Pink Floyd - Piper at the Gates of Dawn (EMI)

In 1997, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Floyd’s first full-length, a mono version was released, and I only got to hear it within the last few months. I’d cut my teeth on the inexplicably truncated Nice Pair version, finally reveling in the studio rendition of “Astronomy Domine” in about 1988, but the mono mix simply knocked me out, making me hear the album anew. Subtle changes in effect abound, moment to moment gradations that can alter the flow of an entire track.

I’m sure many have heard this, so I’ll limit myself to a few examples. The much lamented Syd Barrett’s whoops and shouts on “Take up thy Stethoscope and Walk” are simply dripping with delay, and instead of an environment being set, as with the stereo version, the contrast between “Dry” and “Wet” is continually morphed, probed and explored.

Radical structural changes also made the album fresh; the coda of “Flaming” is shorter than on the stereo version, as is the case with “The Gnome.” All told, the disc comes off as more whimsical and less sloppy than its stereo counterpart, and while I have not actually compared the CD reissue with a mono LP, any Piper fan would do well to seek out this now out-of-print gem. For me, it really defined an era that was somehow larger than itself without ever really being sure of what it was, a kind of pop non-containment that could only fragment. Newer psych, in following the leader, diminishes itself in a small but irreparable fashion; the music is often very good, but the strangely haunting spontaneity of Barrett’s Floyd vanished with the crazy diamond.

Personal note: I was teaching Piper to a class of undergrads the day Syd died. I’ve been listening to him since I was nine years old, and I felt like I’d lost an old friend. RIP.

~ Marc Medwin