2006: Not a great year to be an aging black musician

Or Syd Barrett. But in fairness, it wasn't often a good year to be Syd Barrett.

Included in the collage at right is June Pointer of the Pointer Sisters, James Brown, Floyd Dixon, Jessie Mae Hemphill, Lou Rawls, Billy Preston (with George Harrison), Milan Williams (from the Commodores), Wilson Pickett and Syd Barrett (founding member of Pink Floyd/crazy person).

I'm pretty sure that, of the folks on this list, only Rawls hosted the Muppet Show, but there are other measures of success.

Here's hoping that 2007 is a bit kinder to musicians in general. The pic gets bigger if you click it.