{"id":807322,"date":"2020-05-11T13:09:12","date_gmt":"2020-05-11T19:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=997543"},"modified":"2020-05-11T13:09:12","modified_gmt":"2020-05-11T19:09:12","slug":"watch-pink-floyds-david-gilmour-sing-two-syd-barrett-solo-songs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/watch-pink-floyds-david-gilmour-sing-two-syd-barrett-solo-songs\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch Pink Floyd\u2019s David Gilmour Sing Two Syd Barrett Solo Songs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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David Gilmour<\/a> has always worked hard to keep the memory of his Pink Floyd<\/a> predecessor, Syd Barrett<\/a>, alive. Most recently, he paid tribute by covering two tracks by Barrett on a family livestream.<\/p>\n

Over the years, Gilmour has kept songs from 1967\u2019s The Piper at the Gates of Dawn<\/em> as staples in the setlists for both Pink Floyd\u2019s and his solo tour \u2014 despite the fact that he didn\u2019t play on that record. And, in 1970, he co-produced two solo albums by Barrett: The Madcap Laughs<\/em> and Barrett<\/em>. During the livestream, Gilmour tapped into the material once more, performing Madcap\u2019<\/em>s only single, \u201cOctopus,\u201d and Barrett\u2019<\/em>s \u201cDominoes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOctopus\u201d comes at around the 17:35 minute mark in the video above, Gilmour strumming the chords and singing Barrett\u2019s typically fantastical lyrics in his deep, husky voice. It\u2019s a more stripped-down affair than Barrett\u2019s original<\/a>, which featured drums and harmonized vocals.<\/p>\n

Gilmour sings \u201cDominoes,\u201d which has a similarly forceful acoustic guitar line, at around the 32:50 mark. Barrett\u2019s version of the song<\/a> featured organ (played by Floyd\u2019s Rick Wright, Gilmour\u2019s co-producer on the Barrett<\/em> album) and drums (by Gilmour!), plus more psychedelic touches like sounds in reverse.<\/p>\n

Gilmour explained during the family stream that he is editing an upcoming collection of Barrett\u2019s lyrics. \u201cThe lyrics have never been printed properly,\u201d Gilmour said. \u201cSyd never wrote them down. They were never properly transcribed. There are all sorts of different versions of all of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for \u201cDominoes,\u201d Gilmour said that the lyrics were merely about playing a game of dominoes. He said it was his favorite Barrett song: \u201cThere\u2019s something very still about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, he went on to explain the origins of Pink Floyd and how his friendship with Barrett goes back to when they were both 14 years old, as well as how they spent their time in art school. \u201cHe was this maverick writer and leader,\u201d Gilmour said. \u201cHe was a couple of years younger than the other guys, but he was very, very bright. Somehow, very, very sadly, he lost his mind. There are all sorts of theories as to why he lost his mind, and certainly I suspect it was exacerbated by his drug use. But he was an enormous amount of fun and a brilliant poet.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Barrett\u2019s lyrics, Gilmour said he felt like the artist was often making them up as he went along since he never wrote them down. \u201cIt was very similar to the way that he talked,\u201d Gilmour said. \u201cYou\u2019re struggling to get to grips with what he\u2019s meaning. It\u2019s not gobbledygook; they definitely mean something to him, but there\u2019s a sort of a barrier between him and me and anyone else that prevents us from being able to hear it. \u2026 That\u2019s what it was like to talk to him in that period, 1969, 1968, \u201970.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding \u201cOctopus,\u201d Gilmour pointed out the line, \u201cThe madcap laughed at the man on the border,\u201d and said he suggested The<\/em> Madcap Laughs<\/em> as the title of the album. \u201cI think the word \u2018madcap\u2019 doesn\u2019t mean mad, it means zany,\u201d Gilmour said. Upon revisiting the master tapes, though, Gilmour said he found out that Barrett had actually sung \u201cthe mad cat laughs\u201d \u2014 \u201cso I named it wrongly in 1969,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason \u2014 who has been performing many Barrett-era Floyd songs with his band Saucerful of Secrets<\/a> in recent years \u2014 posited a new theory about Barrett\u2019s mental state in a 2016 Rolling Stone<\/a><\/em> interview. \u201cI think perhaps what was happening was Syd had realized he didn\u2019t want to be in a rock band at all,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019d done that, decided it wasn\u2019t really what he wanted to do and probably wanted to go back to art school, but he couldn\u2019t find a way of getting out of it. \u2026 I think what was going on was Syd really was trying to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Rolling Stone<\/a><\/em> relayed Mason\u2019s opinion to Roger Waters the next year, he said it was possible. \u201cIt\u2019s a perfectly decent theory,\u201d he said. \u201cI think that maybe there is something to that, but we\u2019ll never know, because Syd wasn\u2019t making all that much sense by that time, so it\u2019s hard to know where he was at or what he was thinking. We\u2019ll never know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gilmour performs weekly with his family as part of a series called Theatre for Dreamers<\/em>, named after his wife Polly Samson\u2019s latest book. The family has previously played Leonard Cohen songs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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David Gilmour has always worked hard to keep the memory of his Pink Floyd predecessor, Syd Barrett, alive. Most recently, he paid tribute by covering two tracks by Barrett on a family livestream. Over the years, Gilmour has kept songs from 1967\u2019s The Piper at the Gates of Dawn as staples in the setlists for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-807322","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-11 10:13:39","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807322\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}