Happy Birthday Piper at the Gates of Dawn!

Pink Floyd is one of my all-time favorite bands to this day. I have been playing Classic Rock for almost 20 years and I appreciate their music now more than I did when I began. There are so many bands that have been ruined by overplay but not Floyd.

I always liked them but after seeing Echoes of Pink Floyd, a local Pink Floyd cover band, I became a fan of their deeper tracks. Like "Astronomy Domine."

Looking back at the Piper at the Gates of Dawn record, there was no David Gilmour, Syd Barrett was the main guitar player. He wrote some of the songs but he began to show some erratic behavior during the recording process which lead to him eventually being replaced by David Gilmour.

Barrett's descent into madness was just starting and spilled over into the recording of "A Saucerful of Secrets" in 1968. He was using LSD a lot and the never completed the recording process. David Gilmour was brought in to compliment Syd and appeared on all but 2 of the songs on Saucerful.

Pink Floyd blew up worldwide in 1973 with "Dark Side of the Moon."

When they were recording the follow up album "Wish You Were Here", Barrett dropped by the studio. He had changed so much with a shaven head and eyebrows that the band didn't even recognize him. 

David Gilmour took Pink Floyd to another planet and is one of the greatest guitarists in Classic Rock.