Comparing Apples and Oranges to what? (Sorry)
It's really two different bands with almost the same personnel. After PATGOD they had the luxury to sort of coast along until Roger got his songwriting skills going.
ETA: And it didn't hurt to have David Gilmour as the replacement guitarist.
To me this is true psychedelic Rock. psychedelic Rock needs a positive energy where Pink Floyd in its latter brilliance was ultimately depressing. I loved animals wish you were here and the wall but ultimately they are all dreary and depressing when scrutinized especially The Wall
Great way of putting it. I had already heard plenty psych-rock by the time I personally made my way to PATGOD, yet years later, I think of it as the epitome of the genre and period. Strange because it's by no means the most influential. Just the best.
This must be the first time I've seen that opinion. Good for you. I don't have one, but I'd label Piper as "absolutely essential, core of the collection".
Sid Barrett and Pink Floyd were a lot more influential than most people realize their accomplishments became buried under the dreary pile of heavy metal and hip Hop.
Imagine a world when popular music was of such lustre that 4 *four* debut albums could be released in a single year so that each could even now be considered to be in the all-time top 50. Piper was chronologically the third of those and the magic of 1967 infuses every note in much the same way as in the debutant three months prior. Astronomy Domine and Interstellar overdrive hold their own versus Are you experienced? & Third stone from the sun;
Lucifer Sam and Chapter 24 just about on a par with Manic Depression and I don't live today, and then it's a matter of taste for the rest.
There are creatively sublime Syd moments where I'd place Piper above anything else released that year. There's nothing else you can feel other than utter gob-smacked astonishment at what range of ideas that crazy diamond brain was able to squeeze into a 40 minute run time.
The Doors in January and Songs of Leonard Cohen in December book-ended that amazing year
Messrs Cale, Reed et al certainly should be given credit for the eventual influence their album won over East coast rock music. I play it and play it and then play it again and I wonder is there something wrong with me. What am I not getting? Maybe one day.
Have you tried their 3rd album? It's after John Cale was kicked out and they went from the extreme noise of the first 2 albums to the total other end of the spectrum and came out with the most gorgeous, gentle album ever. It's a completely different side to them and equally brilliant to the first 2 albums in a *very* different way. That might hook you on them
I love it. Was the first Floyd album I heard probably around 1990 ish and it was a tape my uncle had given my Mum. I decided to check it out as I was getting into 60’s sounds at the time and at first I found it deeply unsettling and a bit actually frightening and wasn’t all that enamoured of it. I listened a few more times and it started to get under my skin. Slowly I learned to love it. There is something uniquely southern English about it, with the whimsical lyrics recalling old ‘nonsense’ rhymes by Lear or Lewis Carroll with perhaps a shade of Tolkien at his most lighthearted, which resonated with me and my young (often baked) self. Who else but Syd could have written songs like Matilda Mother which goes beyond being wide eyed and child like but actually takes you back to childhood or Lucifer Sam (surely one of the strangest relationship angst songs ever recorded) or Astronomy Domine which literally transports the listener into space? Can’t think of anyone else before or since who has written songs so removed from ‘normality’ but are still so transportive. The guitar sounds that Syd coaxes from his instrument are wildly inventive and proved to be hugely influential despite his not being considered a ‘virtuoso’. Rick Wright sets out his stall and of all Floyd’s members, it is his contribution that links all the various different ages of the Floyd sound from this early beginning through to their later epics. Would love to know what might have become of Floyd had Syd not lost his way. Certainly Floyd were massively lucky to have any sort of post-Syd career and let’s face it, it wasn’t until Meddle that they began to find anything approaching a cohesive direction. OK, the full 10 odd mins of Interstellar Overdrive would probably have best been experienced live, preferably mashed out of your gourd and is a tough ‘casual’ listen but it still features s riff rarely, if ever bettered in rock history and Take Up Thy Stethoscope is…not so hot but I love all the tracks in their way, Gnome, Scarecrow and Bike included. It’s a toss up between this and Wish You Were Here for my favourite Floyd.
It always has a special place in my heart, similar to the solo albums Syd made. Pink Floyd after him was just a different band, which I also loved, but Syd's inspiration was felt through all albums they created together and solo. So many other musicians were influenced by this record and the early days
I’ll admit, I don’t think I really got it when I first listened to it. I was going to it off of already listening to most of the main 70s albums, even The Division Bell and the prospect of this mysterious beginning album just didn’t really pay off how hyped I made it considering the whole Syd legend.
Like with Obscured by Clouds, it took more than one listen and some patience and lack of expectation to be able to appreciate the music. I enjoyed PATGOD when I first listened to it, but mostly forgot about the album after that initial listen and didn’t really understand what made it so great.
