Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here (1975)

It was a strange time for music. The mid 1970’s was all about progressive rock. This was both positive and negative at the time. Of course, Pink Floyd took notice and crafted a more progressive rock style into their music. This album is proof of that.

It’s actually devoted to Syd Barrett, their original guitarist and songwriter. Apparently after recording The Dark Side Of The Moon, Pink Floyd were stumped to know where to go musically. Memories of their old band mate inspired this album’s material. Ironically Syd himself walked into the studio when the band were recording the Shine On You Crazy Diamond parts. How sad and strange…

That being said, this is a superb listen. Let’s dive in and have a listen to the album.

We begin with Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Pts. 1-5) which has ethereal sounds, a keyboard based flute and the feeling that we are going to be transported into something really great here. The lonely flute melody sticks out, it’s not a fast track, and it never was intentionally so. Some trippy keyboard sounds back up this part of this song. David Gilmour’s Fender Stratocaster then enters. My God, it’s good. His playing sounds fantastic here. The sound is nice and bright. Mysteriously, the sound almost fades into oblivion, before we hear THAT four note guitar figure, which sounds ghostly. Nick Mason and the others come into play afterwards, driving the song rhythmically. The song just flows and evolves here. It sounds mega emotional, even though there are no lyrics here just yet. The sound slows down once more, just before going uptempo again. Pink Floyd sound like a solidly united musical front here, not willing to back down for anyone or anything. Then Roger Waters finally starts singing the chorus, and goodness, it is mind blowing. A nice development of things, clearly being about Syd Barrett. It’s a lament for their lost band member, and the performance here is fantastic. After all this, we have Dick Parry playing a beautiful saxophone solo and some trippy and interesting guitar parts in the background. The song then fades out gracefully and nicely as well, before we jump into the next piece on the album.

The next song Welcome To The Machine begins with some mechanical noises, before launching into an acoustic number about railing against the record industry. It’s easily the weakest song on the album, and even then it’s worth a listen. Some brilliant playing is here, Pink Floyd had no equals with the sort of music that they were making in this era. It’s more a sonic journey this one, but hey, Pink Floyd were experts at this sort of thing. After more Theremin like noises, the song ending is rather strange. Without spoiling it, it is worth following along for the listen.

Have A Cigar is a very funky piece again about the trappings of the music industry. It is musically better than the previous song, with a friend of theirs (Roy Harper) singing this song. There are many descriptions of the nasty business of the album based record industry of the time: “And did we tell you the name of the game, boy? We call it riding the gravy train…” Obviously Roger Waters was fed up of being prodded by record executives to sell more records. Indeed, this is true of many rock bands, why sell out to compromise artistic integrity? There is no point, but the funky guitar solo at the end rocks hard, segueing into the next song.

Wish You Were Here is a sad acoustic ballad about missing someone who you have not seen in a very long time. It may or may not be specifically about Syd Barrett, but is likely so. It’s a great radio ready number for the masses. It uses a comparative analysis to observe different situations at hand. The slide guitar and melodies here are beautiful, a very nice song indeed. The wind blows this track away at the end, before we enter into the next piece.

The next piece, Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Pts. 6-9) revisits the first part of the album, just in a very different way. We have some different keyboard and guitar based melodies here this time, whilst still keeping the theme of the album going. It is very well structured here. It then suddenly burst into a shuffle sort of groove based section here, before leading us back into the main melody of the song. It sounds a bit more messy a mix than the first sections of this song, but it is intended to be so. High pitched keyboard sounds propel this number along. We then go back to David Gilmour’s stunning guitar parts, and Roger Waters sings about the long lost Syd Barrett legend that the band dearly missed. The backing vocals are mint here as well. The whole piece is thoroughly consistent throughout. The trippy riff comes in after the singing is complete, and then we finalise our musical trip with a beautiful, almost jazzy section to boot. The keyboard brings a groove based piece to light with more funky, quacky sounding guitar playing. We then return to familiar territory with the ethereal keyboard sound, and lastly enter the final, very relaxing section of this song. After some gentle music, we conclude the album here, feeling very satisfied.

This album is just as good as Dark Side Of The Moon, although not as popular. It should be essential listening for Pink Floyd fans though. A very decent and overall excellent musical accomplishment. Pink Floyd were at their best with Dark Side Of The Moon and Wish You Were Here. It’s a great listen here, don’t miss it.

