Syd Barrett’s final handwritten contribution to Pink Floyd: ‘Apples and Oranges’

Back in 2006, a small family service took place at Cambridge Crematorium, the kind of event that happens daily without a great deal of fanfare. Understated was the word of the day, but the subject of the service was anything but. This was the funeral of Syd Barrett, the visionary songwriter, psychedelic revolutionary, and artistic genius who had put Pink Floyd on the musical map back in the 1960s; a man who typified the psychedelic age with every fibre of his being, but spent the majority of his life in artistic exile, pushed out of the band he had started all those years ago.

A revolution was being fought back in the 1960s, but it wasn’t being carried out by men in long overcoats with red flags and rifles. Instead, it was young people with long hair and trendy clothes, revolting against the status quo of the time, with psychedelic rock as their weapon of choice.

Over in the United States, it was the San Francisco scene leading the charge, with the likes of Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, and Big Brother and the Holding Company creating a wealth of mind-expanding psychedelic material. On this side of the Atlantic, though, it was pioneering groups like Pink Floyd establishing this bold new avenue of artistic expression.

It was in 1965 that Pink Floyd first got together, although its individual members had been jamming together since their university days, earlier in the decade. Immediately, Barrett became the natural leader of the group, driven by his penchant for experimentation and a deep-rooted skill in songwriting. However, his time with the band would be unjustly cut short before too long.

By 1967, Floyd had firmly established themselves as the voice of a new generation, capturing the attention of the hippie age and putting out one of the greatest albums of all time, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. What’s more, they even had a few brushes with mainstream success, with ‘Arnold Layne’ and ‘See Emily Play’ breaking into the UK singles chart. Already, though, the cracks had started showing in the group, and Barrett’s days were numbered.

The psychedelic brilliance that made Barrett irreplaceable
Owing to his increased dependence on LSD and a cocktail of other psychedelic substances, the songwriter had become much less reliable and much more unpredictable. He would often fail to show up for rehearsals and, in hindsight, was clearly going through a mental health crisis.

His bandmates, however, were focused almost entirely on keeping the band going, capitalising on their early successes. Guitarist David Gilmour was initially brought in to alleviate the strain on Barrett, but before too long, Gilmour replaced the original songwriter altogether.

Pink Floyd continued on without their old comrade, eventually becoming one of the biggest bands in the world thanks to the intensely successful The Dark Side of the Moon, while the erstwhile lead became something of a recluse. Still, there are those who determine that the Barrett era is the definitive sound of the band, owing to the timeless genius of his compositions.

Barrett’s final contribution to Pink Floyd was ‘Jugband Blues’, which went on to feature on the post-Barrett album, A Saucerful of Secrets. Another late-period contribution came with the often forgotten single ‘Apples and Oranges’, which captured the extent of his psychedelic mastery. “It’s about a girl who I saw just walking round town, in Richmond,” the songwriter later shared, downplaying the genius behind the composition.

A set of handwritten lyrics for ‘Apples and Oranges’ still survives today, preserved from 1967 when the band first recorded the masterpiece. Selling at auction in 2023 for £15,000, these lyric sheets paint a very different picture of Barrett from the troubled, unpredictable character that he was portrayed as during the final days of his time with Pink Floyd. Neat handwriting, distinct structure, and a clear level of craft are all present within the papers, giving a rare glimpse into his songwriting mind.