This is a short review of Roger ‘Syd’ Barret's twenty-five years life in non-existence in his own house in Cambridge, UK in 1981-2006. Each phase of this period interrelated to each track in the album in the same chronological order.
1. Slow train is homing (July, 1981)
It was on Tuesday and the night train from King's Cross rolled to Cambridge through the raw white fog. Lone and old bearded man in dark brown coat preferred to sit alone. All the way through the trip, he looked out from the window to see the lands he never discovered. He preferred to sit alone but he didn’t manage to this.
The rest of the way he travelled with the man sitting diagonally to him who tried to read newspapers. Eventually he has informed that no new news he has found there. He sat calmly. Periodically he pulled his baseball cap on eyes and slumbered He said he had been suffering from weird and wonderful disease fifty miles before. A doctor is called to examine him in his hotel room in London. Few gapers also took some part in the examination. They all take particular interest in the sore on his belly.
He introduced himself as Roger. It was really nice to meet him. Roger Barrett, a pop-artist. He said: “Never to return. Not a long distance.” He said he was thinking that it was time he drove over to see his own new house.
Two blonde girls stared at him few moments and then disappeared in the crimson haze.
Seemed there was only one other train from London that night and the chances were it would be completely disappeared into the fog. Slow train is homing so long time at the boundless Cambridge platform. The man who sat diagonally said that it was just big serotonin fluids. He said also he was going to be a doctor one day and knows all that very well. By the way he never interested in the excited views outside the window. No such interest in the lands he never discovered.
With trembling hands he had threw newspapers into the big aged bag and had gone outside the hissing coach. He knew he moved towards the spanking new ages.
2. Sweet of you to come (August, 1981)
He was rich and distinguished. Things are going really well.
Little girl was so filled with big surprise when she gazed at the baseball cap.
Hope all is well in sweet home. Anyhow, he stayed behind, and lived for quite awhile the last of his connection in the county.
He gazed at the floor. He needed a time to rethink his life again. Life could be wonderful.
He went to the dining-room with a sullen face. At table his mom made some mention, but he gave her such a short and angry answer that she abstained from further speech.
The son also did not lift his eyes from his plate, and was silent all the time. They finished their dinner in silence, rose from the table and separated, without a word. After dinner Roger went to his room, took the ticket and the change out of his pocket, and threw the money on the table. After a while he took out some cigarette papers, rolled one up, stuffed it with some grass, and began to smoke.
He sat down to work, and began to study an ornamental art out of a big green book. He spent nearly two hours over his book and writing without understanding of what he saw before him.
After that he took off his baseball cap and uncovered his bald spot.
3. Draw the mouse grave in the garden (March, 1985)
He said: “Never to return. Not a long distance.”
Roger had spent several days in bed, but he emerged that morning with a long foolscap paper in his hand and a twinkle of enjoyment in his sober green eyes. He got up.
He began to draw the smudge. The smudge was in the beautiful garden. The girl glanced at him, but made no sign. Then Roger began to draw something else, hiding it with his left hand. For a time the girl refused to notice; but her curiosity shortly began to manifest itself. He worked on, apparently lifeless. The girl made a sort of vague attempt to see, but Roger did not betray that he was aware of it. At last she gave in and hesitatingly whispered: "Let me see it"
A special secret in the garden is what custodian called the “mouse grave”. Roger partly uncovered a dismal skit of mouse grave looked like two modest pinnacles carpeted with flowers innumerable, shaded by noble trees joyful with the notes of a multitude of singing birds.
Besides the singing birds mentioned above, the ugly sparrow may be found in the deep bushes.
The picture was framed and placed at the backyard.
4. Daylight bothering (January, 1988)
Who's that knocking at the door? Our boys and girls didn't bother to go out to see old Syd. The teens knock at 10 homes per day. Brave girl mentioned that they didn't mean to bother anyone; they're just trying to help aged neighbours across the city.
Stefan, a journalist, has lived in Cambridge since sixties. Well, Stefan that one who was knocking at our door, to be absolutely precise, twice per week.
Someone shouted Pink someone shouted Floyd. Brave man shot down them all from his hand gun from second try. Police and manacles, questioning and jail.
