Eccentric English rock stars--particulary those who consumed as much LSD and Mandrex as was taken by Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett--are not expected to age well. And so the news of the passing of Mr. Barrett, the man who named Pink Floyd, was not altogether unexpected (he died of diabetes). And while his run with the band was relatively short lived (due, mainly, to his reported bouts with insanity), his larger influence on rock and roll is enormous. As per his Wikipedia entry: One of Barrett's trademarks was playing his Fender Esquire guitar by sliding a Zippo lighter up and down the fret-board through an old echo box to create the mysterious, otherworldly sounds that became associated with the group.

But for all of his ingenuity, the strongest element of Barrett's rock god status was his obscurity. He hadn't played for nearly thirty years, and he'd scarcely been seen in just as long. His run with Pink Floyd lasted all of two years, and then he was gone, back into the green English countryside from whence he came.

It is tempting to call Barrett the British Brian Wilson, which many have done. Wilson, of course, has "recovered" and begun to make public appearances. Barrett, it seems, never got back on track.

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