I felt like doing a Pink Floyd deep dive and thought I would bring any willing Maidenfans along for the ride. I would love to get some quality discussion going for a band that isn't over-discussed on here, but maybe popular enough to get some attention. First, some ground rules:
Pink Floyd formed in 1963 when Richard Wright, Roger Waters, and later Nick Mason, met in college. They were soon joined by Syd Barrett and went through a variety of lineup and name changes before eventually settling on Pink Floyd. Like the Beatles at the Cavern Club and Iron Maiden at the Soundhouse, the UFO venue was pivotal for Pink Floyd building an audience before eventually being signed to EMI. They were quickly rushed into the studio to produce some singers and their first album was out by August 1967.
Before I get to the first album, some brief thoughts on pre-album material:
The Tea Set - The earliest released recordings of what would become Pink Floyd are included in The Early Years box set and as a special EP called 1965: Their First Recordings. This was while they were going by the name The Tea Set. This set is interesting for historical purposes, but it is a far cry even from the psychedelic stylings of the first album, which in itself is a far cry from what Floyd would eventually become. If you're interested in hearing an early version of Floyd (same lineup as the first album + Bob Klose on guitar) playing some 60s English blues rock, here is a little taster.
Arnold Lane and See Emily Play - These were the first singles that the band recorded for EMI. Arnold Lane gave the band some early controversy due to being about a man who wore women's clothing, See Emily Play was much more palatable for general audiences and led to an appearance on Top of the Pops. As was typical for EMI bands at the time, the two singles weren't included on the UK versions of the album (which is what I will be talking about), although they did appear on the US version. Both singles, See Emily Play especially, were very important for the band and for Rock and Roll as a whole. Extremely influential recordings.
And now:
Piper At the Gates of Dawn (1967)
It's hard to talk about any music released in the late 60s without mentioning the shadow of the Beatles. With Pink Floyd, this is especially true considering that they recorded Piper At the Gates of Dawn at Abbey Road studios in a room next door to The Beatles, who were recording Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Plenty of artists, from Frank Sinatra to Frank Zappa, had been pushing the envelope of what the album format could offer, but Sgt Pepper was a game changer in the sense that, for the rest of the 60s and much of the 70s, a band needed to offer an experience with the album in order to be marketable. Few bands went on to be as album oriented as Floyd. As The Beatles imploded before the depths of their influence could really be felt, Pink Floyd largely took up the mantle of the band that created a complete album experience and refined that process until they got to the pinnacles of Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall. But, in 1967, they were simply recording their debut album next door to The Beatles at Abbey Road.
Pink Floyd on Piper At the Gates of Dawn is almost a completely different band. The songs were primarily written by Syd Barrett, who would be ousted from the band shortly after the album's release due to struggles with drugs and undiagnosed mental health issues. Consequently, it is often either ignored by fans of Floyd's later work, or seen as the band's first and last great album. To this day, it stands as a cornerstone of the late 60s psychedelic rock movement. They would never make another album quite like it.
For what it is, Piper At the Gates of Dawn is a very good album. For a debut album especially, it shows a lot of promise in the band as performers and, for Syd Barrett in particular, as song writers. Syd has a tendency to neatly combine elements of UK pop, blues, and the more experimental psychedelic sounds to create music that is surprisingly palatable, even if it goes off the rails at times. Other late 60s groups, such as The Velvet Underground and Frank Zappa & The Mothers often seemed to intentionally alienate their audiences in an attempt to create music that spoke to a particular counterculture. Pink Floyd seems more focused on reaching wider audiences and the music is often unassuming in that sense. The music is mostly simple and direct with occasional bursts of weirdness. This is best illustrated on Astronomy Domine, which seamlessly weaves between various levels of palatability. It makes sense that this song is probably the most enduring one from the Syd Barrett era.