Roger calmly looked at this through his window. Though he is a very private person by nature, he is not a recluse. “But why, Syd? Oh, sorry, Roger.” - “It's very quiet and I like that - I'm a bit of a recluse at heart. That’s all. Why not? What if I all at once would go off there for daylight bothering?”
5. Improve the flowering shrub (November, 1990)
Roger told to bat to piss off and let him get some sleep, but she persisted until he finally gave in. "Okay, follow me" he said and flapped out of the room with bat behind him. Down through a valley they went, across a river and into a garden of their house. "Now, do you see that giant shrub over there?" he asked. “We’ll improve it to unrecognizability”
Many other gardeners prune shrubs to remove old or dead branches, to improve the shape of the shrub, to rejuvenate old growth or even to encourage flowering. Pruning may improve health and vigour and is generally carried out in mid to late spring, with flowering shrubs pruned after flowering.
But Roger did that all in some inversely way. He needed to demonstrate that he also may do sculptures.
Roger utilized ten branches or twenty from a shrub. The gauge on scissors is set for paper or fabric, not for flower stems, but he knew he could do it better. Largest scissors is preferred for close-cut precision. Scissors was naughty and has jumped out from his hands. Roger made a sculpture from a shrub likewise a big plum growing underground. Roots to branches, branches to roots, all mixed up.
When quiet winter came our heartfelt Roger was so far from reality…
6. Said he buried her in the pictures of shapes (September, 1991)
What a funny joke, his mom has died.
He lived a seconds before in his shapes on his pictures but should he go outside and see?
He remembered the days when sky was bluer. And then he remembered the days when his mom called him sweetly for breakfast and allowed him to spend time in the dark cellar with his friends. Cherries on inflatable plate and books, books, pictures, plastic pillows are going now to hell. Everything he knew before. The sky that turned to black now is pressing at him stronger than earlier. He wanted to die again and now. Sweet, sweet home please leave him alone.
He never returned to past. He never remembered all he forgot. But now how could he leave it outside? Back to London? Back to glory years? Certainly not.
Lone and old bearded man in dark brown coat preferred to sit alone.
Roger couldn’t see through tears. He said to someone who was near he wants to be blind as he is now.
Not a long distance. Touch and throw it away. Everything he created before will burn in bonfire who never seen. Touch and throw everything. Just give a hand.
He came over and silently looked at her. Like small black roses.
They buried her and held a small family ceremony. Roger came back at Christmas and left about half of the clothes and stuff he had taken. He said he wants to start a new life.
If someone told you that he was cured completely please do not believe him, he is lying.
There was only a half-way before she passed away and now at this point it is a finish that closed down to the harsh acid glut.
7. Get rid of that sack and everything else (December, 1991)
Going upstairs and downstairs, get rid of that sack and everything else, which lost in his rooms. Papers and drawings should be copied shortly and better. At present it should be certainly burnt. Then it will come for print but now it is for bonfire. Going upstairs, trying to find all his diaries since his rock’n’roll years. Transparent rounds with tapes and songs that will nobody listen are going to hell. Black rounds of his voicing stuff are going to hell. Electronic toys straight from Japan are also going to hell. Going downstairs and catching cats and rats for the big holy bonfire in the beautiful garden. Mix everything else together well; add petrol if it is dry, or dry material if it is soggy. One thousand four hundred sixty eight pictures in family album are also going to hell. Look at this, little black hardback with his poetry. Look at this, missed episode from Doctor Who. Look here, missed tapes from Abbey Road. He need to get rid of that piece of junk and buy a car or bicycle as a minimum, they can finance it for him. They would just take it out of his paycheck.
8. Troubles with TV tuning (October, 1994)
This manual was recommended as training material for TV-tuning skill.
Click-click, click-click. Cluck-click, clack-cluck, clack-click.
Cluck-click, clack-cluck, clack-click. Click-click, click-click.
Click-click, click-click. Cluck-click, clack-cluck, clack-click.
Cluck-click, clack-cluck, clack-click. Click-click, click-click.
It seems that the TV is having trouble finding the sub-channels.
