The Day I recorded with Syd Barrett

 20 Aug 2021 A rainy day

Syd Barrett

I’ve no idea why but I became obsessed with a Syd Barrett song, No Man’s Land. Recorded in 1969 for his solo album The Madcap Laughs, the track is a stand out for me. There’s something about the babbling, and not quite being able to hear the words that I absolutely love. So much so that I decided to try and cover the song, but in doing so stumbled on something really eerie. 

I made a recording of the song and loaded it into my DAW so that I could play along, I had the idea to play along for a while, then record myself, then remove the original track. This went really well, but I couldn’t for the life of me nail the vocal. My voice just isn’t up to it.

Then I stumbled across an online AI site when you can isolate the vocals from a track, I tried it out, and there I was, playing along with Syd himself. Talk about spooky, it was like having him in the room! If I’d said I did this a few centuries ago, I would have burned at the stake.

I could literally hear every blip, I decide to keep the track that way, with Syd’s vocal, even though I can never release it, and never would of course without permission. I didn’t add too much, just a bit of knarly lead guitar, and some synth, job done. When I listen to it now, I can still feel the hairs stand up on the back of my neck, like the first time I isolated that vocal, I don’t believe in ghosts, but there is something ethereal about making a song with someone who has already passed over.

A few years back I was fortunate to hear Vieux Farka Touré play live at End of the Road festival, on one track he duetted with Alice Farka Touré, his father ,who had not long passed away. Once again to play music again with a dead person would have been regarded as witchcraft a few centuries ago. Now it’s taken for granted. To hear that wonderful voice coming through the sound system was unbelievable. RIP Syd and Ali, long may your musical souls live on.