So far I haven't really enjoyed my deeper dives into Pink Floyd music. I like some of the band's music but more on an individual song basis and not all in one continuous sitting. This time might be different. The Dark Side of the Moon is the album that vaulted the band to superstardom, while The Wall is their career-defining epic.
Meanwhile The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn is their debut, when they were still a relatively unknown band led by the enigmatic Syd Barrett. Roger Waters, who wrote most of the stuff you know as "Pink Floyd music" was a supporting player for this album, and David Gilmour, my personal favorite member of Pink Floyd, wasn't a part of the band at this point. I am extremely intrigued by the possibilities of this prototype Pink Floyd, even though debut albums tend to be extremely rough around the edges.
Well, rough around the edges might be underselling it. "Astronomy Domine" combines psychedelic rock with prog rock and comes up with a whole new breed of nerdiness. For the most part the lyrics just name off a bunch of planets and moons in the solar system while the backing bands swirls around an ethereal melody in 6/8 time. As weird as it is, it's still more focused than the later Pink Floyd albums I've heard. The vocalist, who I'm assuming for this album was Syd Barrett, is at least singing something resembling a melody, rather than using the Roger Waters method of just sorta talking the lyrics.
The psychedelia is laid on pretty thick. I've quickly realized that these tracks are more akin to aimless drones than real songs. There's very little build up in the melodies or structure where the songs go into a chorus or different movement. There also seems to be little reason for the elaborate song names. The fifth track is a freaky instrumental called "Pow R. Toc. H". If that means something please... don't tell me, I prefer to preserve the mystery. Forever. The song following is "Take Up Thy Stethescope And Walk". I'm pretty sure none of the words in the title actually appear in the song. Not even "and".
"Interstellar Overdrive" is a long meadering instrumental jam. It's unfortunate, because the song started out with a pretty nice driving beat and a solid lick. "The Gnome" was a welcome foray into a recognizable form of music, the kind with lyrics, progression, and some reason for existing. Granted the reason was to tell an unintelligible story of a weird gnome doing gnome things, but hey... at least I got an idea of what said gnome's life was all about. Same with the later track "Scarecrow". These songs are almost like traditional folk music. It's a shame they're also the shortest songs on the record. I felt like "Scarecrow" was honestly going to build into something really extravagent. It feels like an opportunity lost.
The album comes to a stupendous crashing thud by closing out with "Bike", a drunken honky-tonk number that ends with a minute of abnoxious sound effects such as clocks ticking, someone scratching across piano strings, and a duck playing a kazoo I think. I did find this unpolished version of Pink Floyd interesting but their music just sounded really sloppy and immature. Of the three Pink Floyd albums I've heard I'm not sure which album I'd listen to given the choice. But I would be unhappy in any case. 2 stars.
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