THE EARLY YEARS 1968 GERMIN/ATION

1968 was an eventful time for Pink Floyd, but not in actual music as much as the band's first shake-up. Of course, we see Roger, Richard and Nick wanting to record another album and continue with the development of the band, but Syd has become less and less reliable and having some definite mental issues, so, with the desire to push on, they bring in David Gilmour to take his place. However, there were still some residual Syd music still out there, so they kept a spot open for him and included one of his songs on their new album 'A Saucerful of Secrets'.

Without Syd in the line-up, the band's sound moved to an even more psychedelic and experimental sound, and turned away from the more poppy sound that Syd was leaning towards. Gilmour took over the lead singing and lead guitar roles, yet also allowed for the other members to take the lead role from time to time. The bump in the band line-up showed up in the lesser amount of output in the band at the time.

This probably leads to the fact that there just isn't as much rare and unreleased material for this time period, which the second box set in The Early Years series proves with only one CD with 13 tracks, and one DVD/Blu-ray disc. However, there is still a good amount of paraphernalia included in the set and also the excellent book that comes with it. 'Volume 2: 1968: Germin/ation' includes some non-album studio recordings and some BBC Radio Sessions that were recorded in 1968 on the CD, most of which were previously unreleased. The video portion of the set features 26 tracks that cover the band's appearances on various TV shows and documentaries performing songs from mostly the 2nd album, but also some from the 1st, and a few short interviews.

The CD

The CD begins with the 4 tracks taken from the two non-album singles released in 1968. 'Point Me at the Sky' features Gilmour on lead with Waters joining on the chorus. It was actually the last of the two singles to be released, and since it was a failure on the charts, the band decided to stop releasing singles and concentrate on albums. 'It Would Be So Nice' was the other A-side of the two singles. The band thought these singles were a bit sub-par and felt they better expressed themselves on albums. The songs are a bit more complex than the Barrett-era single, but the radio audience was just not ready for them. The B-side to 'It Would Be So Nice' follows; 'Julia's Dream', which was the first song recorded with Gilmour at vocals. It is also currently the better known of the 4 single tracks on this collection. The B-side for 'Point Me at the Sky' ends this section of the CD: 'Careful with That Axe, Eugene' in its edited single version which has been remastered on this collection. This is the only instrumental of the four, and is also quite well-known nowadays, but rather obscure when it first came out. This track is the most psychedelic, and probably the most like the sound that the band was moving towards. Of course, the song is most famous for Roger Water's screaming. These four tracks are all available on several different collections.

The rest of the tracks on the CD are previously unreleased. The next two tracks are from a session at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles, recorded on August 22, 1968. These tracks were fairly recently discovered and in them you can hear early traces of the main theme from 'Atom Heart Mother' and 'Cymbaline'. 'Song 1' sees a 'mellowing' of the bands sound as it is not harsh and sharp as previous instrumentals, and it meanders along nicely, but gets more abrasive towards the end when Gilmour's heavier guitar comes in. 'Song 2 (Roger's Boogie)' begins with the band harmonizing vocally, then features some lyrics and also wordless vocalizations. Again, the sound is quite mellow, but the vocals are definitely unpolished, the lead sung by Roger. Even though the title hints to an upbeat track with 'Boogie', there is no boogie involved here as it is slow with some of Mason's nice organ work. Even though it all sounds unfinished, it's still enjoyable, and a bit surprising that it is not that psychedelic or experimental sounding. The sound quality is stellar.

The next four tracks are from a BBC radio session recorded on June 25, 1968. The program that these renditions were broadcast on is here with all of announcer John Peel's comments beginning with 'Murderotic Woman' which is actually just 'Careful with That Axe, Eugene' in a much briefer version and no screams. Again, the sound is superb. This is followed by more talking by Peel and another instrumental here called 'The Massed Gadgets of Hercules', which is an early and more condensed version of 'A Saucerful of Secrets' but again condensed, less structured, definitely psychedelic. 'Let There Be More Light' follows with a mostly faithful rendition, but with enough of a difference to be interesting including a much more interesting guitar solo than the original, thanks to Gilmour, and this is followed by 'Julia Dream', again with a better mixing of the acoustic guitar. All of these recordings are quite well restored and act as a great supplement to the 'A Saucerful of Secrets' album.

