‘The Piper at the Gates of Dawn’ gets special edition to mark Pink Floyd anniversary

By M&C News Aug 29, 2007, 15:54 GMT

At the time The Piper at the Gates of Dawn was originally released in 1967, it was one among many aurally ripped, acid-tripped albums including Jimi Hendrix\'s Are You Experienced, Cream\'s Disraeli Gears, Jefferson Airplane\'s After Bathing at Baxter\'s, and, of course, Sgt. Pepper\'s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which the Beatles were recording down the hall from Pink Floyd at Abbey Road. But as those albums have gracefully slipped into ...more

This year is Pink Floyd’s 40th anniversary and to mark this milestone, a special edition of the band’s debut album, ‘The Piper at the Gates of Dawn,’ originally released on August 5, 1967, will be available in the U.K. and Europe on EMI Records on September 3 and in the U.S. on September 4.

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 CDs, along with an 8-page reproduction of one of Syd Barrett’s notebooks. 

Newly remastered by James Guthrie, Discs 1 and 2 will contain the full 'Piper' album, represented in both stereo and mono versions.  Disc 3 includes bonus tracks, including all of Pink Floyd’s singles from 1967 (“Arnold Layne,” “See Emily Play,” and “Apples And Oranges”), plus the B-sides “Candy And A Current Bun” and “Paintbox.” Other tracks include an exclusive edit of “Interstellar Overdrive,” previously available only on an EP released in France, and the 1967 stereo version of “Apples And Orange,” which has never before been officially released.

The album’s title, ‘The Piper at the Gates of Dawn,’ came from the seventh chapter of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows.  It was the fledgling Pink Floyd’s first album, charting at Number 6 in the U.K. 

The band members were Syd Barrett, guitarist, singer, and main songwriter, with bassist Roger Waters, keyboardist Rick Wright and drummer Nick Mason.  The album was recorded in Abbey Road’s Studio 3 and produced by EMI resident producer, Norman Smith, while the Beatles were in the studio next door working on ‘Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.’

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. This package will not include the Syd Barrett booklet or the third disc of extras.