Syd Barrett - No Good Trying Lyrics

Soft machine and Barrett, would've been cool to see the footage. Kind of sounds like the band overlapped a solo recording, like with rats. Idk, a strange song though.

I wish Syd Barret would have hooked up with the musicians from Soft Machine and acted as bandleader, right from the beginning. We might have missed out on some great Soft Machine tracks, but I think everyone would have been better off that way. Soft Machine was more on his level than the rest of the Floyds. And I am sure the Floyd would still have been able to manage to become a famous progressive pop band, even without Syd to inspire them.

he went nutso like peter green from fleetwood mac. gave his money away and drank tea and played legos with mum.,,,,at least thats what i was always told
but he is a funky master of that chug chug songbook

The legend

this is the best song off this album.

octopus and no man's land are awesome too.

"here i go" is pretty solid if you get past the weak entrance. but i would put this song and octopus with that as syd's best

your music calms me down, thank you syd, wherever you are.

Solid Barrit.

That sounds quite modern

Yeah, not kind of old like most post-Barrett Floyd does.

That's because his music is timeless. Syd is an enigma, unfathomable

Stin Haffin thank David Gilmour.

Because people are still struggling to catch up.

@Noise Ninja moron

YOUR ROCKING BACKWARDS AND ROCKING TOWARD A YELLOW HORSE..........ICAN TELL THAT YOU CANT BE WHAT YOU PRETEND.

If Pink Floyd would have ended after 1967, few people would have known Barrett.
Barrett even may not have made his solo albums. After the failed, unfinished solo sessions of 1968, Harvest label manager Malcolm Jones had to convince the record company to give Barrett another chance. I guess the rise of his ex-band Pink Floyd must have been part of getting that second chance.

After the failed, unfinished solo sessions of 1968, Harvest label
manager Malcolm Jones had to convince the record company to give Barrett
another chance

Malcolm Jones never said that. Where are you getting that from - Pink Floyd industry official output?

"Their success meant an income for Barrett for the rest of his life"

Incorrect, Barrett never received royalties for any PF album beyond Saucerful. Why would he receive money for albums he never contributed to?

"I guess the rise of his ex-band Pink Floyd must have been part of getting that second chance."

What rise? You mean Ummagumma topping out at #74 on the Billboard 200? PF was hardly *huge* during the era of solo Barrett, though they were commercially successful in the UK.

it would take a certain album with a prism on it to make PF huge

Yes, and curious music fans who turned on to PF from the album with the prism on it would naturally check out the back catalog. Hence the royalties that continued to go to Syd Barrett for his work.

You'd think, but the double album reissue of Barrett/Madcap in '74 topped out at #163. It wasn't until the 80's and PF's disintegration when stories of the old days began to come out that Barrett started to receive notoriety again, leading to Opel's release in '88.

yes i can tell
that you cant be, what you pretend

Happy 70th Birthday to a timeless genius, a visionary, the true original that was Syd Barrett. You are still thought of, down here :)

Cheers from Syd’s spirit

@JimiJop Woodstock lol what even

This song is beyond pinkfloyd I would to do a cover of it

The best song produced that near no one has heard, life changingly excellent and the epitome of genius. Goes so fucking hard in any decade since or after

Would've made a great Beatle.

If he couldn't take the burgeoning success of the Pink Floyd in those days, then there is no way he could possibly have made a Beatle, let alone a great one.

would have been a great Beach Boy. In another world.

Hahaha Syd would have killed himself with that amount of fame.

He belongs to Floyd.
Rather Floyd belongs to him.

Syd is far better talented than the Beatles

Syd with the SOFT MACHINE backing him.

That Wyatt drummingggggggggg

For real, this is almost too good to be true,.Hahaha, Syd was just like: Damn, my band just left me because they say I got too high, I need a set of talented young men to play with, let me just call The Greatest Prog Rock of All Times The Soft Fuckin' Machine, to see if they are available and want to record a couple of masterpieces with me.

Sherriff's comment is the best on this video. The end.

"There'd be no Pink Floyd at all without Syd I think..." I think the same thing! <3

@zeravla65 same here, he helped the band much too much to become what it became
peace and love

He was pink floyd in the beginning couple years

The X-Files brought me here.

