csberry

Nursery rhyme lyrics, spacy drones, and chaos. Such are the sounds found on Piper at the Gates of Dawn. While there are a few songs that share some traits with the psychedelic songs recently heard during the Yardbirds albums, the music on this album is so far away from those folky, pop songs. Pink Floyd were going in such a chaotic direction in their attempts to run away from the whole blues dynamic of rock.

Syd Barrett is the primary creative force here. The one track written by Roger Waters is so lyrically elementary and pedestrian ("Doctor doctor!/I'm in bed/Achin' head/Gold is lead/Choke on bread/Underfed/Gold is lead/Jesus bled/Pain is red") that if you told someone at the time that Roger would be the driving creative force for the band within a few years, it is easy to understand how someone would think it impossible for the band to have continued to exist. While Syd's lyrics are very childlike in their own right, they are witty and surreal.

While I found the instrumental space jams to be intriguing to a certain extent, they seemed more like audio fodder for acid trips than something a person would actually want to hear over and over. They have their place on the album, but I don't get the itch to just play "Pow R. Toc H." and then go about my day.

Songs I knew I liked: "Astronomy Domine"

Songs I didn't know but now like: "Lucifer Sam," "Flaming," "The Gnome," and "Chapter 24"

Songs I can go the rest of my life without hearing again: "Pow R. Toc H.," "Interstellar Overdrive," and I've never liked "Bike"