[...] The most controversial credit of all, however, goes to a mysterious individual listed only as "Crazy Diamond", who appears to have performed guitar and various vocal effects on two acoustic versions of Lucky Charm and Beautiful Deceiver. Remarkably, Secunda allegedly suggested that this individual was none other than Syd Barrett, still just barely hanging onto his sanity in 1972. Certainly, while the idea of the 1970s Barrett in his deteriorating mental condition actually working properly in a studio might seem more than a little far-fetched, it admittedly does become rather less inconceivable if one thinks of it in terms of him having popped round to see an old mate for an afternoon and sat around playing a couple of songs to tape.  Supporters of this theory point to how the version of Beautiful Deceiver featured in the sessions is entitled "Syd's Wine". Steve had taken to renaming his songs with one-word titles ('Wine' = Beautiful Deceiver, 'Give' = Still Yawning Stillborn etc) and thus 'Syd's Wine', so the theory goes, could be taken to mean that it was a version of 'Wine' on which Syd worked.

Others, especially those who have researched extensively into Barrett's career, insist that these claims were nothing more than a publicity exercise for the sessions in the mid-'90s and matters have not been helped by an otherwise excellent Barrett biography which erroneously placed the sessions as having taken place in 1974.  For some time now the pendulum of evidence has swung away from any possibility of Crazy Diamond having been Barrett, however  recent reports that Took participated in the recording of Barrett's drum -instrumental track "Rhamadan" in 1968 raise once again the possibility of the favour being returned.  There is of course the outside possibility that the answer to all this may lie with Roger Keith Barrett, but given how he is already hounded relentlessly by journalists and devotees of  his own work alike, it would seem inadvisable  to say the least to ever approach him with regards to this line of research.

Whoever 'Crazy Diamond' might really have been, certainly his or her contributions the two tracks in question do bear considerable hallmarks of Barrett's style. The acoustic Lucky Charm, entitled Molecular Lucky Charm, as well as the 'Syd's Wine' version of Beautiful Deceiver both feature considerable amounts of vocally-created sound effects. The former starts with a loud rushing jumbo-jet noise not dissimilar to that on the Beatles' "Back in the USSR" and then proceeds to fade into Took and 'Diamond' strumming the tune together. As Steve occasionally mumbles bits of lyric, Crazy lets loose with noises from some alien jungle that would do credit to any BBC Radiophonic workshop contribution to Doctor Who, Blake's 7 or any other science-fiction programme. Whistling birds and insects, psychedelic alien nightingales, the distant sound of waterfalls as the song rounds into a fresh verse, all are there. At the end, the song fades away to a chorus of nightingales, insect and a helicopter-sound. Although a very atypical Took track, Molecular Lucky Charm is nevertheless very beautiful to listen to, albeit far removed from the original Lucky Charm song. [...]