Pink Floyd

The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn

The birth of Pink Floyd 37 years on

Review Score:

(10/10)
In August of 1967, Pink Floyd released their debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. This was the world's first introduction to a band that would conquer the world in a few years time. On this album, the band consisted of bassist Roger Waters, drummer Nick Mason, keyboardist Rick Wright and guitarist/vocalist and main songwriter Syd Barrett, whom was the arguable genius of the band at the time. The members of the band were in groups known as The Abdabs, The Megadeaths and The T-Set among others until Syd hooked up with childhood friend Roger and Roger's architectural school classmates Rick and Nick and another friend Bob Close to form the group The Pink Floyd Sound which was named after two old Georgia bluesmen Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. Bob Close left after recording Syd's demo of Lucy Leave. Throughout 1966, the band were a sensation in London's underground music movement and proceeded to get a deal with EMI in Europe and was signed to EMI's US affiliate Capitol under the subsidary Tower(way before the record chain existed). The band's first two singles were Arnold Layne and See Emily Play which were both Top 20 hits in England. Then, the group's entered Abbey Road Studios to record their debut sometime in March of 1967 with producer Norman Smith, whom worked with The Beatles from 1962-65. Ironically, The Beatles were in the same building finishing their classic contribution to rock history Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. All but one track were written or co-written by Syd. His songs were whimsical works of art. The original UK album started with Astronomy Domine, which was about going into space to explore the universe(strangely this song was eliminated off of the original American vinyl release). Next is Lucifer Sam, a tale about a Siamese cat. Matilda Mother and Flaming(which was also left off of the original US vinyl release) follow and are great songs. Next is the first of two instrumentals Pow R Toc H which grabs the attention. Next was Roger Waters' first song written for the band Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk which is a silly song with some excellent jamming. The second half starts with Interstellar Overdrive which was a number the band had played live before signing with EMI and was written by the band. The Gnome follows and is about a gnome named Grimble Crumble. Chapter 24 follows and is my favorite Syd track. The Scarecrow follows and is a funny song. The album concludes with the whimsical Bike(also left off the original US vinyl release in favor of See Emily Play) which then turns into a collage of sound effects and duck-call noises. The album showed Syd at his best before LSD caused his behavior to become erratic and unpredictable and his songwriting started to go down the drain. The US version of the album hit the lower reaches of the Billboard Top 200 whilst the UK version hit #6 in England. The UK version was eventually released in the US on the double album A Nice Pair in 1973 and properly on CD on its own in 1987. The CD sounds better now with the remastering done in 1994 by James Guthrie. Excellent start to an outstanding career.

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