The last three tracks are from yet another BBC radio session, this time recorded for broadcast on December 2, 1968. This time, Peel's comments are not included. This set begins with 'Point Me At the Sky', but the sound effects don't translate so well on this version as they do on the original single, but its not a major issue. What was quite a rarity at the time follows in 'Embryo' which was a non-album track, neither was it a single. It was originally released on a hard to find Various Artist collection called 'Picnic', but which was also included a few years later on the PF collection 'Works'. This is not a song you hear very often in the PF catalog, so it is a nice surprise to this box set. The song is very cleaned up compared to the original, and it sounds really good, almost pastoral with Wright's signature organ sound and Gilmour's vocals and acoustic guitar standing out. The last track on the album is the BBC version of 'Interstellar Overdrive' in its full glory. It is always a good thing to hear new versions of this track as, since it's mostly improvised, it takes on a new life each time. And it really becomes a new song this time, probably one of the better versions of it that I have heard, still strange and noisy, but better than ever.

So, for the CD portion of this volume, there are ample reasons why this one is a worthwhile collection for the PF aficionado and plenty to be excited about. Most of the tracks are not officially available anywhere else and the restoration of the tracks is once again quite amazing. If you already have the first four tracks on another collection, the advantage of this one is that the sound is consistent and top notch. The other previously unavailable tracks speak for themselves.

DVD/Blu-ray

The video discs start off with mimed performances from the 'new' version of the band. The problem is, they are singing the songs they recorded with Barrett, so the miming is definitely off, but it gets to the point that the band just has fun with it, singing off cue and pulling faces. The videos are not performances, but are actually 'music videos' done for the TV show from Brussels known as 'Tienerklanken' and have a recording date of February 18-19 in 1968. The videos are, as usual, quite pristine, all in black and white and have 7 performances; namely 'Astronomy Domine', 'The Scarecrow', 'Corporal Clegg', 'Paintbox', 'Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun', 'See Emily Play', and 'Bike'. The last one is actually a photo montage while the others are action videos shot in studio and outside, and you can see people watching the boys mess around on the fringes. Even though these are mimed, the videos are quite entertaining and fun to watch, and you get the feeling that they didn't always take things that seriously, but actually seem relaxed and carefree. There is one more video following this done similarly but for the Brussels TV show 'Vibrato' for 'Apples and Oranges', again with Gilmour instead of Barrett.

Finally we get to some un-mimed material as the next 4 tracks come from a French TV show 'Bouton Rouge' recorded on February 20. The music is live and you can feel the energy in the band for these tracks (plus they are in color), and Nick Mason is on fire! His performance is quite animated and excellent here. We get to hear Gilmour sing lead parts in place of Barrett for 'Astronomy Domine' (along with Wright and in a more abbreviated version from the original) and 'Flaming' and he does quite well. 'Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun' is then sung by Waters followed by an electrifying performance of 'Let There Be More Light' with Gilmour and Wright singing. The performances aren't perfect, but the band keeps it together quite well.

