Colin Crosby Heritage Tours

Colin's Little Known Facts: The Piper at the Gates

I’m always fascinated by unusual names. I wrote about names of shops recently, inspired by seeing again “Brazen Hussy” in The Broadway at Leigh.

More than thirty years ago I began to admire the hugely talented rock band Pink Floyd. Like many in the 70s I bought “Dark Side of the Moon” and played it over and over again, as well as the not quite so well known “Wish You Were Here” and “Meddle”, to name just a couple.

I always felt it was rather sad that their biggest hit record was the chant “Another Brick in the Wall”, which was in no way typical of their musicianship and inventiveness. Chuck Berry, the great rock’n’roll songwriter and duckwalk pioneer, had a similar thing with “My Ding a Ling”, but I suppose it brought in the money.

Pink Floyd’s first album was “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn”. What a beautifully lyrical title.

Do you know where it comes from? “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn” is the title of a chapter in “The Wind in the Willows”, by Kenneth Grahame, the story of Ratty, Badger and Mole and of course the notorious Mr Toad.

Syd Barrett, the original leader of Pink Floyd, was a great Wind in the Willows fan.