Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
You were caught on the crossfire of childhood and stardom,
blown on the steel breeze.
Come on you target for faraway laughter,
come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!
You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Threatened by shadows at night, and exposed in the light.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Well you wore out your welcome with random precision,
rode on the steel breeze.
Come on you raver, you seer of visions,
come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine!
Nobody knows where you are, how near or how far.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Pile on many more layers and I'll be joining you there.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
And we'll bask in the shadow of yesterday's triumph,
sail on the steel breeze.
Come on you boy child, you winner and loser,
come on you miner for truth and delusion, and shine
Syd Barrett passed on a few days ago, presumably complications from the diabetes he has been suffering from for years; and which because of his schizophrenia, he was sketchy about caring for.
In case you hadn't figured it out from the song above, Syd was one of the founders of Pink Floyd, and their first writer and lead singer. Unfortunately, Syd had both the aforementioned Schizophrenia, and a habit of ingesting every foreign substance within reach, which led to his total collapse, and his near retirement from public life (he did guest on a couple of albums, and while medicated he released two solo albums) in about 1968. Honestly, it amazes me he's made it this far, to die at 60.
Thing is, even though Syd wasn't in the band for their greatest hits, HE WAS their greatest hits. Shine on you crasy diamond, brain damage/eclipse (dark side of the moon), and a bunch of others, were all about Syd. In fact the entire Album "Wish you were here" was a tribute to Syd.
Now MY favorite pink floyd tune, and one I sang on stage and still sing to myself all the time, is the title track from "Wish You Were Here". It may seem morbid but I always thought this would by my funeral song.
So,
So you think you can tell
Heaven from Hell,
blue skies from pain.
Can you tell a green field
From a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?
And did they get you to trade
your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange
a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?
How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found? The same old fears.
Wish you were here.
