10. Pink FloydThe Piper at the Gates of Dawn
We’re getting close to the edge now! I first had this when it was reissued with A Saucerful of Secrets, it was called A Nice Pair… the cover has loads of diverse pictures on it. I’ve just loved Pink Floyd ever since really. What can say about this record apart from that it’s great? I really love that they don’t have the singles on it, either, ‘See Emily Play’ and ‘Arnold Layne’. Having them on would kinda ruin it. It’s the same with Roxy Music, which doesn’t have ‘Virginia Plain’ on it. The American one does. When I bought the American version I played it and it took the mood somewhere else when I got to that track. It just felt wrong. I mean, ‘Virginia Plain’ is amazing but it shouldn’t have been on the reissue.
I like Pink Floyd after Syd left as well. Meddle is the other Floyd contender for me. My favourite one on Piper… is ‘Flaming’. That song has a really weird sparkly bit when the chorus comes in. It just… makes me feel funny inside. A little childhood journey; a dreamworld. To me it’s like Syd is underneath the eiderdown – in our house it would have been an old army blanket – and when that little sparkly bit comes in it’s like there’s a beam of light coming in through the window and shining on the floor.
It shows you up, your record collection doesn’t it? It shows who you are. If I went round and somebody had shit records or no records I’d think, ‘there’s nothing going on up there.’
