Pink Floyd - Piper at the Gates of Dawn

 I realize that damn near anyone who would click on this blog is gonna know this record, but bare with me - I want to have a record of it here since I was surprised that I hadn't written about it previously. The CD that I have is the UK version (vastly different track listing than the US vinyl version that I have owned forever) which includes a couple of extra tracks not on the US record - pretty disconcerting when I first heard it. This album is one of the true landmarks of the psychedelic era and pretty much sounds like one of singer/guitarist Syd Barrett's LSD trips.

With a pulsating bass line, keyboard quicks and, eventually, guitar power chords under spacey vocals, "Astronomy Domine" is positively a journey to the outer reaches but it also manages to be grounded with a strong beat and some real energy - not an easy feat! One of the catchier tunes is the oft-covered "Lucifer Sam" - filled with hip riffs, melodic vocals, some neat instrumental interaction and a rock'n'roll arrangement - very groovy! "Mathilda Mother" moves back'n'forth from an almost ambient verse to a lick-laden chorus to a jazzy/Mid-Eastern bridge - yes, there is a lot going on here! Sounding a bit like a acid-filled child's fairy tale (which happens a few times on this record), ""Flaming" seems almost a description of a trip and is followed by the odd vocal sounds combined with jazzy piano for the mostly instrumental "Pow R. Toc H." and then Roger's off-time, noisy, somewhat anarchic (in a good way!) "Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk", with their version of a "rave-up", which is vastly different in a psychedelic way  than how the Yardbirds would perform. We then get "Interstellar Overdrive", famously "stolen" from Love's "Little Red Book", another instrumental that ebbs'n'flows with wild dynamics, moving from heavy r'n'r to ambient, open sounds before returning for a crushing ending. Another child's tale is the percussive-dominated "The Gnome", an I Ching-based ballad for "Chapter 24", while "Scarecrow" has more unusual, raindrop percussion behind the descriptive lyrics, and the finale, "Bike", sounds a lot like Syd's post-Floyd, child-like solo work.

With Barrett at the helm, Pink Floyd sounded like no other group at the time or since, and while they garnered fame'n'fortune after replacing him, their songs'n'style were never quite as strong or manic as here. A 60's masterpiece, to be sure!

The CD includes a nice booklet with plenty of photos along with the lyrics and, hey, I just found out that the record's title refers to the god, Pan. Am I the last to know that?!