Pink Floyd - Early Years (Box-Set)
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Printed Date: February 21 2025 at 12:49
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Topic: Pink Floyd - Early Years (Box-Set)
Posted By: Guldbamsen
Subject: Pink Floyd - Early Years (Box-Set)
Date Posted: February 12 2020 at 04:26
Holy schickels  How this managed to slip by me at the time of it’s release what 3 years ago is quite simply flabbergastingly weird! How is that even remotely possible I keep asking myself...most especially now digging into Dramatis-ation (1969). Ever since the mid 90s I’ve been wanting something like this box-set, because I knew that there were tons of Floyd material all over the net...well in those days it wasn’t exactly the net that taught me this but more the vast array of bootleg cds I came across..often with recordings that far too often were missing the gentle hand of a great sound engineer or merely taken from the original masters. I have only just received 4 of these archival releases but wanted to make a dedicated thread about them even so....that’s how much the first cd of Dramatis-ation spoke to me. Hell it literally flew me out of my socks!! To me personally it sounds like a lost Floyd album from 69. It’s the flow of things and the ulterior versions of tracks you already know...but they become something ‘other’ through the sequence of tracks together with the overall atmosphere. The whole thing starts off gentle and rather in the vein of More’s more laidback shimmering early morning psych vibes...for then to slowly gather up speed and momentum and metamorphoses into the more space rocking Floyd. The final live thang from Amsterdam is like they decided to throw a live album in for kicks...just like Ummagumma  In fact it sounds close to the kind of style and sound they were doing ca Ummagumma (only the sound quality is better on this)...but Floyd was never the type of band to play the same thing twice...at least around this stage of their career which, in essence, is why something like these archival releases are so damn interesting to a guy like me. Do any of you own these badboys and what are your general thoughts about them? As mentioned previously I’m only really starting to dive down into this but am already over the moon about what I hear. ------------- “The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.” - Douglas Adams |
Replies:
Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: February 12 2020 at 07:14
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did you get the big box or just the individual smaller boxsets (they go by years)? Personally, I chose the 68, 69, 70, 71 & 72 I didn't go for the bookslef ones: pre-68 and 73, which were not interesting my curiosity.
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Posted By: NotAProghead
Date Posted: February 12 2020 at 07:29
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http://www.progarchives.com/Collaborators.asp?id=27874" rel="nofollow - TCat reviews all these PF box sets. In my opinion reviews would be more helpful than a thread in the forum (which sooner or later will be lost "behind" other threads). ------------- Who are you and who am I to say we know the reason why... (D. Gilmour) |
Posted By: HolyMoly
Date Posted: February 12 2020 at 07:48
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I have all 6 box sets. I too felt like my life had been leading up to this. glad it happened in my lifetime Back in the early 90s there was a box set ("Totally Eclipsed" or something like that) on a popular bootleg label called Great Dane Records - it contained 4 CDs of rare early Floyd stuff. Back then, that was my Holy Grail. It was good for then, but the stuff coming out these days takes the cake. ------------- My other avatar is a Porsche It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle if it is lightly greased. -Kehlog Albran |
Posted By: Barbu
Date Posted: February 12 2020 at 07:59
of course we own them.  ------------- |
Posted By: siLLy puPPy
Date Posted: February 12 2020 at 08:41
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If always heard FLoyd lost its true psychedelic soul before its debut album Piper and was a different beast in its live setting. Glad these have finally emerged. Just haven't wanted to fork out the dough yet. To be honest i'm Floyded out so in no hurry really but will get there eventually. -------------  https://rateyourmusic.com/~siLLy_puPPy |
Posted By: SteveG
Date Posted: February 12 2020 at 09:33
I don't have a single box set.  Am I missing something? ------------- This message was brought to you by a proud supporter of the Deep State. |
Posted By: TCat
Date Posted: February 12 2020 at 09:46
Thanks for mentioning that. There is a lot of great stuff there, and I made it a point to compare the individual box set with the giant, inclusive box set mentioning what was missing in both. I finally determined for myself at least, that I prefer the full box set, but I still have my favorite individual volumes, the first one being a definite stand out, but they all have some valuable stuff on them. The biggest thing missing from getting the individual volumes is the rare volume 7 (included in the giant box set entitled "Continu/ation") which was apparently only seperately released in Japan, and is also missing the two DVD/Blu-ray disks which contain the full movies of "The Committee", "More" and "La Vallee". These movies are available in the big box set. Look at those reviews if you want to determine for yourself if you want to spring for the inclusive box set or if you only want individual volumes. There is too much information there to include in a thread.
