In order to help me decide where to go next with these memoirs, I started jotting down significant events that I wanted to include. My wife Julie said it’s what they call a “storyboard” in performing arts, movies and stuff.
The more I wrote down, the more I realized that so many of these significant events were interconnected. My storyboard soon started to resemble the chalkboard of some mad scientist. Arrows pointed from this thing to that, dates linked one seemingly meaningless occurrence to another.
After an hour or so of frantic scribbling I felt strangely at one with another slightly more famous Albert.
(Having said that, it’s always puzzled me how Albert Einstein could split the atom, yet was unable to brush his hair!)
My problem was, despite my elaborate storyboard/chalkboard I was still no closer to formulating a way
to put these stories into a coherent, flowing narrative.
Then I thought, I’ve spent a bit of time on the year 2017 so far, and there’s still a stack more to tell. So
why not keep going?
Then I considered the words “coherent, flowing narrative” and immediately thought of Syd Barrett.
I guess that shows how my brain works, huh? I doubt many people would associate coherent, flowing narrative with the genius of Syd Barrett, but I did. There was a loud “ding” and a light bulb burst into a shimmering glow above my head. (Picture me with a wide grin and my index finger pointing skyward.)
This was more than just an example of my brain working in reverse, but there was, in fact an entirely rational reason for linking 2017 with Syd Barrett… It was OPEL.
Yes, OPEL. I’m not talking about the cobbled-together third Syd Barrett solo album, but a song/tribute I
had written to Syd almost 30 years earlier.
I must have written it shortly after OPEL was released, because I used OPEL as an acronym for the song’s
title “One Peculiar English Lad”, which I felt was an appropriate and inoffensive description of Syd.
The song comprised of four verses, but for many years I had no tune for it, and only the vaguest idea as
to its style and feel.
As with the reading of James Silkweaver’s Songdude, OPEL languished on the back-burner for years. It lurched onto the front-burner for a while after Syd’s passing in 2006, where I think the tune first began to gel.
Then in 2016 I remember thinking it would be good to get the song finished and recorded by July 7, the tenth anniversary of Syd’s death, but I soon realized I was never going to reach that target.
But it certainly got the ball rolling, and as I started getting bits and pieces recorded more and more ideas started flooding in. What started as a dripping tap soon turned into a deluge, and the song began to change from a fairly simple pop song into a much more involved project.
Being the Pink Floyd fan that I am, it was always a thought of mine to write an epic, a song of the length of Echoes or Shine On, and it was becoming increasingly clear that this was it! This wasn’t going to be just a tribute to Syd Barrett, but as the ideas kept coming it was turning into a documentary of Syd in a song. I call it a “songumentary”.
The verses I had written all those years earlier had a key to them. The first letter of the first word in each line spelt out:
P.I.P.E.R.
M.A.D.C.A.P.
B.A.R.R.E.T.T.
O.P.E.L.
But now I was adding sound effects which related to songs from each album, then during the long instrumental sections I wanted to include comments from the Floyd members, as well as from Rado Klose, Joe Boyd and Peter Jenner.
I wasn’t sure what kind of trouble I might get into with copyright issues. Looking back I was quite naive, but I thought I’d need to get permission for the use of the various comments I wanted to include.
I was also going to be making a video (of sorts) to go with the song, and wanted to use still shots of those speaking.
I sent an email “To whom it may concern” via the Contact page at the official Syd Barrett website.
Syd’s nephew Ian Barrett replied almost immediately, although my inquiry was very unusual. Ian was used to people contacting him for permission to cover Syd’s songs, but here was some weirdo asking for permission to record a song about Syd, and using the odd sample here and there.
Fortunately Ian was very kind and very helpful.
In the mean time I had found a possible postal address for Peter Jenner. I’d had no contact with him formany, many years, but I sent a letter to him explaining my song and his part in it. Months later I found it in my own letter box with the words,
“RETURN TO SENDER. NOT KNOWN AT THIS ADDRESS” messily scrawled across it.
I also sent an email to Joe Boyd and explained the song to him. I received no reply.
I then found Rado Klose’s photography website. (Has anyone seen it? There are some quite brilliant photos on there!) Not wanting to be cheeky, I asked Rado if I could email him with an enquiry that wasn’t related to his photography. He replied with:
“What might your question be, I wonder? Let me know. Best regards, Rado“
I emailed him straight away explaining the song, and never heard from him again. Make of that what you will.
You may not think so but I have left out a huge amount of detail relating to my contact attempts, and it was starting to become very frustrating and depressing. The penny started to drop as to just what a stupid idea this had been.
Fancy being dumb enough to record a tribute song about an ex member of a band such as Pink Floyd! And fancy being so stupid that you record a 25 minute long epic when you’ve only ever properly recorded one song prior to that! Honestly I do my own head in sometimes!
John Cavanagh*
But I really must drag this back from the brink of bumming everybody out, so I’ll happily point out there had been two real positives in all this. One was Ian Barrett’s help, and the second was a contact Ian had put me onto, radio presenter John Cavanagh.
John had written a book about The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, which is featured on the LIBRARY page of this website, and had also interviewed Ian Barrett (at Ian’s Jurassic Jewellery workshop) as part of the 50th anniversary of Floyd’s iconic debut album.
Well whaddaya know? I hadn’t even thought of that, but maybe 2017 being Piper’s 50th anniversary also
played some subliminal part in me wanting to record a song about Syd?
There’s more I’ll say about my contact with John Cavanagh later, but first, back to my songumentary:
It got to the point where I decided to press on with it simply because of the time and effort I’d already put in. I ended up recording the voices of Rado Klose, Joe Boyd and Peter Jenner myself. I reckon I did a fairly decent impression of each of them, especially Jenner.
As for the use of the voices of Barrett, Gilmour, Mason, Waters and Wright, and samples of songs, I just thought, “Stuff it!” and included them anyway. If there were to be any copyright issues I’d just dump the song and file the whole experience under “Albert, You Idiot!” (It’s a huge and ever-increasing file.)
Eventually both the song and the video were completed, and I saw out 2017 with Ian Barrett telling me he “really liked it”. John Cavanagh also listened to it, and said, “This song deserves to be heard.” Coming from such a big Syd Barrett fan, that was pleasing to hear.
*Not really John Cavanagh