(no subject)
Vittorio: Nick Mason,commenting Syd's departure, said: "I think, looking back on it now, what we should have probably done was just let him go much, much earlier instead of desperately trying to keep the thing going and to keep Syd on side, which did him no good at all."
Sounds somehow contradictory, since already in Dec. '67 the "mentally healthy" threesome were conspiring about his replacement. something which Syd was fully aware of, as shown by his provoking (when not totally insane) attitude.
Tim: Well, by December, Syd had been acting strangely for quite some time - so is there a contradiction?
Vittorio: Quoting Mason again: "Pink Floyd wouldn't exist without Syd. If ever there was a record that marks a period of music history, Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, with Syd's songs, is absolutely part of it. It's something that we never discovered again, not with Rick's or Roger's or David's writing, that sort of whimsical English vein". Any comment?
Vittorio: Can we say, without exaggeration, that we lost a true music genius? At least because, even with a limited production, it's thanks to him if the Pink Floyd existed, and because he was the inspiration for the most renowned names of a psychedelia, which was immediate, intelligent and light-years far from the degenerations of progressive rock.
Tim: I couldn't have put it better myself - and certainly not in Italian.
One bit of unpublished news. Not Syd's last words - but still, some very interesting ones. When he was at home, in the last week of his life, his sister asked him what he thought about God and the after-life. "Do you know," Syd replied, "it never occurred to me."
