While much of the "psychedelic" music of the '60s sounds tame by the standards of today's avant garde, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn still packs the sizzle of a handful of microdots. Taken all it once, it's a prescription for temporary insanity.
The lysergic onslaught comes in two waves. The first half of the album is dominated by guitar-mangling jams like "Astronomy Domine" and the splendidly-titled "Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk." There's blues on the piano-led "Pow R. Toc H." and in the sinister riffing of "Lucifer Sam," but it's not blues as anyone played it before or since. More Sonic Youth than Cream, they still sound wild today.
The album pivots around "Interstellar Overdrive," the 16-minute trip to end all trips. No lyrics, no structure - just one awesome riff and a leap into the unknown. The album, and Syd's mind, never return, and phase two of Piper is where the really weird stuff happens. The guitars all but disappear, and we find Syd standing in a meadow somewhere, blurting out the kind of English folk you'd call "whimsical" if its lyrics weren't surging with acid insanity. "The Gnome," "Chapter 24" "The Scarecrow," and "Bike" are disturbing looks inside Syd's disintegrating mind, couched in children's melodies which do little to disguise the fear and confusion of Barrett's LSD psychosis.
If you like Pink Floyd, check out:
Pink Floyd Saucerful Of Secrets
Radar Bros. The Singing Hatchet
Blur Leisure
The Verve A Storm in Heaven
The 13th Floor Elevators Levitation
Syd Barrett The Madcap Laughs
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