Rise of British psychedelia - Pink Floyd's debut

Rise of British psychedelia

by Faizul Khan Tanim

In 1967, two phenomenal things happened. The Beatles were recording their mammoth studio album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, a quintessential record of that era. And a band who called themselves Pink Floyd, were recording their debut The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.

Recording began in 1967 in the English capital London, in Studio 3 of EMI’s Abbey Road Studio at St John’s Wood, four musicians – Syd Barrett, Nick Mason, Roger Waters, Rick Wright were producing, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, a title taken from one of the chapter headings of Kenneth Grahame's children's book, The Wind in the Willows.

The album was produced by Norman Smith, an EMI staff member who had previously engineered all of the Beatles' recordings up to 1965's Rubber Soul.

Formed in 1965, the name Pink Floyd derived from the creative genius of the band Syd Barrett's thoughts and was coined from the names of two blues musicians Pink Anderson and Floyd Council.

The band earned massive recognition for their psychedelia, space rock which later evolved towards progressive rock music. Like The Doors, they are also renowned for their philosophical lyrics.

They are also exclusively recognised for their sonic experimentations, metallurgical music creativity, psychedelic album cover arts and live shows full of ambience, lights and splendour.

Pink Floyd was very well-received and the album became one of rock music’s most successful acts. The group later released plenty of other studio records and have sold over 200 million albums worldwide, including 74.5 million certified units in the United States alone.

It is believed that Pink Floyd was heavily influenced by The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Amm (improvisational jazz group), Can (German experimental rock group), Byrds, Grateful Dead, Arthur Lee (Love) and successfully influenced David Bowie, Genesis, The Nazz, Queen, Phish, Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins, Yes and more.

Today, musicians and ardent fans still wonder about the album’s creative prowess which is still haunting us in 2011. Their music is so potent that we still make a trip to this other world where words are simple like ‘Bike’ yet cosmic and full of space-rock proportion with compositions like ‘Interstellar Overdrive’. The album is truly a defining moment for British Psychedelia.