Computer Age

Syd Barrett was one of the most mythical and enigmatic figures in the history of pop, born in Cambridge, Britain, in 1946, at an early age began to show interest in music and soon he campaigned local bands like Geoff Mutt and The Motta. In the largest school in Cambridge he met Roger Waters and David Gilmour with whom he shared his devotion to music. With Gilmour conducted a series of performances versioning issues of the Rolling Stones that they did win some popularity.
In 1963, Barrett was moved to London to attend classes at the Camberwell School Of Art, while some musicians to form the capital of the group Hollering The Blues, a combo of versions of blues and Rock'n'roll.

At the same time, Roger Waters, who also was studying in London already had his own band, The Screaming Abdabs and soon contacted Barrett to join the project, which changed its name to The Pink Floyd Sound at the suggestion of Barrett , Taking the name of two American bluesman.
In Abdabs and militated Nick Manson (drums) and Rick Wright (keyboards) but with the inclusion of Syd Barrett the group would take a very different direction to that of primitive blues-rock practicing, Barrett was very much influenced by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and all the psychedelic music that came from U.S., with Love at the helm.
The newly arrived soon took control almost all of the band, becoming the main composer, singer and guitarist of training, introducing unprecedented elements of experimentation and psychedelia that soon began to draw attention to their performances in London, complementing its concerts images and projections exits from the fertile imagination of Barrett.
In 1967 the group signed a contract with EMI that they published their first single "Arnold Layne" an exceptional item consisting of Barrett already defined the sound of the group, terribly odd, experimental and with a magnetic hard to describe. The second single from the band "See Emily Play" was a huge success, leading to the immediate entry of the band in the studios Abbey Road to record what would become the group's first album "The Piper At The Gates Of Down" .

The first disc of Pink Floyd is considered the most clear example of British psychedelia, strongly influenced by the west coast of the U.S. but with its own identity, here Syd Barrett and arranged all the elements necessary to translate his quirky and original ideas, while introducing fully in the mass consumption of drugs, particularly LSD, a common practice in the London circuit of the time, while the rest of the band took a much more moderate.
The tenacity in the compositions of lysergic Barrett can be seen clearly in strange and arcane subjects as "Interstellar Overdrive", "Astronomy Domine" or "Lucifer Sam," and original songs hallucinogenic really bright, with long and complicated developments instrumental in highlighting the peculiar form of play by Barrett and the distinctive low of Roger Waters.
The lyrics of Syd Barrett is here with complex hieroglyphic references oníricas certainly suggestive and strange. Barrett composed all the issues and was the lead singer in all of them.
"The Piper At The Gates Of Down" is a single disc, a disc that plays with the experimental limits to strangers, introducing elements and sounds that later would be imitated ad nauseam, handing the limits of rock to venture into jazz, in rhythm Ethnic and more noise in the wild.
With the successful promotion of the EMI record was almost instant success and the group began to be sued for playing intensively throughout the country and the U.S.
At this point is where the story becomes confusing, Barrett was taking LSD and continued his psychological state began to resentment in those months touring with the band, ruining some actions of the group with psychotic episodes of some gravity, is often cited as climax to the collapse he suffered in an interview for an American chain that gave the world tour.
Against this backdrop, the band with Roger Waters at the helm, enjoying a success that required full concentration opted to replace Barrett by other musicians at some performances, obviously forcing them to restructure and adapt the entire repertory, until finally it was decided, once the group re-entered the studio to let out definitively undisputed leader of the band.
Syd Barrett was replaced by David Gilmour and the group continued its path away from the coordinates of the psychedelic first album in a race to the masses well known to all.

