ALBUM OF THE MONTH
Album # 61 is The Madcap Laughs - Syd Barrett
Album of the month March 2007 is Syd Barrett's first solo effort The Madcap Laughs from 1970. Syd passed away last summer and and we at Radio Dupree thought that it is about time for us to pick Madcap for album of the month.
The Madcap Laughs is not quite the same thing as Pink Floyd's debut album The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn. Piper (1967) is one of the most important psychedelic albums of all times. At this time Barrett was the leader of the band and the album features Barrett's romantic and naive pop lullabys about fairytale stuff like scarecrows and gnomes.
Madcap
was recorded after Barrett's departure from the group. Actually
the band members voted Barrett out since he suffered from psychic
illness and couldn't function on stage anymore. David Gilmour replaced
Barrett and Gilmour also helped Barrett with the
recording of Madcap, which is more of Barrett on his own
with his acoustic guitar.
On some of the tunes Syd Barrett is backed by other musicians.
The album shows more of Barrett's dark side and sort of reflects
his mental illness.
S.H.