| The people who want to say Syd was just crazy are clearly blind; the people who want to imagine him as a genius tormented only by benign demons of his own devising are deaf. “Opel” illuminates paths that most of us will thankfully never walk, but about which all of us are at least a bit curious. It does so with one of the most leisurely, beautiful chord progressions you’ll ever hear. It is one of Barrett’s crowning achievements. The long chords he strums as the song’s conclusion gathers its dignified, steady strength will haunt you to the end of your days, even as the abrupt way in which he strums them will make you wonder how hard it must have been for him to maintain self-control. After a while it seems as plain as the nose on your face that he must have been addressing himself in these lines, and it will give you the shivers. |