Syd Barrett suffered from schizophrenia exacerbated by psychotic episodes, a situation completely disabling that forced him to undergo intensive care and back at home with their parents. In 1970, however, Barrett and David Gilmour contacted him raised the idea of recording in some study subjects who had completed, with the tremendous success of Pink Floyd did not prove problematic contact with the studies of the EMI Abbey Road to conduct these meetings to Although the "special" circumstances and the almost zero possibility that trading was known in advance would have these songs.
From these early sessions would virtually all the material in the first solo album by Syd Barrett, called "The MadCap Laugh", produced by David Gilmour and collaborations with The Soft Machine, Roger Waters and various studio musicians, a strange disc and hallucinations dominated almost exclusively by the guitar and the voice of Barrett that explores spaces of spectral folk, blues and rock lysergic space with ease and conviction that only he could get.
Highlights within this set of songs as diverse sockets "Terrapin", "Octopus", "Late Night", "No Good Trying" and "Love you" with irresistible melodies and gorgeous arrangements, the rest of the material is rather more experimental and dark, some items are simply not completed sketches, songs strange difficult to classify.
The sessions of "The MadCap Laugh" were certainly complicated, Syd Barrett showed scattered and lacking in many times and it was necessary to "tap" the shots again and again, adding arrangements only when the guitar and voice was already recorded, but the fact is that despite everything Barrett continued to show even an imagination beyond any discussion and an enthusiasm for his songs that he was able to convey to the whole team.
The album came out published that same year with little commercial support of EMI and few knew of its existence, David Gilmour came with Floyd and Syd Barrett withdrew another season.

Perhaps against expectations, just a few months later, in November 1970, Syd Barrett returned to get in touch with EMI to record new items, the company agreed again but this time was attempted by all means give a touch more commercial the compositions with a view to greater media impact, even to attract new fans of Pink Floyd, for it was decided to give most of the subjects treated more forthright, more direct, more bandwidth.
David Gilmour was re-unite the project would receive just that this time the name of "Barrett", new sessions were equally chaotic but equally interesting, with an environment marked by the elusive and fertile imagination of Barrett, engaged in bringing forward topics absolutely brilliant as "Baby Lemonade," "Gigolo Aunt" or "Rats" with issues far more strangers near the espitiritu of "The MadCap Laughs" and "Wined and Dined" or "Wolfpack". This second disc of Syd Barrett might not reach the level of genius from the first, proving somewhat scattered, but still the issues cited are undoubtedly among the best I ever did.

In February 1970, after completing "The MadCap Laugh," Syd Barrett recorded a holding action in the program for the BBC John Peel accompanied by David Gilmour and Jerry Shirley interpreting themes from his first album as "Terrapin" but focusing on topics then appear on "Barrett" and "Gigolo Aunt", "Baby Lemonade" or "Elephant Effervescing. This concert is interesting because the issues are different nuances and because Barrett was quite volatile during the action, causing unforeseen changes difficult to follow for the musicians.

Following the publication of her second album Syd Barrett and finally withdrew his figure was gradually overshadowed by the huge media success of Pink Floyd reached its peak in the mid-'70s with albums like "Dark Side Of The Moon" or "Wish You Were Here ". Syd was installed permanently at the home of his mother and what has been his life since then remains in the deeper anonymity because it has never granted interviews and has been barely seen in public. The nature of his illness and the influence it had on his career and in his subsequent disappearance remain so in the most absolute of the mysteries, there is no fixed pattern to describe or predict the behavior and thoughts of a schizophrenic, if that Barrett suffered from schizophrenia and indeed no details on his final years also helps to solve that mystery.

In 1989, coinciding with a revival of the figure of Syd Barrett was released the album "Opel", a collection of unreleased tracks and alternative takes of those mythical sessions of 1970, bringing almost all the songs have already seen the light, some songs that still maintain a magnetism and a magic hardly assimilable, some themes and a musician, Syd Barrett, forever wrapped in a unique genius of legend and mystery.