The songs are catchy, feature memorable riffs (Lucifer Sam), and are well written. The album kinda loses me at the end of Side 1 and the start of Side 2. The long psychedelic odysseys are uninteresting at best and downright annoying at worst. Pink Floyd were notoriously mediocre musicians. As the years went on, they improved and learned how to effectively play to their strengths with really stunning and memorable instrumental work. Obviously on this first album they aren't quite there yet. This band sounds best when they are writing in the pop song format with occasional soundscape-y instrumental sections. The long ten minute ramble on Interstellar Overdrive, not so much. This music was probably fun when tripping on acid at the psychedelic rock clubs, but on record it's just useless.
The production and soundscapes are pretty interesting though and prove that The Beatles weren't the only rock artists experimenting with studio sounds. In many ways, the sounds on this album are more interesting and creative than Sgt Pepper. Floyd was working with a lower budget and didn't really have guidance from a George Martin. So there are a lot of "happy accidents" on this album that give it a more organic feel than what comes from The Beatles. The marriage between production, writing, and performance, also feels more cohesive.
There's one song that isn't credited to Barrett: Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk. Although it's barely a song and really more of another meandering jam. It's crazy to think that the guy who would later bring us songs like Money, Brain Damage, and Mother contributes what is easily the weakest song on the debut album. It's just a complete mess!
Get rid of the run from Pow R Toc H to Interstellar Overdrive though and you have an excellent album. Unfortunately, that stretch is a good 20 minutes long, which is nearly half the album's length. But the shorter Barrett songs are all awesome. I love the fairy tale vibe of the album and Barrett was truly a great songwriter. I can see why this album is so beloved in those circles. For me, it's an interesting oddity and is fun to go back to every now and then. My favorite song on the album is Bike, but See Emily Play is probably my favorite song overall from this era. It's at least worth listening to once and easy to see why it is so important to rock history.
- I'm going to do every studio album + live albums when I feel like it. This also includes More and Obscured By Clouds. I'll talk about other recorded auxiliary material as it comes up.
- I might talk about some solo albums. I'll probably do the first Barrett album, the first couple Gilmour albums, and every Roger Waters album, but we'll see.
- This is not going to be a track by track review/rating thread. If you want to rate/rank the albums, here is the appropriate thread for that. Also, please don't take this thread offtopic by talking about albums that aren't currently being discussed (i.e. no jumping ahead).
- I would love for this to be a thread that Floyd n00bs could join in on. I'm pretty familiar with the music, but some of my favorite discussions in the past have been led by people who are trying out the band for the first time and leaving thoughts. I will try to provide as much context as possible to make the barriers to entry lower.
- To that end, Pink Floyd haters are encouraged to participate. Don't troll the thread, but I would love to hear from folks who aren't into it. But with the caveat that they try the music out in earnest.
Pink Floyd formed in 1963 when Richard Wright, Roger Waters, and later Nick Mason, met in college. They were soon joined by Syd Barrett and went through a variety of lineup and name changes before eventually settling on Pink Floyd. Like the Beatles at the Cavern Club and Iron Maiden at the Soundhouse, the UFO venue was pivotal for Pink Floyd building an audience before eventually being signed to EMI. They were quickly rushed into the studio to produce some singers and their first album was out by August 1967.
Before I get to the first album, some brief thoughts on pre-album material:
The Tea Set - The earliest released recordings of what would become Pink Floyd are included in The Early Years box set and as a special EP called 1965: Their First Recordings. This was while they were going by the name The Tea Set. This set is interesting for historical purposes, but it is a far cry even from the psychedelic stylings of the first album, which in itself is a far cry from what Floyd would eventually become. If you're interested in hearing an early version of Floyd (same lineup as the first album + Bob Klose on guitar) playing some 60s English blues rock, here is a little taster.
Arnold Lane and See Emily Play - These were the first singles that the band recorded for EMI. Arnold Lane gave the band some early controversy due to being about a man who wore women's clothing, See Emily Play was much more palatable for general audiences and led to an appearance on Top of the Pops. As was typical for EMI bands at the time, the two singles weren't included on the UK versions of the album (which is what I will be talking about), although they did appear on the US version. Both singles, See Emily Play especially, were very important for the band and for Rock and Roll as a whole. Extremely influential recordings.
