This year is Pink Floyd’s 40th anniversary and to mark this, a special edition of the band’s debut album 'The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn', which was originally released on 5 August 1967, is being re-issued with exclusive new tracks that have recently been found!
The packaging, designed by longtime Floyd collaborator Storm Thorgerson, resembles a cloth-covered book with the original Vic Singh photo on the front, and holds 3 CD discs, along with an 8 page reproduction of one of Syd Barrett’s notebooks.
Newly remastered by James Guthrie from the original recordings, Discs 1 and 2 will contain the full 'Piper' album, represented in both stereo and mono versions. Disc 3 includes bonus tracks, including the following:
All the Pink Floyd singles from 1967, ('Arnold Layne', 'See Emily Play', and 'Apples And Oranges'), plus the B-sides 'Candy And A Current Bun' and 'Paintbox' as well as previously unissued versions of ‘Matilda Mother’, ‘Apples And Oranges’ (1967 stereo version) and two rare edits of ‘Interstellar Overdrive’, one previously only available on an EP in France (French Edit) and take six of the track from the original recording sessions discovered in the EMI achieve.
When the re-mastering of this groundbreaking album started to come together, a collector loaned EMI a copy of the original French EP, much to the surprise of Guthrie it was a different version of ‘Interstellar Overdrive’ to what had been supplied from the EMI archive. Following investigation into the reason behind this, it was discovered that this version was an unreleased mix from take six of the original session, it also materialised that a different version of ‘Matilda Mother’ had been recorded - it had the same backing track as the album version, but the verse vocal and lyrics are different.
Here's a complete tracklisting for this 3 disc special edition set.
Released Sep 3rd.
Disc 1 and 2:
1. Astronomy Domine
2. Lucifer Sam
3. Matilda Mother
4. Flaming
5. Pow R. Toc H. (Syd Barrett, Roger Walters, Rick Wright, Nick Mason)
6. Take Up Thy Stethoscope And Walk (Roger Walters)
7. Interstellar Overdrive (Syd Barrett, Roger Walters, Rick Wright, Nick Mason)
8. The Gnome
9. Chapter 24
10. The Scarecrow
11. Bike
Disc 3:
1. Arnold Layne
2. Candy And A Currant Bun
3. See Emily Play
4. Apples And Oranges
5. Paintbox
6. Interstellar Overdrive (French Edit)
7. Apple And Oranges (stereo mix) Previously unissued
8. Matilda Mother (Alternative version) Previously unissued
9. Interstellar Overdrive (Take six) Previously unissued
The current single disc version of ‘The Piper At The Gates of Dawn’ will be replaced with a new two disc version that will feature the mono and stereo versions of the album and will not include the Syd Barrett booklet or the third disc of extras.
And for your interest here are some original reviews from September 2nd, 1967:
New Musical Express.
The music is varied, from outer-space, to Arabic, to jazz. The album features rasping guitar by Syd Barrett, distorted vocals, shouts, laughs, and raving organ from Rick Wright. 'Interstellar Overdrive' takes up most of side two, with weird overtones. The drum effects by Nick Mason on 'Scarecrow' are good. Four stars.
Record Mirror.
Pink Floyd's psychedelic image really comes to life on the album, which showcases their talent and recording technique. The record features mind blowing sounds and is performed extremely well. Four stars.
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