@noromance, I bought a UK copy of The Madcap Laughs when it was originally released (even though I didn't care for Pink Floyd or Psychedelia in general). We were at that time looking for anything "weird", but this album is WAY beyond that; it's terrifying and alarming. Hearing it is like being in a room with a seriously mentally ill person. No, not mentally ill, full-on insane.
In the late-60's/early-70's there were a not-inconsiderable number of people walking around in the Bay Area (Ground Zero for psychedelics) who had taken acid far too many times (George Harrison said The Beatles did it only a handful of times). Skip Spence ended up in San Jose after he was ushered out of the Agnew State Mental Hospital (when Governor Reagan cut off funding, all tax payer-funded State mental health facilities were closed. "Your on your own, losers."), walking the downtown streets babbling to himself, bumming cigarettes and spare change. What a sad spectacle, and a waste of talent.
It's an unfortunate fact that talent and self-destructiveness often go hand-in-hand. Brian Jones, Brian Wilson, Peter Green, Chris Farley (comic genius), plenty of others.
