Well here’s one I’m sure no-one who knows me would have expected…If you’ve ever spent any time talking with me about music and the subject of Pink Floyd has arisen then you will know I am no fan of theirs. I was influenced at any early age by stories and pictures of Johnny Rotten and his “I hate Pink Floyd” t-shirt, if that stance was good enough for John it was good enough for me. As time passed and I actually heard some of their stuff it quickly became clear to me that this stance was correct and what they produced was some of the dullest, leaden, soulless boring “rock music” it had ever been my misfortune to encounter. So why do I own and am about to eulogise about a Pink Floyd album ?

For starters, “The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn” is a very different animal (pardon the pun) from the likes of “The Dark Side Of the Moon”, “Wish You Were Here” and “The Wall”. Those, to my ears, epitomise everything that is wrong about 70’s rock music… c’mon kids it’s just f*cking boring !

“The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn” however is a work of blissed out, psychedelic wonder made by what may as well be a completely different band to those 70’s rock dullards the name came to represent, this one led by the fractured, delicate genius of Syd Barrett. Syd co-founded Floyd in 1965 (in fact he named the band after two of his favoured bluesmen, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council) and helmed them for around 2 years until early 1968 and he was ousted from the band when, en route to a gig, the rest of the band decided not to pick him up. Syd had written their two hit singles (“Arnold Layne”, “See Emily Play” plius the non hit “Apples And Oranges”) and of the 11 songs on “…Piper…” he wrote 8 himself and co wrote another 2 (Roger Waters is credited with “Take Up Thy Stethoscope And Walk”). It’s probably not a surprise, therefore, that their sound changed markedly after he departed.

The Pink Floyd (as they were then known) signed with EMI’s Columbia Records in February 1967 after forging a reputation with their performances at London’s UFO Club (which I’ve only recently discovered was pronounced YouFo by its clientele). “The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn” was recorded between February and May at Abbey Road studios. Syd Barrett had his first LSD trip in the summer of 1965 and during the recording of the album his use increased which began to affect him significantly, ultimately leading to his departure from the band when they didn’t pick him up on the way to a gig due to his increasingly “challenging” behaviour”.

The album consists of two different types of songs, Barrett’s shorter more whimsical songs (“Lucifer Sam”. “Bike”, “The Gnome” and “Matilda Mother”) and longer improvised pieces, the sort of thing that made up their m,iuch talked about live set (“Interstellar Overdrive” and “Pow R. Toc H.”). “Lucifer Sam” is a beauty and one of the grooviest guitar riffs ever put to tape in the 1960’s, a song about Syd’s cat; “Intertellar Overdrive” is a pile-driving, almost 10 minute long instrumental based on the theme tune from “Steptoe And Son”; “Bike” is an almost comedic ditty about Syd’s bike and its bell and its basket and some things that make it look good, and he tells you about his mouse, Gerald.

It may all sound a little crazy and it is, but it sounds like like nothing else that was around at the time and it sounds nothing like Pink Floyd ever sounded again. I’ve never owned a copy until very recently, RSD 2018 in fact whence was released a remastered 180g Mono version  in all sorts of fancy packaging and I figured to hell with it, why not. Add to this album those 3 early singles and to my mind you have all the Pink Floyd you’ll ever need.

As the old saying goes “everyone has one in them”, right ? Well this is certainly Pink Floyd’s one. I wouldn’t give you tuppence for anything they did after this but “The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn” is a fantastic British psychedelic record and I really, really like it.

Lucifer Sam - https://youtu.be/np5z_yiuhKo

Right then, let's get all alphabetical again shall we...Back in those heady days of 1977 someone in the music press, maybe at the behest of a record company type, was trying to sell Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers as being part of the New Wave. They weren’t of course, they were a hard working US rock ‘n’ roll band, maybe a little more 60’s influenced than some. But when I saw a copy of their single “Anything That’s Rock ‘n’ Roll” in the ex-jukebox singles that they kept in our local newsagent, I gave it a go.

