| Re: "Keep on rockin in the Old World" by David Bright, Viewpoint, July 20 – 26, 2006.
David Bright wants to argue that Syd Barrett's musical career is somehow more impressive than many of the aging retro-rockers who graze audience-goers’ wallets like dinosaurs looking for their last feeding after the meteorite struck.
The truth, however, suggests otherwise.
Whatever songwriting talent Barrett possessed was wrapped up in a fragile mental state, and ingesting vast amounts of psychedelic drugs didn't help. It was no wonder he spent the rest of his post-Floyd life as a recluse.
Barrett was as much a lifestyle casuality as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison. The big difference is that Barrett's mind died first – his body died a generation later. In that context, Keith Richards' quote – "the older you get, the older you want to get" – is actually a brave statement in the face of rock ’n’ roll purists' unsustainable demand for a permanent childhood, which Bright suggests is the proper philosophy of rock music.
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