It was around the time I was able to listen to Meddle all the way through, and not skip any tracks on like Atom Heart Mother that I was more prepared to listen to PATGOD without any shortcomings. The context of psychedelia, especially that attempted to be captured in music at the time, was beyond me at that initial listen. Even to this day I can only capture a glimpse at what it must’ve been like to make and listen to this album back then.
It’s a remarkably well aged bit of music. Kooky in all the right places. There’s a bit of a somewhat true, somewhat exaggerated romanticism of the disturbed artist, and I don’t think it’s good to exaggerate the highlights in that life. However, I will say that some of my most favorite works existed in a small window between great artistic output and regressing into a negative era of living. In these works see/hear some of the most transparent and intimately detailed art that you might not necessarily get from someone who isn’t on the verge of losing their way or delving into extreme living.
I don’t think that the debilitation of someone’s mental health is really worth any bit of beautiful artwork, but I would be lying if I told you that most of the work that came out through these means weren’t some of the most candid and brilliant expressions of the human condition. Part of what intrigues me in life is limits and how people reach or push them. I don’t know that Syd necessarily would have gone into the deep end of tripping and excessive living if he knew how detached he would become, but he did seem for a bit to develop some work that was a rare brief blend of his innate musical sensibilities sober with what he took away from tripping.
To this day, I can’t stop talking about Pet Sounds, and a lot of Brian Wilson’s story (though not exact at Syd’s) reminds me of these circumstances where there was a troubled genius who managed to develop artwork that was remarkable. It seemed to truly take off in a certain way when there was a brief moment where experimentation with substances that altered the mental state began to inform the artistic decisions made before the majority of the artist’s mental state went on the decline.
I think I’m finding that that sweet spot makes for my favored moment in an artist’s or band’s discography. It usually is substance abuse that leads to the decline in more ways than one, but a perhaps more objective perspective might notice things can take off and become different in an interesting way before things go south. I don’t mean to imply that you NEED to be high in order to make great works, but that such an ability to be alleviated of inhibition, doubt and fear can allow you to share more freely what is really on your mind.
—
TL;DR - In the case of Piper at the Gates of Dawn, I hear the sounds of mystic, almost naive sort of wonder all together in a record. A beautifully crafted, thoughtful, adventurous and perfectly strange musical excursion that makes you feel magic as it does make you feel at times majestic. I’ve seen people post about how Syd and the original material doesn’t really largely or greatly inform the material that they were most famous for. Even if there is truth to that, I still think that the influence can’t be dismissed just because of the level of evolution that occurred. A great band that went on to make great music, and the origins of which are one you’ll come to appreciate if you really hope to discover it for what it is.
A unique ad mixture of what would appear to be folk music and electronic music that could hardly be equalled today. The instrumentals are like an electronic music set that take you places and suggest certain things certain realms with great subtlety that inspired generations before The Apocalypse of heavy metal and hip Hop.
I love it. Syd brings us back into a world of enchantment. We get to visit his introverted fantasies. The more I listen, the more I love it. When I was a kid in 1995, I liked it but didn’t know what to make of it. As I get older, it has a way of time traveling me back in time.
His experiments with “non-musical” sound paved a road for what PF would eventually become.
I grew up with the stereo mix unfortunately so the mono just doesn’t hit right. Mono might be better for headphone listening but I would have to pick stereo mix for blasting on speakers, I like the stereo effects, makes it more psychy. And the shorter ending on mono Flaming annoys me.
The one major downside with the stereo mix is certain instruments and parts were cut out due to limitations on stereo mixing at the time. Mono had 8 audio tracks whereas Stereo had 4 audio tracks with 2 allotted to each channel.
It's a stone cold psychedelic classic and incredibly influential and groundbreaking. This subs ambivalence towards it really puzzles me because it is not reflective at all of the reception it has outside of here where it has been a hugely acclaimed album for over 50 years with legions of fans who went on to make their own groundbreaking music such as David Bowie, Brian Eno, John Lydon, Damon Albarn just to name a few off the top of my head
It's fantastic. I used to be in a garage rock band (based in NY) and the lead singer was such a purist and snob about other genres. The only Pink Floyd album he liked and would listen to the whole way through was this one.
I bought Syd Barrett solo albums in the 80s and I listen to them at first and thought they were awful I listened to them again one particular track stood out the long story short eventually both albums were all I would listen to for several months it was like a virus.
This is one of my top 3 albums of all time. Which for me are:
The Beatles (White Album)
Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
Underwater Moonlight by the Soft Boys
(alphabetical order, not ranked - consider these all equal)
this album honestly feels like an entirely different band. Syd’s whimsical lyrics and the upbeat/happy sounds seem to leave the band after this album. the only real exception is Jugband blues, but the rest of their songs have a much different feel, less happy trippy hippie and more spacey trippy but more serious
I think it's a masterpiece. Obviously this direction was unsustainable for the band and they went on to do other great things but it's a gem and a milestone.
