Chapter 24 (song)
Chapter 24 is a song by Pink Floyd from their 1967 debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. It was released on 5 August 1967 and was the second track recorded for the album (sessions dated February 27 or March 15, 1967). The song runs 3 minutes and 42 seconds, extends the psychedelic pop style, and was released by EMI in the UK and Tower in the US. It was written by Syd Barrett and produced by Norman Smith.
The lyrics are inspired by Chapter 24 of the ancient Chinese book I Ching (The Book of Changes). The exact translation Barrett used isn’t known, but lines appear in translations by Wilhelm and Baynes (1950) and by James Legge (1899). Wilhelm and Baynes’ version is more poetic, while Legge’s has more detail. Chapter 24 discusses the Fu hexagram, which means “returning.”
The song was one of several considered for a Pink Floyd best-of collection, Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd. It was the second song recorded for The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 10:06 (CET).