Astronomy Dominé

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn

**"Astronomy Dominé"** is a song released by the English psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd, and is the opening track of their debut album, *The Piper at the Gates of Dawn* (1967). The song is sung and written by the original vocalist and guitarist Syd Barrett. Its working title was "Astronomy Dominé (An Astral Chant)". "Dominé" (the vocative of "Lord" in Latin) is a word frequently used in Gregorian chants. The song was one of Pink Floyd's most played live, and inculded on the live half of *Ummagumma* (1969), where it was doubled in length by including the first verse twice, and the instrumental middle section, before becoming louder again by the last verse.

## Lyrics

[Intro]

*"Moon in both (houses)..."*

*"...Scorpio, (Arabian Skies), Libra..."*

*"...Pluto was not discovered until 1930..."*

[Verse 1]

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

[Verse 2]

Blinding signs flap

Flicker, flicker, flicker, blam

Pow, pow

Stairway scare Dan Dare who’s there?

[Verse 3]

Lime and limpid green, the sound surrounds the icy waters under

Lime and limpid green, the sound surrounds the icy waters underground

## Trivia

* The song has a very unusual chord progression for 1960s pop music, which is in sharp contrast to every kind of pop, folk and blues progressions: E E flat G A. The sound of this chord progression in conjunction with the use of the binson echo unit for the guitar had a very distinctive psychedelic character.
* The track includes their manager at the time, Peter Jenner reading the names of stars through a megaphone for the introduction. "Domine" in the title is correctly pronounced as [ˈdɒmɪneɪ], rather than [dəʊˈmiːn] or [dəʊˈmaɪn].
* "Astronomy" is the study of celestial bodies, and to "domineer" is to control something in an arrogant way. So "Astronomy Domine" means to control space for personal needs. This probably represents the space race between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics during the Cold War era.
* "Oberon, Miranda and Titania" are all moons of Uranus and are also characters in Shakespeare's plays (Oberon and Titania, King and Queen of the Fairies in *A Midsummer Night's Dream*; Miranda, daughter of Prospero in *The Tempest*). "Titan" is the largest moon of Saturn.
* It was dropped from the live sets in mid 1971, but eventually reappeared as the first song in some sets on the band's 1994 tour. A version from a concert in Miami appears as the B-side on the "Take It Back" single, and a version from one of the London concerts appears on the live double CD P\*U\*L\*S\*E. David Gilmour played the song at some of his appearances during his 2006 tour, again sharing the lead vocal with fellow-Floyd member Richard Wright.
* VoiVod covered this song in their 1989 album Nothingface.
* The song was also played by David Gilmour's solo band (which includes Richard Wright) at the Abbey Road Studios sessions, which has just recently been released as part of a CD/DVD On An Island package.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomy\_Domine
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 https://www.songfacts.com/facts/pink-floyd/astronomy-domine
3. ↑ https://genius.com/Pink-floyd-astronomy-domine-lyrics
4. ↑ Manning, Toby (2006). "The Albums". *The Rough Guide to Pink Floyd* (1st ed.). London: Rough Guides. p. 160. ISBN 1-84353-575-0.
5. ↑ https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/pink-floyd/astronomy-domine-tabs-394907