Pink Floyd – Astronomy Domine

Copyright – 1967 Columbia/EMI Records

“Astronomy Domine” is a song by British Psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd. The song, written and composed by original vocalist/guitarist Roger ‘Syd’ Barrett, was the first track featured on their debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967). The lead vocal was sung by Barrett and keyboard player Richard Wright.

“Domine” (meaning “Lord”) in the title is correctly pronounced as it is in Latin ([?d?m?ne?], rather than [d???mi?n] or [d???ma?n]).

The song opens with the voice of their manager at the time Peter Jenner, reading the names of stars through a megaphone. The intention of this opening is to replicate the feeling of outer space, with Jenner’s voice sounding like an astronaut’s over an intercom. Barrett’s Fender Esquire then seemingly emerges from the distance and grows louder. At 0:19 a rapid beeping sound appears, again reaffirming the feeling of distant space. At 0:26, Mason’s distinctive drum fills emerge, followed closely by Barrett’s sinister-sounding guitar (perhaps reminiscent of Duane Eddy) in a figure suggestive of the brass motif from “Mars, the Bringer of War” in Holst’s The Planets. Wright’s Farfisa organ is mixed into the background. Barrett’s incantatory lyrics about space again support the cosmonautical theme in the song, mentioning planets Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune as well as Uranian and Neptunian moons Oberon, Miranda, and Titania, and Saturn’s moon Titan. Barrett and Rick Wright provide lead vocals. Waters’ repetitive bass line, Wright’s Farfisa organ, and Barrett’s kinetic slide guitar then dominate, followed by the voice of Peter Jenner again through a megaphone. The song finally ends with Barrett’s lyrics coming back down to earth and with Wright’s Arabian-sounding organ.

The song has an unusual chord progression: E, E-flat, G, A. The sound of this chord progression, in conjunction with the use of a Binson echo machine for the guitar, has a very distinctive psychedelic character. The track is the album’s most “space rock” song, alongside the longer Interstellar Overdrive. The style of the song and its use of sound effects would influence the future work of Pink Floyd, and its influence can be felt on Ummagumma (1969) and even The Dark Side of the Moon (1973).

Lyrics:
Lime and limpid green, a second scene
A fight between the blue you once knew.
Floating down, the sound resounds
Around the icy waters underground.
Jupiter and Saturn, Oberon, Miranda and Titania.
Neptune, Titan, Stars can frighten.

Blinding signs flap
Flicker, flicker, flicker blam. Pow, pow.
Stairway scare, Dan Dare who’s there?
Lime and limpid green, the sounds around the icy waters under
Lime and limpid green, the sounds around the icy waters underground