Forgotten series: Pink Floyd, "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" (1967)

NICK DERISO: "Piper at the Gates of Dawn," the Floyd's 1967 debut, is the one most strongly influenced, lyrically, by the doomed genius Syd Barrett.

It is, quite simply, the greatest psychedelic album ever. (Move over Dead, Beatles and even Stones fans ...)

The title -- taken from a chapter in Barrett's favorite children's book, "The Wind in the Willows" -- illustrates the kind of whimsical, very British humor Barrett once possessed (see the positively poppy tune called "Astronomy Domine" -- a song which the reconstituted Floyd, featuring all but Waters, opened each show with during the 1994 tour).

And the angst? It comes from the pleasing friction between Syd and the band: That hallucinogenic, but I feel ultimately innocent, lyricism is decisively offset by the spacey gloom of the instrumentation -- in particular the work of keyboardist Richard Wright.

For me, there is no better early Pink Floyd album.