And now:
Piper At the Gates of Dawn (1967)
It's hard to talk about any music released in the late 60s without mentioning the shadow of the Beatles. With Pink Floyd, this is especially true considering that they recorded Piper At the Gates of Dawn at Abbey Road studios in a room next door to The Beatles, who were recording Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Plenty of artists, from Frank Sinatra to Frank Zappa, had been pushing the envelope of what the album format could offer, but Sgt Pepper was a game changer in the sense that, for the rest of the 60s and much of the 70s, a band needed to offer an experience with the album in order to be marketable. Few bands went on to be as album oriented as Floyd. As The Beatles imploded before the depths of their influence could really be felt, Pink Floyd largely took up the mantle of the band that created a complete album experience and refined that process until they got to the pinnacles of Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall. But, in 1967, they were simply recording their debut album next door to The Beatles at Abbey Road.
Pink Floyd on Piper At the Gates of Dawn is almost a completely different band. The songs were primarily written by Syd Barrett, who would be ousted from the band shortly after the album's release due to struggles with drugs and undiagnosed mental health issues. Consequently, it is often either ignored by fans of Floyd's later work, or seen as the band's first and last great album. To this day, it stands as a cornerstone of the late 60s psychedelic rock movement. They would never make another album quite like it.
For what it is, Piper At the Gates of Dawn is a very good album. For a debut album especially, it shows a lot of promise in the band as performers and, for Syd Barrett in particular, as song writers. Syd has a tendency to neatly combine elements of UK pop, blues, and the more experimental psychedelic sounds to create music that is surprisingly palatable, even if it goes off the rails at times. Other late 60s groups, such as The Velvet Underground and Frank Zappa & The Mothers often seemed to intentionally alienate their audiences in an attempt to create music that spoke to a particular counterculture. Pink Floyd seems more focused on reaching wider audiences and the music is often unassuming in that sense. The music is mostly simple and direct with occasional bursts of weirdness. This is best illustrated on Astronomy Domine, which seamlessly weaves between various levels of palatability. It makes sense that this song is probably the most enduring one from the Syd Barrett era.
The songs are catchy, feature memorable riffs (Lucifer Sam), and are well written. The album kinda loses me at the end of Side 1 and the start of Side 2. The long psychedelic odysseys are uninteresting at best and downright annoying at worst. Pink Floyd were notoriously mediocre musicians. As the years went on, they improved and learned how to effectively play to their strengths with really stunning and memorable instrumental work. Obviously on this first album they aren't quite there yet. This band sounds best when they are writing in the pop song format with occasional soundscape-y instrumental sections. The long ten minute ramble on Interstellar Overdrive, not so much. This music was probably fun when tripping on acid at the psychedelic rock clubs, but on record it's just useless.
The production and soundscapes are pretty interesting though and prove that The Beatles weren't the only rock artists experimenting with studio sounds. In many ways, the sounds on this album are more interesting and creative than Sgt Pepper. Floyd was working with a lower budget and didn't really have guidance from a George Martin. So there are a lot of "happy accidents" on this album that give it a more organic feel than what comes from The Beatles. The marriage between production, writing, and performance, also feels more cohesive.
There's one song that isn't credited to Barrett: Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk. Although it's barely a song and really more of another meandering jam. It's crazy to think that the guy who would later bring us songs like Money, Brain Damage, and Mother contributes what is easily the weakest song on the debut album. It's just a complete mess!
Get rid of the run from Pow R Toc H to Interstellar Overdrive though and you have an excellent album. Unfortunately, that stretch is a good 20 minutes long, which is nearly half the album's length. But the shorter Barrett songs are all awesome. I love the fairy tale vibe of the album and Barrett was truly a great songwriter. I can see why this album is so beloved in those circles. For me, it's an interesting oddity and is fun to go back to every now and then. My favorite song on the album is Bike, but See Emily Play is probably my favorite song overall from this era. It's at least worth listening to once and easy to see why it is so important to rock history.
