Pink Floyd Appreciation Thread

Thanks for the info guys. Great stuff!

jdredfield wrote: I love pink floyd! I listen to them nightly. I have every album but redundant live releases, although (prepare for blasphemy) I am not really a fan of the ealry years.  I think Floyd was prepubescent  until Atom heart mother.  They cracked the world in two with Echoes and then took a quik break with Obscured by clouds.  Still, more great space rock than any other group I've ever heard. Although I sometimes have a hard time calling them prog...?

Yeah, I too am not the biggest fan of their earlier albums. They have some really great stuff, but there are many songs that don't do much to me either. Even on Attom Heart Mother and Meddle. Indeed, it was until Dark Side that they unleashed their full potential. Still, it would seem to me that the real songs from the early Floyd are not the ones the released on their studio albums, but the ones they played live. The studio ones were like watered down versions to satisfy the record companies and the album/singles format, but the live versions were some different kind of monster.

KingCrInuYasha wrote: [QUOTE=Dellinger] About the whole live vs. studio thing about early Pink Floyd, something has been tugging at me for years: As excellent as The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn is, would it have been possible for the band to have shaped it as a double album? A part of me wishes that "Astronomy Domine", "Matilda Mother", "Pow. R Toc. H", "Take Up Thy Stethoscope And Walk" and, especially, "Interstellar Overdrive" were expanded the way they eventually were in their live shows.

By waiting a few months, they could possibly have added these:

Stool Man wrote: KingCrInuYasha wrote: [QUOTE=Dellinger] About the whole live vs. studio thing about early Pink Floyd, something has been tugging at me for years: As excellent as The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn is, would it have been possible for the band to have shaped it as a double album? A part of me wishes that "Astronomy Domine", "Matilda Mother", "Pow. R Toc. H", "Take Up Thy Stethoscope And Walk" and, especially, "Interstellar Overdrive" were expanded the way they eventually were in their live shows. By waiting a few months, they could possibly have added these: (2.47) Candy & A Currant Bun. (2.51) Arnold Layne. (2.53) See Emily Play. (3.33) Paintbox (3.08) Apples and Oranges (2.23) Vegetable Man. (4.30) Scream Thy Last Scream. (11.50) Nick's Boogie. This adds up to about 35 minutes, which is just enough for a second disc.  But waiting those extra months would mean missing the Summer Of Love boat.

Not necessarily. Let's assume that the band by this point had expanded the length to some of their numbers (I've read that "Arnold Layne" lasted for 10 to 15 minutes in concert before it was released as a single) and had been given free reign to do so in the studio. I could easily see Piper shaped like this:

Side One
Astronomy Domine  - 7:30
Nick's Boogie - 11:50

Side Two
Lucifer Sam - 3:07
Matilda Mother - 7:00
Pow R. Toc H. - 4:26
Take Up Thy Stethoscope And Walk  - 6:30

Side Three
Interstellar Overdrive - 16:46
The Gnome - 2:13

Side Four
Chapter 24 - 3:42
Flaming - 2:46
Arnold Layne - 2:52
Candy And A Currant Bun - 2:52
See Emily Play - 2:52
The Scarecrow - 2:11
Bike - 3:21




Edited by KingCrInuYasha - March 07 2013 at 09:48

Dellinger wrote: jdredfield wrote: I love pink floyd! I listen to them nightly. I have every album but redundant live releases, although (prepare for blasphemy) I am not really a fan of the ealry years.  I think Floyd was prepubescent  until Atom heart mother.  They cracked the world in two with Echoes and then took a quik break with Obscured by clouds.  Still, more great space rock than any other group I've ever heard. Although I sometimes have a hard time calling them prog...? Yeah, I too am not the biggest fan of their earlier albums. They have some really great stuff, but there are many songs that don't do much to me either. Even on Attom Heart Mother and Meddle. Indeed, it was until Dark Side that they unleashed their full potential. Still, it would seem to me that the real songs from the early Floyd are not the ones the released on their studio albums, but the ones they played live. The studio ones were like watered down versions to satisfy the record companies and the album/singles format, but the live versions were some different kind of monster.

