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Pink Floyd, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967) 
Reviewer: sydburnz | See all reviews by sydburnz
Section: Reviews | Category: Music | Area: Kansas | Topic: Music
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 The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967)
Syd Barrett - guitar, vocals
Nick Mason - drums
Roger Waters - bass, vocals
Rick Wright - keyboards, vocals
Following the footsteps of the groundbreaking Beatles album, Sgt Peppers, Pink Floyd released their debut album as a continuation of studio trickery and experimentation. This pscyhedelic masterpiece dives into the experimental/avante-garde genre which pushed the boundary of what rock should be. Syd Barrett was the main inspiration of Piper, often using bizarre, surrealistic imagery in his lyrics with a manic style of guitar playing. Many of Barrett's songs were very childish and fairy-tale like with cats, scarecrows, witches, mice, bikes, and gnomes making appearances within the lyrics. The other tracks were mainly collaborations with the remaining members of Pink Floyd which were jazzy/psychedelic instrumental pieces.
The opening track, Astronomy Domine, is introduced with a megaphone and a Barrett riff that sets the tone for the rest of the album. This spacey track is indeed one of the strongest on the album. Astonomy Domine was a concert staple for quite a few years after the album was released, and it was even resurrected during the 1994 Division Bell tour. PowR TocH was an instrumental track consisting of weird vocal noises that makes the listener think of a strange jungle in a distant land. The members of Pink Floyd were experimenting with all sorts of different sounds, as you can witness in the jazzy instrumental piece. Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk is a rather underappreciated track which showcases how great of musicians the Pink Floyd are. Syd Barrett's acid-laden guitar chords are prominent in this track. The strongest tune on this album is a psychedelic jam on a riff that Syd took straight from Love's "My Little Red Book". The producer, Norman Smith, wanted to try to capture the intensity and passion of the live incarnations of this instrumental piece, and he pulled it off rather well. The piece is full of feedback, fuzz, weird tunings, and stereo panning, sprawling over 9 minutes of pure psychedelia.
The greatest moment on the album has to be the coda, much like their inspiration, Sgt Peppers. After Syd finishes singing about giving away his possessions to a woman he loves in Bike, there are multitudes of tape loops and sound effects ranging from clockwork pieces to reverbed laughter. Indeed a great way to end out such a weird album. Other good tunes on Piper include: Flaming, The Gnome, Chapter 24, and Scarecrow.
The album was a hit in the UK, which paired with the success of Syd's previous 2 singles, was a catalyst in the downfall of Syd Barrett. The pressures of the music business and his acid-freak friends ultimately turned him from a genius musician and artist into a paranoid, catatonic being. The pressures made him take more acid, and when it was paired with his manic depressive state, he could never get back to reality. Fans and critics often wonder what kind of success Pink Floyd would be if Syd never lost his mind, his creativity. Syd was still the main inspiration of most of the albums to follow Piper.
More Info
Syd Barrett took the title straight from chapter 7 of the book, Wind in the Willows, one of his favourite childhood books.
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Visitor Comments about Pink Floyd, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967)
Posted by Carl Dexter on 2004-12-21 08:43:17
My Score:  
Comment: This is where PF got their start. A bit eccentric but its a good way to see where they started and how much they grew. The cd, along with Soft Machine and the moody blues stuff at the same time (1967) is very ahead of its time.
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Posted by The Cowboy Philosopher on 2004-12-10 03:05:33
My Score:
Comment: Hey fellers...Is Astronomy Domine about a stranded astronaut ? Cuz it sorta brings to mind sci fi...you know how the song starts , with that distress signal... and then he sings ¨the fight´s between the blue you once knew ¨...Earth´s blue sky now a distant memory for the astronaut...it´s like he´s exploring one of Jupiter´s moons. ¨Lime and limpid green...the sound surrounds the icy waters underground¨ it´s like the dude´s exploring an alien ocean on Europa, one of Jupiters moons, which coincidentally is supposed to have water under it´s surface. Too weird!!!! There´s no way Barret knew about all that stuff 30 years before NASA´s Gallileo probe to Jupiter. Creeepy!!!!
