When the name Pink Floyd comes up, most people immediately think of the group’s iconic and record-breaking album Dark Side of the Moon. Other post-Dark Side albums like Wish You Were Here and The Wall also are well known. Yet, for some fans of the group, its first two albums—Piper at the Gates of Dawn and A Saucerful of Secrets—are coveted as landmark albums of 1960s psychedelia.
The two albums do have much in common, but in some cases are vastly different. Both have been recently reissued on vinyl in glorious mono. Both had been previously reissued on vinyl as Record Store Day releases, in 2018 and 2019 respectively, with the record store release of the group’s 1967 debut, Piper at the Gates of Dawn, at some points commanding on average $80 on the used market.
Piper at the Gates of Dawn is very representative of that golden, multi-colored year of 1967, the height of the psychedelic sound. It was, of course, the same year The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and both groups were part of the EMI family and recorded their respective albums at Abbey Road Studios, with Sgt. Pepper coming out in June and Piper in August.
The album is very much a showcase for the group’s then de-facto guiding force Syd Barrett. Barrett’s trippy, whimsical and child-like pop songs dominate the album. The other founding members were Roger Waters, Richard Wright, and Nick Mason. The group’s debut was preceded by the equally psychedelic, Syd Barrett-styled singles “Arnold Layne” in March and “See Emily Play” in June.
This reissue mix is from the original analog tape mono mix from 1967 remastered by James Guthrie, Joel Plante, and Bernie Grundman in 2017. The album is pressed on 180-gram vinyl and is in a poly-lined sleeve. The sound quality is superb, the pressing is flat and the sound is dead quiet. The Record Store Day release included a new package design by Aubrey Powell of Hipgnosis and Peter Curzon, with a card-like, album-size envelope with a psychedelic design that featured a gold embossed version of the graphic created by Syd Barrett from the back-side of the original mono album design and a 16 x 21 inch, fold-out black and white poster.
While Pink Floyd fans, especially those who missed out on the Record Store Day release, must be overjoyed with this reissue, anyone who is a fan of 1960s British pop/rock or psychedelia, or both, will want this release in their collection.
The other new reissue is of Pink Floyd’s second album, A Saucerful of Secrets. The album in some respects is a major departure from the group’s debut and sets the stage for the David Gilmour incarnation of the band. Syd Barrett’s continued drug use and erratic behavior led to his slowly leaving the group between the release of Piper and the release of this album. Barrett’s only composition is the closing track, “Jugband Blues.” The album also includes his vocals and guitars on that track and he does provide vocals and guitars on “Remember a Day” and guitars on “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun.”
The major result of his slow departure was the nearly full-time addition of David Gilmour into the band. Gilmour’s presence in some cases dramatically changed Floyd. The whimsical pop and decidedly English eccentric nature of the group’s music was now for the most part replaced with a heavier, almost doom-laden sound, that reflected the darker side of psychedelia. This sound was not the result of a heavier intake of stronger drugs, but instead, of Gilmour’s majestic, guitar-God soundscapes.
While Pink Floyd would experiment for years to truly find its new sound and veer off and do soundtrack projects and other non-pop-album works, the album still retained the seminal psychedelic sonics of the group from this period and this time in British pop music. The album is often overlooked in the Floyd canon but is quite strong, and for years it has been the successful musical foundation for Floyd drummer Nick Mason’s band, which takes its name from the album’s title. The project has been one of the most creatively successful post-Floyd projects to date.
This reissue features the mono mix from the analog tapes from 1968, remastered by James Guthrie, Joel Plante, and Bernie Grundman in 2019. It is pressed on 180-gram vinyl and the album comes in poly-lined sleeves. There is no real major change in the album packaging from the Record Store Day release.
The only packaging disappointment on both reissues is that the original U.K. flip-backs are not physically replicated, but instead are just faux-graphic replicas, unlike the mono reissues of the albums from The Beatles and others. These are yet two more excellent reissues from the long-running vinyl and deluxe box set releases from the group over the last several years.
Piper at the Gates of Dawn
A-
A Saucerful of Secrets
B+