There is no question that they were not the most accomplished musicians in their early days (especially the first couple years after Syd was sacked), and there was a fair amount of groping in the dark for ideas.  That said, there is just something otherworldly about that early stuff, it just sends me into the clouds and beyond.  Psychedelic music at it's finest, if you ask me.  It's also enjoyable to hear their progress through each album as they build towards their more "signature" sound of the Dark Side and later albums.

For me, it's just more satisfying music.  No question the live arena was where they shined the most back then, without the time constraints of vinyl and commercial considerations.  Which is why it's all the more surprising that they never really released an official live album in their entire career (of the original lineup after Syd, anyway).

Guldbamsen wrote: Thought about those little, often overlooked, gems from the Floyd catalogue, and realised that many of em actually are among my favourite ones. Tracks like Any Colour You Like, Cirrus Minor, Biding My Time, The Narrow Way pt.lll, Childhood's End and Remember A Day.

Yeah, I really like those songs a lot too. Except perhaps Biding my Time and Childhood's End. But once again, I like much more the version of Any Colour you Like that was released on the live CD of the new edition of Dark Side.

Dellinger wrote: Guldbamsen wrote: Thought about those little, often overlooked, gems from the Floyd catalogue, and realised that many of em actually are among my favourite ones. Tracks like Any Colour You Like, Cirrus Minor, Biding My Time, The Narrow Way pt.lll, Childhood's End and Remember A Day.  Yeah, I really like those songs a lot too. Except perhaps Biding my Time and Childhood's End. But once again, I like much more the version of Any Colour you Like that was released on the live CD of the new edition of Dark Side.

Guldbamsen wrote: Dellinger wrote: Guldbamsen wrote: Thought about those little, often overlooked, gems from the Floyd catalogue, and realised that many of em actually are among my favourite ones. Tracks like Any Colour You Like, Cirrus Minor, Biding My Time, The Narrow Way pt.lll, Childhood's End and Remember A Day.  Yeah, I really like those songs a lot too. Except perhaps Biding my Time and Childhood's End. But once again, I like much more the version of Any Colour you Like that was released on the live CD of the new edition of Dark Side. You mean the one Roger Waters did? If so, I don't agree I need Gilmour in there, and there was just something about the way he played during those first ten years he played for them. He's still got magic, but the more aggressive and unpredictable Gilmour always was my fave.

No, from the new re-release campaign Pink Floyd just did last year. With the Discovery, Immersion and so on editions. The regular edition was just the albums remastered (once again). But the middle and top editions had extra material. I got the middle one for Dark Side, and it included the live version of the album (Wembley 74), played by classic Floyd, with Gilmour and Waters and all. The version of Any Colour you Like is a 8 min one, really great, with more Gilmour and more Wright than the original one. I just love it. Previously my favourite one was the one on PULSE, but now I like this one better. I still haven't got Water's show where he did Dark Side, I didn't even realize he had already released it until a short while ago, but I'm not sure if it's a completley official release because of how little difussion it was given.

Me too. I didn't go for it because it was way too expensive, and wasn't sure what it added was worth it. With the price of the immersion sets I could buy about 10 regular albums, and there are so many albums I want to buy that I'd better go for those. I know there were a few songs, included in the immersion sets that weren't part of the middle one (I keep forgetting how they called those middle sets), but the bulk of unreleased material was on the middle ones anyway (I still think they should have released the Wembley material as a new live album, and not as part of the new releases of the albums, that would have been more honest... though perhaps not so profitable). I'm still hoping they will still release the "Echoes" from that same concert somewhere (perhaps some expanded editions from Meddle), and I guess Ummagumma should have some material for expanded editions too, I believe from the same recordings that the live disc of Ummagumma came, there was a recording of "Interstellar Overdrive"... that would be great. Plus, I believe there should be some studio outakes too. And from more, there's at least a song called "seabirds", I think, or something like that. I once heard it, and it was cool, but it had quiet a bit of the movie's dialogs and that didn't work so well.