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Posted by Shaun on 2004-08-31 15:47:10
My Score:
Comment: I’d just like to say that Piper at the Gates of Dawn is one of the most amazing albums I have ever heard. I cannot adequately express my amazement at Astronomy Domine. This track is absolute genius. This should be studied in music courses on so many levels.
The way the song is knitted just blows me away every time. Every damn time I play that I am enthralled. People who listen and shrug it off just don’t understand because they can’t feel or see music on an open level.
Just the opening sends shivers down my spine. You have to listen to it in earphones in a calm, relaxed state of mind or you’ll miss it all. I’m 20 years old and I’ve been exposed to a LOT of music through Dad, but nothing surpasses this song.
I love the way things rise and fall. There are dimensions within this track. If one instrument falls, others tip with it. Again, you cant just listen to it from your computer or you wont understand. There are two guitar tracks at play here. If these guys didn’t have 3 months in the studio we wouldn’t have this song, so they were extremely fortunate in that respect. No, we are extremely fortunate.
This track demonstrates why Syd should be considered one of the greatest, well, I hate to limit him to the generic term ‘musician’, but ‘sound sculptor’ of all time. Its not that he could play fancy scales in half a second, it all those little effects he gets through out the whole song. You must know what I’m on about, like the ‘whoo-tke whoo-tsh …. Ding ning ning ner….. bouw bouw .. der ner nere der ner nere’ Those little scrapes as if something is gliding to earth, takes a few paces on the ground then launches again. You can’t actually learn that in a book. Because of LSD I’m sure he could see the music, and visualization is what the mind is all about. It’s the predominate sense.
And man, Interstellar Overdrive… what an adventure! This is groundbreaking. An abstract narrative. Sure it may have been attempted before but not like this. I have to admit, you have to hear this in earphones either on the verge of sleep or while stoned to be in it, but once you’re in it, it’s like none other.
I had been listening to Piper at the Gates of Dawn for a long time before I first listened to it stoned in headphones. This was an unforgettable experience. Way too intense. In Astronomy Domine I was floating on blue and green colors on the rollarcoaster ride into the subconscious. Scared the absolute hell out of me. I wanted to laugh, I was on the verge of tears, hyperventilating. In a way I felt akin with Syd, knowing what he was experiencing all the time. And this was only weed. Because I have a highly receptive and sensitive mind I dare not try LSD because I’m sure I’ll reach insanity a lot quicker then he did.
Unfortunately, you can’t really experience music on the same level when you’re straight compared to that on dope. I have stopped smoking for quite along time now due to the mental consequences. For all you egg heads that have never tried, I highly recommend you listen to Piper. – Notice he connotation. I know you’ll read that it was his ‘favourite chapter in wind in the Willows’ but the connotations to smoking weed are more than obvious aren’t they?
Seriously, I don’t think I even got to Interstellar Overdrive that night. I was that flipped out after Flaming that I had the emotional control of a two year old lost in the wood. It was really dangerous. And you listen to Flaming and you laugh because its a little children’s song, but man, Syd must have been in the stars to have been writing stuff like that. I regressed to the state of a child through one listen; imagine what the hell was happening to his mind if he were writing the stuff on LSD. And still, now when I listen to Flaming straight I get butterflies and I go cold from head to toe and feel like crying, and the irony is that its such a playful song which makes me feel ridiculous and isolated. But I think it’s linked to strange psychological roots, triggering memories of being lost in the long dark tunnels in a playground with big kids running around. It’s when Syd says lying on an eiderdown that it starts, that sort of echo as if he’s right behind you. And that horn as you progress further and further back into memory, then the little jingles get me upset and I want to break down, then when he does that sssheeeeeuu sound I go cold and shake in hypertension. Then there’s the little launch in what sounds like a bicycle riding in the clouds. my god I tell you I nearly lost the plot that one time. I had completely, not just left my body, but the whole earth and it’s was so glorious and frightening. I was lost. Completely lost. And Syd would have been feeling this all the time.
