HAVE YOU GOT IT YET? THE STORY OF SYD BARRETT AND PINK FLOYD: Music As Life

I grew up listening to Pink Floyd and I came into the world at just the right time to consume basically their entire catalogue without having to wait for new releases. Growing up in the late 80s and early 90s was kind of a cheat when it came to their music, all of their greatest hits were already out and very well known. Albums like The Dark Side of The Moon and The Wall were already household names. I would hear my mom talk about the older and harder-to-find albums like The Piper at the Gates of Dawn or Ummagumma and a man called Syd Barrett who was a genius that vanished off of the face of the planet. With her help I learned as much as I could about how they came to be and about a man called, Syd. By the way, which one’s Pink?

The documentary Have You Got It Yet? The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd was written and directed by Roddy Bogawa and Storm Thorgerson using archival footage and new interviews with surviving band members; Roger Waters, Nick Mason, and David Gilmore. There were also quite a few fun cameos (do you call them cameos in a documentary?) from other well-known and respected musicians from that time and today such as Pete Townshend and Noel Fielding. It seems like everybody has a Syd story.

The birth of a legend

Roger Keith Barrett (better known as Syd) was born in Cambridge England on January 6th, 1946 and as everyone tells it, the world would never be the same. The filmmakers did an outstanding job of finding old home movies and really showing us what a young Syd was like. It took a deep dive into his education which for a musician was slightly surprising, it turned out for the most part he was an excellent student. Maybe I’m just projecting my own experience here but school was not my favorite part of the day. Those closest to him said he was a brilliant and funny child who would keep his family in stitches and after high school, Syd attended art college. Thats where he fell in love with music. That’s where he met the boys.

The filmmakers did a really nice job of bouncing back and forth between the story of Syd and the story of how the band came together in the early sixties. They never lingered too long on any one point because there was a lot of story to tell and only 90 minutes to do it in. The pacing is perfect and the interviews being intercut with old club footage of the band before all of the big production that they were known for was fantastic. There is a brilliant quote by one of the random people interviewed that sums up that early period nicely, they said, “when you heard that music it was in color, everything else was in black and white.” That’s pretty much how I felt the first time I heard The Wall album.

“if you can remember the 60’s…

…you weren’t really there. It was the destruction of the rational, predictable, material world,” Mick Rock said in his interview. That sounds about right. By the end of the 60’s a lot of things began to change for the band, the filmmakers point out. For starters, it was when Syd began to experiment with LSD, and his slow descent into reclusiveness began. They were still able to make another album after the drug use became a problem but more and more they didn’t even want to pick Syd up for gigs. By this time David Gilmore had entered the band to make sure there was a guitarist on stage who could still play and one night they decided to just go on as a four-piece. It’s debated if, at that time, Syd even realized he was left out.

It’s hard to complain about the choice of soundtrack for this documentary, all of the music was pulled from various Pink Floyd albums as well as a few clips from Syd’s solo outings. Needless to say, the music was on point. The real star of this documentary apart from the story itself is the editing. Somehow they managed to take nearly forty years worth of myth and legend and distill it down to a 90-minute runtime that never seemed rushed nor too long. Everyone got their moment in the sun and they even let Roger Waters have the last word, I’m sure he loved that.

Conclusion:

If you are a fan of Pink Floyd or music from the acid days of the 60’s then this film is a must-watch. It’s an up-close and personal look at one of the defining bands in my early life, but also the lives of so many others. Their songs span generations and their lyrics continue to resonate to this day, touching lives around the world. It’s an eye-opening and behind-the-scenes glance at one of the most creative forces in history and it’s also a cautionary tale of the dangers of too much too fast and thinking you’re invincible. Nothing is forever, things can change at any time.

Have You Got It Yet is a vulnerable and intimate look at the rise of a band and the fall of a genius. A tragic tale of loss. Syd loses himself while constantly trying to figure out who he should be. He could never really be happy because he had forgotten how to be and by the time anyone realized he needed a hand back to the light it was already too late. The lyrics to Shine On You Crazy Diamond really sums it up best, “remember when you were young? You shone like the sun. Now there’s a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky. Come on you raver, you seer of visions, come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine!”

Have You Got it Yet? The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd will be released in theaters on July 14th. 

Watch Have You Got It Yet? The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd