THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN

As you all know by now, Pink Floyd's first album has very little resemblance to the monster the band became in the seventies. The band was, again widely known, centered around the spacy poetry and music of Syd Barrett. While Barrett was highly talented, and Pink Floyd probably would not have become what it eventually became without him, although there is no way of knowing if they would have become popular enough without him to attract record label attention. And they probably would not have become what they did if he stayed also. Would Waters have become the songwriting powerhouse that he is now if Barrett had not left, and what would he have written about without having Barrett's madness to mine? And what of Gilmour?

Well, enough of that speculation.

The album itself is quite good. Most of the songs were penned by Barrett. And these remind me a bit of early Gong, with a little less sillisness (just a little). And Barrett did a fair amount of those sound effect pieces that Waters would continue throughout the band's career.

Two songs are credied to the whole band, and one to Waters. Interstellar Overdrive and Astronome Domine remained in the group live repertoire throughout their career. Nice.

One other thing. My EMI LP credits "Nicky" Mason on drums. It's good that he didn't keep that on later albums.