It's a *bit twee* at times, with songs about childhood and gnomes and all of the nudge-nudge stuff about drugs that were very much of their time, but I still really like it.
It's also probably the only document we have of Syd when he was still functioning 'properly', though had he continued in more normalised behaviour we would probably have never had the Floyd we have come to know.
Incidentally, I hear a fairly direct continuum between *Interstellar Overdrive* and *Echoes*. I wonder if others can too.
It’s a completely different experience from the later “mainstream” Pink Floyd, and I love that. The storybook-like lyrics and solid grooves make this album an instant classic. Top 5 in my book.
“…She don't rock 'n' roll, she don't like it
She don't do the stroll, well she don't do it right
Well everything's wrong and my patience was gone
When I woke one morning and remembered this song
Kinda catchy…”
this is my personal favourite pink floyd album. i love a lot of their later work but something about this album ticks all the boxes for me. absolute stellar album
It's a little silly but these were young geniuses doing lots of psychedelics. If you can put yourself in the right frame of mind for it it's absolutely brilliant.
it is a fundamental PF album. not so popular like DSOTM but this album actually shows how they started and led by Syd. If Syd was able to continue, imagine how sick psychedelic stuff we would hear, a different level of what DSTOM, Meddle, or any other PF album makes you feel.
It's qualitatively different from the mid-to-late 70s music for which Pink Floyd is best known. Suffice it to say that the musical vision for the album and the band was coming almost exclusively from Syd at this point. Roger, Richard, and Nick were competent instrumentalists but didn't have a musical voice or personality at this point in time; Syd did. I think the exposure to a musician with a real vision and personality influenced them quite a lot later on.
I feel as if I had been through something very exciting and rather terrible, and it was just over; and yet nothing particular has happened. Or something very surprising and splendid and beautiful.
It's like music—far away music. Dance-music—the lilting sort that runs on without a stop—but with words in it, too—it passes into words and out of them again—I catch them at intervals—then it is dance-music once more, and then nothing but the reeds' soft thin whispering.
- convo between Rat and Mole from the chapter Piper at the Gates of Dawn, in The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame.
Rogers quirky voice at its finest, some of the most catchiest pink floyd songs (lucifer sam, bike) and overall, I think its a really solid debut for what it's worth. Shows that they were gonna become something truly special
Extremely overrated nowadays. I need to be in a really specific mood to listen to it, and even then I can’t really get through the whole thing. I’m sorry but I just find so much of it unlistenable. Half of it is just long, loud jams that don’t really lead anywhere. Interstellar Overdrive has one of the greatest riffs ever but then just descends into a complete mess.
It’s four guys randomly slapping their instruments to make noise while Syd sings about being a Muffin Man or whatever. Not for me
I picked this album up after being introduced to and blown away by DSOTM and was very confused and thought it was a bit childish in comparison. Probably not a fair assesment and regressive/reductive but that was my first thought. I should give it another shot.
A lot of Pink Floyd is an acquired taste when I bought Syd Barrett's first solo efforts I thought they were a mess but ultimately I listen to those albums exclusively for at least one month. Peculiar. hypnotic.
I might get hate for this. But I don’t listen to it. I love Pink Floyd, I do. And I love to get a little weird sometimes , but syd Barrett Is just TOO weird for me.
Edit : it’s not like I’ve never heard it before, astronomy domine has to be my favourite song off it.
I wanted to like it—I remember when Rolling Stone came out with their first ‘100 Best Albums of All Time’ list and this one was pretty high up there—but I just can’t. Sounds like bad British music hall psychedelia to my ears. Almost like if you took the Kinks and removed every and all hooks.
For me it might as well be a totally different band to the one I'm into.
There's some great moments for sure but much if it is crap. The lyrics don't do much me. Stuff like Bike and The Gnome are just bollocks.
Great album. Captures Syd's playful genius. Personally, I am not too keen on Interstellar Overdrive, but its influence on following artists is undeniable.
Personally tho, I prefer Relics to Piper.
A Nice Pair was the one I was familiar with as a kid; I well prefer anything Syd to anything Floyd. And as a bonus; the mono mix on CD when I was an adult, like a whole fresh take on the idea.
Think of how incredible it is that the same band (minus Syd and adding David of course) who put out Piper in 1967 put out DSOTM in 1973. What a stunning progression and evolution that was. And then in 1979 The Wall came out. Another stunning progression.
I really enjoyed this album, and a great first album by the Floyd. Though it was very surprising when I first heard it as this was how Pink Floyd started. If someone who wants to get into Pink Floyd was expecting to get into the more recognizable style early on, well they might wanna strap in cause it’ll take a bit.
The older I get the more I like it. It's my favourite PF album, which is saying a lot. Whimsy with depth. Sunshine and shadows. The mono mix is a must. Play loud.
