references not cited in specific parts of the article are in the External links section at the bottom of the page. The other sources are in the next section.

1. Lasri, Hemza (18 December 2009). "Top Ten: Songs about other artists". ClashMusic.com. Clash Magazine Limited.
2. Evangelista, Benny (16 June 2003). "Music industry changing its tune / Teenagers who download from Internet finally forcing record industry to adapt". SFGate. Hearst Communications, Inc.
3. Wolff, Michael (10 June 2002). "Facing the Music". NYMag.com. New York Media LLC.

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Where not otherwise specified, the retrieved dates in the reference section are assumed to be 28 March 2014.

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External links

• The Music Industry and the Internet: A Decade of Disruptive and Uncontrolled Sectoral Change. Discussion Paper 2011-02 (April 2011) by Ulrich Dolata for the Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies at the Institute for Social Sciences at the University of Stuttgart.
• Is rock music dead? opinions at Debate.org
• Other Pink Floyd Related Albums overview at The Pink Floyd HyperBase
• Inspired By Syd Barrett & Pink Floyd: review page at Psychemusic.org
• Syd Barrett Tributes from Bowie, Robyn Hitchcock, Wayne Coyne and More at The Future Heart