The Piper at the Gates of Dawn

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The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
Image:PinkFloyd-album-piperatthegatesofdawn.jpg
LP by Pink Floyd
Released	August 5 1967
Recorded	February-June 1967
Genre	Psychedelic rock
Length	41 min 52 s
Label	Columbia/EMI (UK) Capitol Records (US)
Producer(s)	Norman Smith
Professional reviews
Rolling Stone (favourable) link
Pink Floyd chronology
none	The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967)	A Saucerful of Secrets (1968)

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn is Pink Floyd's debut album, and the only one made under Syd Barrett's leadership, although he made some contributions to the follow-up, A Saucerful of Secrets. The album has whimsical lyrics about scarecrows, gnomes, bicycles and fairytales, along with psychedelic instrumental passages. The album was recorded at Abbey Road Studios. This album was recorded before David Gilmour joined the band in 1968.

The LP was released on August 5, 1967 and reached #6 on the UK charts and its US version (entitled simply Pink Floyd and featuring a re-arranged and abbreviated tracklisting) reached #131 on the US charts. "See Emily Play" substituted "Astronomy Domine", "Flaming" and "Bike" on the original US vinyl issue. The CD was first released in 1987, and re-released with a digitally re-mastered CD in 1994.

The album's title comes from the title of the seventh chapter of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows, where Water Rat and Mole, while searching for a lost animal, have a religious experience. ("This is the place of my song-dream, the place the music played to me," whispered the Rat, as if in a trance. "Here, in this holy place, here if anywhere, surely we shall find Him!") The Piper referred to is the Greek god Pan.

In 2003, it was named #347 in Rolling Stone's list of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.