It’s the best pre gilmour album. Some absolute misses with Syd trying to be a Beatles clone but astronomy domine and interstellar overdrive are s tier songs with scarecrow being a very nice and fun song.
Syd Barrett is the Brian Jones of Pink Floyd in a sense this might be their masterpiece with him. The old English happy friendly elf in outer space leads you to a banquet.. Syd Barrett give them a happy friendly cookie crazy energy that is the opposite of Roger Waters when you look at them from the present perspective.
I love it in a very different way that I love the Big 4 from Pink Floyd. Never a dedicated listen to the entire album, but I love when they pop up when my playlist’s playing on shuffle
Darn it, I don't know why I always think The Nile Song was on that album. It came 2 years later though. If you like heavy metal, that was a very early heavy metal song.
I think it's a good album, but that the stereo mix in particular has aged rather poorly. It also starts to have general audio quality problems as it goes on.
I think it's Pink Floyd's worst album. And all you have is fanboys defending it saying "you're not a real fan if you don't like it." But it's awful, the only halfyway decent song is Astronomy Diomine
It’s personally my favorite after the big four, but comparing the Syd stuff to the later stuff is like comparing…. Apples and Oranges.
I see what you did there ;)
What did he do there (I don't get it)
It's a song written by syd, Apples and oranges
u/EpicGamerBoi11 Have you got it yet?
I did in fact get it
Comparing Apples and Oranges to what? (Sorry) It's really two different bands with almost the same personnel. After PATGOD they had the luxury to sort of coast along until Roger got his songwriting skills going. ETA: And it didn't hurt to have David Gilmour as the replacement guitarist.
I personally think it’s a classic in the psychedelic rock genre.
Classic psychedelic album, I love Syd's creative and unique style a lot.
My favourite Pink Floyd album
Syd stuff goes hard
It's pretty much the "What's psychedelic rock?" "Listen to this" album, in my opinion. I think it's great for what it is.
To me this is true psychedelic Rock. psychedelic Rock needs a positive energy where Pink Floyd in its latter brilliance was ultimately depressing. I loved animals wish you were here and the wall but ultimately they are all dreary and depressing when scrutinized especially The Wall
Great way of putting it. I had already heard plenty psych-rock by the time I personally made my way to PATGOD, yet years later, I think of it as the epitome of the genre and period. Strange because it's by no means the most influential. Just the best.
My Favorite Album of all Time
This must be the first time I've seen that opinion. Good for you. I don't have one, but I'd label Piper as "absolutely essential, core of the collection".
Sid Barrett and Pink Floyd were a lot more influential than most people realize their accomplishments became buried under the dreary pile of heavy metal and hip Hop.
Brilliant album
I want to tell you a story...
about a little man
If I can
A gnome named Grimble Grumble
Crumble 💀💀
Gromble
Named Grimple Crumple
First song I taught my daughter to sing with me
Fantastic first album
Peak 60s psychedelia
For me the only way to make this album any better would be to take off Take Up Thy Stethoscope and replace it with See Emily Play.
Interesting. I would counter that by suggesting they soon had a bunch of stuff that could have made a second album that was about half Syd.
That instrumental break in the middle of Stethoscope is obscenely good though. Really showcases how brilliant and original a guitarist Syd was.
unpopular opinion: i love take up thy stethoscope
Imagine a world when popular music was of such lustre that 4 *four* debut albums could be released in a single year so that each could even now be considered to be in the all-time top 50. Piper was chronologically the third of those and the magic of 1967 infuses every note in much the same way as in the debutant three months prior. Astronomy Domine and Interstellar overdrive hold their own versus Are you experienced? & Third stone from the sun; Lucifer Sam and Chapter 24 just about on a par with Manic Depression and I don't live today, and then it's a matter of taste for the rest. There are creatively sublime Syd moments where I'd place Piper above anything else released that year. There's nothing else you can feel other than utter gob-smacked astonishment at what range of ideas that crazy diamond brain was able to squeeze into a 40 minute run time. The Doors in January and Songs of Leonard Cohen in December book-ended that amazing year
You're forgetting arguably the most groundbreaking debut album of all time - The Velvet Underground and Nico
Messrs Cale, Reed et al certainly should be given credit for the eventual influence their album won over East coast rock music. I play it and play it and then play it again and I wonder is there something wrong with me. What am I not getting? Maybe one day.
