I've slowly grown to quite love most of it, but it's been a LONG gestation period. I first heard Piper back my freshman year in college (1987), and had no idea what to make of it. A few of the songs sorta half-clicked with me, but only "halfway" at most (and it pretty much stayed that way for me for the better part of 10-20 years). I quickly grew to love Floyd rather deeply, but I never did really get as deep into Piper (nor Saucerful either, for that matter). But little by little, more of that era started to click with me by the late 90's and early 2000's. I especially grew to love songs like Rick's "Paintbox", and several Piper-era non-LP singles, like "Arnold Layne", "Candy and a Currant Bun", "See Emily Play", and "Apples and Oranges" -- which I actually new BETTER than Piper, after I scored a used copy of the Early Singles CD from the big Shine On box. Anyway, about 10 years ago (finally!!!) -- "Interstellar Overdrive" FINALLY clicked with me -- I think from having found the London 66/67 version (the one that's 16-minutes long) -- and listening to it, along with the Piper version of "IO", and I finally fell in love with it (only 20 years after I'd first heard it). I still love the Early Singles a bit more than a bunch of Piper, but now I'm thankful for all that early Floyd (and I do have the huge Early Years box too now). I'm NOT yet into Syd's solo stuff very much at all, but his contributions to Pink Floyd were the stuff of magic. My LEAST favorite Piper tracks are probably: "The Gnome", "Chapter 24", and I go back and forth about "Bike" (god knows it's iconic, I'll give it that) -- which is to say that some days I do really rather LIKE "Bike" -- but it's pretty annoying sometimes too. I've been meaning to try and build a 'better' Piper, one of these days, using some Piper-era singles and dropping a few tracks. Been on my list of things to do for years, actually, something I guess I'll get around to eventually.
Piper is one of my favorite albums, but I can't compare it with any other Pink Floyd albums because they were basically an entirely different band on Piper.
Genius from start to finish... well, apart from "Take Up Thy Stethoscope" and, even there, Syd and Rick are doing their utmost to rescue it.
Psychedellic masterpiece. As good their later epic albums were, this is still my favorite Pink Floyd album.
Not really, they had a different captain at the helm, but there's a lot of similarity between what they did on Piper and what they did later. The vocal noises on "Pow R Toch H" and "Bike" prefigure Waters' "Several Species..." on Ummagumma. The churning instrumental passages in most of the songs are kind of bubblegum versions of similar excursions in "Careful With That Axe, Eugene" and "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun." The songs on Piper are much shorter and poppier but the sort of seat-of-the-pants improvisation stayed with the Floyd up until at least Obscured By Clouds. Personally, I think Piper is among Floyd's very best albums. I used to hate it when I was young because it's so different and so childlike but now I'm just amazed that such a band existed in '67. There were a lot of bands who were similar but I think the Floyd approached psychedelic music from such a unique angle.
I love the uniqueness of this album. I love the whimsical lyrics. I simply love it. Nothing sounds quite like Syd Barrett
Bought it on Tower the week it came out, have been listening to it now for nearly 50 years and have never grown tired of it. Steadily downhill for me after that.
It sounds dated and the production primitive. I'd rather listen to Saucerful, More, or even Umagumma for that matter. This of course IMHO.
It's one of my favourite albums of all time. Picked up a copy when I was 16 (1990) and fell in love with it. I'm not a fan of the rest of Pink Floyd's output (I like DSOTM though). Picked up a mono original pressing last year - amazed how much better/different it sounds, its like hearing it a fresh.
Its quite an extraordinary debut album, imo and quite different of course, from where the Floyd evolved on proceeding releases like "Meddle", but "Piper" is forever Roger Keith(Syd) Barrett's bright flash of brilliance and displayed his whimsical songwriting talents. As I was exposed to the band from releases like "The Wall" and "Wish You Were Here", my first impression of "Piper" was that it was quite dated in its mid-60's psychedelic beginnings with influences of blues and pop blended together. The more I played it, the more I was intrigued and drawn in to its sound and vibe. Favorite cuts are "Bike", "Flaming", "Chapter 24", "The Scarecrow", "Matilda Mother" and "Astronomy Domine'".
One of my favorite albums of all time. That being said I wish we could cut pick up thy scethescope and scarecrow and insert Arnold Layne and see Emily play. Then we would be talking about possibly the definitive psych album instead of top 4.
Piper was my first introduction to Pink Floyd. I took a chance and bought the US version when it first came out. I thought it had a unique vibe to it. I saw Pink Floyd during their tour behind Saucerful of Secrets in the Summer of 1968. During their first set, they played much of the material from Piper with Rick Wright, Dave Gilmour and Roger Waters performing the vocals that Syd Barrett had done. Piper will always be a special record for me. It set me up for all the records that followed up though Dark Side of the Moon.
The best album of the 1967. Which is quite impressive when you think about all the heavyweights that were released that year.
I'd leave The Scarecrow on it, but place See Emily Play where Take Up Thy Stethoscope is to end side one. Stethoscope would be a great non album B-side instead. I'd leave Arnold Layne as a non album single, as 45s are amazing and the sixties is probably the best era for them.
Love it. It's so much different than any of the others. Could be the Syd influence but for me like it more than Saucerful an Ummagumma.
