Disco de Pink Floyd: “Piper at the Gates of Dawn [40th Anniversary 2-CD Edition]”

Pink Floyd's debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn was originally released in August of 1967 and was re-released in two different versions for its 40th anniversary in September of 2007 by Capitol Records.

In August of 1967, Pink Floyd released their debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn in the UK and a month later in the US as The Pink Floyd.

This was the first introduction to a band that would conquer the world in a few years time. The band consisted of bass player Roger Waters, drummer Nick Mason (credited as Nicky on this album's original sleeve), keyboardist Rick Wright and guitarist/vocalist and main songwriter Syd Barrett, whom was the mad genius of the band.

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 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 concert 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 on Piper was written or co-written by Syd Barrett. 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 of the album 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 but great 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 skills started to go down the drain.

The US version of the album hit the lower reaches of the Billboard Top 200 while the UK version hit #6 in England and the UK version would eventually be released in the US on the double album A Nice Pair in 1973 and properly on CD on its owm in 1987.

The 2-CD set has two different mixes of the album both newly remastered by longtime Floyd associate James Guthrie. The first disc is the original monaural mix that the late Syd Barrett commissioned for the band and has some different mixes on some of the tracks as opposed to the original stereo mix we are familiar with which is on disc two of this 2-CD remaster. The new remaster is ten times superior to the original CD, the 1994 remastered CD and the 1997 mono CD remaster by a longshot.

Excellent start to an outstanding career.

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (40th Anniversary Edition) being Pink Floyd's 1967 release and their debut album is a classic example of psychadelic rock and sounds as experimental as Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys. The album did quite well in the UK album charts and peaked at #6. The booklet is typical 60's psychadelia and the lyrics are quite strange but easy to read. 4/5.

Is it me, or is the critical literature about Syd Barrett a bit misleading? I mean, coming to this album based on what I'd read about it, I expected some kind of quaint, pastoral, twee epic. What it is, however, is heavily improvised, jazzy space rock that is, to these ears, far more experimental than the arena-friendly rock Pink Floyd would later do, post-Barrett, when it rose to US chart success with Dark Side of the Moon. Pink Floyd without Barrett was like Genesis without Peter Gabriel, i.e., less out-there, less ground-breaking. And the sound and approach of Piper at the Gates of Dawn would live on in everything from the music of Oasis, a band wrongly characterised as Beatlesque, but featuring instead the noisy guitars and snarly, British schoolbrat vocals of Piper; Sonic Youth, who took the idea of improvised rock to an extreme; and, most surprisingly, Pere Ubu, whose heavily improvised albums New Picnic Time and Art of Walking really sounded not so much like Captain Beefheart, to whom they were often compared, but like early Pink Floyd if they had hired Willie Dixon as a lead singer. David Thomas, like Syd Barrett before him, clearly improvised not only melodies, but lyrics, after which he refined his stream-of-consciousness into something poetic. This is clearly what was going on in Barrett's work on Piper, and the band were a cohesive unit behind him, with special mention needing to be made of the jazz-level chops of drummer Nick Mason and pianist/organist Richard Wright.

The album is superb. No way you can give that less than 5 stars at any given time

Why no early Floyd outtakes? Theres "only" an alternate Matilda Mother (ok, its pretty great!)

I understand Scream thy last scream & Vegetable man were kept off this reissue at the last minute (according to an interview with Mason in Oor magazine)

So consider this a bit of a lost opportunity. Nice to have the notebook with "Syd"s doodles and silliness, but would rather have had more altnerate takes! Surely theres more stuff that could've filled up the third disc! "John Latham"? "Early morning Henry" (no relation to Keith Moon's "Early Morning Cold Taxi" one hopes!)

And how about the mid 60s recordings of "Butterfly" and "Double O Bo". Okay, the latter is probably not so good, but surely there could've been room left for "Lucy Leave" which is a great track (by Barrett? Dunno! Don't have the acetate!)

I see this as a missed opportunity, but then Syd fans are used to that. We had to buy a best of (from an artist who put out 2 albums!) just to have the Bob Dylan Blues

Which really should've been on Opel the first time..

I still doubt that "Living Alone" from the Barrett sessions (1969) will ever see the light of day, or "Butterfly" (one of Syds earliest Syds songs!) but perhaps for the 50th anniversary of Piper!

