THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN

This is where everything started.

1967 was a very prolific year about Psychedelic and Symphonic Rock releases; bands like Jefferson Airplane, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Velvet Underground, Love, The Moody Blues, and of course The Beatles released some of their most iconic records that year and some of these albums are now considered into what we now call Proto-Prog; basically, these bands became the foundation of a rock style that didn't exist in 1967 but appeared and started to grow until become into what we call Progressive Rock. Pink Floyd was one of the bands responsible for building a bridge between Proto-Progressive Rock and actual Progressive Rock, but in the following years, they started to play solid Progressive Rock and became one of the most representative bands in the genre.

"The piper at the gates of dawn" was almost entirely composed by Syd Barrett, who was the leader of the band, and later he had to leave for reasons that we all know now and they're not worth mentioning now, so it's fair to say that this first Pink Floyd album was one of a kind since from their second album ("A saucerful of secrets"), David Gilmour joined the band replacing Syd and stayed in the band until its very last day.

The music here is mainly psychedelic. The album explores different sounds, through the interesting lyrics of Syd Barrett and the short instrumental jams, each of the four musicians gave his very unique touch to the album. If the Progressive Rock genre didn't exist in 1967 and it was born later, it's fair to say that this album is still Proto-Prog, but it's undeniable that "The Piper at the gates of dawn", as well as the albums of the bands that I mentioned in the first paragraph, were part of the bases over Progressive Rock was built.

This album was a very nice start for a band that later became a legend. Maybe not a Progressive Rock record per se, maybe not an absolute masterpiece but truly an indispensable album into the Progressive Rock development.

SONG RATING: Astronomy Domine, 5 Lucifer Sam, 4 Matilda mother, 4 Flaming, 4 Pow R. Toc H., 3 Take up thy stethoscope and walk, 4 Interstellar overdrive, 5 The gnome, 4 Chapter 24, 4 Scarecrow, 4 Bike, 5

AVERAGE: 4.18

PERCENTAGE: 83.64

ALBUM RATING: 4 stars

Share this PINK FLOYD review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to Uruk_hai
• Report this review (#2461881)
• Buy PINK FLOYD music online with PA partners
• Show all PINK FLOYD MP3/Stream
• Go to PINK FLOYD page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to The Piper at the Gates of Dawn page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for PINK FLOYD related discussions