Nicholas Rodney Drake was born in Rangoon (Burma) in 1948, was the son of a major trader often forced to make long trips, one of them was born Nick, when he had four years, Drake, a wealthy British family, settled permanently in Tanworth-in-Arden, a small town near Oxford.
The education he received Nick Drake during his childhood was really painstaking, was the best colleges and soon he instilled a taste for poetry, painting and music, at school started playing the clarinet, saxophone and acoustic guitar .
His friends from the time described him as a young shy but cheerful and friendly, great athlete and good student, Nick liked much poetry (especially William Blake) and classical music.
With 17 years Nick performed alongside their peers a trip to Morocco, where drugs and discovers there are credited his first serious compositions, with 19 years, when you start studying English literature at Cambridge Nick Drake had already composed quite a few songs. And called attention powerfully in their style fluid, agile, perfect for playing guitar, and his voice, sweet and bitter, reciting and singing at the time. By then he had already discovered Bob Dylan, the Beatles, with Tim Buckley, a Van Morrison.
In 1968, Nick Drake acts in a benefit concert in London against the war, there was discovered by Ashley Hutchings, Fairport Convention bassist who was impressed by the talent of the young, Nick Hutchings speak to Joe Boyd, producer of the Convention and a multitude of British folk groups.
A year later, at the age of 21 years, Nick Drake enters the studio for the first time, his first record the name of Five Leaves Left, the name suggested in the wake of a message that came out in the cases of cigarette paper warning that only five papers.

Five Leaves left, produced by Joe Boyd collects all the songs that Nick had been composing in his teenage years, heartfelt songs, full of hope and of doubt, like pages from a secret diary where Nick is shown as it is, without hide nothing, "Time has told me" speaks to us from the pursuit of love, about finding oneself through another, "way to blue" on the pursuit of happiness, in "Fruit Tree" on doubts that generates fame.
Surprised at the incredible performance of all issues, without more support that point arrangements of strings and piano notes, Drake chaining a masterful succession of songs, from folk and jazz, from Pop and Rock, with touches of blues and soul, with jewels of the caliber of "Cello Song," "River Man" or "Day is done."
Five Leaves Left won good reviews but the disc sold well, motivated in part because the disc was introduced only in direct, Nick Drake did not feel comfortable playing live and gave throughout his life very few concerts are the few documented legendary performances, Nick sat in a chair, staring at the floor, continually asking for an apology, insecure and shy.

After his first album, and despite the commercial failure, Nick Drake decides to devote himself entirely to music, and left the university and established definitively in London, against the advice of their parents who denied any financial help, Nick feels a bit bewildered in the environment of the big city, far from the sustenance of their friends and family, new music and poetry will be their livelihoods in this era.
Joe Boyd bet decisively by Nick Drake, and decides not to repair costs for its next album, contacting all sorts of musicians from the first row, including John Cale, who still an active member in The Velvet Underground.
While Nick was very happy with the project already started to show an especially retracted, always walked stooped, worn with old costumes and a distant expression in the eyes, those who knew him described him as a very smart person, a young tall, handsome , With a special aura to it made her look tired, as if they bear a great burden on his shoulders.

In 1970, after more than nine months' work is published "Bryter Layter," undoubtedly the most ambitious album of Nick Drake, also the most diverse and the most optimistic, the disc contains three instrumentals wonderful, "Introduction" which opens the disc "Bryter Layter" and "Sunday" that closes it, including topics such as "Hazy Jane II," "At the chimes of the clock city" or "Fly", fables about love, about life, filled with a thousand shades , Drake delivers his best lyrics here, authentic poems loaded with symbolism and magic. Stresses on "Northern Sky", undoubtedly the most beautiful love song ever written by a human being, the joy of the encounter, love as the ultimate goal of existence, as the final destination of a journey marked by misfortune.
In Bryter Layter Drake extends its records, addresses lot of styles, and not based so much on his guitar, makes use of string sections, electric guitars, wind to deliver his second masterpiece, perhaps the most emphatic.
Bryter Layter also earned good reviews but not sold as expected, although his majesty and elegance that were more obvious, perhaps it was a record too complex, too perfect for the season.
From here the data are unclear and confusing, Nick Drake finally fell into a deep depression, was a time in psychiatric treatment but did not notice any improvement, made several trips, some of them favored by Boyd in an attempt to release the pressure to bear, in those days were comments that Nick Drake has left the composition, perhaps to devote himself to producing other musicians, long periods away and what really did in this period is still a secret that nobody has been able to uncover.

