The Pink Floyd-The Piper at the Gates of Dawn

It was the summer after my freshman year of high school. I finally heard it. I had never liked the “classic rock” Pink Floyd I had been exposed to on the radio, and had been very curious about the swinging London psychedelia of the Syd Barret stuff. As a dedicated follower of "Sgt. Pepper", I knew where my next step would lead me… to "the Gates of Dawn<", of course. One can’t romanticize the plight of the tragic adonis who flew too close to the sun on wings of lysergic acid diethylamide any more than has carelessly been done in the past, but here was the sound of a man squeezing his whole tube of paint, so to speak, on to the canvass at once at the expense of what could have been a healthy and happy life. As sad as Roger Keith Barrett’s story is, the music is so exhilaratingly entertaining that one could easily and happily go along for the bike ride, forgetting where this road so obviously leads. M.T.