Background

In January 1967, prior to recording The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, the band had produced at Sound Techniques Studio in London a single titled "Arnold Layne", which was later released in March, and reached number 20 in the British charts. Also in January, the band had recorded a 16-minute version of "Interstellar Overdrive" and an improvised jam called "Nick's Boogie" for Peter Whitehead's documentary film Tonite Lets All Make Love in London.. (The latter track was released in 1991, on the CD reissue of the film's soundtrack). The band's live show consisted mainly of instrumental numbers and blues covers. However, it had started to introduce songs that were written primarily by guitarist and lead vocalist Syd Barrett.

Recording history


Recording of the album began on 21 February 1967 in studio three of EMI Studios, at the same time that The Beatles were recording Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The album was produced by Norman Smith, an EMI staff member who had previously engineered all of the Beatles' recordings up to 1965's Rubber Soul. Smith would go on to produce Pink Floyd's follow up album, A Saucerful of Secrets. "Interstellar Overdrive" and "Matilda Mother" were two of the first tracks recorded, as the latter was viewed as a potential single. An early, unoverdubbed, shortened mix of the album's "Interstellar Overdrive" was used for a French EP release that July. In April, the band recorded both "Percy the Rat Catcher" (this would later be called "Lucifer Sam"), and a currently unreleased track called "She Was a Millionaire." At some point during the album's creation, Nick Mason recalled that the group was ushered into Studio Two, where the Beatles were recording "Lovely Rita". Several conflicting views surround how efficiently the recording of the album actually went. In his book Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd, Nick Mason recalled that the sessions went smoothly and that the whole process was extremely efficient. Norman Smith, however, condemned both the album's recording and the band members' musical abilities. Smith later stated that the sessions were "sheer hell." Both "The Gnome" and "The Scarecrow" were recorded in one take. Indeed a large proportion of the album is credited solely to Barrett, with tracks such as "Bike" having been written in late 1966 before the album was even started. "Bike" was originally titled "The Bike Song," and it was recorded on 21 May 1967. The last recording session took place on 5 July 1967, with the track "Pow R. Toc H." being one of the last songs added to the album.
[edit] Album cover and title

Vic Singh photographed and designed the album cover. The back cover features a silhouette drawing of the band done by Barrett himself.

The album's title comes from the title of Chapter Seven, "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn", of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows, where Rat and Mole, while searching for Portly, the lost son of Otter, are drawn to a place where the piper is playing on his reed flute. (The piper referred to is the Greek god Pan.)[1]
[edit] Release history

The original UK LP (with a monaural mix) was released on 5 August 1967, and one month later it was released in stereophonic mix. It reached #6 on the UK charts.[2]

The original US album appeared on the Tower Records division of Capitol Records in October 1967. This version (ST-5093, stereo; T-5093, mono) was officially titled simply Pink Floyd though the original album title did appear on the back cover as on the UK issue. The US album featured an abbreviated track listing and reached #131 on the Billboard charts. A UK single, "See Emily Play", was substituted for "Astronomy Dominé," "Flaming", and "Bike." The Tower Records vinyl issue also faded out "Interstellar Overdrive", and broke up the segue into "The Gnome", because the songs were re-sequenced. Later US issues on compact disc had the same title and track list as the UK version.

The Canadian LP (Capitol/EMI ST-6242) had the same title and track listing as the UK version.

In 1973, the album, along with A Saucerful of Secrets, was released as a double disc set on Capitol/EMI's Harvest Records label, titled A Nice Pair. (On the American version of that compilation, the original four-minute studio version of "Astronomy Dominé" was replaced with the eight-minute live version found on "Ummagumma"). The American edition of A Nice Pair also failed to properly restore the segue between "Interstellar Overdrive" and "The Gnome."

The stereo mix of the album was first released on Compact Disc in 1987, and re-released as a digitally re-mastered CD in 1994 and then in June 1995 in the US. In 1997 EMI released a re-mastered, limited-run mono mix version in a hefty digipak with 3-D box art for continental Europe and the world outside the United States. This mono CD included a slightly edited version of "Flaming." A six-track bonus CD, 1967: The First Three Singles, was given away alongside the 1997 30th-anniversary edition of the album.

* 1999 CD Capitol 59857
* 1987 CD Capitol C2-46384
* 1967 LP Tower ST-5093
* 1995 CD EMI 7243 8 31261 2 0
* 1994 CD Capitol 46384
* 2001 CD EMI 65731
* 1994 CD Capitol 1073

Reception
At the time of its release, the album was received positively. In subsequent years, the record has been recognised as one of the seminal psychedelic rock albums of the 1960s. In 1967, both Record Mirror and NME gave the album four stars out of five. Record Mirror commented that "the psychedelic image of the group really comes to life on this LP, which is a fine showcase for both their talent and the recording technique. Plenty of mindblowing sound." Cash Box called it a "striking collection of driving, up to date rock ventures." Paul McCartney and Pink Floyd's past producer Joe Boyd, both rated the album highly. Some, notably Pete Townshend, voiced the opinion of the underground fans, by suggesting that the album did not reflect the band's live performances. In recent years the album has gained even more recognition. In 1999 Rolling Stone Magazine gave the album 4.5 stars out of 5, calling it "the golden achievement of Syd Barrett". Q Magazine described the album as "indispensable," and included it in their best psychedelic albums of all time. It was also ranked fortieth in Mojo magazines, The 50 Most Out There Albums of all Time. In 2000 Q magazine placed The Piper at the Gates of Dawn at number 55 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. In 2003, the album was ranked number 347 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.[7] Digital Dream Door also ranked The Piper at the Gates of Dawn number 2 on the "100 Greatest Psychedelic Albums" list.[8] The album was named as one of Classic Rock magazine's "50 Albums That Built Prog Rock".[9]
[edit] Fortieth anniversary edition

A two-disc fortieth anniversary edition was released on 4 September 2007, and a three-disc set was released on 11 September 2007. The packaging, designed by Storm Thorgerson, resembles a cloth-covered book, along with a twelve page reproduction of a Syd Barrett notebook. Discs one and two contain the full 'Piper' album in the original mono mix (disc one), as well as the alternate stereo version (disc two). Both have been newly remastered by James Guthrie.