9/10

Pink Floyd – The Wall (1979)

Pink Floyd had not died out, even during the onslaught of Disco and Punk in the late 1970’s. In fact, they managed to excel by adapting somewhat to the tastes of the time. This double album may not sound exciting at first, being a double disc concept album about said wall, but it sold many copies and is now considered a stone cold classic.

We begin with the words “…we came in?”. In The Flesh? poses a big question to the Pink Floyd audience about what is considered to them as acceptable to them from Roger Waters point of view. It is hugely theatrical and great to listen to. Excellent stuff. It builds up to the sound of a plane crash. Epic.

The follow up The Thin Ice begins with a baby crying and some poetic lyrics and spacey sound effects to boot. It sounds as a warning to any young child about life, but sounds mega all the same. Some great guitar work by David Gilmour is here as well.

Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 1 arrives and tells the disturbing fact of Roger Water’s upbringing about his Dad losing his life in the second World War. It’s selfish a tale and not very nice, but the rhythmic delayed guitar parts are killer here. It segues into the next song with the sound of school children playing and a helicopter arriving on the scene, with some shouting.

The Happiest Days of Our Lives is a cynical observation about time at school. It’s a short, yet direct point about the mistreatment of school children at hand, before launching into the next piece.

“We don’t need no education” begins the next piece. Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2 begins and is a great pop song. There is a choir here singing the chorus, some great instrumentation and a killer guitar solo towards the end of this piece. These four musicians of Pink Floyd were absolute legends in the day. The song segues out with more shouting of children and some old English man shouting as well.

The acoustic driven piece Mother poses a rather nasty Roger Waters message to his own mother about various things in life that could hurt him emotionally or physically. Obviously Roger Waters had a huge ego by this point, but the song sounds as though it fits this album well. There are some answers, but not those that you’d expect from a said mother.

Goodbye Blue Sky is a short and direct tale about the World War II bombings of England that occurred, which scarred many people’s lives in the UK. It’s a short and scary tale about human fragility. It’s a good addition here to the album.

Empty Spaces is a linking sort of piece which is largely atmospheric. It joins together the songs before and afterward, questioning about what is necessary to create said wall. We shortly find out the answer.

The next piece, Young Lust fulfills all the needs of young man’s desire for a woman, at least in this album. It’s a good anthemic piece which sounds great, even today. Sounds a lot like AC/DC in a strange way. A must listen. It segues into the next piece.

The follow up One of My Turns doesn’t sound nice lyrically at all. It’s a connecting piece, but so horrible and brutal that one feels rather disturbed by the music here. Roger Waters could have been a bit nicer here, but the concept goes on. The Wall is being built well up here.

Don’t Leave Me Now is a plea to said woman of the last few songs not to leave, despite being an absolute monster in terms of abnormally sexist and brutal behaviour. It doesn’t sound sympathetic in any sense, but the music and concept are revealing here.

Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 3 reveals the main character as a psychopath. He goes on a rant and insists he doesn’t need anything but his own wall to hide behind. How strange and sad. We segue into the next piece.

The next song Goodbye Cruel World is a short and dreary statement that almost sounds like a suicide note. It finalises the wall mentioned about, and the first side of the album comes to a close.

The first song on disc two is Hey You. It’s a cry for help from the madman behind the wall, but is a very well done song here. It conveys artistry and feeling from Roger Waters here. A nice piece. “Together we stand, divided we fall,” is a great quote at the end of this song.

Is There Anybody Out There? continues the theme of the previous song. It’s a bleak statement asking for help with an atmospheric musical accompaniment. The acoustic guitar piece in the second half of the song is fantastic. Very well played here.

Nobody Home actually sounds like an ode to Syd Barrett in terms of self-description. It’s very well done. The piano is a very good driver of this song, and the lyrics are deep. It feels as though the main character is severely depressed here, and has little chance of success behind his wall.

The next piece Vera is an ode to an artist long gone by. It seems melancholic and retrospective in terms of its outlook. It’s a quick ode to retrospective thought.

Following up is Bring The Boys Back Home. It’s a joining track which takes samples from the previous songs before it, before launching into the next important piece.

Comfortably Numb lifts the mood largely with clear description of drug use, be it heroin or otherwise. The song is strangely uplifting for such a subject. David Gilmour’s guitar solos are blistering here. The whole piece here is fantastic, a must listen.