I like it, it’s got nothing to do with New Wave at all, it’s more in the vein of artists like Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp that I also have a liking for, honest American, blue collar rock music with (occasionally) something to say. It’s on this album which really isn’t anything special but does have another couple of great tunes on it.

“Breakdown” became one of the bands signature songs, there's an extended version of on their live album "Pack Up The Plantation" which the audience sings most of. And then there is “American Girl”…most people may have first encountered it many years after it’s original release when it featured on the soundtrack of “The Silence Of The Lambs”, but it had a life before that. It’s one of those classic songs that only, really, US artists seem capable of writing and getting away with. “English Girl” doesn’t seem to have the same ring to it but “American Girl”, “American Girls” (Counting Crows), “American Woman” (The Guess Who) the list is endless and it sounds right. Play it along with “Sweet Child Of Mine” and “You Shook Me All Night Long” and it fits right in among those “rock” songs that have become Saturday night “party” classics.

Tom Petty would go on to make much better records than this, but this was a decent start.

American Girl - https://youtu.be/SIhb-kNvL6M?si=O0ZNebL4ATfktmHj

Another on eout of order buut Amsterdam’s 2002 2nd album fits with yesterday's post. Originally self released by the band as a CD-r it finally got the vinyl re-issue treatment in 2023, again courtesy of Kitchen Disco Records. Notable in the extreme for the first appearance of what has become Ian Prowse’ defining song, “Does This Train Stop On Merseyside”.

Possibly the most surprising thing about this album for those that (quite rightly) equate the band name Amsterdam with Ian Prowse is that he doesn’t sing the first two songs on this record. For “Brigitte” (the cover star of the original release was Brigitte Bardot) and “The Glorious Day” (yes, the same “Glorious Day” that would later show up on the album “The Journey”, this time sung by Prowsey) the lead vocals come courtesy of guitarist/flautist Genevieve Mort. As do “The Gangster”, “You Are My Lover”, “You Know You Wanna Be Like Us”…that’s right, almost 50% of an “Ian Prowse” album not sung by Ian Prowse.

As with yesterday’s “This Time Next year” there is some “recycling” happening on on this album. “The Glorious Day” is a “tribute”, shall we call it, to a Billy Bragg song (“The Warmest Room” https://youtu.be/KACiGzpUi7Y?si=YcIcH3iLole9j5nm) with different lyrics…I’m sure with The Bard’s blessing. ”Our Leader” begins with a snippet of (what I know as Gaelic folk song) “The Mingulay Boat Song” with new words too and the backing vocals on “Hatred Is Wasted” owe more than a big thank you to Mink DeVille’s “Spanish Stroll”. None of this is a criticism, I’m just pointing it out. Knowing Ian Prowse as a big Springsteen fan it can’t be a coincidence that “Does This Train Stop On Merseyside” has a ring of “Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street” about its title.

“The Curse” in hindsight (a wonderful thing huh?) feels like a step to somewhere else rather than being a “proper” album (although I’m sure at the time the band felt very differently). A lot of these songs we will meet again, some very soon. “You Are My Lover” resurfaced with a Prowsey vocal on Amsterdam’s album “Arm In Arm” and of course “Does This Train Stop On Merseyside”, “John”, “The Gangster”, “The Glorious Day” and “A Curse” were all included on Amsterdam’s next (proper) release “The Journey”. I’m not having a dig here, these were songs that didn’t really get a wide audience on “The Curse” as it was a self released album so when the band got a deal for the release of “The Journey” on an Indie label why not give these songs a fighting chance to get heard ?

Ian Prowse is one of our great songwriters and performers, he really should be much more widely heralded for his and his bands talents. This is a step along the way to records we will come to shortly and some of the best live shows I’ve seen in the last 20 years. If you haven’t already, go lend him an ear.

Our Leader - https://youtu.be/pHoC5qNyqdw?si=8h2hexSBdhyFn08j