Serious Sam Barrett

There have been a number of Syd Barrett compilations but, remarkably, 2010’s An Introduction to Syd Barrett is the first to combine Pink Floyd material with his solo recordings, so it truly provides an introduction in a way no previous collection has. It’s possible to quibble that there are a few Floyd songs that should have made it here - mostly selections from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, including “Astronomy Domine” and “Lucifer Sam,” but this favors the non-LP early singles “Arnold Layne,” “See Emily Play,” and “Apples and Oranges,” which do point the way toward such solo cuts as “Octopus,” “Baby Lemonade,” “Terrapin,” “Gigolo Aunt,” and “Effervescing Elephant,” all present and accounted for here. Some may also quibble about inclusions of new mixes for “Here I Go," “Octopus,” “She Took a Long Cool Look,” “Dominoes,” and “Matilda Mother,” preferring the original mixes, but these new mixes don’t call attention to themselves nor do they detract from the first disc to provide a strong, concise introduction to Barrett’s twisted genius.

Brown's third studio album, 43 Minutes…, was made around the same time that her mother was dying from breast cancer. A&M, Brown's record label at the time were not satisfied with the album and wanted some potential hit singles recorded and added to the track listing. Brown, unwilling to compromise and after a protracted legal battle, bought back the master recordings of the album and released them in 1992 on her own label Pod Music, a year after the death of her mother. The album has become a firm favourite with fans who cite it as her strongest album in her portfolio.

For several years, the existence of "lost" material by Syd Barrett had been speculated about by the singer's vociferous cult, fueled by numerous patchy bootlegs of intriguing outtakes. The release of Opel lived up to, and perhaps exceeded, fans' expectations…

Barrett Strong was there for the very early days of Berry Gordy's Motown empire, but his sound bears no resemblance to the later smooth soul stylings that dominated the label's output. He was a R&B rocker all the way. His most famous song is Gordy's first smash hit, "Money (That's What I Want)" from 1960 on the Anna label. The rest of the disc contains some solid R&B ballads like "Oh Yes I Apologize" and "Do the Very Best You Can" and Strong's strong suit, raw rockers like "You Knows What to Do," "Yes No Maybe So," and "Let's Rock." The collection's highlights are a couple of songs, the bitter and tough lament "Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right" and the haunting Steve Mancha-penned "Misery." From the sound of these two songs, Strong had what it took to be a full-fledged Soul Man. Sadly, however, his career behind the mic stalled quickly and apart from "Money (That's What I Want)," he has been forgotten.

It has been a very creative couple of years for percussionist, composer, producer, and storyteller Barrett Martin. In 2017 he won a Latin Grammy for his album production work in Brazil; he released his first book, “The Singing Earth: Adventures From A World Of Music”, and he released his 6th solo album, “Transcendence.”

You know the situation is getting desperate when a compilation recycles material from an outtakes collection released a decade prior. Such is the case with The Best of Syd Barrett: Wouldn't You Miss Me?, a package that basically combines the best of Syd Barrett's two proper albums, The Madcap Laughs and Barrett, with a number of previously issued outtakes and a straggler from producer and Pink Floyd bandmate David Gilmour's vaults ("Bob Dylan's Blues"). But to be perfectly fair, the now-recycled outtakes release in question, 1989's Opel, was a rare instance where such a release lived up to the quality of the artist's proper studio albums.