Top five rock and roll coincidences in history

er bandmate Syd Barrett, a strange figure suddenly appeared in the control room at Abbey Road Studios, catching everyone off guard. It was Syd Barrett himself, now heavyset and bald, a far cry from the charismatic, psychedelic frontman he once was. The band initially didn’t recognize him, but as the reality of the situation sunk in, Roger Waters later recounted, “It was inevitable, I suppose, after all the songs we’d written about him. I don’t think any of us knew what to say. We just looked at him, and he nodded back”. Barrett silently observed the recording process for a bit before quietly leaving without saying a word, marking one of the last documented sightings of the reclusive musician, forever cementing the eerie connection between the band’s past and present.Eight Miles High sends ‘60s radio into a tizzyOne of rock’s stranger coincidences occurred in 1966, when two seemingly unrelated songs shared the same title and were released mere weeks apart: ‘Eight Miles High’ by The Byrds and ‘Eight Miles High’ by The Yardbirds. Of course, the Yardbirds song is most famously known in its studio recording as ‘Over Under Sideways Down’, but in the UK, an alternate live take was issued as a single under the Eight Miles High moniker, largely unbeknownst to the band members themselves.Worse yet, the Yardbirds’ release happened to follow closely on the heels of a ban issued by the BBC over the Byrds’ version, which had somehow been deemed too drug-referential for the stodgy British airwaves. Despite being penned by two entirely different songwriting duos, both tunes shared a shimmery, vaguely hallucinatory vibe, making the coincidence even more confounding to unsuspecting fans and DJs. Only the keenest listeners were able to discern that they were, in fact, hearing two very different tracks with the same trippy title.