Search - Pink Floyd :: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (40th Anniversary Edition)

Beware: "Emily" absent

Michael Malcolm | New York | 09/05/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The first track on the 1967 American release of "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" [Tower ST 5093] is the Syd Barrett gem, "See Emily Play." This is arguably the best song the Floyd ever recorded, but in England it was originally released only as a single. Since this new 2 cd re-release of Piper is the English album, "Emily" is not included. Floyd lovers may prefer to purchase the 3 cd set, "LIMITED EDITION - EXTRA TRACKS" scheduled for 9/11/07 release which includes "Emily" along with other singles from the period."

Floyd's debut gets sonic overhaul for its 40th birthday

Terrence J. Reardon | Lake Worth (a west Palm Beach suburb), FL | 12/24/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Pink Floyd's debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn was originally released in August of 1967 and was re-released in two different versions for its 40th anniversary in September of 2007 by Capitol Records.

In August of 1967, Pink Floyd released their debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn in the UK and a month later in the US as The Pink Floyd.

This was the first introduction to a band that would conquer the world in a few years time. The band consisted of bass player Roger Waters, drummer Nick Mason (credited as Nicky on this album's original sleeve), keyboardist Rick Wright and guitarist/vocalist and main songwriter Syd Barrett, whom was the mad genius of the band.

The members of the band were in groups known as The Abdabs, The Megadeaths and The T-Set among others until Syd hooked up with childhood friend Roger and Roger's architectural school classmates Rick and Nick and another friend Bob Close to form the group The Pink Floyd which was named after two old Georgia bluesmen Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. Bob Close left after recording Syd's demo of "Lucy Leave".

Throughout 1966, the band were a concert sensation in London's underground music movement and proceeded to get a deal with EMI in Europe and was signed to EMI's US affiliate Capitol under the subsidary Tower (way before the record chain existed).

The band's first two singles were "Arnold Layne" and "See Emily Play" which were both Top 20 hits in England.

Then, the group's entered Abbey Road Studios to record their debut sometime in March of 1967 with producer Norman Smith, whom worked with The Beatles from 1962-65. Ironically, The Beatles were in the same building finishing their classic contribution to rock history Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

All but one track on Piper was written or co-written by Syd Barrett. His songs were whimsical works of art.

The original UK album started with "Astronomy Domine", which was about going into space to explore the universe (strangely this song was eliminated off of the original American vinyl release). Next is "Lucifer Sam", a tale about a Siamese cat. "Matilda Mother" and "Flaming" (which was also left off of the original US vinyl release) follow and are great songs. Next is the first of two instrumentals "Pow R Toc H" which grabs the attention. Next was Roger Waters' first song written for the band "Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk" which is a silly song with some excellent jamming.

The second half of the album starts with "Interstellar Overdrive" which was a number the band had played live before signing with EMI and was written by the band. "The Gnome" follows and is about a gnome named Grimble Crumble. "Chapter 24" follows and is my favorite Syd track. "The Scarecrow" follows and is a funny but great song. The album concludes with the whimsical "Bike" (also left off the original US vinyl release in favor of "See Emily Play") which then turns into a collage of sound effects and duck-call noises.

The album showed Syd at his best before LSD caused his behavior to become erratic and unpredictable and his songwriting skills started to go down the drain.

The US version of the album hit the lower reaches of the Billboard Top 200 while the UK version hit #6 in England and the UK version would eventually be released in the US on the double album A Nice Pair in 1973 and properly on CD on its owm in 1987.

The 2-CD set has two different mixes of the album both newly remastered by longtime Floyd associate James Guthrie. The first disc is the original monaural mix that the late Syd Barrett commissioned for the band and has some different mixes on some of the tracks as opposed to the original stereo mix we are familiar with which is on disc two of this 2-CD remaster. The new remaster is ten times superior to the original CD, the 1994 remastered CD and the 1997 mono CD remaster by a longshot.

Excellent start to an outstanding career."

See Emily Play With The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn

A. Armitage | NY | 09/08/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"First lemme say that if you had bought the original US release of PIPER back in the day on the TOWER label, you bought a bastardized version of the album. TOWER dropped ASTRONOMY DOMINE from the original tracking as SEE EMILY PLAY was a hit single in England at the time of its US release. Gotta have them singles on those albums if you wanna sell here in the good ol USA!



The current track listing IS the ORIGINAL EMI track listing as released in England back in 1967.



This kinda reminds me of when EMI/CAPITOL decided to release all the BEATLE albums with the original European track listings.



...also, you really didn't need to wait for this release to get EMILY on disc. The song also appears on a limited edition release called "EARLY SINGLES". It was also released in the SHINE ON Boxset on a bouns disc as well as appearing on the release of "RELICS", which came out a few years back."