In 1972, suddenly, almost in secret, Nick Drake meets with his friend John Wood to record what would be his third album, "Pink Moon", recorded in just two days and with the sole presence of his voice and his guitar acoustics.
In Pink Moon we are a man who speaks directly with death, a person completely sunken, abandoned to their fate, a husking is a painful emptiness and desolation of prints, what was once hope turns into cynicism and despair, pink moon is the night, death, as opposed to the sun, a day to life. "Place to be", "Road", "Know," "Free Ride", "Parasite" or "Harvest Breed" is a tormented confession aloud from a man who sees his upcoming final.
Technically "Pink Moon" is once more perfect guitar arrangements and melodies build a truly shocking, full of sadness but a beauty hardly descriptive, Nick's voice sounds better than ever, suffer with every word that comes from his lips.
Once the album was Drake who handed himself in the master record, actually left it on a tray at the front desk and move there three days without anyone to repair it.

They followed more dark days, Nick Drake tried several things, first wanted to enlist in the army where he was admitted and then not even work as a computer programmer, in these last years he lived long periods in Paris, there comes the rumor of his relationship with Françoise Hardy, is a fact that they met and they both professed mutual admiration, but it was not known until that point came the relationship.
Drake ends up returning to his parents' house in Tanworth-In-Arden, sporadic writes songs for a theoretical fourth album that never saw the light, among the latter songs (Acquired in the essential "Time of no reply") highlights the shocking " Black Eyed Dog. "

One morning his mother, missed that Nick had not been lifted yet decided to climb to his room at the side table had a book of poems, in the player's concert Brandenburg in bed and her son died, had just 26 years.
Nick Drake officially committed suicide in the autopsy found traces of Tryptisol, an antidepressant that Nick used to combine with their sleeping pills, his death might well have happened by accident, by an inadvertent overdose, his family insists that in those days Nick was cheerful and with a lot of projects on the head.
The fact is that the death of Nick Drake helped create the myth, the legend, closing a cycle perfect. The tombstone of Drake is in the small cemetery Tanworth-In-Arden, offering faithful testimony that Nick really existed. Since then, his music was installed in bedrooms and attics of poets desconsolados of bohemians, dreamers.
While his music has never reached remarkable heights of popularity has been periodically reviewing the myth and have been posthumous editing different disks, the better the comments "Time of no reply" that also contain their latest songs, contains items such as beautiful "Clothes of Sand" or the "Time of No Reply."
There have also been edited different "Bootlegs" by collecting his first compositions homemade, highly influenced by Bob Dylan and the blues, highlighting "Tanworth-In-Arden 1967/68" and "Second Grace."
All the work of Nick Drake is absolutely crucial and indispensable, rare, very rare times we have had the opportunity to discover a man in his songs in the way that Nick is presented in theirs, they rarely have felt so close to love, despair and beauty, the unfathomable beauty of the songs of Nick Drake.

If there is one person who can condense everything he has given of whether the U.S. Rock of the past 30 years, that's Neil Young, its significance is as important as Elvis or Bob Dylan but with one crucial difference, he has known remain active and in shape during all stages of a career that already reaches the age of 40.
Neil Young has dealt with all styles of music: Folk, Country, Soul, Rockabilly, psychedelia, Techno, Heavy, and they all brought fruitful results, sometimes discussed, but always interesting.
Much of the legend Neil Young, however, is a credit to his band, a band that has always accompanied in their times more noisy, more epic in their works, in their electric discs: The Crazy Horse.
Billy Talbot, Ralph Molina and Danny Whitten, and gathered under the name "The Rockets' band was offered a vigorous concerts in the Chicago area back in 1968, highlighting the strength that started to get their guitars and their compositions are full of energy .
Neil Young had just begun his solo career after the dissolution of Buffalo Springfield and he was somewhat disoriented regarding the direction we had to bring his compositions, as shown by the diffuse "Neil Young" in 1968.