+Mythic Rare Thank you good sir for getting me to watch X files with your comment haha, think I'll watch more episodes from that season, loved all the Syd stuff in Lord of the Flies

Same here, such a killer track. It really stuck out on that x-files episode

which episode/season?

Season 9 episode 5. Lord of the flies.

one of  my top 10 fav song of all time.

Syd, the main in pink floyd style

I have read that Syd was a great innovator on guitar (by David Gilmour and others) and this is probably so but what I am sure of is that Syd was one of the greatest lyricist ever. He could write an imaginative and beautiful song whether it be straightforward and literal like "Arnold Layne" or abstract like" It's No Good Trying". He knew how to create a feeling or image like no other I have listened to. For that alone he was a genius.

Oh god. Here’s another Jim Morrison fucking fanatic. Overrated

@Damien Williams YES

Soft parade sucked

Which would win a fight between Rodger Barret and Jim Morrison? ?

@BOOBIE FEEŤ Jim, of course. Sorry Syd.

My favorite track of his. I think I actually prefer take number 5 of this better but either way I love it.

+Kathy O'Neil Yes, so many alternate takes of his songs I love

I think the drums are amazing. For me, they illustrate a feeling of being in the bumper cars ("spinning around and around in a car / with electric lights flashing very fast") at a fairground.

Didn't David Gilmour play the drums on this one?

@ChablesMan .
The drummer here is Robert Wyatt of The Soft Machine. Hugh Hopper and Mike Ratledge are also present. They also did 'Love You' and a previously unreleased version of 'Octopus' (aka 'Clowns and Jugglers').
Maybe David Gimour drummed on the final, released version of 'Octopus'. That drummer is unknown.

That's right!
It's been ages since I've listened to this stuff. My memory's a bit rusty haha

really nice observation, dude

is the typical wyatt drums style...but more straight vs soft machine style more crazy

Drummer Robert Wyatt said that the musicians would ask "What key is that in, Syd?", to which Barrett would simply reply "Yeah".

Robert Wyatt also said: This is an extract from an interview of Robert Wyatt, drummer with The Soft Machine, talking about working with Syd. The interview is by Ritchie Unterberger, taken from the book: Unknown legends of Rock'n'Roll.


Q: I wanted to ask a question about someone else in the book who I won't be able to interview. You drummed on some of Syd Barrett's solo records.

Wyatt: I didn't see them (the Pink Floyd) perform very much. I liked him. He was shy, he was thoughtful, and he was definitely onto something.

Q: Did you find him difficult to work with?

Wyatt: Absolutely not, no. Very easy. Almost too easy. He was very, very easygoing. So easygoing that you didn't necessarily know what he wanted, or whether he was pleased with it or not, because he seemed quite pleased with what you did. I think possibly he may have suffered as well from moving into the world of commercial culture, as they did. I think it might have been very confusing for him. Being an artist, working in an attic, to us - this may be a silly illusion, it's just a silly romantic dream, just like being a pop star. But I don't his romantic dreams were anything to do with the responsibilities of commercial pop stardom.

It's not a snobbishness, this thing about commercial stuff. It's just the fact that it seems to have a momentum all its own, and there seems to be demands made on it. You know how it is with, for example, Hollywood films--they're really accountant-led. Being big and famous doesn't get you more freedom, it gets you less, you know what I mean? It happens in the music itself as well. All the machinery that starts to come into gear, from management and touring and the whole way it's done, the musician becomes a fairly small cog in a machine where all these sort of semi-comatose people in the industry certainly come alive, and they certainly know how to act. And suddenly, your whole life is being run by lawyers and accountants. And you're meant to be very pleased, because you've made it and so on. But in fact, you're just getting carried along in a flow where your own personal thing can get completely lost.

As I say, it's not a question of snobbery. Some wonderful stuff comes out of that. But if you did have your own little thing, maybe it can't survive being put through that kind of process. I have no idea, but I imagine that could easily have been what happened to Syd. That the actual success of the band just completely threw him off-balance, I can imagine.

