ECCENTRIC and just crazy ARTISTS

Henry Miller was very cheerful.

Syd Barrett, now there was a weird duck . . .



Some people believed that he suffered from schizophrenia--whether or not he did, he was one weird dude.

He was supposed to have beeen an accomplished painter as well. Ive never seen any of his work and I just did a quick search for any works by him. NADA. He was a diabtic for a lot of his life and I wonder how much of that affected his mental state.

He really had a short career with Floyd didnt he. Then his years after Floyd he tried to do some solo work but I doint recall anything that I would hold out as big .

Oooh, I didn't know all that, Msolga. I've alway liked, no, appreciated, no, er, been taken with the majesty of that Gericault painting.

He seems to have been really anti-social. He did three recordings at BBC studios, and they were going to promote the songs, but he never finished enough for an album. At one point, he sold his rights to the songs he had done up to a certain point--up to about 1973, i think. Gilmour wanted to keep him with the group as a non-performing song writer, but he proved to be really unreliable.

Yes, he was a painter, and apparently continued to work after he returned to his mother's house. He lived there after his mother died, and continued to paint. I've never tried to find his stuff, so i can't comment on it.

There was a story going round that while he was missing, he turned up at the recording of Shine On You Crazy Diamond, which was written about him, then he disappeared again.

I have no reason to think of him as some "tortured soul," suffering for his art, but i don't think he was a very happy guy.

Yes, he believed (or fervently hoped) that The Raft of the Medusa would establish his reputation as a great artist....
(I think he was around 27 years old at the time.)
Some might say that he went more than a little overboard in the process!

I looked around under Roger Keith Barrett, but i couldn't find any images, either. According to his sister, he wrote a book about art and artists, but in an interview she said just couldn't read it (grief). I don't know if it will ever be publishedd. He left about one and three quarters million pounds to his brothers and sisters, so i guess he got along with the family. His sister who lived in Cambridge and was his contact with the world says he found his own mind sufficient company.

... speaking of writers, is it true that Jack Kerouac wrote On the Road on a roll of toilet paper?
Or is it one of those romantic Beats myths?

And that after all his freewheeling years with Ginsberg, Cassady & co .... that he "retired" to live as a recluse, almost, with his mother .... & became somewhat conservative in his views?
I have vague recollections of these things, but my memory of the details is hazy ....

I don't know, but i think Ken Kesey was batshit crazy for a while.

Details, details....!

Love this art & artists gossip!

Oh ... & then there was William Burroughs ..... & Hunter S Thompson (if you call him an "artist". I do. His dispatches were absolutely unique, brilliant! (for a variety of reasons!) Loved reading his stuff!)

Burroughs was brilliant, although i find his prose pedestrian. I don't think there's any reason to see him as either crazy or eccentric, though.

Something to do with attempting to shoot an apple off someone's head (with unfortunate consequences) , if my memory serves me right?
I think I may have to do some Googling, to see if I have my facts straight, or if I've confused him with some other writer ....

Yes, Burroughs killed his common law wife while attempting to shoot an apple off her head during a drunken episode.
Maybe the less said the better?
He was more than a little "eccentric" :

Biography for William S. Burroughs:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0123221/bio

I think that Brroghs was not so much a nut as a really bad shot.
Thoompson, on the other hand, lived and celebrated being a nut till his last days. Then he went out with a bang.

Ive heard the tale about Kerosac writing on a roll. However, I never got anything from his work. It was missed on me

Oh I think Burroughs definitely had nutty/eccentric tendencies, farmer!
Amongst quite a few claims to fame, he was a famous gun nut ....
But that was just one incident, he had quite a history!

I confess I found the romantic (& other) stories about Kerouac, Cassady & co a lot more interesting than On the Road, etc.
I don't think it's very cool to say that!

As for Hunter S ..... so crazy, but so wise & spot-on in his political writings!
I wish Bob (dys) was around to share some of his Hunter stories.
I think he actually knew him?

“Every now and then when your life gets complicated and the weasels start closing in, the only cure is to load up on heinous chemicals and then drive like a bastard from Hollywood to Las Vegas ... with the music at top volume and at least a pint of ether.”
~ Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Here's The Ultimate William S. Burroughs Quiz (well that's what it claims to be! ), for anyone who is interested:

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/blog/the-ultimate-william-s-burroughs-quiz