------------- https://ibb.co/8x0xjR0" rel="nofollow">  |
NotAProghead wrote:Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: February 12 2020 at 09:49
TBH, I took most of those smaller box mainly for the DVD contents... Plenty to feast your eye-ear coordinationn and plenty educative. Not included are the two Barbet Shroeder movies (More & La Vallée) and I believe that Pompeii is on the big-box-only bonus DVD |
Posted By: SteveG
Date Posted: February 12 2020 at 09:52
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Posted By: TCat
Date Posted: February 12 2020 at 09:56
The big box does not have the 2016 mix of "Obscured By Clouds" album, but the individual volume "Obfusc/ation" does. Pompeii is also in that individual volume as both an audio CD and as the movie, but it is missing the track "Mademoiselle Nobbs" and with "Echoes" "bridged" together on both of them and also missing on the big box set. ------------- https://ibb.co/8x0xjR0" rel="nofollow"> |
Posted By: SteveG
Date Posted: February 12 2020 at 09:59
No "Mademoiselle Nobbs"! Sacre bleu!  ------------- This message was brought to you by a proud supporter of the Deep State. |
Posted By: HolyMoly
Date Posted: February 12 2020 at 10:55
------------- My other avatar is a Porsche It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle if it is lightly greased. -Kehlog Albran |
Posted By: Nogbad_The_Bad
Date Posted: February 12 2020 at 11:50
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I keep wondering about diving into this stuff, I've got the Cre/ation double CD which is very good, I'd like more but I don't want to get dragged in $100's in spending. ------------- Ian Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on Progrock.com https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-avant-jazzcore-happy-hour/ |
Posted By: SteveG
Date Posted: February 12 2020 at 12:04
------------- This message was brought to you by a proud supporter of the Deep State. |
Posted By: Barbu
Date Posted: February 12 2020 at 12:28
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Once the money is gone and you have them in your collection, you don't think about it anymore. I decided not to buy at first but very glad I finally did...$300 well spent. ------------- |
Posted By: Catcher10
Date Posted: February 12 2020 at 12:35
David, my bro who loves food ..........If you want massive info and you have time, there is a 250+ page thread on the Later Years Box Set over on Hoffman forum, as well a shorter thread on the Early Years Box Set.I can send you links if you like.....lemme know. -------------   
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Posted By: TCat
Date Posted: February 12 2020 at 13:49
Just remember that the Cre/ation set is kind of like a "best of" of the entire collection, so if you decide to get one of the others, you might get some duplication. ------------- https://ibb.co/8x0xjR0" rel="nofollow"> |
Posted By: Nogbad_The_Bad
Date Posted: February 12 2020 at 14:24
That was my logic at the time, buy Cre/ation and I'd delay the feeling of wanting the bigger boxes due to duplication. Apparently the effect is wearing off ------------- Ian Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on Progrock.com https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-avant-jazzcore-happy-hour/ |
Posted By: Logan
Date Posted: February 12 2020 at 15:12
Some of us enjoy the more social aspect of forum discussion, some like David have enjoyed doing both. I don't visit the reviews section or front page of this site all that often (unless it's some site business that needs doing) and likely would not learn about such things without the forum. It's a bit like a book club, you could just read it then write/ read a review on it, but there's something satisfying for some kinds of people to rap it out with others. Reading someone's impressions or writing your own is such a different experience than discussing it with friends (be they online or offline). A reason why I don't like writing reviews is because of the lack of feedback, and because it doesn't feel like a social activity for me. Of course David has written many fine reviews that I have read and have given me deeper insight and new perspective. I'm at this site mostly for the discussion and a certain sense of community, and for recs from people I know here who I trust cause I feel they "get" my tastes well (people like David have turned me on to such much great music thanks to their involvement with the site). It takes all kinds. I'm not into promotion so much, I like to share my interests with individuals whom I like and interest me and read their thoughts and expand my interests thanks to them. That said, there are some things I'd like to promote and raise awareness of with a wider audience, be it environmental concerns, or that little show I care about that I wish would get a wider audience (partially so there's a better chance more, or more like it, are made for own entertainment). Might be a better use of my time to write and try to shop my own scripts, though. Anyway, heard about the Box Set before from a forum post, and will look into it, and plan to read TCat's reviews down the road (glad they were mentioned, but like with films I don't want to read too many spoilers as I often prefer my first impression not to be too influenced by others, and I want to discover those musical moments without expecting them). That's one reason why I tend to only look at ratings and very basic descriptions for albums and films that are new to me. I like to know enough that it's something that might interest me, but not so much that I lose a sense of surprise. Neat to read in-depth reviews after the fact for added insight and different perspectives. Sorry I am posting while saying nothing about the box set and having little to say in many words. Carry on. |
