Pink Floyd: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn

Best song: Interstellar Overdrive

Worst song: Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk

Overall grade: 7

Syd Barrett writing songs, back when he was very weird, but it wasn’t yet the disturbing kind of weird that made you realise his mental state was completely beyond repair. No, on Piper, I actually wouldn’t object to being inside the mind that came up with this.

At this point in Pink Floyd’s history, they were playing live shows pretty much every night, and these consisted mainly of long, instrumental, acid-rock jams, and this side of the band is represented in the group compositions; the best of these being Interstellar Overdrive – a brilliant headphones song that rivals the Grateful Dead and Hawkwind in making you feel like you’re taking an acid trip in outer space. The others in this style, Astronomy Domine and Pow R Toc H. are both excellent too, already hinting at the band’s later fascination with studio effects and gimmicks.

But the album is also packed with songs that show a side of the band you couldn’t find by going to their live shows – the three-minute psychedelic pop tracks, almost any of which could have been singles. My favourite of these is Lucifer Sam when taken overall – it’s a really cool bass-driven song with a great vocal hook and some funky instrument noises scattered through it. When looking at the lyrics, though, Flaming is the best; a tale of two kids playing hide and seek with some great imagery (Watching buttercups cup the light/Sleeping on a dandelion) and the classic childlike squeal of ‘Yippee! You can’t see me but I can you.’

The Barrett composition on here that most people bash is side 2’s Chapter 24, and while not as strong as many of the other songs, I really like the hypnotic quality of Syd’s voice – he’s almost detached as he recites the lyrics, which is appropriate considering they weren’t written by him but instead taken from the I-Ching (Chinese Book of Changes).

However, the other song that everyone complains about is the side one closer and sole Roger Waters composition, ‘Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk’, and that one’s justified. The lyrics are by far the worst he would ever write, and I can’t even remember the tune despite listening to it yesterday (does it even have one?)

The album finishes with ‘Bike’, which despite what some people say, is NOT a novelty song – come on, Syd Barrett was taking several tabs of LSD every day, I’m pretty sure that’s just what was in his head, including the minute-long sound collage at the end. The strange children’s-toy noises that make up this really sum up the mood of the whole album – fun and childlike on the surface, but with a lot of dark, spooky undertones.

Overall, I really consider this the first Floyd masterpiece, and on some days even the finest. On the later 70s albums, yes, the standard was ridiculously high, but everything was meticulously crafted – planned to create exactly the effect they wanted, while on here, everything’s so spontaneous. The Floyd were just trying to write regular songs, and they turned out this mind-blowing, and that’s really why giving a grade of 7 is such an obvious decision.