The Piper at the Gates of Dawn Quiz

Answer: Kenneth Grahame

Kenneth Grahame (1859 - 1932) was also the author of "The Reluctant Dragon". Scottish Arthur Conan Doyle is the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Mark Twain and Ken Kesey are both American authors. Elton John's real name was Reginald Kenneth Dwight.

Answer: Beatles

Norman Smith (1923 - 2008) was the engineer for the Beatles' albums up to and including "Rubber Soul". He started working with Pink Floyd in 1967. The other three options on offer all hail from London.

Answer: Astronomy Domine

In "Astronomy Donine" one can hear "Jupiter and Saturn, Oberon, Miranda and Titania. Neptune, Titan, Stars can frighten.". The song was written by Syd Barrett who also was on vocals together with Richard Wright. The other three tracks listed are from Pink Floyd's second album "Saucerful of Secrets".
Astronomy is the study of stars and Domine means the master or controller therefore the title means the Lord of Space. The song begins with a sequence of Morse codes which are just a random set of codes without having any meaning at all.

Answer: Siamese cat

The opening verse of the song is "Lucifer Sam, Siam cat / Always sitting by your side / Always by your side". The said cat was Syd Barrett's pet. The song was written and sung by Barrett. Although many people tried to find hidden meanings behind the song such as Syd's girlfriend at that time, the song is simply about his pet cat.

Answer: Matilda

The name of the song is "Matilda Mother". The song was written by Barrett and sung by Richard Wright. Elizabeth was the name of Barrett's mother. Mother Goose is a collection of nursery rhymes and "Old Mother Hubbard" is the title of a nursery rhyme. The song was based on children stories and the inspiration was a book called "Cautionary Tales for Children" by Edward Gorey and Hilaire Belloc.

In this book all different kinds of nasty things happen to unruly children. Matilda was one of those children.

Answer: Instrumental

The track was instrumental and was a combined effort from the band. It is a lengthy track and it was a glimpse into which direction the band would move in the future.

Answer: Gnome

The song was simply called "The Gnome". The song was probably inspired by Tolkien's writings. According to the lyrics "He wore a scarlet tunic, / A blue green hood, / It looked quite good." The song was written and sung by Syd Barrett. The song is interpreted in quite different ways. One point of view is that the gnome is Syd who likes to be alone and stay indoors all the time. Subsequently he discovers drugs and goes out in the big world for adventure.

Another point of view is that the song is about a Hobbit and nothing else.

Answer: Scarecrow

The opening lyrics of the song are "The black and green scarecrow as everyone knows / Stood with a bird on his hat and straw everywhere. / He didn't care." It was written and sung by Syd Barrett. The song was released as the B-side of the band's second single "See Emily Play" which came out in June 1967 two months before the release of the album.

Answer: Bike

The song starts with "I've got a bike. You can ride it if you like." and continues with the reference to the basket. This song was also written and sung by Syd Barrett. This was most probably written for his girlfriend as he states "You're the kind of girl that fits in with my world / I'll give you anything, ev'rything if you want things".

He then goes on to list things that he does have like a cloak, a mouse, a clan of gingerbread men and a room full of musical tunes that he could offer to her.

Answer: Psychedelic

Singh used a prism lens which multiplied each figure and the final product was those multiple images overlapping each other with the band members dressed in psychedelic clothes. The back cover of the album was designed by Syd himself and he drew inspiration from the various pictures that Singh shot during the photo session with the band.