Posted By: Man With Hat
Date Posted: February 12 2020 at 16:22
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There is stuff on each that make each of the 6 to be worth owning, with the possible exception of 1968 (which is easily at the bottom of the bunch for me). A brief overview: Vol 1: Cambridge Station - The really early stuff on disc 1 is probably of interest if you enjoy the pop-psych stuff of the Syd era (I don't really). The real treasure here is disc 2, which due to technical problems, gives a mostly instrumental set with some lovely extended instrumental bits and a very experimental track split into nine parts that should how unusual very early Floyd could be (if they wanted to be). Vol 2: Germination - For me the most unspectacular disc. A mish mash of early poppy stuff and some transitional BBC sessions. They definitely feel like they are finding their feet and IMO tracks such as ASOS and Careful With That Axe... are done better elsewhere in this collection. I'd say this one is just for completionists. Vol. 3: Dramatasion - If you only had to own one of these sets, this is the one. Disc 2 is The Man, The Journey concert in Amsterdam and it sounds wonderful. Disc 1 is also very enjoyable, with some More outtakes, a nice (albeit short) BBC session, and the live set similar to Ummagumma. For me, this is the highlight. Vol. 4: Deviation - Three versions of Atom Heart Mother make this a very interesting release. Its fun to try and spot the differences between the just the band version and the full ensemble version. The BBC session stuck in the middle is also top notch, with a great long form Embryo and Careful With That Axe, Eugene. Disc 2 is a bit more hit or miss, with the majority of the disc being various versions of various outtakes from Zabrinski Point, before rounding out with the third AHM. (This set also is slightly disappointing, as I would love to have the live KQED included in CD form. I would say this is the biggest omission in the set regarding material included on DVD but not CD.) Vol. 5: Reverberation - Just one disc this time, but its an excellent one. It's mostly a top notch BBC session from 1971 with a full Echoes and long form Embryo and Fat Old Sun. A high priority. Vol. 6: Obfuscation - The weirdest set in this collection. Disc one is just a remixed Obscured By Clouds, easily the least important disc in the whole set. The second disc however, is one of the best, with the Live In Pompeii performance finally being released as a CD. Some people have complained about mixing issues, but idk...to be it's perhaps my favorite thing included in the whole set. The full box set also includes a bonus disc, that hasn't been released separately, but to me, the only things of interest there are the Moonhead improv and Echoes live at Wlimbley, but this wasn't enough for me to justify getting the whole burrito. Short version: I'd rank them like this: 1969 1971 1970 1972 1965-1967 1968 Depending on how big a fan you are, you will probably need all of them. :p ------------- Dig me...But don't...Bury me I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect. |
Posted By: TCat
Date Posted: February 12 2020 at 18:44
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^Pretty good summary. The full box set also has the 7" vinyls which is a huge plus for me anyway. Plus the movies as I mentioned earlier. Vol. 7 Continu/ation was released separately in Japan (very rare), but without the 2 DVD/Blu-ray discs (CD only). It just doesn't seem complete without the 3 full-length features, I wish they could have fit Zabriskie Point on there though. The entire big box set is just so immersive. ------------- https://ibb.co/8x0xjR0" rel="nofollow"> |
Posted By: Man With Hat
Date Posted: February 12 2020 at 23:20
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^ Yeah, not to sound flippant, but I have no use for vinyls (or any of the extras like ticket replication and other memorabilia), so I didn't realize that those were box exclusive. haha. But I can see those that do care that these things would be a plus. And interesting bit of news there with Vol. 7. Mildly tempted to see if I can find a cheapish copy, but will probably pass as those I imagine don't exist. Also, I meant to say in my post, that your reviews of these sets are truly excellent. Such depth and great explanations of not only the music but what is/isn't included in each, which in some ways I view as even more important. Well done!
