Golden Hair - Syd Barrett, 1969, words from, James Joyce, Chamber Music, 1907, Cantos V.

Syd Barrett - Golden Hair, 1969

Lyric from the words of James Joyce

Chamber Music
by James Joyce
First edition London: Elkin Mathews, 1907

Joyce's first book was Chamber Music (1907), a sequence of thirty-six poems heavily romantic in feeling and traditional in style. Within their limited intentions, they were quite skillful and often beautiful, and have—unsurprisingly, given their manner and their title—been frequently set to music.

They reflect the influence of Elizabethan lyricists and the English lyric poets of the 1890s. They also reflect Joyces love of the vocal music that influenced all his writing, and is especially evident in his later works that lend themselves particularly well to being read aloud. Although he had rejected Dublin and Catholicism, both were central to his writing. Irish publishers, in particular, repeatedly rejected his work on the grounds that it was libellous and blasphemous. He earned a living from jobs as a language instructor, through writing articles for various newspapers, and from gifts made by friends and later patrons. W. B. Yeats and Ezra Pound were two supporters who used their influence to find publishers willing to take Joyces work.

I


Strings in the earth and air
Make music sweet;

II


The twilight turns from amethyst
To deep and deeper blue,

III


At that hour when all things have repose,
O lonely watcher of the skies,

IV


When the shy star goes forth in heaven
All maidenly, disconsolate,

V


Lean out of the window,
Goldenhair,

VI


I would in that sweet bosom be
(O sweet it is and fair it is!)

VII


My love is in a light attire
Among the apple-trees,

VIII


Who goes amid the green wood
With springtide all adorning her?

IX


Winds of May, that dance on the sea,
Dancing a ring-around in glee

X


Bright cap and streamers,
He sings in the hollow:

XI


Bid adieu, adieu, adieu,
Bid adieu to girlish days,

XII


What counsel has the hooded moon
Put in thy heart, my shyly sweet,

XIII


Go seek her out all courteously,
And say I come,

XIV


My dove, my beautiful one,
Arise, arise!

XV


From dewy dreams, my soul, arise,
From love's deep slumber and from death,

XVI


O cool is the valley now
And there, love, will we go

XVII


Because your voice was at my side
I gave him pain,

XVIII


O Sweetheart, hear you
Your lover's tale;

XIX


Be not sad because all men
Prefer a lying clamour before you:

XX


In the dark pine-wood
I would we lay,

XXI


He who hath glory lost, nor hath
Found any soul to fellow his,

XXII


Of that so sweet imprisonment
My soul, dearest, is fain -- -

XXIII


This heart that flutters near my heart
My hope and all my riches is,

XXIV


Silently she's combing,
Combing her long hair

XXV


Lightly come or lightly go:
Though thy heart presage thee woe,

XXVI


Thou leanest to the shell of night,
Dear lady, a divining ear.

XXVII


Though I thy Mithridates were,
Framed to defy the poison-dart,

XXVIII


Gentle lady, do not sing
Sad songs about the end of love;

XXIX


Dear heart, why will you use me so?
Dear eyes that gently me upbraid,

XXX


Love came to us in time gone by
When one at twilight shyly played

XXXI


O, it was out by Donnycarney
When the bat flew from tree to tree

XXXII


Rain has fallen all the day.
O come among the laden trees:

XXXIII


Now, O now, in this brown land
Where Love did so sweet music make

XXXIV


Sleep now, O sleep now,
O you unquiet heart!

XXXV


All day I hear the noise of waters
Making moan,

XXXVI


I hear an army charging upon the land,
And the thunder of horses plunging, foam about their knees:

GOLDEN HAIR


Lean out of the window,

Goldenhair,
I hear you singing

A merry air.
My book was closed,

I read no more,
Watching the fire dance

On the floor.
I have left my book,

I have left my room,
For I heard you singing

Through the gloom.
Singing and singing

A merry air,
Lean out of the window,

Goldenhair.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Syd Barrett
• Golden Hair
• James Joyce
• Chamber Music
• Sylvia Beach.

[xwsftassell]

Always makes me laugh when you read about how untogether/nutso Syd was meant to be during the Madcap/Barrett period (according to the "victors" of that particular history). The artistic triumph of those two records outshines the entire career of the dreary, moanie, money-grubbing Syd-less Floyd. Says I, anyway.

[minutegongcoughs]

Indeed. David Gilmour mentions that it was hard to be around the other PF chaps. There was a 'Playground Hierarchy'. Roger, Nick and Rick were 2 to 3 years older than Dave and Syd. You would never get one over them or  feel easy in their company if they were together. Dave being a few months younger than Syd probably felt an empathy more with him than the others.

[xwsftassell]

I met another guy who knew Syd. He was from Cambridge & moved to London at the same time as The PF. He spoke similarly: Syd wasn't bonkers, Syd wasn't into drugs, Syd was stitched up by his band who were spoilt, coke-snorting, trophy-womanising, arriviste filth. He attributed Gilmour's size to cocaine: after a while your metabolism goes crazy & you blow up like a huge pink inflatable, floating above Battersea Power Station.

The Crazy Syd Legend has been good business for a lot of people.

[xwsftassell]

A few years ago I had a drink in The Troubadour with Duggy Fields (Syd's flatmate in the Madcap flat, Earl's Court Square). He told me the greater part of the Syd legend was complete and utter bullshit. The Mandrax/Brylcreem scenario never happened, neither did the "cupboard" story. Syd hardly ever took drugs and to Field's knowledge, Syd never even took acid.

[hamfisto]

@xwsftassell It was good business for Syd, too, in fairness, given that despite his slight output he made tons of royalties. If it wasn't for the whole myth he wouldn't be such a revered figure in rock history.

[Bobjb999]

One other amusing factoid about Joyce's poem, "Chamber Music" is that the famous pun-ster admitted in his letters that the respectable sounding title was in fact inspired by a certain natural, non-instrumental, "musical" sound that made an impression on Joyce: the sound of a prostitute peeing into a chamber pot!

[oracleofottawa]

Could it be in 500 years from now that this recording will be listened to and that other group

will be lost in the dust of century's??

[limpidgreen07]

Great post! Thank you so much.