Jugband Blues - Reception and Legacy

Reception and Legacy

Barrett, along with the band's managers, Peter Jenner and King, wanted to release the song as a single in the new year, before being vetoed by both the band, and producer Norman Smith. Jenner said the song trio that consisted of "Jugband Blues", "Scream Thy Last Scream", and "Vegetable Man", as "amazing songs." When compared to "Bike" and "The Scarecrow", Jenner said "You think, 'Well, OK, those are all right, but these are powerful disturbing art.' I wouldn't want anyone to have to go as mad and disturbed as Syd did to get that, but if you are going to go that disturbed give me something like that. That's great art." He called "Jugband Blues" "an extraordinary song, the ultimate self-diagnosis on a state of schizophrenia, the portrait of a nervous breakdown."

The song is viewed by many fans as a sad farewell piece by Barrett who, by the beginning of the recording sessions for A Saucerful of Secrets, was already shrinking into a delirious state of mind, exacerbated by his feelings of alienation from the rest of the band, as can be gleaned from the painfully specific lyrics in the song ("I don't care if the sun don't shine / And I don't care if nothing is mine"), although it has been argued that the common interpretation of the lyrics as reflecting his schizophrenia owes more to his popular image more than fact, and that they could be read as a criticism of the other band members for forcing him out. King said of the song: "The most alienated, extraordinary lyrics. It's not addressed to the band, it's addressed to the whole world. He was completely cut off." Jenner said "I think psychiatrist should be made to listen to those songs . I think they should be part of the cirriculum of every medical college along with those Van Gogh paintings like The Crows."