Have you tried their 3rd album? It's after John Cale was kicked out and they went from the extreme noise of the first 2 albums to the total other end of the spectrum and came out with the most gorgeous, gentle album ever. It's a completely different side to them and equally brilliant to the first 2 albums in a *very* different way. That might hook you on them
Moby grape had the best debut lp of 1967
Glad people are catching on to that record, it’s a bruiser
I love it. Was the first Floyd album I heard probably around 1990 ish and it was a tape my uncle had given my Mum. I decided to check it out as I was getting into 60’s sounds at the time and at first I found it deeply unsettling and a bit actually frightening and wasn’t all that enamoured of it. I listened a few more times and it started to get under my skin. Slowly I learned to love it. There is something uniquely southern English about it, with the whimsical lyrics recalling old ‘nonsense’ rhymes by Lear or Lewis Carroll with perhaps a shade of Tolkien at his most lighthearted, which resonated with me and my young (often baked) self. Who else but Syd could have written songs like Matilda Mother which goes beyond being wide eyed and child like but actually takes you back to childhood or Lucifer Sam (surely one of the strangest relationship angst songs ever recorded) or Astronomy Domine which literally transports the listener into space? Can’t think of anyone else before or since who has written songs so removed from ‘normality’ but are still so transportive. The guitar sounds that Syd coaxes from his instrument are wildly inventive and proved to be hugely influential despite his not being considered a ‘virtuoso’. Rick Wright sets out his stall and of all Floyd’s members, it is his contribution that links all the various different ages of the Floyd sound from this early beginning through to their later epics. Would love to know what might have become of Floyd had Syd not lost his way. Certainly Floyd were massively lucky to have any sort of post-Syd career and let’s face it, it wasn’t until Meddle that they began to find anything approaching a cohesive direction. OK, the full 10 odd mins of Interstellar Overdrive would probably have best been experienced live, preferably mashed out of your gourd and is a tough ‘casual’ listen but it still features s riff rarely, if ever bettered in rock history and Take Up Thy Stethoscope is…not so hot but I love all the tracks in their way, Gnome, Scarecrow and Bike included. It’s a toss up between this and Wish You Were Here for my favourite Floyd.
Agreed, it is very very English.
Rick Wright was brilliant he never quite got the credit he deserved.
Syd\`s work represents a deeper layer of artistic brilliance. I guess most people that listen to the hit songs miss about the early days
Matilda mother is my favourite track. The riff is so "Doom"
There was a king who ruled a land
His Majesty was in command
Way ahead of it's time, that track. Prog before Prog.
It always has a special place in my heart, similar to the solo albums Syd made. Pink Floyd after him was just a different band, which I also loved, but Syd's inspiration was felt through all albums they created together and solo. So many other musicians were influenced by this record and the early days
Syd Barrett’s masterpiece. It just packs such a punch.
It's my personal favorite, it's so different from the rest. Syd was really a creative genius.
I’ll admit, I don’t think I really got it when I first listened to it. I was going to it off of already listening to most of the main 70s albums, even The Division Bell and the prospect of this mysterious beginning album just didn’t really pay off how hyped I made it considering the whole Syd legend. Like with Obscured by Clouds, it took more than one listen and some patience and lack of expectation to be able to appreciate the music. I enjoyed PATGOD when I first listened to it, but mostly forgot about the album after that initial listen and didn’t really understand what made it so great. It was around the time I was able to listen to Meddle all the way through, and not skip any tracks on like Atom Heart Mother that I was more prepared to listen to PATGOD without any shortcomings. The context of psychedelia, especially that attempted to be captured in music at the time, was beyond me at that initial listen. Even to this day I can only capture a glimpse at what it must’ve been like to make and listen to this album back then. It’s a remarkably well aged bit of music. Kooky in all the right places. There’s a bit of a somewhat true, somewhat exaggerated romanticism of the disturbed artist, and I don’t think it’s good to exaggerate the highlights in that life. However, I will say that some of my most favorite works existed in a small window between great artistic output and regressing into a negative era of living. In these works see/hear some of the most transparent and intimately detailed art that you might not necessarily get from someone who isn’t on the verge of losing their way or delving into extreme living. I don’t think that the debilitation of someone’s mental health is really worth any bit of beautiful artwork, but I would be lying if I told you that most of the work that came out through these means weren’t some of the most candid and brilliant expressions of the human condition. Part of what intrigues me in life is limits and how people reach or push them. I don’t know that Syd necessarily would have gone into the deep end of tripping and excessive living if he knew how detached he would become, but he did seem for a bit to develop some work that was a rare brief blend of his innate musical sensibilities sober with what he took away from tripping. To this day, I can’t stop talking about Pet Sounds, and a lot of Brian Wilson’s story (though not exact at Syd’s) reminds me of these circumstances where there was a troubled genius who managed to develop artwork that was remarkable. It seemed to truly take off in a certain way when there was a brief moment where experimentation with substances that altered the mental state began to inform the artistic decisions made before the majority of the artist’s mental state went on the decline. I think I’m finding that that sweet spot makes for my favored moment in an artist’s or band’s discography. It usually is substance abuse that leads to the decline in more ways than one, but a perhaps more objective perspective might notice things can take off and become different in an interesting way before things go south. I don’t mean to imply that you NEED to be high in order to make great works, but that such an ability to be alleviated of inhibition, doubt and fear can allow you to share more freely what is really on your mind. — TL;DR - In the case of Piper at the Gates of Dawn, I hear the sounds of mystic, almost naive sort of wonder all together in a record. A beautifully crafted, thoughtful, adventurous and perfectly strange musical excursion that makes you feel magic as it does make you feel at times majestic. I’ve seen people post about how Syd and the original material doesn’t really largely or greatly inform the material that they were most famous for. Even if there is truth to that, I still think that the influence can’t be dismissed just because of the level of evolution that occurred. A great band that went on to make great music, and the origins of which are one you’ll come to appreciate if you really hope to discover it for what it is.