------------- Dig me...But don't...Bury me I'm running still, I shall until, one day, I hope that I'll arrive Warning: Listening to jazz excessively can cause a laxative effect. |
Posted By: Guldbamsen
Date Posted: February 12 2020 at 23:58
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Usually when I start a thread it takes like a week to gather three responses. ------------- “The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.” - Douglas Adams |
Posted By: Guldbamsen
Date Posted: February 13 2020 at 00:11
Well you did write just about all and everything I was thinking about, so thank you for that. Although I am also agreeing with Eugene in that reviews are there for good. I love a good review but have not written one for ages. I don’t own a working computer right this minute so have been posting over the phone for a good while...maybe if the inspiration strikes at some point I’ll do my first ever review over my phone ------------- “The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.” - Douglas Adams |
Posted By: Guldbamsen
Date Posted: February 13 2020 at 00:17
Individual! Went for 69, 70, 71 and 72  The actual box-set is way too pricey considering what I can get outside of it. Like Steve (HolyMoly) I too am not that big on dvd’s. The last time I saw a gig over the tv was probably over a decade ago (Pompeii or Woodstock perchance). I love live gigs...also as cds/lps..but yeah...I’d go for a really good flick over a tv-gig any day ------------- “The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.” - Douglas Adams |
Posted By: Logan
Date Posted: February 13 2020 at 00:39
I truly do enjoy a well-written review too, at one time in my life I wanted to be a professional film reviewer/ critic. My daughter would finger type her school papers on her smart phone, I post here on my phone sometimes. What I'd like is a good app to turn my phone into a dictaphone so I can just dictate into it. I'd go for a free version, but those come with ads, and I don't want my phone filled with obnoxious dic pics. Hopefully even if this site goes down the reviews will be archived. Topics often last long too, as long as the forum lasts or old posts are not deleted, people search and find topics in forums of interest. Quite often I do searches and come across Reddit threads of interest from years ago, for instance. Even if topics fall down the pages, someone might later find it of interest. I still sometimes read topics at this site from 15 years ago. Of course I have no idea how long this forum or site will last, and I think it more likely that the reviews would survive the dissolution, or "spading under" to borrow from the Heaven's Gate cult terminology, of this site. Reviews and forum discussion both have their place, and both can work in concert. Of course if forum discussion didn't have its use, then we wouldn't be using it right now. Imagine if Twitter and Facebook, not that I use either much, only consisted of reviews... Actually, that might be an improvement. ;) I look forward to reading more of your reviews in the future. Might try another myself at some time if I can find the right substance to inspire me. |
Posted By: Guldbamsen
Date Posted: February 13 2020 at 02:02
I have a somewhat ambivalent relationship with reviewing in that I generally love writing them (when inspired), but often when I come across them later on I realise that many of them need to be taken into the context of the music ie they don’t make sense unless you’ve heard the album for yourself. Therein lies the crux of dancing about architecture  Then again many many sentences and ideas about music have been channeled through reviews - stuff I read maybe decades ago that still pops up when I listen to X album. Not so much about specifics like what band member played what or what year X song first was conjured up..but more to do with emotions and glib observations that somehow magically make sense. Sort of when you can draw a direct (or indeed un-direct) parallel between music and something else entirely...and it suddenly makes sense on a different level. That’s where I get really interested..and perhaps not so surprisingly also where I tend to reside psychologically when writing a review. Examples of others doing this beautifully right here on PA are David the Pear doing freeform reviews with strange unorthodox letters and cyphers, Greenback’s washing machines and TD as well as Michael Neumann’s urge for raw potatoes whilst listening to Trout Mask Replica. I have hundreds of similar images in my mind connected to the music via other people’s words. Btw thank you very much for your kind remarks earlier on Greg, much appreciated  ------------- “The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.” - Douglas Adams |
Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: February 13 2020 at 03:10
Yeah, but you can still find the original movie in the DVD's bonus... and it even doesn't have the DSOTM session interviews cutting the tracks on the VHS As for La Vallée & More, I was talking of the movies, not that albums.
