The Piper at the Gates of Dawn

I'm a huge Pink Floyd fan, but strangely have never heard much of the era before Dark Side of the Moon, which ran from their debut album in 1967 to 1973. They released several albums during that period, but I have listened to none of them. Their debut, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, was the only album artistically controlled by one of their founders, Syd Barrett.

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn is considered to be one of the best psychedelic rock albums ever made, and Pink Floyd would continue expanding their musical sensibilities. Barrett wrote or co-wrote all but one of the songs, and wrote all the lyrics, except for one song by Roger Waters (who basically took over leadership after Barrett was fired).

As was common in psychedelia during the late '60s, many of the songs follow two tropes: space, or fairy tales. The opening track, "Astronomy Domine," refers to the planets, while an instrumental, "Interstellar Overdrive," is a nine-minute improvised song that surely must have sounded better on acid.

The other songs reflect Barrett's youth-minded interests. The title of the album is a reference to Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows, and a charming little ditty called "The Gnome" recalls the work of J.R.R. Tolkien. "Flaming" has lyrics about unicorns and buttercups. A song called "Lucifer Sam" is not about devil worship but about Barrett's Siamese Cat.

One of the songs that sticks with me most is the closer (on the U.K. version), "Bike," in which Barrett seemingly shows a variety of objects to a girl, including a bike and an old mouse named Gerald. There is actually a very sweet refrain, "You're the kind of girl who fits into my world, I will give you everything anything if you want it."

The U.S. version, which I don't have, has the only song that gets any airplay on classic rock stations from this period, "See Emily Play." It's as if the entire oeuvre of the band before their monstrous hit Dark Side of the Moon was just washed away.

Barrett was mentally ill, and spent some time in an institution. I guess he could be considered literally a mad genius. He was replaced by David Gilmour, but he was not forgotten--I remember a guy a year older in me in high school who was in a band and worshipped Barrett. The song "Shine On You Crazy Diamond," released on the Wish You Were Here album, is a tribute to him. He died in 2006 at age sixty.