Syd Barrett as a guitarist. What's his legacy?

About the same as Lou Reed - sporadic, unpredictable, inventive, rhythmic and adventurous.

 

Some of his playing was slash-and-burn ("Lucifer Sam"). Maybe a later influence on the unschooled punk guitarists.

 

That's cool. I know a lot of people love it. But the solo is not memorable for me unlike the aforementioned simple, placid beauty of "Dominoes".

 

I think that may be my favorite Syd-era Pink Floyd song.

 

None of his playing really impressed me. As far as songwriting goes, I like about half his output, but there's nothing he wrote that I would put in my top 20 Pink Floyd tracks.

 

His guitar playing worked in the context of his songs. I don't really think of him as a guitarist.

 

As unique and great as he was, I don't think he was all that terribly influential as a guitarist, except on the freakout numbers where he was a bit more avant garde than most were at that point. But others were already hinting and experimenting with feedback and "avant garde" leanings before him, whether it's Dick Dale or Pete Townsend etc. On acoustic (the solo albums) he played virtually nothing memorable at all. But perhaps he was a slight pioneer for being edgier than most, during that very short window of 1967-ish.

One thing's for sure, he definitely seems to have influenced Jimmy Page with the mirror reflective stickers on his Fender Esquire:

 

While I generally would agree his acoustic work pales before his Floyd days (except for "Opel"), I love the guitar work on the instrumental version (take two) of "Late Night."

 

I like his playing a lot. His lack of technical training led him to explore and break the rules. And that's how new and exciting forms of music gets discovered. I think his playing was rather grunge-like.

 

I think he sucked pretty bad technically. But, making interesting music is a lot more than exhibiting technical proficiency.

 

The main musician influenced by his guitar technique was Daevid Allen, who used "glissando" guitar on a lot of Gong material.

 

Barrett was originally/primarily a painter. Almost all his music comes across as stuff from the mind of a visual artist who was experimenting with a very new contemporary medium (rock music) as a form of expression. That's how I imagine what was behind his unschooled guitar playing, wild and oblique songwriting, feedback jams, singing in an unrefined Cockney accent (might have been the first British rock musician to do that).

 

I took a guitar class, and my instructor -- whose playing blew me away, he did things with my guitar that I still can't do -- often "dissed" the self-taught player, saying they wouldn't learn techniques properly. But I keep coming back to Syd, and also to the Beatles and George Martin, who INVENTED techniques of doing stuff because they didn't "know how" to do them. Isn't that how we got things like the light bulb?

 

A big part of PF's early effects usage centered around echo units and I think Syd was the one to introduce that into the group's sound. I'm not sure we have any direct evidence of it in the PF Syd recordings but I think it was at least part of their live sound. And you can certainly hear echo used in post-Syd recordings.

 

Something always struck me about Arnold Lane, the single that started it all. It was the guitar playing, really set the tone of the song and I absolutely adore it. Probably my favorite PF song, mainly due to its simplicity. I digress a bit. A comment earlier in the thread made me think and have a proper listen, and the acoustic guitar in the mix is out of time with the electric guitar. At the very start you can hear it come in fractionally before the first bass / electric guitar, other than that its buried within the mix. It can only be Syd playing both guitar parts, and sort of backs up the comment earlier about not been able to keep time.

At the end of the day, we all appreciate the brilliance of Syd, whether he is an influence or leaves a legacy, really comes down to all the current artists who would name him as their influence etc. I wouldn't put him in my all time list of great guitarists, but overall musical influence, probably in the top 10.

 

Syd as a guitarist, to me, was like an abstract painter. His skill was in using the guitar as a painter would use brushstrokes, adding color or textures perfectly where they needed to be. He was not a virtuoso like Clapton, Hendrix, Beck, Gilmour, Page, etc. But he was, nonetheless, a very interesting musician and terrific songwriter. I'd like to think he did inspire other guitarists, including Gilmour in his early days with Floyd, to not over-emphasize the lead and use the guitar to sublimely embellish the tracks thereby bettering the songs sonic qualities and making them just more interesting to listen to.

 

People who say Barrett can't play very well are just as silly as my grandmother who think Picasso can't draw a portrait. His playing is a work of genius. Just listen to Apples and oranges.

 

Syd can feel proud to have inspired some of the most tasteful, moving, eloquent, restrained, and gorgeous guitar playing of all time on Shine On You Crazy Diamond

 

I disagree about him not doing anything memorable on acoustic guitar. His voicings are often quite unique (ever play Terrapin?) And I find even something like his accompaniment to Word Song to be unique and interesting. I love his acoustic playing on Paintbox.

 

His technical ability was just right for the music, gave it that edge.

 

His guitar playing was always interesting. Can't say that about too many people.

 

John Fahey?

 

Love him. I was more thinking in the context of a rock guitarist.

 

One my fave and very groundbreaking..love his solo on No Mans Land....

 

For me some of the most interesting guitarists aren't those anchored in technicality, but those that are willing to experiment operate outwith those constrictions and experiments.
Syd was for me one of those band was willing to try new things, running his guitar through an Echoplex (and early form of delay pedal) and playing slide with a cigarette lighter, creating these swirling whirls of sounds. Space-rock was almost invented by Syd's guitar sound alone. It's quite otherworldly and atmospheric, quite special without treading the realms of technical wankery!