Classic Albums: The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn by Pink Floyd

Now for the 60’s and this one was released in August 1967 so after Sinatra yesterday in the last post we time traveled twelve years and four months also from America to England, only my second English artist/band after David Bowie off-course and after the Americans by way of Germany on The Monks 1966’s Black Monk Time album as my only other sixties record, so far. It’s lucky/unlucky 13th post for my Classic Albums collection today. Plus we have now get to The Dawn after Wee Small Hours, I did and didn’t plan it that way but only just notices those album’s titles refereeing to that part of the day after choosing them and now writing about them. I haven’t watched the sun come up for a very long time now but I did love doing when I was younger, for a long while I didn’t ever miss it coming up.  

Pink Floyd was really my fave band as a teenage, the band which I don’t put on that much anymore now. If I do it’s Piper, by far the album I enjoy listening to the most out of all of the bands albums. Almost all of them are just too much now, it’s just so overblown. I can enjoy this one because maybe it’s a bit more fun than all the other albums combined, they’re just too seriously which that makes it just a bit boring for me to listen now and I really must have listen to other later albums so much more too so maybe too much then because this one I kind-off dismissed as a teenage I dig now much more, funny how things change hey?

If you don’t know this is the debut album by the biggest band I’ve ever written about here on my blog thingy. I don’t know if I can add anything new about the band as such, the leader and singer-songwriter Syd Barrett who’s front and center on the album cover lose his shit soon after it’s release was thrown out of the band. Well, the story goes the guy who sitting on Syd’s left to him on the album cover Roger Waters just says while driving around picking up the other guys/members of Pink Floyd from the gig that night just goes “Let’s not pick Syd up” or something as simple as that and that’s it for him by that stage David Gilmour was already roped into the band to play guitar. Funny because if you the skip to the 80’s David pretty much does the same thing to Roger minus driving around in the van bit. Recording takes place at Abbey Road Studios in London earlier the same year. Rated number 347 in Rolling Stone magazine’s top 500 albums of all-time sandwiched in-between Muddy Waters’ Live At Newport 1960 and De La Soul’s 3 Feet High And Rising album, not three records I would pull together.

A lot of Syd’s which maybe it should be his first solo album with the guy’s from PF?

Other than those tit bits I don’t know if I can tell you anything new, the new boxset is out next month but I think I’ll wait until they just release the Syd discs by itself. I’ve been listening to the bootlegs for years and years so it’s not going to make much different if I wait until next year. Syd’s really the only one/member I’m now interested in, I don’t want to focus on mad old Syd here too. Go somewhere else if you want all those stories, what I can really tell it’s down to the other member’s of the band who didn’t what him there anymore eg. the bloke sitting on his left on this album cover. Syd was the art student and others were architecture students and even if it was psychedelic rock sixties Syd was the only one who’s known to taken the drugs at the time, I don’t know if it’s total BS but all the others have gone on the record saying they never taken drugs. I’ve read a lot of stuff about this band over the years and that’s what I’ve come too, Syd was a bit hard to work with at times but it was nothing more, Roger just wanted to be the main songwriter and stories about his total control freak act in the later years in the band life makes Syd weird shit look like a cake walk and/or just a walk in the park. One more thing, it does really piss me off now when Roger does say rubbish like “You’ll never get me to take this stuff seriously.” But you could say the same about stuff done by the band later as Roger’s stuff or maybe like I’ve already said, the opposite is true Roger’s stuff is too seriously so you’ll never get me to take it.

Anyway that’s all I’ll say about that, it does show it’s time period but I don’t find it totally dated and/or what not. Just like yesterday’s album is easy listening 50’s, today is 60’s psychedelic rock and they’re what they’re. Once again it really does work as a whole and only a little over forty mins. too so not too long at all. Syd’s got some great words for the songs, I guess the more crazy ones are about a cat called Sam, a garden gnome and his push bike. The two instrumental are wicked here but it’s opening track is my fave, sometimes I really can’t pick one out above the rest but Astronomy Domine is just pure amazing for me so I’ll highlight it here. I got the 40th anniversary three discs set which was now almost ten years ago now. I do really want to know why the hell are they just now releasing these recording in this new boxset of all of early years?

I never got to see them live but my older sister did which was her first big gig over in England. Now to finish I’ve just got to tell you all about my car accident when I was a teenager, was on my push bike and got hit by a speeding car without helmet and no shoes on my feet and it was the hottest day over the summer holidays here in Australia that Sunday afternoon anyway it was pretty bad not that I remember anything at all, nothing! They just happen to be having a fake airplane disaster up at the small local airport that day so they bring me in and fix me up and everything but when I did wake-up all I said is “where is my Pink Floyd t-shirt?”

The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn track listing, songwriters and times:

1. Astronomy Domine (Barrett, Wright) 4:12
2. Lucifer Sam (Barrett) 3:07
3. Matilda Mother (Wright, Barrett) 3:08
4. Flaming (Barrett) 2:46
5. Pow R. Toc H. (Barrett, Waters, Wright, Mason) [Instrumental but wordless vocals by Barrett, Waters] 4:26
6. Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk (Waters) 3:05
7. Interstellar Overdrive (Barrett, Waters, Wright, Mason) [Instrumental] 9:41
8. The Gnome (Barrett) 2:13
9. Chapter 24 (Barrett) 3:42
10. The Scarecrow (Barrett) 2:11
11. Bike (Barrett) 3:21

My Classic Albums are, so far:

Tales From The Australian Underground – Volume 1 & 2 by Various Artists

Station To Station by David Bowie

Unplugged In New York by Nirvana

Rust In Peace by Megadeth

Gunfighter Ballads And Trail Songs by Marty Robbins

Henry’s Dream by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Whatever You Love, You Are by Dirty Three

Gala Mill by The Drones

Black Monk Time by The Monks

Ex Tropical by Lost Animal

Work (Work, Work) by HTRK

In The Wee Small Hours by Frank Sinatra

So, this was the reason I started this blog. The idea is simply to write page/post about one of my fave album each that I consider a classic album. Please leave your comments below about each album because I would love to hear what you think about each album too, cheers!

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