You have to hand it to the guy. He must have seen some mad things beyond words. And who can guess at all the priceless improvised stuff he played every time he picked up that guitar and tapped away the borders of sanity. Or the ideas he had that materialized in his mind, played out in full then disappeared. I say this because this is what happens to me when I’m straight. I hear songs, complete songs better than anything I have ever heard before then they disappear and I cant remember them nor can I write music. Syd is a tragic genius. Can you even comprehend what he must have been feeling? To see ‘his band’ rise to superstar status, with songs often themed on his breakdown.
And as for his solo stuff, I love it. I love Opel the best because it is the roughest, and gives us a sketch at this mans personality. He was a casualty of the times, but I’m mean he served as a sort of experiment didn’t he? And look what he produced – a masterpiece that I feel is still yet to be rediscovered by today’s culture. He made pictures with sound. This is the future of music. It’s a gem of inspiration that most will never know of.
Ok. I really gotta do this assignment for uni. Well done if you read it all. I hope I have encouraged a closer analysis of his works.
Feel free to reply to me or ask me stuff: trippen@hotmail.com
Shaun
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Posted by Ferdy Belland on 2004-06-23 22:58:48
My Score:
Comment: As a longtime Pink Floyd fan, every few years I go back through their albums, front to back, and am continually amazed by how inventive these Brits truly were. "Piper" still sounds fresh to me today, almost as if Doug Martsch decided to ditch Built To Spill and get back into flowers and LSD. Well, it worked for Syd, anyway...for a while...erm, anyway, I always wonder what Pink Floyd would have evolved into if Syd hand''t deteriorated mentally. I also think about the brief few months when the Floyd were a quintet with ex-Jokers Wild guitarist David Gilmour...yes, the Waters-dominated, Gilmour-laden Floyd is the most powerful and somber era of Pink Floyd''s musical history, but think of it, kids! What if Syd hadn''t succumbed to the pork chops and the bad blotter and had kept the pure psychedelia alive? Alas, all we have now is "Piper," but what a one-shot statement...my favorite tracks: "Astronomy Domine," "Lucifer Sam," "Pow R. Toc H.," "Interstellar Overdrive..." aw hell, how can I choose? The entire album is a unique collection of pop-psychedelia brilliance, a unified masterpiece from start to finish, and all songs are strong on this. Pink Floyd never sounded the same after this, which might not necessarily be a tragic thing, but the amazing songs on "Piper" still make me wonder...
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Posted by David Kalipso on 2002-02-23 21:52:47
My Score:
Comment: Man, that''s the greatest Pink Floyd''s album ever! First, because is the only one totally dedicated to the psychedelia. And second, because is the only one with total participation of Syd Barrett, the biggest Pink Floyd''s genious. The album begins with the space/proto-progressive/psychedelic rock "Astronomy Domine", with a surrealistic lyric. Later, begin "Lucifer Sam", who is like the soundtrack of a B-Film, rolling in another dimension. In the lyric, you don''t know if Syd talks about his cat or about the guy of the darkness. "Mathilda Mother" is a sweet psychedelic song, with sweet vocals and childish lyric. "Flaming" is one of the most impressive psychedelic songs ever! Just listening you can know what''s that! The big and caotic jams of "Interstellar Overdrive" and "Take Up Thy Stethoscope And Walk", the jazzy "Pow R. Toc H.", the surrealistic and childdish "The Gnome", the mystic of "Chapter 24", the simplicity of "Scarecrow" and the enfant psychedelia of "Bike". And the finish is with strange noises, just like "Sgt. Pepper". That''s one of the greatest albums of the world!
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