“I thought Syd could do no wrong. It’s so sad that he couldn’t continue with the fever he started with. ” Why David Bowie was “passionately in love with” Syd Barrett and took huge influence from his “magical" time in Pink Floyd

(Image credit: GAB Archive/Redferns | Larry Busacca/WireImage)

A creatively restless chameleon and visionary artist, David Bowie took inspiration from a diverse, eclectic range of influences, from Japanese Noh theatre to English drum’n’bass to American 'Beat Generation' writer William Burroughs. But, by his own admission, one of the musician's prime influences was former Pink Floyd bandleader Syd Barrett.

Interviewed for the 2007 BBC television series Seven Ages of Rock, Bowie declared that he was "passionately in love with" Barrett's songwriting, stating, "There was something slightly not quite with us about Syd that really appealed to me strongly. There was a Peter Pan quality about him."

In an in-depth interview published in the July 1990 issue of Musician magazine, Bowie went deeper on his admiration for Barrett, and admitted that his iconic "Turn and face the strange" lyric from his 1972 single Changes was "a line obviously left over from the Jim Morrison/Syd Barrett school of writing."

"Barrett was a huge influence on me, absolutely," he enthused. "I thought Syd could do no wrong. I thought he was a massive talent He was the first I had ever seen in the middle ’60s who could decorate a stage. He had this strange mystical look to him, with painted black fingernails and his eyes fully made up. He weaved around the microphone, and I thought, This guy is totally entrancing!

"He was like some figure out of an Indonesian play or something, and wasn’t altogether of this world. It was so demanding, and I thought it was magical. It’s so sad that he couldn't continue with the fever he started with."

Following Barrett's death in July 2006, Bowie was one of countless musicians who paid tribute to his art and legacy, describing him as "a startlingly original songwriter."

"I can’t tell you how sad I feel," he commented. "Syd was a major inspiration for me. The few times I saw him perform in London at UFO and the Marquee clubs during the ’60s will forever be etched in my mind.

"He was so charismatic and such a startlingly original songwriter. Also, along with Anthony Newley, he was the first guy I’d heard to sing pop or rock with a British accent. His impact on my thinking was enormous. A major regret is that I never got to know him. A diamond indeed."

Just one month earlier, on May 29, 2006, Bowie had performed the Barrett-penned Pink Floyd classic Arnold Layne alongside David Gilmour on the opening night of the guitarist's three-night stand at London's Royal Albert Hall, closing out the UK leg of his On An Island tour. Watch that footage below:

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A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.