Recording started on 21 February with six takes of "Matilda Mother", then called "Matilda's Mother". The following week, on the 27th, the band recorded five takes of "Interstellar Overdrive", On 16 March, the band had another go at recording "Interstellar Overdrive", in an attempt to create a shorter version, and "Flaming" (originally titled "Snowing"), which was recorded in a single take with one vocal overdub. On 19 March, six takes of "The Gnome" were recorded. The following day, the band recorded Waters' "Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk". On 21 March, the band were invited to watch the Beatles record "Lovely Rita". The following day, they recorded "The Scarecrow" in one take. The next three tracks – "Astronomy Dominé", "Interstellar Overdrive" and "Pow R. Toc H." – were worked on extensively between 21 March and 12 April, having originally been lengthy instrumentals. the band recorded "Percy the Rat Catcher" and a currently unreleased track called "She Was a Millionaire".
"Percy the Rat Catcher" received overdubs across five studio sessions and then was mixed in late June, eventually being given the name "Lucifer Sam". Songwriting for the majority of the album is credited solely to Barrett, with tracks such as "Bike" having been written in late 1966 before the album was started. "Bike" was recorded on 21 May 1967 and originally entitled "The Bike Song". Steve Huey of AllMusic assessed that the album's tracks alternate between "catchy, melodic acid pop songs" and "longer, more experimental pieces showcasing the group's instrumental freak-outs." He described the album's lyrical content as "full of colorful, childlike, distinctly British whimsy, albeit filtered through the perceptive lens of LSD." Additionally, the album contains themes pertaining to space travel. Rick Wright's keyboard work has been described as sounding "eerie," and makes use of dissonance and chromaticism. Music historian Jeff Gold suggested that the album's "more spacey excursions like "Astronomy Domine," "Interstellar Overdrive" and "Lucifer Sam" firmly captured the freak-flag of British psychedelia."
Release
In June 1967, before the album was released, the single "See Emily Play" was sold as a 7-inch 45 rpm record, with "The Scarecrow" on the B-side, listed as "Scarecrow". The full album was released on 4 August 1967, including "The Scarecrow".
Pink Floyd continued to perform at the UFO Club, drawing huge crowds, but Barrett's deterioration caused them serious concern. The band initially hoped that his erratic behaviour was a phase that would pass, but others, including manager Peter Jenner and his secretary June Child, were more realistic:
To the band's consternation, they were forced to cancel their appearance at the prestigious National Jazz and Blues Festival, informing the music press that Barrett was suffering from nervous exhaustion. Jenner and Waters arranged for Barrett to see a psychiatrist – a meeting he did not attend. He was sent to relax in the sun on the Spanish island of Formentera with Waters and Sam Hutt (a doctor well-established in the underground music scene), but this led to no visible improvement.
thumb|The album's title, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, refers to the god [[Pan (god)|Pan, as depicted in the 1908 book The Wind in the Willows.]]
The original UK LP was released on 4 August 1967 in both monaural and stereophonic mixes. It reached number six on the UK charts. The original US album appeared on the Tower division of Capitol on 21 October 1967. This version was officially titled simply Pink Floyd, though the original album title did appear on the back cover as on the UK issue, and Dick Clark referred to the record by its original title when the group appeared on his American Bandstand television program on 18 November. The US album featured an abbreviated track listing, and reached number 131 on the Billboard charts. The UK single, "See Emily Play", was substituted for "Astronomy Dominé", "Flaming" and "Bike". The Tower issue of the album also faded out "Interstellar Overdrive" and broke up the segue into "The Gnome" to fit the re-sequencing of the songs. Later US issues on compact disc had the same title and track list as the UK version. The album was certified Gold in the US as a part of A Nice Pair with A Saucerful of Secrets on 11 March 1994.
Packaging
thumb|Vic Singh's lens, used to take the cover picture for The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (displayed at the [[Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains exhibition) ]]
Up-and-coming society photographer Vic Singh was hired to photograph the band for the album cover. Singh shared a studio with photographer David Bailey, and he was friends with Beatles guitarist George Harrison. Singh asked Jenner and King to dress the band in the brightest clothes they could find. Singh then shot them with a prism lens that Harrison had given him. In 2017, the lens was displayed at the Victoria and Albert Museum, as part of the Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains exhibition.
Barrett came up with the album title The Piper at the Gates of Dawn; the album was originally titled Projection up to as late as July 1967. The title was taken from that of chapter seven of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows which contains a visionary encounter with the god Pan, who plays his pan pipe at dawn. It was one of Barrett's favourite books, and he often gave friends the impression that he was the embodiment of Pan. The moniker was later used in the song "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", in which Barrett is called "you Piper". The cover was one of several Pink Floyd album covers used on a series of Royal Mail stamps issued in May 2016 to commemorate 50 years of Pink Floyd.
In 2018, the album was reissued in its mono mix. With this version came a new packaging box with the original record cover inside. This new design was done by Hipgnosis' Aubrey Powell and Peter Curzon and includes a gold-embossed version of the graphic by Syd Barrett which features on the back cover of the original LP.
