Crazy Diamond (The Complete Recordings)

This essential compilation collects Syd Barrett's brief musical career as a solo artist. He had been with Pink Floyd for that band's debut, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, and made three appearances on its follow-up, A Saucerful of Secrets. Barrett's solo career consisted of two official albums, both released in 1970: The Madcap Laughs and Barrett. In October 1988, many often-bootlegged songs were released as Opel. This 1993 collection features all of those solo tracks, along with alternate takes of songs from those sessions that prove just how unpredictable a performer Barrett had become. He never played a song exactly the same way twice. No Peel sessions are included here, nor any Radio One sessions. And since this set was issued, three additional songs have been found and released. However, this is nearly all of his genius together in one place. No one before him wrote songs like "Baby Lemonade," "Terrapin," "Dark Globe," "Feel," and "Gigolo Aunt," and only Robyn Hitchcock seems qualified to do so since.