Young and Crazy Horse met at a Chicago club where the latter proposed to be operated and their accompanying band for a series of Shows, things worked right away, the group offered a powerful Young entramados rhythmic so that the Canadian could vent to comfortable with his guitar and his compositions.
The relationship rennet in a first album, "Everybody Knows This is Nowhere" (1969), which would lay the basis of Young's electric sound, characterized by rhythmic foundation stone, largisimos developments, and an apparent dirty sound, a certain imperfection in Performance very characteristic. Topics such as "Down By the River" and "Cowgirl in the Sand" exceeds 8 minutes, but could last half an hour each and the listener would still perceive the passage of time, are captivating songs, epic, stunning, it is impossible to remain unmoved to the feeling of listening to four musicians giving everything they carry inside.
The disc contains another great classic: "Cinnamon Girl", one of the best and most evocative compositions Young, with reminiscences of their last stage but Buffalo Springfield and Crazy Horse through the sieve.

After that first and fruitful cooperation Young came back with renewed strength to his solo career, more focused and in the Country Folk, in his acoustic guitar and quieter, simultaneously Danny Whitten was beginning to have problems with heroin, Neil Young you would on "Harvest" (1972) a shocking warning: "The Neddle and the Damage Done".
Whitten fallecería overdose months later, when Young was preparing a tour with Crazy Horse, his death marked the final race of the Canadian, who signed some of the most shocking and obscure albums of his career: "Times fades away", "On the beach "and especially" tonight's the night "a kind of exorcism bathed in alcohol next to the Crazy Horse survivors and musicians called for the occasion, the Roadies Bruce Berry also died of an overdose at the time, is dedicated to the song that opens and closes the disc: "Tonight's the Night."

"Tonight's the Night" was the therapy he needed Young and his band to finally bury the past and look ahead, in 1975, Frank "Poncho" Sampedro enters Crazy Horse as a second guitarist, with a training set and the group enters in the studio sessions for what would be another memorable album: "Zuma", a whirlwind of electricity and offering a thousand different nuances to the listener, topics ranging from Country-Rock of "Looking for love" to short pieces Rock energetic and powerful as "Do not cry no tears," but it is long on the topics where the group once again shows its full potential, crosses unbelievable guitar, dense and hypnotic melodies, "Danger Bird" and "Cortez the Killer" . For many the best album of Neil Young.

"American Stars and Bars", the disc of 1977 was a strange experiment with cuts and issues of different periods, especially by containing highlights an absolute classic of the band: "Like a Hurricane."
In 1978, Neil Young another public record, "Comes a time", this time it was a return to the days of "Harvest" means the time between folk and country with great songs like the "Comes a Time" or " look out for my love. " Some media in the U.S. and in England by Young gave after finishing this record, seething punk, "comes a time" was an album too commercial, too affluent, Young it would soon offer a good answer ....

The answer was "Rust Never Sleeps" a monumental record, as are the monuments that appear on the cover, a compendium of his entire career and also a break with the past, a step forward by adopting the punk in their language, adding mil nuances never before seen, showing an energy and vitality that it already stood light years away from the colleagues of his generation and made it clear that the "alleged" violation punk. Both sides, acoustics, with themes such as "Trash", "Pocahontas," "Ride My Llama, and other electric, with songs like" Powderfinger "or" Welfare Brothers. " Opening and closing the disc, "hey, hey, my, my" on acoustic and electric. Without words.
A "Rust Never Sleeps" was followed by a live disc, "Live Rust" necessary to record the direct of the time.

