A Very Irregular Head (Rob Chapman, 2010)

There is something about reading books by music journalists that is inherently unsatisfying. I think it has a tendency to be too opinionated in all of the wrong ways. More on that later. First, an overview of the very thorough Syd Barrett biography, A Very Irregular Head.

As a Pink Floyd-listening teen, I'd argue with my friends about who "was" Pink Floyd and the battle lines were drawn between David Gilmour and Roger Waters. By the way, the technically correct answer is neither; only Nick Mason appears on every Pink Floyd album. Of course we'd snicker at the random few people who contended that Syd Barrett was the real Pink Floyd and that every album since A Saucerful of Secrets was a fraud. We'd also get a good laugh at the concept of Syd Barrett himself. I mean the guy was totally nutters, right? There were all kinds of crazy stories of the "founder" of Pink Floyd doing freaky stuff, probably under the influence of LSD. Heck there was even Syd's First Trip (a questionable video account of his first time dropping acid), just to prove it!

Well, Mr. Chapman is one of those crazy Syd-defenders and he would have been absolutely appalled at how we gobbled up all of the stories. In 400 pages, he takes on the daunting task of disproving these stories and, in turn, painting a portrait of the real Syd Barrett, a genius with a fragile mind, not a simple "acid casualty". Now, 400 pages is a lot of material to write about a man with an extremely short recording history who destroyed virtually all of his primary source documentation. Chapman himself was not exactly a contemporary, having met Barrett only once, during the ill-fated Stars era and de facto end of his career. Therefore the book relies heavily on extensive interviews of his friends, though (aside from a few public statements) no input from Gilmour, Waters, Wright, or Mason. Also adding to the padding is a lot of pop lit-crit, tying the lyrics to childhood inspirations, particularly The Wind in the Willows and Alice in Wonderland.

Since there isn't a lot of professionally-recorded material by Syd Barrett - two albums with Pink Floyd, two solo albums, a few singles, and a bushel of outtakes - it's pretty easy for Chapman to analyze each song with a degree of depth probably not possible in, say, a book covering the entire discography of Pink Floyd. To Chapman's credit, and what makes this the only Syd Barrett bio you need to read, is that he treats Syd Barrett with great respect and doesn't resort to telling "Syd stories" which other bios heavily depended upon. Unfortunately, toward the end of the book this passionate defense of Syd turns into an excoriation of his old band, and a general disgust with the direction of rock by the 1970's. I just didn't see the point of labeling the Rolling Stones nothing more than a "druggy jam band", saying Ray Davies couldn't write after 1970, and writing off any band who bailed on psych rock (like...ahem...the Beatles) as ultimately a failure. By the end of the book, he had sort of become that depressing friend you know that doesn't like any bands anymore because their first album was as good as it got. It reminded me too much of watching those awful "Critical Rock Review" documentaries featuring a bunch of talking heads bemoaning a band's entire career because, god forbid, they changed and weren't just rehashing their first album over and over.

Anyway, with these caveats in mind, if you have a strong interest in Syd Barrett, you should definitely check this one out. However, if you believe losing Barrett was the best move Pink Floyd ever made, or  you like 1970's rock, this book may very well just end up making you angry. It's your call.