PINK FLOYD - PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN mono 1st pr LP

	£		378
	$		501

The PINK FLOYD-THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN

EXTREMELY RARE UK COLUMBIA 1st PRESSING MONO LP SX 6157

There are only a few light, wispy, fine marks on the vinyl, an absolutely SUPERB copy, playing with great clarity and power. A real treat in EXCELLENT+ condition. The labels are superb, with very bright titles, negligible spindle wear and no writing damage. There is a light circular impression to the spindle area, obviously from having been played on a system requiring the record to be held in place, but this is the only point to note about the labels. The E.J.DAY sleeve is in EXCELLENT condition. The spine is superb with unblemished titles and sharp edges. The lamination is deeply glossy with no creasing, a couple of light wrinkles only, and negligible impression left by the heavyweight vinyl. The non-laminated rear sleeve is in fine shape, with again no creasing or wrinkles and light age-discoloration and one small scuff to the right of the illustration (see below). Easily in EXCELLENT condition, with no writing or major damage. Superb, complete, beautifully clean flipback, no edgewear and a sharp sleeve opening. 

A BEAUTIFUL ADDITION TO YOUR COLLECTION! 

I hope the photos do justice to this fine copy

a tiny scuff to sleeve rear is the only point to note, and minor at that

While Pink Floyd are mostly known for their grandiose concept albums of the 1970s, they started as a very different sort of psychedelic band. Soon after they first began playing together in the mid-'60s, they fell firmly under the leadership of lead guitarist Syd Barrett, the gifted genius who would write and sing most of their early material. The Cambridge native shared the stage with Roger Waters (bass), Rick Wright (keyboards), and Nick Mason (drums). The name Pink Floyd, seemingly so far-out, was actually derived from the first names of two ancient bluesmen (Pink Anderson and Floyd Council). And at first, Pink Floyd were much more conventional than the act into which they would evolve, concentrating on the rock and R&B material that were so common to the repertoires of mid-'60s British bands.

Pink Floyd quickly began to experiment, however, stretching out songs with wild instrumental freak-out passages incorporating feedback, electronic screeches, and unusual, eerie sounds created by loud amplification, reverb, and such tricks as sliding ball bearings up and down guitar strings. In 1966, they began to pick up a following in the London underground; onstage, they began to incorporate light shows to add to the psychedelic effect. Most importantly, Syd Barrett began to compose pop-psychedelic gems that combined unusual psychedelic arrangements (particularly in the haunting guitar and celestial organ licks) with catchy melodies and incisive lyrics that viewed the world with a sense of poetic, child-like wonder.

The group landed a recording contract with EMI in early 1967 and made the Top 20 with a brilliant debut single, "Arnold Layne," a sympathetic, comic vignette about a transvestite. The follow-up, the kaleidoscopic "See Emily Play," made the Top Ten. The debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, also released in 1967, may have been the greatest British psychedelic album. Dominated almost wholly by Barrett's songs, the album was a charming funhouse of driving, mysterious rockers ("Lucifer Sam"), odd character sketches ("The Gnome"), childhood flashbacks ("Bike," "Matilda Mother"), and freakier pieces with lengthy instrumental passages ("Astronomy Domine," "Interstellar Overdrive," "Pow R Toc H") that mapped out their fascination with space travel. The record was not only like no other at the time; it was like no other that Pink Floyd would make, coloured as it was by a vision that was far more humorous, pop-friendly, and light-hearted than those of their subsequent epics.

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in response to those asking about the flipback text "FILE UNDER POP", I can confirm that this sleeve does, in fact, have that text. I would like to, however, take issue with the "RECORD COLLECTOR" book's claim that only those copies without said text are first pressings. This, basically, is a preposterous assumption with little relevance to the "pressing" question. This record was only pressed once in MONO, and is similar in essence to the Beatles' YELLOW SUBMARINE 1969 MONO 1st pressing, again, only pressed once in MONO, but which can be found with sleeves with and without the printer credit to the lower flipback. Far from being a change in cover design, it is merely a slight typographical revision, and not the sign of a FIRST PRESSING, which, as the word "pressing" denotes, can only be established with the matrix numbers visible in the run-out grooves. RECORD COLLECTOR has so many errors it is quite unbelievable, like, for example, claiming that MONO pressings of this record are rarer than their STEREO counterparts. That is clearly incorrect. 1967 was still, easily, a MONO dominated year, and from my own personal experience, having sold many copies of this record, I can say that STEREO copies are, if anything, as rare as MONO. Any blue/black label copy of this record is a rarity, MONO or STEREO, and for true first pressing proof, always refer to the matrix numbers.