The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn

In late 1966, London-ordained "swinging" by Time magazine-was undergoing a massive cultural change. At the very heart of London's underground lay Barry Miles and Indica Books, the subject of The Beatles' "Paperback Writer." Along with John Hopkins, American Jim Haynes and others, Miles also launched the International Times, London's first newspaper dedicated to this new counter-culture. And it was roughly here that managers Peter Jenner and Andrew King introduced the Pink Floyd Sound to that scene. The happenings of 1967 were novel, and the music more than just the soundtrack. Built in large part upon their residencies at the Marquee and UFO clubs, Pink Floyd became the archetype of this new British psychedelic rock. Their live set, complete with a light show, progressed from deconstructed R&B to extended instrumental freak outs. The group composition "Interstellar Overdrive" illustrates the innovation of live Floyd. Compared to anything else from the era, it's completely uncanny; just check out their performance in Peter Whitehead's film Tonite Let's All Make Love in London (its title taken from an Allen Ginsberg text). However, the album, The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, is pure Syd Barrett, as first previewed in singles "Arnold Layne" and "See Emily Play." His "Matilda Mother," the lyrics inspired in part from Hilaire Belloc's Cautionary Tales, best highlight the middle-class aesthetic of he and his bandmates. Highly literate and intelligent, the musical transcription is wonderfully inspired and, like "Bike," especially English. The album was recorded at EMI Studios simultaneous to The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, with their ex-engineer Norman Smith in the producer's chair. There's no cliché in calling the album a classic; creatively, it simply had no peer. It was also unique in that it offered no singles-they were separate from the album-in a tradition most progressive bands would follow. Produced by Joe Boyd, "Arnold Layne" b/w "Candy and the Currant Bun" rose to No. 20 in March despite being banned by "Wonderful" Radio London, while both "See Emily Play" b/w "Scarecrow" and the album reached the UK No. 6 in the summer. While Barrett appeared on two tracks on their next album, this would remain his recorded legacy with Pink Floyd. His psychological decline (precipitating an aborted US tour) led to his eventual eviction from the band and prompted his status as the preeminent poster child of the acid casualty.