The Show Must Go On indicates that, regardless of our central character’s problems, said rock and roll show has to go on. It is a good piece joining two major songs together.

The freaky return to the start of our concept album, with a twist, is In The Flesh. No questions asked this time. The Wall has been built, and our central character likens himself as a Fascist dictator. This is scary stuff on a psychological level. Listening to it is a different experience to what you’d expect. Same music as the first version of this song, but just plain nasty in comparison.

The next song is where The Wall does not hide our main character, so he has to Run Like Hell. Our main character is in a mess, so he has to escape from everywhere and everything. It sounds like he is a big state of paranoia here, afraid of all that comes his way. A good tune all the same.

Waiting For The Worms uncovers our main character hidden behind his wall and in a desperate state. He uses his energies to fight with his demons in his head, and the backing vocals sound like The Beach Boys here. Chanting and screaming finish this piece off.

Stop forces a reality check upon our rockstar. He surrenders himself to all those negative people chasing him. It’s super short a piece.

The next song, The Trial, is the rockstar being revealed in a court for his true feelings and state of mind. It’s not a happy situation whatsoever. He is pulled apart by all external forces. The judge then imposes his final decision upon our rockstar. With heavy metal style guitars, he orders The Wall to be torn down, which is done immediately.

Lastly, we are Outside The Wall. It’s a bleak observation about the realities of life. And our concept album comes to a close here. “Isn’t this where…”

This album sold tens of millions of copies around the world. It is a great testament to isolation and distress. It’s also a great listen.

8/10

Pink Floyd – Atom Heart Mother (1970)

This is the first really good album of Pink Floyd’s after Syd Barrett’s departure. Understandably, this was new territory for Pink Floyd and the group was still coming to terms with the loss of Syd. Still, it’s a very good listen, despite the fact it is no Dark Side Of The Moon. It’s essential listening if you like Pink Floyd. It was also their first UK #1 album as well.

It’s likely inspired by recent acts of the time, such as King Crimson. Pink Floyd were art school students, and they treated their work as such. This is a perfect snapshot of the era.

We begin with the 23-minute long title track Atom Heart Mother. It begins with some dark electronic sounds and some trumpets, before emerging into a glorious-sounding piece. It sounds classy, and English. The band then enters the scene, with some nice drum work by Nick Mason. A motorbike speeds off as well. Layered keyboard pieces then arrive, which sound sweet. More instrumentation enters the scene, with beautiful slide guitar to paint the picture. Classical type instrumentation arrives next, and this is just the first five minutes. An era evoking trippy organ and gospel vocals match the piece after that. The gospels vocals are emotional here, proto Dark Side Of The Moon style. The drums then re-emerge into the picture, sounding suitably appropriate. The melody suddenly changes, allowing Roger Waters’s bass and David Gilmour’s guitar playing to really shine here. The latter will touch your soul here, it sounds so beautiful and wonderful. That fades out, leaving us with some chanting and well-mixed melodies. It is a rewarding listen here. We then revisit the trumpets and drum led part, before sliding into a discordant section. It sounds rather creepy. A crash like sound makes the instrumentation fall apart. Much of the previous sections of this song are then revisited, like a retrospective LSD trip. The main section is reintroduced. Violins match the main part, and the slide guitar returns. The crescendo emerges, and we finish with the climax of backing vocals. A great trip indeed.

Following is the song named If. It’s a short and melancholy based piece. It’s a devotion to emotion, and there is some gentle singing along with acoustic guitar and electric slide guitar to boot. It’s a nice little change from what has been before, but all the same, just as emotional, artistic and effective.

Summer ’68 is the last Syd Barrett Pink Floyd song. They simply added some instrumentation to this vocal cut and sounds very emotional. “How do you feel?” asks Syd. Pink Floyd obviously missed Syd’s presence, and it is a nice traditional swan song for his vocals. There is piano and acoustic guitar to match here, a nice song regardless. It nearly stops in the middle of the song but starts again. A good twist.

Fat Old Sun follows with wedding bells, to begin with, and end with, and then emerges into a smooth vocal and acoustic guitar with Roger Waters singing. It’s a rather throwaway piece, but all the same fits the album nicely.

