THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN

A delightful album, full of the surreal music of the late Syd Barrett. My favourite stand out tracks are Bike, with its colourful lyrics remind me of a Doctor Seuss book for exampe; "...I've got a Clan of Gingerbread men, here a man there a man lots of Gingerbread men, take a couple if you wish they're on the dish." Flaming, has brilliant lyrics "...travelling by telephone." Scarcrow and the Gnome fit in that genre as well. I think these songs reflect how colourful a personality Barrett was. There is a lot of sixties psychedelia, such as Interseller Overdrive, which I do believe influenced a lot of Krautrock. Also Astronomie Domine. I do like Domine in its own way, but for me Interseller Overdrive is a little dated bands like Can really develop these ideas further, so to me Overdrive is an item of Antiquity, it serves as an artifact of future psychedelia. Roger Waters has a writing credite for one song Take up thy Stethoscope and Walk, but this pales compared to Syd's songs. For 1967 this album is very progressive, but I think its also a little dated it sounds too attached to the 60s summer of love. To me its merely shows the potential that Syd Barrett had as a songwriter but it feels there was more yet come (which really didn't happen). Its a good album and shows how dynamic Floyd was under Barrett, but they had better days ahead, so to me its non essential, a nice album to own that was a landmark for Prog but it doesn't stand up to later progressive albums by Yes and Genesis and Pink Floyd . So three stars from me, a nice album that is enjoyable but an artifact.