(Credits: Far Out / Pink Floyd)
Mon 15 September 2025 3:00, UK
After Syd Barrett was kicked out of Pink Floyd, he quickly became a physical representation of a heavy feeling.
“We were driving up Ladbroke Grove, and someone said ‘Shall we go and pick up Syd?’ and somebody else, probably Roger, said ‘Nah, let’s not’. And we didn’t, and we drove off down to Southampton”. That was David Gilmour’s explanation of how Pink Floyd cut their old leader loose.
As Barrett fell further and further into mental illness and addiction, the singer became increasingly unreliable until one night, it seemed like a better option to simply not bring him along.
It was a harsh way to do it, and over time, they all realised that. “I think there’s a lot of mixed emotions with the whole Syd thing. Because, in some ways, he was so smart in so many ways. I think there’s a bit of sadness now looking back on it – and a little bit of guilt,” Nick Mason said.
From then on, even when Barrett wasn’t in the band, his presence seemed to float in and out of the music, embodying a sense of guilt and upset that the rest of the group all felt. In particular, ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ held that presence, because one day, during the making of Wish You Were Here, Barrett himself wandered into the room.
“He just, for some incredible reason picked the very day that we were doing a song which was about him,” Wright recalled as they were already working on the starts of the track that day Barrett showed up.
He added, “We hadn’t seen him, I don’t think, for two years before. That’s what’s so incredibly… weird about this guy. And a bit disturbing, as well, I mean, particularly when you see a guy, that you don’t, you couldn’t recognise him. And then, for him to pick the very day we want to start putting vocals on, which is a song about him. Very strange.”
No longer looking like the friend they knew, Roger Waters was so distressed that he started crying. It was such an impactful moment that it floated into the song, becoming the band’s ode to their old mate but also a tragic consideration of the life they wished he could have instead.
That comes in the final part when Richard Wright’s keys take on a different story. Lighter and brighter than the rest of the song, the section encapsulates the band’s desire for Barrett to get better and live a happy life, or even to be able to get better and come back to them, as they mixed a bit of ‘See Emily Play’, Barrett’s finest song for the band, into this new track.
Holding that memory of better times, ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ became more than just a song about Barrett. Suddenly, it was now a tribute to his talent as well as a mournful reflection on a person they felt they’d already lost, as the man they knew was not the man who walked into the studio that day.
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