Genre Jumping

I suppose you've heard that Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett died the other day. What an interesting character. I've never been a huge Floyd fan, but when I was a senior in high school, my father bought me a copy of "The Wall" on cassette tape. (Thanks, Dad, you wacky psychedelic animal, you!) And when I was in college, two decades after the album was released, "Dark Side of the Moon" was still required listening.

These days, as readers of this blog know, I'm a hardcore traditional/folk/acoustic music aficionado, and Pink Floyd is pretty far off my current aesthetic radar. One can always find connections, though -- or create them, I suppose -- from genre to genre. For example, the band was named after two American blues musicians, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. I'm a big fan of the former, whose version of "Every Day of the Week" is often on my set lists.

And here's another folk-psych/rock link: The Be Good Tanyas, my favorite "hobo-erotic" female roots group from Vancouver, recorded a folk-pop song onto which they grafted a verse that was written by none other than Syd Barrett. The song is "The Littlest Birds." Here are the lyrics (the last verse is Syd's):

The Littlest Birds

Well I feel like an old hobo,
I'm sad lonesome and blue
I was fair as a summer day
Now the summer days are through
You pass through places
And places pass through you
But you carry 'em with you
On the souls of your travellin' shoes

Well I love you so dearly I love you so clearly
Wake you up in the mornin' so early
Just to tell you I got the wanderin' blues
I got the wanderin' blues
And i'm gonna quit these ramblin' ways one of
these days soon
And I'll sing

The littlest birds sing the prettiest songs...

Well it's times like these
I feel so small and wild
Like the ramblin' footsteps of a wanderin' child
And I'm lonesome as a lonesome whippoorwill
Singin these blues with a warble and a trill
But I'm not too blue to fly
No I'm not too blue to fly cause

The littlest birds sing the prettiest songs...

Well I love you so dearly
I love you so fearlessly
Wake you up in the mornin' so early
Just to tell youI got the wanderin' blues
I got the wanderin' blues
And I don't wanna leave you
I love you through and through

Oh I left my baby on a pretty blue train
And I sang my songs to the cold and the rain
I had the wanderin' blues
And I sang those wanderin' blues
And I'm gonna quit these ramblin' ways
One of these days soon
And I'll sing...

The littlest birds sing the prettiest songs....

I don't care if the sun don't shine
I don't care if nothin' is mine
I don't care if I'm nervous with you
I'll do my lovin' in the wintertime