Musical Demise of Syd Barrett

Yeah, both parties really demonstrated the law of "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts" when they split up. To be fair, there may not have been a ton of blood left in either turnip.

I do agree that Wright is an unfortunate party in all of this. His contributions from the very beginning, through the "university band" era, through Meddle, DSOTM, WYWH, and Animals are enormous. I was thankful that the others eventually acknowledged this, however belatedly. As a foil for Gilmour (unbilled) when I saw DG in 2006, Wright was absolutely the element that made the whole thing special. You think about his top harmonies on things like Echoes or Time and...it's a really unique sound. That he sort of collapsed at a crucial point in their history (and was chucked out) illustrates a lot of not very nice things about this particular ecosystem. That he was later reinstated for mostly legal reasons isn't a HUGE improvement. Wright and Mason often appear as pawns for Waters and Gilmour.

To my mind, the sort of infamous tale of Andy Partridge and Todd Rundgren butting heads during the making of XTC's Skylarking seems analogous to Floydian issues: no matter how much anyone speaks on the issue (Partridge's former bandmates, other clients of Rundgren's), there's no real debate that each man is his own kind of asshole. That one is a better manipulator than the other, and that one is more easily manipulated than the other is no small thing, and maybe the crux of the issue, but...at the end of the day, neither comes out looking like a prince.

I get the distinct impression that Bogawa and Thorgerson are "overcorrecting."

Like Mark E Smith.

I love his contribution to the Floyd, but watching a Rick Wright interview the other day (John Edgerton YouTube channel - highly recommended!) and I was bored stiff. If Rick had had much more say in the band, nothing would get done. He seemed just as petty as Waters and Gilmour. And I don't really care for his solo work that much! Maybe if he'd done an album in 1970.

Apparently, Syd's amazing songwriting just appeared one day – they had originally been slated to do an album of stuff like "Reaction in G" – so it's not strange how it disappeared. It seems he could have done it if he'd wanted to (as I think Dave says). His solo albums, difficult though they may have been for Gilmour to get done, are full of great songwriting.

I like those, but they're albums you sort of let wash over you while your working around the house or cooking something.  You don't really have to immerse yourself in them.