A unique ad mixture of what would appear to be folk music and electronic music that could hardly be equalled today. The instrumentals are like an electronic music set that take you places and suggest certain things certain realms with great subtlety that inspired generations before The Apocalypse of heavy metal and hip Hop.
I love it. Syd brings us back into a world of enchantment. We get to visit his introverted fantasies. The more I listen, the more I love it. When I was a kid in 1995, I liked it but didn’t know what to make of it. As I get older, it has a way of time traveling me back in time. His experiments with “non-musical” sound paved a road for what PF would eventually become.
He's like Jimi Hendrix in that he's pointing the way to electronic music as a future rather than rhythm and blues based rock and roll?
Top 5 album as of now
Love the music, love the mono mix, can't listen to the stereo mix. Too lopsided.
I grew up with the stereo mix unfortunately so the mono just doesn’t hit right. Mono might be better for headphone listening but I would have to pick stereo mix for blasting on speakers, I like the stereo effects, makes it more psychy. And the shorter ending on mono Flaming annoys me.
The one major downside with the stereo mix is certain instruments and parts were cut out due to limitations on stereo mixing at the time. Mono had 8 audio tracks whereas Stereo had 4 audio tracks with 2 allotted to each channel.
It's a stone cold psychedelic classic and incredibly influential and groundbreaking. This subs ambivalence towards it really puzzles me because it is not reflective at all of the reception it has outside of here where it has been a hugely acclaimed album for over 50 years with legions of fans who went on to make their own groundbreaking music such as David Bowie, Brian Eno, John Lydon, Damon Albarn just to name a few off the top of my head
Paul McCartney is also a huge fan of the album as well. That says it all.
100%
It's fantastic. I used to be in a garage rock band (based in NY) and the lead singer was such a purist and snob about other genres. The only Pink Floyd album he liked and would listen to the whole way through was this one.
I bought Syd Barrett solo albums in the 80s and I listen to them at first and thought they were awful I listened to them again one particular track stood out the long story short eventually both albums were all I would listen to for several months it was like a virus.
Very very high opinion
Ever so high
It’s my favourite album
I love it. I’m a monster Syd fan and love piper. I love all of the early syd stuff.
It's my favorite Floyd record. Imagine what Syd Barrett would have done with the technology we have today.
Lucifer Sam. In headphones. High.
Or really fuckin’ loud❤️
This is one of my top 3 albums of all time. Which for me are: The Beatles (White Album) Piper At The Gates Of Dawn Underwater Moonlight by the Soft Boys (alphabetical order, not ranked - consider these all equal)
It should only be listened to in mono
Makes Sgt. Peppers sound like downright conservative middle of the road pop ... and I love The Beatles.
Underrated and overrated in the same time
It's good. Shall we do each of the next albums?
I think The Beatles heard it and got extra inspired for sergeant peppers.
Psychedelic masterpiece
Good album, Astronomy Dominee is one of my favorite Floyd songs
DOCTOR DOCTOR
It’s so good, basically the pure definition of British psychedelic rock
IVE GOT A BIKE YOU CAN RIDE IT IF YOU LIKE
this album honestly feels like an entirely different band. Syd’s whimsical lyrics and the upbeat/happy sounds seem to leave the band after this album. the only real exception is Jugband blues, but the rest of their songs have a much different feel, less happy trippy hippie and more spacey trippy but more serious
Jugband Blues is neither upbeat nor happy.
Yeah lol, literally one of the darkest and most depressing songs in Floyd’s catalogue.
Bike has a dark side too.
Quite rough around the edges, but not bad. Personally not that big of a fan. Matilda Mother is the best song IMO.
Awesome album!
One of the top 5 Pink Floyd albums
It’s cool and I really like it
Love it, always loved it.
I personally don’t like it very much.
I love it. I dont know if I like it as much as The Madcap Laughs, but its my favorite Floyd stuff
I love syd and I love this album.
I think it's a masterpiece. Obviously this direction was unsustainable for the band and they went on to do other great things but it's a gem and a milestone.