The 13 minute long Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast is a bit of sound effect based trip for a guy who makes breakfast. There is a nice musical interlude in between the delay heavy samples here. Piano and organ enter the scene, and Richard Wright excels here with his playing. Guitar parts also occur. It’s nothing special this, but still a good listen of a guy who is making his own breakfast. The musical interlude comes and goes again. Sounds very laidback. Towards the end, the sounds repeat, like a reoccurring LSD trip. It’s a pleasant listen and ends the album nicely. We end the album feeling satisfied, as Alan leaves the scene and goes on to do other things for the rest of the day.

This is a real art based album. There are many different elements and structure in this recording. If you dig psychedelic/progressive rock and want something unusual to listen to, in a good way, Atom Heart Mother is a good place to start.

8/10

Pink Floyd – A Saucerful Of Secrets (1968)

Syd Barrett was melting down quickly. No doubt that his mental health was erratic and unstable. He was undergoing a lot of issues within the band, quite possibly triggered by excessive psychedelic drug use.

This was the last recording to have Syd feature predominantly. But not the last to feature him altogether. David Gilmour, a friend of the band, replaced Syd as a guitar and vocalist after the group decided not to pick up Syd on the way to a Pink Floyd gig early in 1968. That changed everything for Pink Floyd.

It’s really Syd’s swan song before he did firstly a solo career and then isolated exclusion from society until his death in 2006. It is so sad to hear about the brilliant genius turn into a total mess. But then again, the group were always inspired by Syd.

This album, therefore, is a rather big mish-mash of ideas, sounds, and innovation. It’s brilliant still, but not as strong as The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn. It does have that Pink Floyd magic about it, however. It’s primarily a mixture of art based electronic noodling and the childlike pop that Syd Barrett was capable of.

We lead off with Let There Be More Light which has a funky introductory riff and a soul exploring via a psychedelic theme. It’s good, but we can hear the band sounds a little worn out in terms of musical direction as they had lost Syd. It’s still brilliant all the same.

The next piece Remember A Day has a beautiful slide guitar sound and piano as well. It’s a nice piece, although it lacks energy pace-wise. Nice vocal sound effects at the end too.

Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun will dazzle you with its space travel theme and brilliant psychedelic structure. It looks ahead to later, more progressive Pink Floyd works. Awesome.

Corporal Clegg follows and seems the only weak track on the album. It’s still fun and tells a contradictory psychedelic story about a war hero. It has a kazoo-like piece on it, rather than a guitar solo, which is amusing.

The epic title track A Saucerful Of Secrets is a trippy journey in an instrumental. It has four sections in it (i. Something Else; ii. Syncopated Pandemonium; iii. Storm Signal; iv. Celestial Voices) and sounds ultra freaky for the most part, until it bursts into relief at the end. It’s almost proto-progressive rock and is just awesome. Strap in the seatbelts for this trip. It’s just so well done that you’ll be dazzled by the darkest trip to the lightest relief. Brilliant.

The follow-up See-Saw is a childhood story which compares children to adults later in life. It’s a retrospective melancholy piece which sounds mostly pleasant. It’s a good way to show off Pink Floyd’s songwriting side after the trippy instrumental before it.

Jugband Blues finishes the album with Syd playing acoustic and singing, before having various horns, harmonies and reversed guitar parts attack you. It ends with Syd questioning various things in life. It’s definitely awesome to hear.

This album is no doubt a transition album for Pink Floyd. After they lost Syd, the band struggled for half a decade with doing electronic noodling and song structures, with mixed results before going interstellar with The Dark Side Of The Moon. It’s still an essential listen as much as The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn though, and takes you back over 50 years to 1968.

R.I.P. Syd Barrett

8/10

Pink Floyd – The Early Singles (1992)

We are really spoiled for choice by some of the best early Syd Barrett era songs by Pink Floyd here. Prior to this, the singles were difficult to obtain and collect for the fans of early Pink Floyd. This retrospective collection is something of a blessing. It’s one of Pink Floyd’s greatest compilations.

We have most of the singles of the Syd Barrett Pink Floyd time here. It’s only missing Vegetable Man and a few other songs. This release alone is solid gold as the tracks here are very consistent.

We begin with Arnold Layne, the first single and an interesting story about a dude who steals women’s clothes off washing lines and gets jailed for it. It’s a warped tale basically, but complete with futuristic sound effects. Awesome.

The next song Candy And A Currant Bun refers to sweets and childhood sweethearts. It’s a lovely song in that respect. In fact, these songs are the best and most revolutionary statements since the early music by The Beatles. Pink Floyd changed everything.

