Pink Floyd’s most popular work subsequently drew on the power of what Barrett signified; even after he was no longer in the band, his spirit haunted its records. Dark Side’s most pivotal track, “Brain Damage,” is a song about reconciling insanity. (“There’s someone in my head / But it’s not me.”) Pink Floyd’s next album, Wish You Were Here, is a more overt tribute to Pink Floyd’s “crazy diamond.” (A disheveled Barrett actually paid the Floyd a visit during the Wish You Were Here sessions. He looked so bonkers, his former bandmates didn’t recognize him.) The last of Pink Floyd’s “Syd” trilogy,
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