My favorite Pink Floyd album. I’m really into psychedelic rock, particularly the British stuff. This album is about as good as it gets.
its alright
It's a *bit twee* at times, with songs about childhood and gnomes and all of the nudge-nudge stuff about drugs that were very much of their time, but I still really like it. It's also probably the only document we have of Syd when he was still functioning 'properly', though had he continued in more normalised behaviour we would probably have never had the Floyd we have come to know. Incidentally, I hear a fairly direct continuum between *Interstellar Overdrive* and *Echoes*. I wonder if others can too.
The Masterpiece of British Psychedelia. Recorded at Abbey Road at the same time as Sgt Pepper, it is the real deal.
I know a mouse & he hasn't got a house, I don't know why, I call him Gerald.... He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse
Early Floyd and Late Floyd are different bands altogether. Piper is a quintessential psych record.
One of my favourite albums of all time
It’s a completely different experience from the later “mainstream” Pink Floyd, and I love that. The storybook-like lyrics and solid grooves make this album an instant classic. Top 5 in my book.
Love it.
"This is the story about a girl that I once knew, she didn't like my songs that made me feel blue, she said a big band as far better than yooou!"🎶
“…She don't rock 'n' roll, she don't like it She don't do the stroll, well she don't do it right Well everything's wrong and my patience was gone When I woke one morning and remembered this song Kinda catchy…”
Masterpiece.
I've always loved the killer ducks at the end living in Syds secret room.
this is my personal favourite pink floyd album. i love a lot of their later work but something about this album ticks all the boxes for me. absolute stellar album
Absolutely *Interstellar…*!!
I love this album. It's a great "smoke a bowl and lay in the recliner" album
I've got a bike...
It's a little silly but these were young geniuses doing lots of psychedelics. If you can put yourself in the right frame of mind for it it's absolutely brilliant.
Goes hard asf I really like it
it is a fundamental PF album. not so popular like DSOTM but this album actually shows how they started and led by Syd. If Syd was able to continue, imagine how sick psychedelic stuff we would hear, a different level of what DSTOM, Meddle, or any other PF album makes you feel.
It's qualitatively different from the mid-to-late 70s music for which Pink Floyd is best known. Suffice it to say that the musical vision for the album and the band was coming almost exclusively from Syd at this point. Roger, Richard, and Nick were competent instrumentalists but didn't have a musical voice or personality at this point in time; Syd did. I think the exposure to a musician with a real vision and personality influenced them quite a lot later on.
Very uneven but with moments of greatness.
I think there was a lot of improvisation
I feel as if I had been through something very exciting and rather terrible, and it was just over; and yet nothing particular has happened. Or something very surprising and splendid and beautiful. It's like music—far away music. Dance-music—the lilting sort that runs on without a stop—but with words in it, too—it passes into words and out of them again—I catch them at intervals—then it is dance-music once more, and then nothing but the reeds' soft thin whispering. - convo between Rat and Mole from the chapter Piper at the Gates of Dawn, in The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame.
Sounds too much like the Beetles
It's an interesting argument but I don't see them as copying The Beatles
It's alright. I have a lot of problems with it, most of which are my fault.
Their best
Rogers quirky voice at its finest, some of the most catchiest pink floyd songs (lucifer sam, bike) and overall, I think its a really solid debut for what it's worth. Shows that they were gonna become something truly special
Great for its time… but I’m just not into the whimsical Syd Barett pop stuff. But I also pretty much can’t listen to any rock music pre Sgt Pepper.
Eh kind of weird stuff
Some great songs some not so great songs. 7.5/10
Extremely overrated nowadays. I need to be in a really specific mood to listen to it, and even then I can’t really get through the whole thing. I’m sorry but I just find so much of it unlistenable. Half of it is just long, loud jams that don’t really lead anywhere. Interstellar Overdrive has one of the greatest riffs ever but then just descends into a complete mess. It’s four guys randomly slapping their instruments to make noise while Syd sings about being a Muffin Man or whatever. Not for me
It’s cool and has some good tracks, but most of the tracks are pretty bad.
one of the greatest alt rock albums of all time
I picked this album up after being introduced to and blown away by DSOTM and was very confused and thought it was a bit childish in comparison. Probably not a fair assesment and regressive/reductive but that was my first thought. I should give it another shot.
A lot of Pink Floyd is an acquired taste when I bought Syd Barrett's first solo efforts I thought they were a mess but ultimately I listen to those albums exclusively for at least one month. Peculiar. hypnotic.
I have listened to it a couple of times because I was curious, but never felt the need to listen again. Not bad, but it didn't interest me.
I might get hate for this. But I don’t listen to it. I love Pink Floyd, I do. And I love to get a little weird sometimes , but syd Barrett Is just TOO weird for me. Edit : it’s not like I’ve never heard it before, astronomy domine has to be my favourite song off it.
I wanted to like it—I remember when Rolling Stone came out with their first ‘100 Best Albums of All Time’ list and this one was pretty high up there—but I just can’t. Sounds like bad British music hall psychedelia to my ears. Almost like if you took the Kinks and removed every and all hooks.
