Words by Riley Fitzgerald
Graphic by Mick Rock

Pink Floyd will release an illustrated book titled The Lyrics of Syd Barrett February 18, 2021. 

Drawn from 56 of Syd Barrett‘s songs The Lyrics of Syd Barrett has been compiled by author Rob Chapman.

Assisting Chapman in the task was Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour.

“Syd Barrett started Pink Floyd,” Gilmour recalled in his Von Trapped Family Podcast earlier this year, “he was its original leader… He was a couple of years younger than all the other guys but he was very bright. Somehow, very, very sadly, he lost his mind.”

To uncover the meaning of the Pink Floyd visionary’s lyrics, Gilmour consulted several of Barrett’s original vocal demo recordings.

“It’s extremely hard to get them correct,” Gilmour revealed.

The process was also an emotional experience for the guitarist.

“It’s kind of sad and moving to kind of listen to old Sydney singing away on his own,” he stated.

“I can remember being there in the room when he was doing these things and it’s a source of constant sadness.”

Gilmour believes this first authoritative record of Barrett’s lyrics would shed new light on the work of Pink Floyd’s original creative visionary.

David Gilmour was a childhood friend Syd Barrett.

He would later join Pink Floyd on January 12, 1968, as a guitarist and co-lead vocalist alongside Barrett whose notorious mental breakdown was making him less and less predictable onstage.

The pair’s time together in Pink Floyd, however, was brief.

Syd would unceremoniously be ejected from the group within weeks of Gilmour’s joining.

Barrett’s legacy would linger in the minds of his former bandmates.

His work and a spectacular meltdown would also inspire material on Pink Floyd’s best-known albums The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, and The Wall.

After a short-lived solo career, Barrett retired to live a life of reclusion until passing pass away in 2006.

The Lyrics of Syd Barrett will be released via Omnibus Press.

“Legendary Pink Floyd founding member Syd Barrett’s songwriting was unique, memorable and utterly brilliant,” Omnibus writes of the release. “Featuring 56 songs and a foreword by Pink Floyd’s first manager, Peter Jenner, and an introduction by Rob Chapman (author of Syd Barrett: A Very Irregular Head), this beautifully illustrated and official book compiles Syd’s extraordinary lyrics together for the very first time.”

Pre-order a copy here.