Syd Barrett's Final Recording Sessions

Scans of Studio Logs:
Studio Log 1 / Studio Log 2 / Studio Log 3 / Studio Log 4

30.05 gets going again
30.45 disintegrates

...in November 1974, [Peter] Jenner...managed to coax Syd into the studio. Any lingering hope of a fruitful session disappeared when Syd arrived with a stringless guitar. A set of strings was eventually procured from Phil May of The Pretty Things but Floyd biographer Miles described how the proceedings degenerated into a grim charade: "When everything seemed in order they began. Syd had asked someone to type his lyrics to his new songs for him. This they had done using the red ribbon of the typewriter. When the sheet was handed to Syd he thought it was a bill, grabbed the guy's hand and tried to bite his fingers off. Syd was in the studio for three days. The material put down on tape was described as 'extremely weird' and had a 'strong hardly-begun feel to it.' Only the backing tracks were recorded, no vocal tracks at all, and there is some doubt as to whether Syd even bothered to turn up on the third day. The material never reached the stage where it could be mixed and consequently remains unissued."

Jenner sees the sessions as a painful exercise in futility. He had tried to play the understanding liberal but Barrett was unhappy even under Jenner's relaxed command and he frequently disappeared for brooding walks around the studio. Jenner: "The engineer used to say that if he turned right he'd be back but if he went left he'd be gone for the day. He was never wrong." [...]

Around the same time, one of Syd's old Cambridge friends was driving along Oxford Street when he suddenly spied him loping along the pavement. Braking to a halt, the friend leapt out and scurried after the retreating figure of Syd who stonily ignored his greeting. His forward gaze did not falter, nor did he slow down. Finally the perplexed friend asked Syd where he was walking to. Barrett stopped, turned, and fixed his piercing green eyes on the pursuer. "Far further than you could possibly imagine," he said before striding off purposefully.

Excerpt from Crazy Diamond: Syd Barrett & the Dawn of Pink Floyd
by Mike Watkinson & Pete Anderson