Just looked up Wikipedia for album details and...annoyed. Seems there was a 2nd 40th anniversary edition of this album, which had three cds. Turns out I've got the 1st anniversary edition, with two discs. My cd contains a mono version of the album and on the second disc a stereo version. Honestly, I wasn't thrilled that I was 'forced' to buy the album with a mono disc on it and listening to the mono I'm still as unthrilled about it as one can be. What's the point? Having said that, the 2nd anniversary cd sounds more interesting...the third disc has out-takes, alternative versions and their first singles (in mono). That sounds better than what I have, but it still has the pointless mono version of the original album. The sound quality on the stereo cd is excellent and well done. My only gripe is for the way the song "Pow R.Toc H" was handled...for an extended period you hear just a piano playing and only on one side of your speaker/headphones. It doesn't sound stereo at all. It sounds like faulty mono! That's the only stuff up from my point of view...could have been done better for that passage.

To the album...really, it would be quite easy to give it 3/5 for the - at times - childish lyrics and tunes...or the musical meanderings which border on the absurd or obscure. However, it has to be said, this is one Hell of a listenable album, which makes rating it difficult. Songs become catchier on further listens. For that reason, I'm leaning more towards giving this album 4/5 than 3/5. Since I'm the kind of person who has to listen to a cd if I bought it, I was 'forced' to listen to the mono disc. Basically, I've listened to this album more times as a result of there being two versions of it, than I otherwise would for cds I listen to in order to review them here. At no point has it become a chore to listen to this album. There are albums I score higher than this that I would be more reluctant to listen to often than this Pink Floyd debut. If you like whimsical pop, psychedlia, experimenta etc. then definitely check this album out. It's a tragedy that Syd Barrett became afflicted with mental health issues...his schtick on this album was intriguing, and it would have been interesting to see if he could have developed and become more polished as an artist.

Best track:

Flaming - whimsical, fantasy lyrics...sort of English theatre folk music. Has cool female backing vocals. There's a harpsichord type instrument and what sounds like a bicycle bell later on. Don't mind the melodies in this and the vocals and guitar strums.

The rest (in album order):

Astonomy domine - N.A.S.A. type radio chatter and effects at the start. Arty lyrics and very English singing. Crisp sound quality, e.g. drums. Unlike Beatles stuff I've heard (pre remasters), there really isn't a issue with the 'faux' stereo...the stereo quality is good to my ears.

Lucifer Sam - bassy, moody organ. Bit menacing. About Syd's cat, presumably. Sort of jaunty track with catty noises on the guitar.

Matilda mother - features the organ and I don't mind its melody and that of the vocals. Arty/fantasy lyrics...bit obscure. Has some harmonies and some silly sounding high notes one time, but generally the song is pleasant in general at times. At the end, the vocals are percussive.

Pow R. Toc H. - has some experimental percussive vocal noises....kind of like scat. You hear a scream on this song which sounds similar to what Pink Floyd would do later on their classic album "The wall". This is the track which has the faulty mono sounding passage featuring the piano. A misjudgement, in my view. Anyway, the piano sounds jazzy. Features the organ. I don't mind the guitar notes. Has some unintentional distortion...don't think you hear it on the mono version of the album.

Take up thy stethoscope and walk - tinny drums open up the track. A jammy type track...listening to the mono version of this song, the jam seemed quite Doorsy...but maybe that should be vice versa. Bassy, with American sounding vocals, perhaps.

Interstellar overdrive - a 9:40 minute long instrumental. Starts off with a conventional rock sound by the album's standards, then goes jammy...you could view that part as being self-indulgent. At times you hear annoying 'chicken' noises being played on the guitar for a while. Might be glitchy for a bit, a bit before three minutes in, perhaps. Psychedelia. There are some annoying 'widgy widgy' sounds near the end of the track (I mean the sound bouncing from one speaker to the next...trying to sound 'cool' or something). You don't get that schtick on the mono version of the album though.

The gnome - childish lyrics, whimsical and absurd. Nice strumming and later you hear a xylophone type instrument, I think. Comes across as the kind of song Ringo Starr would have sung with The Beatles.

Chapter 24 - slower track, obscure lyrics. Pretty keyboard playing...bag-pipey at times? There's a little distortion on the left hand side of the speakers.

The scarecrow - interesting drumming on this track...starts off as a percussive piece with keyboard. The keyboard style reminds me of MGMT's debut album...similarly simple keyboard melodies. More childish type lyrics (you can view these lyrics as being of the sort an adult would read to a very young child). Outro has some symphonic isntruments...viola or cello perhaps.

Bike - carnivalesque music with childish lyrics. Pipe-organ features, perhaps. Harpsichord type instrument too. Piano. The chorus seems unrelated to the verses as the verses seem unrelated to each other. As a result, the chorus stands out more. Whereas "Interstellar overdrive" had chicken noises, this song has geese-like noises. The outro is a soundscape.

Recommendations:

Cream - Wheels of fire. Also has some lovely songs which have a children's story book feel to them. An all time great album.

MGMT - Oracular spectacular. Has some simple yet catchy keyboard riffs. Interesting album overall.