Surely you can try one and see if it suits you Well there was no way I'd splurge for the big boxset, but they had announced that if you waited 6 months, the individual years boxsets would be released. And they cost some 35-50£$€ at the time, so it was a no brainer... Furthemore the megastoire was doing an action 2+1, so they cost me less than 30 apiece  =============== The amazing thing is that the individual parts cost way less than the whole Try buying a car piece by piece and compare the costs to buying it all-built-up
I'd have the 68 set climb the rungs until it's above the 72 , but the rest is +/- my view as well  But yeah, there is a lot of repeat too on the 68 set: Let There Be More Light is on there way too many times, and in some ways, the boxset shows that Floyd didn't have an easy time to reinvent themselves from a psych-pop band to a psych-prog one. |
Am I missing something? 
Posted By: SteveG
Date Posted: February 13 2020 at 04:27
------------- This message was brought to you by a proud supporter of the Deep State. |
Posted By: LAM-SGC
Date Posted: February 13 2020 at 06:17
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Not wishing to start the Third World War, but as a lifelong PF fan, from the first time I heard DSOTM, just months after release, I have always considered the acid, space, psyche rock Floyd to have ended on a high with DSOTM. Where is the boxset cutoff point? |
Posted By: Catcher10
Date Posted: February 13 2020 at 08:19
We were all bored yesterday.... -------------
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Posted By: Guldbamsen
Date Posted: February 16 2020 at 05:04
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I gotta say that I am really smitten by the sets I’ve bought. I know that there are those who feel we got a poor deal with the amount of material offered up - especially considering how much stuff is out there...yet I feel very differently about it. Thing is it’d end up like one of those KC boxsets with the same tracks featured ad nauseum...sure it’s live and sounds different..but I still find myself having to muster up the strength to plow through a tirade of the same tracks with slightly ulterior expressions. With these Floyd archival releases you get something else. There’s a flow to things. Hell it feels like ‘albums’. I put them on and instantly feel part of a story or a theme so to speak. I’m also really happy about owning Pompeii on cd!!!! Finally! I have it on VHS and in mp3 form somewhere...but having it on cd together with the BBC Sessions..as well as the French gig...aaand the brilliant one from Holland..and the live cuts of Atom Heart Mother...oh yeah and what effectively is a brand new ‘More’ album (  ) as well as other stuff I’m forgetting this minute..well that is just truly awesome to a guy like me.Put another way: I am far more likely to put on any of these cds compared to any other big band boxset I own...maybe with the exception of Tangerine Dream’s Official Bootleg Releases  ------------- “The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.” - Douglas Adams |
Posted By: TCat
Date Posted: February 16 2020 at 10:17
------------- https://ibb.co/8x0xjR0" rel="nofollow"> |
Posted By: moshkito
Date Posted: February 16 2020 at 10:58
Writing reviews is an acquired taste, and expecting any reactions, is not something that you should be shooting for ... I recommend writing a "review" for YOURSELF and not anyone else ... what the public, or all the birds or all the fish in the sea pick up, is not something that you can control anyway ... and this has one very nice and valuable detail ... you learn to stretch your imagination and find your own words! It also gets you asked to have some reviews used in a few Film Festivals ... yeah, I knew there was one in Singapore! Now, the buck set ... I had, at one time, over 15 bootlegs ... and these days with The Orb, Floydhead and others doing versions of the early PF ... and while some folks think it is trash, a lot of what The Orb has done is almost exactly like so many of the bootlegs ... and in my estimation, the idea is to kill all of that right now before it gets even bigger ... and I sincerely doubt that any of the bootlegs has anything new or different that many