See Emily Play talks about an unusual girl (perhaps a ghost?) who plays with other children. It features unusually spacey slide guitar, rolling drumbeats, electronic textures, and a catchy chorus. Brilliant.

The Scarecrow is the album song from The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn and it is an appropriate B-Side here. Once again its interesting textures and tale of a scarecrow await you.

After that, we have Apples And Oranges which is another entertaining tale. These songs do hark back to a simpler time, before the internet and when life was more relaxed. In those days things were better in some ways before technological development changed everything in its pace.

The follow-up Paint Box tells the story of finding a girl and taking her on a date, complete with psychedelic imagery. These songs are so unique and wonderful that it makes John Lennon’s efforts around the time seem lackluster.

It Would Be So Nice tells an everyday sort of tale. We hear about a day in the life of Syd Barrett and how he feels about everyday living. It’s fantastic to listen to, even today.

Julia Dream is next and is an audiovisual fantasy. It’s so deep and emotionally oriented that one would like to know exactly what was in Syd’s mind when writing these. It is truly sad to know the story of Syd’s mental health decline in retrospect.

The next song, Point Me At The Sky is about going to space travel, and never coming back. It’s just a wonderful and melancholy based piece that you will treasure every moment of it.

We conclude this LSD style space travel journey of this album with the instrumental Careful With That Axe, Eugene. It’s an excellent sounding piece and flows nicely at the end of the album. It was one of the latter pieces during very early Pink Floyd, and points ahead to the excellent electronic noodling of the Atom Heart Mother and Meddle albums.

If you absolutely love Pink Floyd, and especially Syd Barrett, a great suggestion would be to track this recording down. It’s such a brilliant compilation that pays direct respect to the crazy diamond of Pink Floyd, so much so that all Syd Barrett fans should seek this out. It’s just as good and as valuable as The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn. Truly brilliant. It’s not on Spotify or other music streaming apps, instead, you should order this one online.

9/10

Pink Floyd – The Dark Side Of The Moon (1973)

Pink Floyd went big with this album. Prior to the release of The Dark Side Of The Moon, Pink Floyd had not achieved much commercial success as musicians. Of course, they had critical success with releases of very good artistic and psychedelic works as a group. They had their fair share of ups and downs as well, with great albums but also losing Syd Barrett early on due to his unstable mental health. The group was ready to unleash one of their best, most popular and critically acclaimed pieces of work.

The Dark Side Of The Moon is a fantastic listen. From the go, it’s brilliant. From the cover to the concept and the songs, it’s just totally awesome. It’s an era-evoking message of art that transcends the era. It’s a definitive album for not just the 1970s, but of all time.

We get a rather psychedelic intro with a heartbeat, to begin with, before launching into the piece Speak To Me. It works as a dark and mysterious introduction to the music before us. From the outset, we have a very special and valuable album.

It segues into Breathe which is a cosmic interstellar pop song which is about human longevity. It’s a nice pop song which does very well. Roger Waters wrote all the lyrics on The Dark Side Of The Moon for the first time on a Pink Floyd album, and we sense the melancholy and despair of the times in his lyrics.

On The Run is a proto-techno and acid house style piece. It has one of the world’s first sequencers ever used on it and has various recorded sound effects and dark foreboding themes on it. It’s a great instrumental which ends in a plane crash. Emotionally and wonderfully brilliant.

Time begins with a load of clocks banging away, before having a dark and mysterious intro before lurching into a pop song about aging too quickly and other matters as well. It’s so effective, and later on, returns to the reprise of the Breathe song we heard earlier. “Home, home again. I’d like to be here when I can. When I get home cold and tired, it’s good to warm my bones beside the fire.” Mint.

The next song will blow your mind. The Great Gig In The Sky is an instrumental piece featuring soulful vocals and great piano work from Richard Wright. It’s an evocation of death and all involved with it. It’s amazingly emotional and never gives up on that. It’s one to shed tears to.

The hit single Money is unashamedly open about the love of money but is so well done and catchy that it’s a great song. Featuring cash register style sounds at the beginning, along with wah-wah guitar, a fancy saxophone solo, and a danceable groove, this song really got Pink Floyd noticed. It’s fun to listen to.

Us And Them is an extended piece about the fragility of the human condition. It’s likely inspired by Syd Barrett’s presence earlier in their lives and has a great saxophone solo once again by Dick Parry. It’s just mindblowing and awesome to hear, even today.