"Hawks and Doves" (1980) was a transitional album, a work less, with a band of circumstances, about to leave his company to sign with Geffen, with Crazy Horse record in 1981 the strange "Re-Ac-Tor" recently released on CD and it would not count them until years later, already passed its pilot phase in Geffen where he recorded his album techno "Trans" (1982), a rarity in key Rocabilly: "Everybody's Rockin '" ( 1983), a Country album: "Old Ways" (1985) and the avant-garde and strange "Landing on Water" (1986)

In 1987, Young brings together the Crazy Horse for an extensive tour, after which the record would be his last album for Geffen: "Life," a disc irregular and somewhat disappointing, mixing the experimentation of their previous albums with the sound of his classic Banda, a very marked by his problems with his company and highly politicized, in the middle was "Reagan" Young is very critical in this disc with the U.S. warmongering policy a disc of transition.
"This note's for you", released in 1988 along with The Bluenotes, was another interesting parenthesis in his career, a bold approach to the Blues and Soul that its continuation would have years later, the Crazy Horse do not participate but since then it will be usual to find Frank "Poncho" Sampedro seconding to Young in his experiments and breakaways.
In 1989 arrives "Freedom", a large disk overshadowed by what would come later, with a hymn of the caliber of "Rockin'in the free world" and great songs like "The ways of love," "No more" or the hypnotic and strange "Crime in the city."

1990, in the hands of Husker Du, Pixies, Sonic Youth and many other bands, the American rock seemed to enter a new golden age, distortion, noise, smoke and Melenas begin to invade the MTV, Young was again located in an uncomfortable situation, his experiments are considered outdated eccentricities of a star, again will have to swallow their words ...
"Ragged Glory" is Neil Young & Crazy Horse at 100%, here there are no experiments with the Soul, no synthesizers, no acoustic guitars or banjos or fiddles, which are there are four types, which all add up over 200 years, playing Rock to the limit, guitars at a hellish, subjects of more than nine minutes, intensity and emotion without limits, without any concession or complacency, "Country Home", "Love to burn," "Over and Over "Or" Fuckin'up "come without problems, among the best and the most energetic of his repertoire, this disc comes his nickname" godfather "of Grunge, again Young became the mirror of thousands of young musicians.
Inevitably, as happened to "Rust Never Sleeps" this disc will be followed by a live, "Weld" (1991), Sonic Youth went on stage and mingled what would be "Arc" with snippets of guitar distortion and feedback, the set be called "Arc-Weld."
After the storm comes the calm, time to revisit the sites of "Harvest," Young musicians with the same record in 1992 "Harvest Moon" another delightful disc, which delayed even more the shadow of Canada.

The suicide of Kurt Kobain, and the phrase "It's better to burn out than to fade away" (from "Hey, hey, my, my") included in his suicide note, part deeply Neil Young, "Sleeps With Angels "(1994) is his tribute to the musician died, again with Crazy Horse, Young delivers a dark disc, Tetric, themes such as" Change your mind "or" Piece of crap "shine at high altitude.
1995, Pearl Jam, big fans of Neil Young, agree with him on several concerts and I intend to make a record together, to their surprise the Canadian accepted, "Mirrorball" (1995) tries to sound like "Ragged Glory" but it is clear that Pearl Jam were not Crazy Horse. A smaller disk for Young, the experience of their lives to Pearl Jam.
"Broken Arrow" (1996) again alongside the Horse shows obvious signs of exhaustion, repeats the formula of "Ragged Glory" and "Sleeps with Angels" but with significantly poorer results, it was time for Young to return spots and their acoustic experiments.
Antes, a raíz del imprescindible documental “Year of the horse” de Jim Jarmush, saldría publicado un nuevo directo, que constataba una vez mas el estado de forma, casi inhumano, de la banda en vivo.
Después, el notable “Silver And Gold” (2000) en solitario, y el irregular “Are you passionate?”(2002) junto a los Bluenotes.
El tiempo dirá si este articulo necesita una segunda parte, “Greendale” marca el retorno a la actualidad de Neil Young & Crazy Horse y el futuro esta aún por salir de la guitarra de Young.