Critical reception
At the time of release, both Record Mirror and NME gave the album four stars out of five. Record Mirror commented that "[t]he psychedelic image of the group really comes to life, record wise, on this LP which is a fine showcase for both their talent and the recording technique. Plenty of mind blowing sound, both blatant and subtle here, and the whole thing is extremely well performed." Cash Box called it "a particularly striking collection of driving, up-to-date rock ventures". Paul McCartney
| rev2 = AllMusic
| rev2score =
| rev3 = The Daily Telegraph
| rev3score =
| rev4 = Encyclopedia of Popular Music
| rev4score =
| rev5 = MusicHound
| rev5score = 3.5/5
| rev6 = NME
| rev6score = 9/10
| rev7 = Paste
| rev7score = 9.5/10
| rev8 = Pitchfork
| rev8score = 9.4/10
| rev9 = Q
| rev9score =
| rev10 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide
| rev10score =
"When I first heard their music, I wasn't terribly impressed," recalled then-EMI employee Alan Parsons. "I was working at [EMI's headquarters] Hayes and the Piper at the Gates of Dawn album came to me for duplication. And I was thinking if this was to be the music of the future, I wasn't looking forward to it. But, like a lot of stuff, you get to like bits of it over a long period."
In 1999, Rolling Stone gave the album 4.5 stars out of 5, calling it "the golden achievement of Syd Barrett". In 2003, it was ranked number 347 on the magazine's "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time", maintaining that rank in the 2012 update and climbing to number 253 in the 2020 reboot of the list. AllMusic called it one of the greatest psychedelic albums of all time, and described it as "full of colorful, childlike, distinctly British whimsy, albeit filtered through the perceptive lens of LSD," adding that "Barrett's catchy, melodic acid pop songs are balanced with longer, more experimental pieces showcasing the group's instrumental freak-outs." While Beatles biographer Philip Norman agrees that The Piper at the Gates of Dawn is a concept album, other authors contend that Pink Floyd did not start making concept albums until 1973's The Dark Side of the Moon. Author George Reisch called Pink Floyd the "undisputed" kings of the concept album, but only starting from Dark Side. In July 2006, Billboard described The Piper at the Gates of Dawn as "one of the best psychedelic rock albums ever, driven by Barrett's oddball narratives and the band's skill with both long jams and perfect pop nuggets".
In the book 101 Essential Rock Records, music historian Jeff Gold suggested that Pink Floyd "ultimately invented progressive rock in one fell swoop" with the album.
For the 40th anniversary, a two-disc edition was released on 28 August 2007, and a three-disc set was released on 11 September. The Piper at the Gates of Dawn was remastered and re-released on 26 September 2011. For Record Store Day 2018, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn was reissued in its mono mix with a bespoke envelope package containing the original cover art.
Live performances
The band promoted the album with a series of concerts. They played dates in Ireland and Scandinavia, and in late October the band was to embark on their first tour of the United States. It was unsuccessful, mainly because of the mental breakdown of Barrett. In his capacity as tour manager, Andrew King travelled to New York to begin preparations, but he ran into serious problems. Visas had not arrived, prompting the cancellation of the first six dates. The band finally flew across the Atlantic on 1 November, but work permits were not yet obtained, so they settled into a hotel in Sausalito, California, just north of San Francisco. After a number of cancellations, the first US performance was given 4 November at Winterland Ballroom, following Janis Joplin fronting Big Brother and the Holding Company. when the band performed at Winterland, he detuned his guitar during "Interstellar Overdrive" until the strings fell off. His odd behaviour grew worse in subsequent performances, and during a television recording for The Pat Boone Show he confounded the director by lip-syncing "Apples and Oranges" perfectly during the rehearsal, and then standing motionless during the take. King quickly curtailed the band's US visit, sending them home on the next flight.
Shortly after their return from the US, beginning 14 November, the band supported Jimi Hendrix on a tour of England, Longtime Pink Floyd psychedelic lighting designer Peter Wynne-Willson left at the end of the Hendrix tour, though he sympathised with Barrett, whose position as frontman was increasingly insecure. Wynne-Willson, who had worked for a percentage, was replaced by his assistant John Marsh, who collected a lesser wage. Pink Floyd released "Apples and Oranges" (recorded prior to the US tour on 26 and 27 October) but, for the rest of the band, Barrett's condition had reached a crisis point, and they responded by adding David Gilmour to their line-up, initially to cover for Syd's lapses during live performances. "Flaming" and "Pow R. Toc H." were performed by Pink Floyd after Barrett's departure in 1968. After September 1967, the band played several new songs in concert. These included "One in a Million", "Scream Thy Last Scream", "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" and "Reaction in G", the last of which was a song created by the band in response to crowds asking for their hit singles "See Emily Play" and "Arnold Layne". Barrett resurrected the track "Lucifer Sam" with his short-lived 1972 band Stars. "Astronomy Dominé" was later on the live disc of Ummagumma (1969), and adopted by the post-Waters Pink Floyd during the 1994 Division Bell Tour, with a version included on the 1995 live album Pulse. David Gilmour, though not a member of Pink Floyd at the time the song was originally recorded, resurrected "Astronomy Dominé" for his On an Island and Rattle That Lock tours.
Track listing
UK release
All tracks are written and sung by Syd Barrett, unless otherwise noted.
US release
40th anniversary edition bonus disc
Released in 2007, this edition contains the original mono and stereo mixes of the album, each on its own CD. Some editions also include a third CD consisting of the following bonus tracks.
Outtakes
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
! Title
! Length
! Recorded
! Notes
|-
| "Remember a Day"
| 4:33
| 9 May 1967, Sound Techniques, London
| Written by Richard Wright. Recorded during the Piper sessions, but its release was postponed until A Saucerful of Secrets (1968).
|}
Personnel
Credits adapted from CD liner notes, except where noted.
Pink Floyd
- Syd Barrett – lead guitar, vocals
- Roger Waters – bass guitar, vocals
- Rick Wright – organ, piano, vocals
- Nick Mason – drums
Additional musicians
- Peter Jenner – intro vocalisations ("Astronomy Dominé")
- Norman Smith – drum roll ("Interstellar Overdrive")
Technical
- Norman Smith – producer; vocal and instrumental arrangements