After this, there are a series of performances at various venues. There is 'Paintbox' from performed for 'Discorama' with Rick singing and the band playing with psychedelic effects superimposed over them. A short 'Instrumental Improvisation' follows which has the band playing for a documentary called 'The Sound of Change' in recorded in March. These are mostly quick scenes of riot, people and the band playing. An abbreviated version of 'Set the Controls'.' is played for 'All My Loving'. The band is in the balcony of a theater and most of it is filmed with a sepia filter to give it a psychedelic look. Another incomplete version follows, this time of 'It Would Be So Nice'. The video is quite pristine and in color on this one, but it is not a complete performance. It was shot in Rome for 'Rome Goes Pop'. Staying in Rome, we get a performance from 'Pop '68' filmed in May. This one is mostly a improvisational performance based around 'Interstellar Overdrive', but the riff for it only comes in at the end. For some reason, we don't see much of Gilmour in the video which is a shame, but we do see Waters messing around with the knobs on his bass and plenty of Mason and Wright, but Gilmour is strangely absent from the video, though you can definitely hear him. The video is well done, but unfortunately superimposes psychedelic images over that band for a good part of the 7 minute video. The ending is also quite loud.

Next, it's back to Belgium for 'Tienerklanken ' Kastival' for a performance of 'Astronomy Domine' on August 31. There is a short interview with Waters as the video begins. Again the video is pristine, but the sound is a bit distorted as it doesn't seem that the sound system wasn't able to handle the audio in the recording. The video centers mostly around Waters who does the vocals this time, and Mason. It is also heavily edited and the cuts are quite obvious. There is another short interview with Waters on the next track at the same venue as he explains that he doesn't like the acoustics there. From there, it's on to Paris, France for TV show 'Samedi et Compagnie' filmed on September 6. Here we see a much hairier Wright sharing lead vocals with Gilmour. The host speaks from the audience to introduce the band and they play the song, but fade out early when it is apparent the audience can't keep time with their clapping along. The 2nd track from the same venue is 'Remember a Day' sung by Rick, but we can't see him at all, and the rest of the band is having fun miming the song and obviously not even sticking close to the audio. Funny.

This is followed by a quick video for 'A L'Affiche du Monde' in London. It's in black and white and it shows the band running down stairs, getting on a subway and then running up a down escalator while the first half of 'Let There Be More Light' plays. You get to see the band lip-synch on the train while disinterested passengers look on. Next are two tracks from 'Tous en Scene' in Paris on October 21. The first is 'Let There Be More Light' performed after the host announces the band. Wright seems to be woefully absent and Waters and Gilmour sing the lead. The auditorium seems quite packed. The sound is a bit iffy and so is the performance. They then perform 'Flaming'. This time you can see more Wright, but mostly from the back as the camera set up is terrible and so is the sound system. The band tries their best though as Gilmour takes on the vocals.

Yet another version of 'Let There Be Light' follows, this time not lip-synched, but actually live for yet another French TV show 'Surprise Partie' on November 1. This is also a fuller version lasting almost 7 minutes with a great Gilmour solo and lots of hipster dancers who are all probably in their 70s now. Last of all, we get a restored promo video for 'Point Me At the Sky'. In this one you get to see the band supposedly flying in an airplane or doing other things.

What's Missing?

The CD and DVD/Blu-ray is the exact same as what's in the complete box set. The thing that is missing here is the same as Volume 1, the early singles in their 7' vinyl form, specifically for this set that would be both 'Point Me at the Sky/Careful with That Axe, Eugene' and 'It Would Be So Nice/Julia Dream', but at least they do appear on the CD. Also, since Volume 7 is so hard to get, the track 'Baby Blue Shuffle in D Major' which was recorded at a BBC radio session on December 2, 1968 is included on that volume, thus missing from this collection.

In Conclusion

So, in this box set, you get one excellent CD with a good amount of unreleased material and all in top quality recordings. However, it is only one CD, so the DVD/Blu-ray tries to make up for it by having a lot of tracks. The problem is, the quality isn't consistently great like it was for Volume 1. Though there is a lot of good stuff there, it is also filled with some unnecessary things and 'Let There Be More Light' is on there 5 times. I guess the video output wasn't as varied and as good during this time, but, again, there are some great clips there anyway. This ends up giving the overall collection 4 stars as the video discs don't quite make up for the lesser amount of music.

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