Q: Is there truth to the stories that the musicians on his solo albums weren't told what key the song was in, or that they just had to settle on whatever takes were completed?

Wyatt: That's true, but I mean, that's not very... I was brought up, musically, in the '50s. If you want eccentricity, and that kind of non-verbal world and those kind of weird signals that you have to pick up, you can't beat jazz musicians, you know (laughs). I'm just reading the stories, as I say, about working with Mingus and all those people. Working with Syd Barrett's a piece of cake, I think. I found him courteous and friendly. I can't think of anything wrong with him. I really liked his songs. I liked them musically, I liked them lyrically, and I liked the way he sang them. I can't fault him, really. I don't think he did anything wrong that I know of. I just think that not everybody fits into the business. I know from personal experience, it's not that easy

Sheriff Lophophora Wow the best reflexion I'd read about Barrett's crisis!

Thank you for sharing.

There'd be no Pink Floyd at all without Syd I think.

Soft Machine, long time no hear.

Syd's songs are not to everyone, let's agree to disagree about that. But that he was a genius, there's no doubt.

ps . i very love all the " takes " of the original studio recordings . epic . syd was a mastermind . shine on you crazy diamond !

agreed . pink floyd wouln´d be the same without mr barrett !

Its a backwards guitar, Syd's play really fast on high frets so it does kinda sound like a keyboard

Metallica fangirls

Who could dislike this?

can anyone please tell me if thats a guitar or keyboards at 0:40? I always thought it was guitar but now i'm thinking its some overdriven keyboard. such a great track...

I belive that too cford

Soft Machine with Syd. Great version!

all Dark Side of the Moon is about him somehow

No it wasnt. Dark side of the moon was a commentary and partial satire on the human condition as it pertains to society and the environments we created for ourselves through civilization.

Shine On You Crazy Diamond was explicitly about Syd. He showed up at the studio, slumping over in an overcoat.

Not counting Meddle or Animals, his influence was present in ALL of their most famous albums. Wish You Were Here had Shine On, the titular track, and Have A Cigar, all hugely about him or the times with him. Brain Damage on "Dark Side" is about him. And then the concept of The Wall are based on his experiences. Roger Waters himself said that all of pink floyd, post and during Syd's era, was hugely dependant on him and his influence.

Probably because of the trip he took to Ibiza in 1969 to meet up with his friends. British musicians were all going there in the sixties and seventies

The Softs are just great in this album...

don't ask me why but hearing Syd reminds me of Ibiza and when in Ibiza I think aboutt Syd a lot

One of the best of the best

Every day, from your birth to the eternity, SYD, shine more, and more. Every day more...

Someone tell me if Waters or Gilmour have better songs than any song of Barrett, Barrett was at the level of Lennon, Mccartney, Harrison, Hendrix...

Judging by the top 2 comments Syd Barrett also makes your keyboard put caps lock on every time you mention his name.

It's no good trying to miss the like button, but two sods however did it.

Flyod became at odds with each other after Dark side but when it came to Syd they ALL had a soft spot for him and wanted him to get better - lol, i wasn't there but that's the impression i get being a fan for 15 years.

Anyway, Barrett had nothing to do in The dark Side or in The wall... Waters took control, but always after barrett's departure. What could have been if...???? But this is another story. Barrett was important in the band as founder and first leader, and as a future inspiration, but he's not Pink Floyd. He WAS pink floyd in 1966 - 1968, without any kind of doubt, then Waters had his time, (I think that the Barrett era helped him a lot) and then Gilmour...

Gustavo De la Camara Montes thank you sir. Most of the songs on Dark side of the moon & the wall are about Syd. Don't forget wish you were here. Thanks again

Gustavo De la Camara Montes Syd had everything to do with dark side of the moon

Barrett was the leader, then he got a nervous breakdown, depression or something strange that made him disappear... In the times of The Piper HE was Pink Floyd: singer, composer and guitar player. And meanwhile, Waters was ONE MORE of the rest, and Gilmour didt't even know where he was. Pink Floyd had a transition between Piper and Meddle that lasted 3 years and was clearly worse that the Barrett time. They needed three years to find they way, and the could because they were already famous.