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The Piper at The Gates of Dawn

"Enchanted and spellbound, in the silence they lingered..."


One of the most beautiful songs Van has given us.  A deep, deep nature song which enhances and even surpasses that from which it springs.  I am rarely closer to the silence than when I am immersed in nature, as such this is always a very moving song, to be taken away and placed where "the birds were silent, as they listened for the heavenly music."

The masterful structure helps that transportation. A simple acoustic strum underneath Van's vocal is all that is needed to begin the journey. The introduction of a piano and its melody echoes the river as it "plays the song" and takes us deeper towards our encounter with the "Great God Pan." Brian Kennedy adds his beatific harmonies behind Van as another layer is added to the swell. Uilleann pipes join the instrumentation, reminding us of Pan despite his departure and the forgetting of the meeting, the vanishing of the vision. Transcendence is always temporary.

Now we come to the zenith of the song as the subjects "stood upon the lawn and listened to the silence," Van stretches time as he falls silent for just a few beats so that we too can linger, before he and Brian bring back the melody of the chorus for a final round leaving us to the sound of the river and the Great God Pan.

A hymn and a gift of a song
The coolness of the riverbank, and the whispering of the reeds

Daybreak is not so very far away



Enchanted and spellbound, in the silence they lingered

And rowed the boat as the light grew steadily strong

And the birds were silent, as they listened for the heavenly music

And the river played the song



The wind in the willows and the piper at the gates of dawn

The wind in the willows and the piper at the gates of dawn



The song dream happened and the cloven hoofed piper

Played in that holy ground where they felt the awe and wonder

And they all were unafraid of the great god Pan



And the wind in the willows and the piper at the gates of dawn

The wind in the willows and the piper at the gates of dawn



When the vision vanished they heard a choir of birds singing

In the heavenly silence between the trance and the reeds

And they stood upon the lawn and listened to the silence



Of the wind in the willows and the piper at the gates of dawn

The wind in the willows and the piper at the gates of dawn

The wind in the willows and the piper at the gates of dawn



It's the wind in the willows and the piper at the gates of dawn

The wind in the willows and the piper at the gates of dawn

The wind in the willows and the piper at the gates of dawn

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