The Best of Syd Barrett - Wouldn't You Miss Me? (2001) Review by Peter Marsh: Syd Barrett is probably more talked about than listened to these days, though he remains a seminal influence on British indie psychedelia and countless of wannabe Pipers at the Gates of Dawn. This compilation brings together most of the material from his two official Harvest albums, The Madcap Laughs and Barrett, plus a few tracks from the outtakes collection Opel. There's little of the acid fuelled guitar abuse that drove Barrett's contribution to Pink Floyd's first album, and whereas Barrett-penned Floyd singles like "See Emily Play" and "Arnold Layne" had been superbly assured slices of Brit psychedelia, here the songs are looser and more exploratory. Barrett (along with Ray Davies and Robert Wyatt) was one of the first singers to give English rock a uniquely un-American voice, and his lyrics here owe much to a literary tradition that takes in Edward Lear, William Blake and Hilaire Belloc. Surrealism, pastoral whimsy and a strain of bedsit melancholia run through many of the songs here, and again a peculiarly English obsession with wordplay (see "Octopus" for details). Though some of the performances (particularly those drawn from Opel) show evidence of Syd's well documented instability, the songs themselves are sharply honed and transcend their sometimes erratic delivery. "Baby Lemonade" and "Gigolo Aunt" are as catchy as Legionnaire's disease and show that Syd's talent for writing great pop songs hadn't died with the Floyd's "Apples and Oranges", while "Dominoes" is exquisitely melancholic. Completists will want this set for the previously unavailable "Bob Dylan Blues" (appropriate in the year of Bob's 60th birthday and containing the immortal lines; 'I've got the Bob Dylan Blues My hair and my hat's in a mess But I don't give a damn about that'), and for others it's a good place to start. — bbc.co.uk Track List: 01. Octopus 02. Late Night 03. Terrapin 04. Swan Lee (Silas Lang) 05. Wolfpack 06. Golden Hair 07. Here I Go 08. Long Gone 09. No Good Trying 10. Opel 11. Baby Lemonade 12. Gigolo Aunt 13. Dominoes 14. Wouldn't You Miss Me (Dark Globe) 15. Wined And Dined 16. Effervescing Elephant 17. Waving My Arms In The Air 18. I Never Lied To You 19. Love Song 20. Two Of A Kind 21. Bob Dylan Blues (Previously Unreleased) 22. Golden Hair (Instrumental) Media Report: genre: Rock, Folk, World, & Country style: psychedelic rock Origin: UK Format: FLAC Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec Bit rate mode: Variable Channel(s): 2 channels Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz Bit depth: 16 bits Compression mode: Lossless Writing library: libFLAC 1.3.0 (UTC 2013-05-26) Note: If you like the music, support the artist