The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn is the debut studio album by English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 4 August 1967 by EMI Columbia.[7] It is the only Pink Floyd album made under the leadership of founder member Syd Barrett (lead vocals, guitar); he wrote all but three tracks, with additional composition by members Roger Waters (bass, vocals), Nick Mason (drums), and Richard Wright (keyboards, vocals). The album followed the band's influential performances at London's UFO Club and their early chart success with the 1967 non-album singles "Arnold Layne" and "See Emily Play".
For other uses, see Piper at the Gates of Dawn (disambiguation).
The album was recorded at EMI Studios in London's Abbey Road from February to May 1967 and produced by Norman Smith. It blended Pink Floyd's reputation for long-form improvisational pieces with Barrett's short pop songs and whimsical take on psychedelia. The album made prominent use of recording effects such as reverb and echo; employed tools included EMT plate reverberation, automatic double tracking (ADT), and Abbey Road's echo chamber. Part-way through the recording sessions, Barrett's growing use of the psychedelic drug LSD saw his mental state become increasingly debilitated, leading to his eventual departure from the group the following year. The album title was derived from referencing the god Pan in chapter seven of Kenneth Grahame's 1908 children's novel The Wind in the Willows, a favourite of Barrett's.
The album was released to critical and commercial success, reaching number 6 on the UK Albums Chart.[8] In the United States, it was released as Pink Floyd in October on Tower Records with an altered track listing that omitted three songs and included "See Emily Play". In the UK, no singles were released from the album, but in the US, "Flaming" was offered as a single. Two of its songs, "Astronomy Dominé" and "Interstellar Overdrive", became long-term mainstays of the band's live setlist, while other songs were performed live only a handful of times. In 1973, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn was packaged with the band's second album A Saucerful of Secrets (1968) and released as A Nice Pair, to introduce the band's early work to new fans gained with the success of The Dark Side of the Moon (1973).
The album has since been hailed as a pivotal psychedelic music recording. Special limited editions of The Piper at the Gates of Dawn were issued to mark its 30th, 40th, and 50th anniversaries, with the former two releases containing bonus tracks. In 2012, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn was placed at number 347 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", moved up to number 253 in the 2020 edition.[9][10]
Background[edit]
Architecture students Roger Waters, Nick Mason and Richard Wright and art student Syd Barrett had performed under various group names since 1962, and began touring as "The Pink Floyd Sound" in 1965.[11] Around 1966, the group began to achieve underground success for their influential performances at London's UFO Club.[12] They turned professional on 1 February 1967 when they signed with EMI, with an advance fee of £5,000.[13][14][15] Their first single, a song about a kleptomaniac transvestite titled "Arnold Layne", was released on 11 March to mild controversy, as Radio London refused to air it.[13][16]
About three weeks later, the band were introduced to the mainstream media.[nb 1] EMI's press release claimed that the band were "musical spokesmen for a new movement which involves experimentation in all the arts", but EMI attempted to put some distance between them and the underground scene from which the band originated by stating that "the Pink Floyd does not know what people mean by psychedelic pop and are not trying to create hallucinatory effects on their audiences."[17][18] The band returned to Sound Techniques studio to record their next single, "See Emily Play", on 18 May.[19][20] The single was released almost a month later, on 16 June, and reached number six in the charts.[21][8]
Pink Floyd picked up a tabloid reputation for making music for LSD users. The popular broadsheet News of the World printed a story nine days before the album's recording sessions began, saying that "The Pink Floyd group specialise in 'psychedelic music', which is designed to illustrate LSD experiences."[22] Contrary to this image, only Barrett was known to be taking LSD; authors Ray B. Browne and Pat Browne contend that he was the "only real drug user in the band".[23]
Live performances[edit]
The band promoted the album with a series of concerts. They played dates in Ireland and Scandinavia, and in late October the band was to embark on their first tour of the United States. It was unsuccessful, mainly because of the mental breakdown of Barrett.[70] In his capacity as tour manager, Andrew King travelled to New York to begin preparations, but he ran into serious problems. Visas had not arrived, prompting the cancellation of the first six dates.[71] The band finally flew across the Atlantic on 1 November, but work permits were not yet obtained, so they settled into a hotel in Sausalito, California, just north of San Francisco.[116] After a number of cancellations, the first US performance was given 4 November at Winterland Ballroom, following Janis Joplin fronting Big Brother and the Holding Company.[116]
Communication between record company and band was almost non-existent, and Pink Floyd's relationship with Tower and Capitol was therefore poor. Barrett's mental condition mirrored the problems that King encountered;[72] when the band performed at Winterland, he detuned his guitar during "Interstellar Overdrive" until the strings fell off. His odd behaviour grew worse in subsequent performances, and during a television recording for The Pat Boone Show he confounded the director by lip-syncing "Apples and Oranges" perfectly during the rehearsal, and then standing motionless during the take. King quickly curtailed the band's US visit, sending them home on the next flight.[73]
Shortly after their return from the US, beginning 14 November, the band supported Jimi Hendrix on a tour of England,[73] but on one occasion Barrett failed to turn up and they were forced to replace him with singer/guitarist David O'List borrowed from the opening band the Nice.[70] Barrett's depression worsened the longer the tour continued.[117] Longtime Pink Floyd psychedelic lighting designer Peter Wynne-Willson left at the end of the Hendrix tour, though he sympathised with Barrett, whose position as frontman was increasingly insecure. Wynne-Willson, who had worked for a percentage, was replaced by his assistant John Marsh, who collected a lesser wage.[118] Pink Floyd released "Apples and Oranges" (recorded prior to the US tour on 26 and 27 October)[119] but, for the rest of the band, Barrett's condition had reached a crisis point, and they responded by adding David Gilmour to their line-up, initially to cover for Syd's lapses during live performances.[70]
Some songs on the album were rarely played live.[120] "Flaming" and "Pow R. Toc H." were performed by Pink Floyd after Barrett's departure in 1968.[121] After September 1967, the band played several new compositions in concert. These included "One in a Million", "Scream Thy Last Scream", "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" and "Reaction in G", the last of which was a song created by the band in response to crowds asking for their hit singles "See Emily Play" and "Arnold Layne".[122] Barrett resurrected the track "Lucifer Sam" with his short-lived 1972 band Stars.[123] "Astronomy Dominé" was later on the live disc of Ummagumma (1969),[124][125] and adopted by the post-Waters Pink Floyd during the 1994 Division Bell Tour, with a version included on the 1995 live album Pulse.[126] David Gilmour, though not a member of Pink Floyd at the time the song was originally recorded, resurrected "Astronomy Dominé" for his On an Island and Rattle That Lock tours.
Track listing[edit]
UK release[edit]
All tracks are written and sung by Syd Barrett, unless otherwise noted.
Numbers noted in parentheses below are based on original UK album tracklist and CD track numbering.
Pink Floyd[127]
Production