THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN

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 bassist 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 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 album charts 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 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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