On that same thought, though, you’d also think that an album like Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band would also have had a profound effect on Anderson as well, but in an interview with Louder Sound, he claims that was far from the case.
Speaking to the magazine about the records that changed his life, Anderson said that the two albums, both released in 1967, were battling it out for the attention of fans of progressive pop, but it was Floyd’s debut that grabbed his attention more.
“The Beatles were a pop group,” stated Anderson, “so I thought their stuff was a bit contrived, a bit twee.” Using the t-word in this instance feels a bit like a loaded insult, but the flautist was quick to justify his reasons for his preference. “I liked the singer-songwriter element to Floyd more. Syd Barrett’s songs were strange and funny, and they perfectly complemented the radical, druggy instrumental stuff the band did.”
It’s no secret that the Beatles were becoming seasoned psychonauts around the release of Sgt. Pepper’s as well, but when you’re actively choosing to follow a track like George Harrison’s spiritual odyssey in ‘Within You Without You’ with one of Paul McCartney’s most egregious ‘granny music’ endeavours in ‘When I’m Sixty-Four’, then perhaps the accusations of tweeness have some substance behind them.
“You saw pictures and presented them with words and sound, rather than as paintings,” said Anderson, explaining the difference between the two albums. It’s probably fair to say that one did truly voyage into the strange a lot more than the other, and that album would be Piper over Pepper. (Farout)
