Pink Floyd - The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn

Take up they reissue and walk

What is there left to be said about one of UK psych’s most essential albums? RC isn’t alone in pretty much having nothing else to add to one of the most written-about records of all time.

For many, of course, Pink Floyd live on as the band behind Dark Side Of The Moon and The Wall: the epitome of mainstream theatrical prog. Or, as one RC staffer put it, “Pink Floyd don’t exist to me before 1970.” For this writer, and a good many others, though, Floyd died in the early 70s, becoming something else entirely; and this, the defining missive from a world of acid-fried UFO club-goers, should have been all that remained.

The three discs here break down to a mono and stereo mix on two discs, and a slab of “rarities” on Disc Three. Any major fan will already have the non-album 1967 A- and B-sides, and most will have “unofficial” copies of the rest. If the French EP edit of Interstellar Overdrive doesn’t excite you much, the eight-page reproduction of a Syd Barrett notebook will. A previously unreleased Take Six of Interstellar Overdrive threatens to pack more of a punch than the album version early on, though ends up staying in a middle gear.

3 stars 3 stars 3 stars

EMI | 503 9192 (3-CD)

Reviewed by Jason Draper
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