Any Colour You Like follows and is intended to be psychedelic. It features great organ work and trippy guitar parts to boot. It’s a very good instrumental, segueing into the next song.

The following song Brain Damage talks directly about mental health but is emotionally rousing too. As Roger Waters says, “We’ll see you on The Dark Side Of The Moon.” If that makes sense to you, then you are already no doubt a Pink Floyd fan.

We end the album with Eclipse, a great way to finish the album which references the human condition, prior to closing the album down. It finishes with the reoccurring heartbeat and samples a voice of a friend of the group’s, stating: “There is no Dark Side Of The Moon, really. As a matter of fact, it’s all dark.”

This album is truly wonderful and majestic to listen to. Normally most albums can be ignored. However, this one in no way can be ignored. It’s not only the definitive album of the time, but of all time. It has so many interesting and wonderful elements to it that words cannot express here how good the album is. Do yourself a favour and listen to this album at least once in your lifetime. With 50 million sales and counting, this is the one album to own in your collection.

Essential.

9/10

Pink Floyd – The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn (1967)

Pink Floyd created music as an art form. It was self consciously that way, and there was no pretension about it in their work. The original line up of Pink Floyd consisted of Syd Barrett on guitars and vocals, Roger Waters on bass guitar, Richard Wright and drummer Nick Mason. These four men knew each other from their art school background.

Within this context, the group moved quickly from rhythm and blues covers to a full-blown psychedelic art form of their own. Led by Syd Barrett, this album released in 1967 is a psychedelic masterpiece.

We begin our trip via Astronomy Domine. It’s a joy to listen to, with a spacey intro and a tale about space travel itself. It introduces Syd’s Fender Esquire-ish sound, logical basslines, out of this world sound and calculated drums. It’s a great introduction to the music of Pink Floyd.

The follow-up Lucifer Sam is a strange tale about a devilish cat. The said cat is not to be trusted. By this point, you will be absolutely blown away by the psychedelic textures on offer, and it also blows all the competition away of the time.

Matilda Mother shows the more innocent side to Syd Barrett’s songwriting and reveals himself to be a masterful poet. “Oh, mother. Tell me more!” chants Syd. It reveals a story about childhood tales and does not disappoint.

Flaming is an LSD trip set to music. We travel through the clouds, complete with some cup-like cutlery sounds. It shows a brilliant harmony and vocal melody section too. Syd was a true legend of these psychedelic masterpieces.

The instrumental jam Pow R. Toc H. arrives with some percussive vocal sound effects before launching into a brilliant jazz-like jam. It’s so catchy that it demands close listening throughout. Ingenius.

The Roger Waters piece Take Up Thy Stethoscope And Walk comes next and is a good piece in itself. It is a little repetitive but Syd talks about being sick in bed and requesting some relief from said sickness. Despite the fact Syd did not write this, it’s a good song.

Interstellar Overdrive is a 10-minute long instrumental that will leave you hanging out for more. It’s closest to Pink Floyd’s live set than any other track on the album, and absolutely sounds layered and trippy in a satisfying way. It segues nicely into the next song.

The Gnome follows and tells, yep, a story about a traveling gnome. It may have been inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings, we will never know. But it is so simple, catchy and beautiful. Syd was a masterful songwriter for sure.

The next song Chapter 24 may have directly referred to Syd Barrett’s love of childhood stories. Indeed, the title of the album is actually from the famous childhood story The Wind In The Willows. But the best part of this particular song is the absolutely wonderful vocal harmonies on the recording. Beautiful and melancholic.

The single The Scarecrow follows. It features organs and interesting percussion abound, whilst Syd tells us about a scarecrow who is sadder than Syd himself. It’s a disturbing look into Syd’s own mental health issues of the time.

Bike concludes the album with a great pop song that is good to listen to. Syd talks about bikes, cloaks and a mouse without a house called Gerald. The song concludes by going into the clock room to turn on the musical clocks and features a quacking duck outro.

So there you have it. An absolutely wonderful recording for the late 1960s and a variety of innovative and interesting sounds. Dark Side Of The Moon may be the Pink Floyd recording that everybody knows, but The Piper Of The Gates Of Dawn may be the recording that everybody needs. Sadly, after this album was released, Syd Barrett entered a rapid mental health based decline. That aside, this is an album to truly be treasured by. It’s a psychedelic art masterpiece.

9/10