The third disc includes several Piper-era outtakes from the Abbey Road vaults, along with the band's first three mono singles. Unreleased material includes a shorter take of "Interstellar Overdrive" that was previously thought lost, the pre-overdubbed abridged mix of "Interstellar Overdrive" previously only available on an EP in France, an alternative mix of "Matilda Mother" as it appeared early in the sessions, and also the 1967 stereo mix of "Apples and Oranges," which features extra untrimmed material at the beginning and end.[citation needed]

A Saucerful of Secrets is the second studio album by English rock group Pink Floyd. It was recorded at EMI's Abbey Road Studios on various dates from August 1967 to April 1968. It is both the last Pink Floyd album on which Syd Barrett would appear and the only studio album in which all 5 band members contributed.

Recording and structure

During its difficult recording sessions, Barrett became increasingly unstable and in January 1968 David Gilmour was brought in. Barrett was finally ousted from the band in early March, leaving the new incarnation of Pink Floyd to finish the album. As a result, A Saucerful of Secrets is the only non-compilation Pink Floyd album on which all five band members appear, with Gilmour appearing on four songs ("Let There Be More Light", "Corporal Clegg", "A Saucerful of Secrets", and "See-Saw") and Barrett on three ("Remember a Day", "Jugband Blues" and "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun").

As well as "Jugband Blues", the album was to include "Vegetable Man," another Syd Barrett song. However, the band believed "Vegetable Man", with its autobiographical lyrics, was unsuitable for inclusion and so it was left off the album. The song was to appear on a single as the b-side to another unreleased track, "Scream Thy Last Scream". Two additional Syd Barrett songs "In The Beechwoods" and "No Title" were also recorded early in the sessions for the album.

Keyboardist Richard Wright sings lead vocals on four of the album's seven songs, and backing vocals on Saucerful of Secrets (song) making this the only Pink Floyd album where Wright's vocal contributions outnumber those of the rest of the band. This was also the only album to contain lead vocals by all five Pink Floyd members (Mason sings lead parts on "Corporal Clegg").

Album cover

This is the first of several Pink Floyd album covers designed by Hipgnosis, and was only the second time that an EMI group (The Beatles were the first) was permitted to hire outside designers for an album jacket.[1] Certain elements of the collage are taken from page 25 of Marvel Comics' Strange Tales #158 (1967), including the face of the Living Tribunal in the upper left, Doctor Strange along the right edge and the image of a string of planets entering a whirlpool that runs through the center of the design.

The title track was David Gilmour's first professional songwriting credit. His name is incorrectly spelled "Gilmore", an error that would persist on all pressings until finally being corrected with the 1994 remastered version.
[edit] Songs from the album

Like The Piper at the Gates of Dawn before it, the album contains space rock and psychedelic rock songs.[citation needed] But unlike Piper, which was dominated by Syd Barrett's compositions, A Saucerful of Secrets contains only one original Barrett song, "Jugband Blues".

With Barrett seemingly detached from proceedings,[citation needed] it came down to Roger Waters and Richard Wright to provide adequate material. The opening "Let There Be More Light" penned by Waters, continues the space rock approach established by Barrett. Both "Remember a Day" and "See-Saw" use the child-like approach that was established on their debut. Wright remained critical of his early contributions to the band.[2]

"Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" (another Waters' composition) is a space rock number which was first performed with Barrett in 1967. The success of the track was such that it remained in their live set-list until 1973 where it appeared in a greatly extended form. Waters later performed the track during solo concerts from 1984 and later. Waters borrowed the lyrics from a book of Chinese Poetry from the Tang Dynasty, like Barrett had used in "Chapter 24".

"Corporal Clegg," written by Roger Waters, is the first Pink Floyd song to address issues of war, a theme which would endure throughout the career of Waters as a songwriter for the band, culminating in the 1983 album The Final Cut. This song also features Nick Mason on lead vocals, marking the first official release in which use is made of Mason's vocals..
Release history

In the UK the album was released on 29 June 1968 on EMI's Columbia label as both mono (SX 6258) and stereo (SCX 6258) LPs. It reached number nine in the charts.[citation needed] In the US it was released by the Tower Records division of Capitol, where it remains the only Pink Floyd album to not chart.[citation needed] However, when reissued as A Nice Pair, with the original version of The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn after the success of The Dark Side of the Moon, the album did chart at number 39 on the Billboard Hot 200.

The CD stereo mix of the album was first released in 1987, and in 1992 was digitally remastered and reissued as part of the Shine On box-set. The remastered stereo CD was released on its own in 1994 in the UK, and then in April 1995 in the US. The mono mix version of the album has never been officially released on CD.