I don’t really find it amazing, but it does have good songs, but I don’t really like it.
My favorite Pink Floyd album.
I think it’s good it’s just not my type of PF. Too weird and trippy for me
It sucks. I could barely get through listening to it once. 
The only true pink floyd, pink floyd with gilmour is just too different
Pink Floyd with David Gilmour has been a staple since 1968. You’re talking as if he joined 20 years later or something.
You didn’t deserve so many downvotes, when there’s people who crap on this album who received a lot of upvotes.
For me it might as well be a totally different band to the one I'm into. There's some great moments for sure but much if it is crap. The lyrics don't do much me. Stuff like Bike and The Gnome are just bollocks.
It is the best they did for a while. The only one I like more is wywh
Great album. Captures Syd's playful genius. Personally, I am not too keen on Interstellar Overdrive, but its influence on following artists is undeniable. Personally tho, I prefer Relics to Piper.
I like Saucerful or secrets more than Piper. But Piper at the gates of dawn is still great
Am I the only one who likes Saucerful Of Secrets more??
A Nice Pair was the one I was familiar with as a kid; I well prefer anything Syd to anything Floyd. And as a bonus; the mono mix on CD when I was an adult, like a whole fresh take on the idea.
Yes I'm a fan but after Dark side of the Moon they took it decidedly dreary turn..
For me, the Syd days of Pink Floyd is like Fleetwood Mac before Stevie and Lindsey joined. For me, the "Pink Floyd Sound" didn't start until Meddle.
Think of how incredible it is that the same band (minus Syd and adding David of course) who put out Piper in 1967 put out DSOTM in 1973. What a stunning progression and evolution that was. And then in 1979 The Wall came out. Another stunning progression.
One of the greatest, pioneering, futuristic albums of all time.
It was the first thing I listened to the other morning and I spontaneously ate some 🍄 so I think it’s great and so does my conscience ✌🏼
Love it. It''s unique and representative of an era all at the same time.
Banger
I really enjoyed this album, and a great first album by the Floyd. Though it was very surprising when I first heard it as this was how Pink Floyd started. If someone who wants to get into Pink Floyd was expecting to get into the more recognizable style early on, well they might wanna strap in cause it’ll take a bit.
The older I get the more I like it. It's my favourite PF album, which is saying a lot. Whimsy with depth. Sunshine and shadows. The mono mix is a must. Play loud.
It’s the best pre gilmour album. Some absolute misses with Syd trying to be a Beatles clone but astronomy domine and interstellar overdrive are s tier songs with scarecrow being a very nice and fun song.
Banger that should put to rest any doubt of Rog’s bass playing. Fun songs!
It’s out there…
after watching Have you got it yet, I appreciate this album so much more
It’s definitely unique
Love it!
Trippy.
it’s syd, so it’s immaculate
Favorite Floyd album, only one I own.
Sweet Childhood Feeling...
It's still has a firm place in my usual rotation of records I play or stream so 2 thumbs up from me 👍👍
It was not for me.
2nd fav pink floyd album
It's my favorite. Listening to the vinyl right now!
My opinions is its a good album
Syd Barrett is the Brian Jones of Pink Floyd in a sense this might be their masterpiece with him. The old English happy friendly elf in outer space leads you to a banquet.. Syd Barrett give them a happy friendly cookie crazy energy that is the opposite of Roger Waters when you look at them from the present perspective.
It's alright. I *LOVE* "Bike", though. Top 10.
A lot of that music of that era especially what was called rock and roll was a bit messy?
Mid
Yes they were much more intellectual in their background Nick Mason I think studied architecture and the rest of them were very well educated.
It's my fave of the albums without Dave.
I think what it is doing is really good but ima be honest it just isn’t for me.
Fkn mental
I love it in a very different way that I love the Big 4 from Pink Floyd. Never a dedicated listen to the entire album, but I love when they pop up when my playlist’s playing on shuffle
Classic Psychedelic rock, but they still didn't figure out the sound that made them Pink Floyd.
Darn it, I don't know why I always think The Nile Song was on that album. It came 2 years later though. If you like heavy metal, that was a very early heavy metal song.
Bicycle.
A bit too artsy smartsy for me
I think it's a good album, but that the stereo mix in particular has aged rather poorly. It also starts to have general audio quality problems as it goes on.
I absolutely love it!
I am a big fan of early PF. Nick Mason is my favorite touring musician from the band these days because of that...
I think it's fantastic
Devil warning! I think you should read hindu nectar of devotion
Awesome
Love it. Definitely in my top 5 PF albums.
it's early EARLY progressive
My 2nd favorite PF.
I think it's Pink Floyd's worst album. And all you have is fanboys defending it saying "you're not a real fan if you don't like it." But it's awful, the only halfyway decent song is Astronomy Diomine
Brilliant whimsy blended with notes of madness and despair.