The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn is the set-aside Floyd LP
in that it represents the one-up, trippier, less-classic original line up with bassist
Roger Waters, keyboardist Richard Wright & drummer Nick Mason led by doomed
genius singer/guitarist Syd Barrett. Psychedelic rock doesn't get much more
trippier than Piper, a far-out collection of avant-garde space
rock; songs about gnomes and scarecrows, off-the-wall production and sound
effects, not to mention the superb performances. Although he made one last
"cameo" appearance with the Floyd on A Saucerful Of Secrets with that
album's closing number, "Jugband Blues," Syd Barrett's legacy with
the band is contained right here on Piper (or in the non-LP singles).
Writing all but one song, with his charismatic singing voice and incredible
guitar-playing skills, Barrett was truly a musical genius, and his
equally-talented bandmates match him song for song. Every track on the album is
a highlight in it's own right, with tracks like "Astronomy Domine,"
the before-there-was-alternative alternative "Lucifer Sam," the
far-out instrumentals "Pow R Toc H" and "Interstellar
Overdrive," or the frenetic rock of "Take Up Thy Stethoscope And
Walk" (written & sung by Waters, in his debut composition for the
band). After the release of Piper, of course, Syd Barrett's experimentations
with psychedelic drugs ultimately destroyed him, and he was finally ousted from
the band. Roger Waters more-or-less took over as the group's leader, and
Barrett's vacated slot was filled by guitarist David Gilmour.
At the time The Piper at the Gates of Dawn was released in
1967, it was one among many aurally ripped, acid-tripped albums including Jimi
Hendrix's Are You Experienced, Cream's Disraeli Gears, Jefferson
Airplane's After Bathing at Baxter's, and, of course, Sgt. Pepper's
Lonely Hearts Club Band, which the Beatles were recording down the hall from
Pink Floyd at Abbey Road. But as those albums have gracefully slipped into the
mainstream of our music consciousness, Piper, along with The Velvet
Underground and Nico, still sounds like it broke through from another
dimension.
Interestingly, Piper is an LP that I never
owned, having discovered Pink Floyd as a teen a few years later, and really
only heard the tracks casually or from A Nice Pair. I've been through a modicum
of formats for the LP, but recently came across a brand-new experience by mistakenly
picking up Piper on vinyl in mono, one of the great mistakes I've made recently.
Piper in mono was released on August 5th, 1967 a month before it was released in
stereo. (The album's title comes from the title of the seventh chapter of
Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows.)
Mono was the main format of the day and so those mixes were done at separate sessions for each track, while the stereo album was mixed in a single day. Mono was where all the work and time went and the stereo mix, like that on Sgt. Pepper, was pretty much cobbled together as an afterthought. The Piper at the Gates of Dawn mono mix is much "punchier" and upfront. It just plain sounds better. However, there are many subtle changes in effect, moment to moment gradations that alter the flow of an entire track. For example, Syd Barrett's whoops and shouts on "Take Up thy Stethoscope and Walk" are simply dripping with delay and the sound collage constantly morphs, unlike the stereo version which is fixed. The coda of "Flaming" is briefer than on the stereo version, as is "The Gnome." There's a layer of organ missing on the stereo mix at the start of "Interstellar Overdrive" with a bongo fade-out and seriously different sections thrown together in "Pow R Toch H." Do yourself a favor: rediscover Piper (an AM7) – or better yet, discover Piper in mono (AM8)!
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