of us have not heard ... unless you are looking for the 17th version of One of These Days, Atom Heart Mother, or Green is the Clod! it is what it is ... in some ways, I think that this is about trying to collect as much as possible as long as the band is still well known, and now that the old foggies are less worried about people hearing some of these old things that for someone like Roger goes around saying that many of them were stupid! Funny that it ain't stupid anymore when it gets you even more money! Pretty soon we will get Mick Jagger singing in a Chicago club and looking stupid with the folks behind him wondering how the heck that guy can sing ... and well ... they might not have seen it, but he became well known ... the rest of the musicians disappeared. There were some nice things in the old stuff ... but the sad thing is what PF did with the stuff and the bits and pieces in between (using their quadraphonic sound), which created a sort of story for the songs and their sequence which, eventually, gave us DSOTM and then TW ... where the "visuals" were completely integrated and were the story. How some 13/14 years flew in that time! Just listen to it for its "history" ... stop the song thing, because (SADLY) a lot of the things presented in this set, will not tell you anything about the growth of the band and how it developed. The stuff is too separated and split from its time, place, and use.
------------- Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com |
Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: February 16 2020 at 13:00
Are you aware that there is a new (well September last year) Tangerine boxset, the Virgin years 73-79? It's got plenty of interesting bonus tracks in the whole box, but most of the albums have been reissued aqs standalone with the bonus tracks on them. However I find that the boxset conception is weak, because yhe 13 discs do not have their own cardboard sleeve, which makes it awkward. |
Posted By: Barbu
Date Posted: February 16 2020 at 13:59
The reason why I rarely buy those huge boxes...last year 'Love from the planet Gong' was very tempting but when I saw the size of it with the cds inside the large cardboards...no, I don't like it at all. The DVD size (floyd early years) is allright but I'm not too fond of them either. I'm definitely a cd guy and much prefer those:  8 discs/CD size small box  That one is perfect - 40 albums, cd size book, the box = a fifteen jewel cases width. ------------- |
Posted By: Dellinger
Date Posted: February 16 2020 at 22:00
| I did end up getting it, but not until they released them individually, and I think at a better overall price, since it was indeed way too expensive... I just wish something similar happens with the new box-set of later years (I don't understand how they expect to sell it at just about the same price as the early years one, since it covers so much less albums / material). Still, for both sets, I didn't like they way they went around to release them... I believe they could / should have released it in albums format at regular album prices... they could have done a pair of "lost" studio albums, one for the Syd era songs, and another for the Gilmour pre dark side ones. And then some 3 live albums and one or two live videos... I could really have done without the interviews and promo stuff and so on. It could have been set at a better price, and I guess they would even have sold more copies. However, yes, the set does include some really great stuff. The Barrett era singles are nice, but specially the 1965 recordings that had never been released before (as well as In the Beechwoods, Vegetable Man, and Scream thy last Scream). Then there's the live disc, which sadly didn't get the vocals recorded, but the instrumental songs do sound great with all that jamming (Pow R Toc H, and Interstellar Overdrive). From the third set, it's nice to have a whole recording of The Man and the Journey concerts, though the two BBC concerts that follow in the next sets are actually better (I particularly love the 30 Sept 71 one, with my favourite versions of Fat Old Sun, One of these days, and Embryo, as well as Echoes as part of the set. Throughout the sets there are many great live videos to enjoy too. |