Read an interview with first generation krautrockers and many will mention the first Pink Floyd (then still The Pink Floyd) album The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn as an influence. And it's not difficult to hear.
It's kinda ironic that these German artists who didn't want to reproduce anglo-saxon examples fell in love with a British band that was named after two American blues musicians. But listen to this legendary debut album and you understand the appeal of The Pink Floyd.
It was the sole album that the band recorded with their founder, Syd Barrett, who was not only the singer and guitarist but also the main songwriter.
Barrett has often been described as an eccentric whose behavior became stranger and stranger over the years, partly because he used wagonloads of LSD. But he was also a unique and highly innovative artist.
Barrett could turn a lullaby into the a translucent dream's soundtrack and few dared to experiment with sounds and moods like he did. Songs like Astronomy Domine and Interstellar Overdrive also suggested an interest in the cosmos. Even his voice had something otherwordly and he was - which is often overlooked - a brilliant guitar player.
In the end, the other Pink Floyd members could no longer work with him. He appeared in only one song on the second LP, A Saucerful Of Secrets, made two solo albums and then vanished. In 2006, Barrett died of cancer.
The video above shows rare live TV footage from 1967 with an interview conducted by someone who didn't really get it. Such interviews are no longer possible in 2013.
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