Customer Reviews

Pink Floyd's The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (Thirty Three and a Third series)

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3 star:		(1)
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I enjoyed reading Kim Dyson's review of my book and I appreciate the attention to detail in mentioning the photo on the rear cover. There's one point I'd like to clarify: it wasn't taken with a similar sort of lense to the cover of "Piper", it was taken with the exact same lense by Vic Singh, who shot the original Pink Floyd sleeve image. Thought you might like to know!
I tried to submit this without filling in the star rating box and the form would not go through, so inevitably I had to give it five!!

Nearly everything that gets written about early Floyd these days focuses on Syd too much. Sure, he was the driving force behind the band in many ways, but there's only so much you can say about drugs and insanity before it just becomes pure speculation and it gets boring. Thankfully John Cavanagh has avoided all of that in this new book about "The Piper at the gates of Dawn." What Cavanagh has done is to interview a lot of the people who surrounded Floyd in their earliest days. Friends of the band, studio engineers, managemenet, etc. Cavanagh has managed to get some very interesting material and comments from most of these people, and what I liked most about this book is the obvious affection that everyone still has for the band and for this album. That comes through strongly here. Cavanagh brings it all together with a good strong narrative and takes you through the album on pretty much a track by track basis. There was a good amount of new information and insight in this book. Cavanagh even tracks down the photographer who took the photograph on the album sleeve, and amusingly there is a photo of the author on the back of this book, using the same type of lens. I know that not all Floyd fans are fans of this album, but it's a good introduction to how the band came into being, and why this album is still so specia.

A wonderful little biography about Piper at the Gates of Dawn by (The) Pink Floyd; aka Syd Barrett's only full album with the Floyd. The book doesn't go into much detail about the formation of the band, nor goes into deep specifics about how each track was put together and developed; rather it takes a look at the moment in time when Piper was being made with first source interviews. The focus naturally lingers on Syd and his mental breakdown, but it is not the burden of the book.

I agree with the other reviewer who wrote: "The book doesn't go into much detail about the formation of the band, nor goes into deep specifics about how each track was put together and developed" and would add that there's not much musical analysis of the songs. It mainly talks about the "scene" which most people would know from a million other sources, and about the engineers and producers of the record which was interesting, but not interesting enough to make up for everything else that was missing.

That's what I do, having become obsessed with this album and Syd Barrett. Of course, wanting to know everything about The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, I was eager to read this. Sadly, producer Norman (Hurricane) Smith doesn't want to talk about The Floyd anymore. Too bad, because his insight would have made a valuable contribution. Regardless, the man did a splendid job as producer, while not exactly appreciating the music. Excerpts of Norman's previous interviews reveal he was a total jazz snob, even putting down Pink Floyd as musicians, which I found shocking. In fact, Syd Barrett and Rick Wright were also strongly influenced by contemporary jazz. Nevertheless, Norman Smith completely disparaged all music on the album, while touting the talents of the Beatles! Neverminding Norman, this book goes through the album song by song and does a nice job of explaining how it was recorded and various references therein.

Mr. Cavanagh writes an entertaining back story of Abbey Road including profiles of the engineers who helped create one of the classic albums of all time. One of tidbit involves recording Syd's masterpiece "Astronomy Domine." You learn that in the introduction to the song, it's Floyd's manager, Peter Jenner, reading off a list of planets from Syd's astronomy book through a megaphone. Also enjoyed learning about Abbey Road's culture, routine and atmosphere. Being Brits, musicians and staff broke for tea time, all the engineer's wore white coats, and recording was often done in three hour shifts. In researching this book, the author wanted to listen to the master tapes, which would have included any and all studio chatter, but it turns out Abbey Road Studios erased them! That was one serious bone head move, Abbey Road. Musical history straight down the drain. The BBC did similarly by erasing all Top of the Pops shows. Without question, viewing Syd & Floyd's three appearances on TOTP would be this early Floyd's fan's wet dream!

Notably, John Cavanagh is very respectful toward Syd so you're not going to find any judgmental or tacky observations in this little book.

It's clear that the author knows his stuff. This is a story about the earliest years of Pink Floyd and the world they lived in. Very well researched and written. If you're a fan of PF, this book is for you!