The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
by Pink Floyd

Well badfaith, I don't think this album would have been forgotten. It is just cast down in the shadows of The Dark Side of the Moon, and The Wall. This is their first album, and Syd Barrett created (what I think is one of Floyd's best) "Interstellar Overdrive." He had a good sense of British Psychedelia, and was advancing it by adding strange sound effects such as sounds by voice, and overlapping sounds of metal object being ran up the fretboard. After this album he went far out of it, but if he had continued, I believe that he would have brought great success to Floyd (not saying more than that has been precieved.) Think about it, at the end of "Bike" he has clock alarms going off (Time,) he influenced the Floyd to write some of their best songs (Shine on You Crazy Diamond, Wish You Where Here, Brain Damage,) and thought up the idea of bringing a saxophonist and two woman singers into the band (a statement straight from Water's mouth.) In my opinion, the Floyd did amazing albums without him, Water's is the greater song writer, and Gilmour is the better guitarist, but Syd was the jumpstart to the band spawning ideas that would later be used, and inspired the band.


As for my review for this album:
There are three great songs on this album, and the rest are mediocore. Interstellar Overdrive (which is amazing,) Lucifer Sam, and Astronomy Domine. This was Syd Barretts burst of creativity before his collapse. The album isn't the most enjoyable album listening from track one to eleven, but it's still alright. I believe that this album is a bit overrated due to the glory that Pink Floyd brought to Syd Barrett, but oh well, it's still nice to listen to. (Edited)

Pink Floyd's first two albums epitomised the British psychedelic scene of the late 1960s. Their debut, 'Piper At The Gates Of Dawn' (1967) merged the three strands of US psychedelia - the eccentric melody of Jefferson Airplane's 'White Rabbit', the improvised jam of the Velvet Underground and the abstract freak-out of Red Crayola. The end result was the transformation of a specific form of pyschedelic rock towards a new distinctive form that emphasized meditation and relaxtion.
The centerpiece of the album, 'Interstellar Overdrive', is an instrumental masterpiece of sublime intensity that contains one of the most awesome guitar riffs in rock history. It is as monumental song within a masterpiece of an album.

(Edited)

From ~SMiLE~ 03/19/2012 20:46 | #38622 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

Ludicrous, fantastic and strange. A singular album. Material that was both poppy and deeply out there. An incredibly influential psychedelic album, full of truly surprising and inventive music. These surrealistic textures recommended to anyone with an open mind. Pink Floyd never made an album which even approached being this trippy. (Edited)

To understand why alot of people (including myself) think Syd was a huge songwriting talent, you have to put things into context in 1967..first off, all the songs he ever wrote (includes Piper, Madcap, Barrett) were written in about a 6 month time frame - when his Schizophrenia began to worsen, he lost his ability to write songs - considering how many incredible songs he wrote, this is astonishing. Also, Syd was one of the first songwriters to write surreal, spacy lyrics - this was absolutely revolutionary - listen to his song Flaming and tell me you don't see any similiarity to Lennon's Lucy in the Sky w/ Diamonds. I think it's possible Lennon borrowed some of Syd's lyrical stylings. A few brilliant Syd songs: Feel, Octopus, Flaming, See Emily Play (Edited)

From AleJohnMari 11/15/2008 18:30 | #1754 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

If it was just more consistent it would have been perfect. For me this album contains one of the best songs I've heard and song over and over again. And the memory of when I heard it for the first 10 times, it was just amazing, weird in a great way. Syd Barrett was one of the best. (Edited)