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The Piper at the Gates of Dawn

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The Piper at the Gates of Dawn is Pink Floyd's debut album, thought by many as one of their best, and the only one made under Syd Barrett's leadership, although he made some contributions to the follow-up, A Saucerful of Secrets. It is certainly one of the most influential LPs ever made, being a tremendous influence on the psychedelic rock scene of the time, and much of what followed. The album has whimsical lyrics about scarecrows, gnomes, bicycles and fairytales, along with psychedelic instrumental passages. The album was recorded at Abbey Road Studios at the same time The Beatles were recording Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Many critics thus regard this time as being that when the two highly significant albums of the '60s were being recorded at the same time in the same studios.

The LP (with a monaural mix) was released on August 5, 1967, and one month later it was released in stereophonic mix. It reached #6 on the UK charts, and its US version (entitled simply Pink Floyd and featuring a re-arranged and abbreviated tracklisting) reached #131 on the US charts. "See Emily Play" substituted "Astronomy Domine", "Flaming" and "Bike" on the original US vinyl issue. The CD was first released in 1987, and re-released with a digitally re-mastered stereophonic re-mix in 1994. Three years later, EMI released a re-mastered, limited-run mono mix version in a hefty digipak with 3-D box art.

The album's title comes from the title of the seventh chapter of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows, where Water Rat and Mole, while searching for a lost animal, have a religious experience ("This is the place of my song-dream, the place the music played to me," whispered the Rat, as if in a trance. "Here, in this holy place, here if anywhere, surely we shall find Him!"). The Piper referred to is the Greek god Pan. Vic Singh photographed and designed the album cover, unlike subsequent Pink Floyd albums.

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Track listing

All songs written by Syd Barrett, except where noted.

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

Personnel

also

  • Norman Smith - producer
  • Peter Brown - engineer
  • Vic Singh - cover photography
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