TV and videotape recorder all in good condition (Cambridge, price: £40, call Roger, tel.: 6523…). Wake up in the night and watching TV till dawn. They are calling him into bright crystal house.
9. Do yourself a marvellous stool (May, 1998)
He found it hard to get to sleep, that night. He reproached himself. There were the long shelves of books with empty pages. “The history of art”, the big work is going so slowly. He even thought that his medical bulletin filled faster than his own book.
What also kept him awake was a rhythmic sound coming from the house next door, where a holiday dance was in progress. Music was so recognizable. There were tunes he probably heard earlier in his youth.
He finally got up and looked out through the window into deep night. Stray cat was in search of places he never discovered.
He got a saw and sawn off the legs of the table. The table has been sawn half-and-half. From this the marvellous stool was built.
The case has turned into a superb bedside-table under the globe. The amazing lamp has been made of the rests of three legs. Probably it was necessary to attach the hinge to each detail.
First it should be disassemble. Screws laid separately, nails laid separately, shavings laid separately. Basically it’s possible to build the airplane from all these details.
But music still sounded from the house next door. Whether or not, it sounded in his head. God… Whether it’s possible, Emily?
What they’re the silly people! Where did they get such lumber?
And as a result the cabinet on six legs, to be exact and honest has been constructed.
10. One-stop shopping (August, 2001)
Roger liked the motion, and was just beginning to wonder whether he would develop wings. All day and all night shopping was his new spend.
One-stop convenience stores sell a variety of basic food and grocery items as well as newspapers, magazines, household products, toiletries, greeting cards. In such shops Roger got a question. What if he has broken some glass? Should he pay for this?
He used to be heard frequently in his back garden, below his window, a serenading boy, David. He took him once for shopping. David suggested buying him a bike but Roger denied.
Next time he appeared in Ely at Cloisters Antiques, opposite the Lamb Hotel, where he bought antique blotter. He lost it in nearby supermarket. Someone said that David found it and became rich and now living in Los Angeles in own house.
And the next time it was The Lighthouse Bookshop where he found 1950s-packaged Tiddly Winks. Times went by.
11. Cycling around (February, 2004)
Please sir jot down a book about your life. We want to know whatever happened to you after kick out from London. Why did you escape?
Now on Wednesday Roger has a gap from 8 am until 4 pm between shopping and interviews for press. So he went riding around the city and popped into a few shops. After that he wanted to explore parts of Cambridge that he hasn't seen before. Going faster, faster, faster...
Roger was a well-known figure, cycling in Cambridge and along the country.
Cambridge is an ideal city for cycling. Narrow roads and pavements, designated cycle paths, cycle lanes and traffic lights for cyclists. Going faster, slowly, faster...
This day Roger has reached for Grantchester. He turned right onto the road down to the Blue Ball pub. He rode on High Street until to the Red Lion pub. And then he lost his way. Shortly he rushed out near the Byron's Pool when his front basket dropped down. Twenty miles he cycled through hills and woods. Chain case has broken after last two miles immediately he appeared at rails. Going slowly, slowly, slowly...
A long train moved from one point to another through his sssswway… No, this part doesn’t look completed. Reminiscent of everything he did.
He thought this will never finish.
12. Missed Episode (July, 2006)
Follow place in h been under t soap, entered into h at the counter the old man types his purchases into the fifty-year-old push button machine and slumped and he is looking h gaze the led her trough a main gallery, upper c a flight of stairs come started after him. Suddenly Roger shiuted, moving in behind h cloth him wood. The fire was the colour of gal writhed out of blackened ground and ted paper on the counter to the tax. Roger realized that nd pulled them quickly back, feeling a sharp the corridors and I d on humped. Around fugitively, like he is smoking his first ciggy. Taking a large breath and pulling back his shoulders played Roger pursed his lips and w blinding. She bit her lip to bleed and scrambled to rid herself of t stone she? All noel de her and magi at sending bits of heat into its orange core they caught on t e. Painting flames twist her he scalding. She focused on the nearest target the clothes in her hands. They fla mself between Roger and thrown. Return to main ennui fiery page where life starts to roll by.
