Grateful Dead

Happy Birthday to The Phil Bomb!!!!
83 & still Bomin'

Sixtus

83

Hey rockers!!!

Now, too much coffee...................

Recap, part 2:

It appears that the "streaming releases" issued by the Floyd in 2021 and 2022 are related to the changes in European copyright laws, especially the "use it or lose it" aspects that have prompted numerous reissues of old stuff from several bands.

The funny thing is, of all those Floyd releases in 21 and 22, they may not have "originally owned" those, almost all of which were audience recordings. Unless, of course, they bought the masters from the tapers.

It appears that audience tapers latched onto Floyd shows fairly early on, maybe around late 1970, because moving forward from there there's lots of audience recordings. Of these "streaming issues", the Hollywood Bowl show from September 1972 may be the best. The recordings they issued in 21 and 22 have actually been around for a long long time. Glad I have them, but I don't go there often.......

One noteable exception is the 1/23/72 Southampton recording----sounds like a soundboard, maybe worth checking out? A very early DSOTM show...............

More coffee? Sure, why not?!!!

Rock on,

Doc
I'm drinking champaigne like a big tycoon.......

Three days off, up too early, walked dogs, not enough coffee, time to poke the Pink Floyd bear..............

3/14/73.........6/18/75........6/27/77................believe me, I remember.............

I never cared for The Wall. One of the most overrated Floyd albums, but they were superstars already so it sold millions. Couple of decent songs, lots of filler, overexposed on the radio. The fact that they brought it to only 2 US cities, I thought was arrogant and disrespectful to the fans. Which, in a way, was very ironic. Yes, I have it, but it hasn't gotten airplay here in decades...........

Took me a while to warm up to Animals. I'm not a huge fan of "political music", but I like it a lot. Very underrated Floyd album. Snowy White was in the studio for this, and his solo was released on the eight track version of Pigs On The Wing. Yes, I'm a dinosaur, I had that in my car lol...............

The Final Cut? More like a Waters solo album. Still listen to the live cuts from Ummagumma, Meddle, DSOTM and WYWH with some regularity. Atom Heart Mother, kinda weird, Alan's Pschedelic Breakfast a big waste of vinyl, 3 pretty OK short songs, and the big suite. Of course, if there was no Atom Heart Mother, there might not have ever been an Echoes lol......

When I first got into bootleg recordings, late 1979, I quickly discovered that there was very little high quality Floyd around, and I think this was an issue for me, it may have had something to do with me turning away from the Floyd and more towards the Dead. Some of the best Floyd out there, then and now, are their BBC appearances, which have been well preserved and are worth checking out.

After the "big Pink Floyd divorce", I went to see the first tour of what I sarcastically called "the 3/4 Floyd", more out of curiosity and to pay my respects. The spark wasn't there and I never went again. And while I'm not a big fan of Waters' politics, he's right about one thing----Gilmour doesn't write very good songs. In one man's humble opinion, the "post-divorce" albums are very weak. But I'm a fan and a sucker and I have them, so bad on me..........

Enough for now, back to our irregularly scheduled programming............

Rock on,

Doc
The path you tread is narrow and the drop is shear and very high.......

Who was it, then?

I wonder if the lack of knowledge about exact dates of shows is something of a British malady. I have no idea what dates I saw most of the bands I witnessed in the past. I can usually remember the year, and the time of year - Floyd at Knebworth was summer 1975. More than that, without looking it up, I know not.

It's not a criticism by any means, in fact it's a quality - Deadheads generally seem to have a phenomenal memory and knowledge of dates. If any Britain knows the exact date of something he or she did in the 70's or 80's, chances are they are a Deadhead.

So this is what the end of civilization looks like, huh. Dave's Picks still on the shelf after 6 weeks and the topic is Pink Floyd. I've seen worse ends to civilization.....

Like most classic rock bands I got into Floyd sort of backwards. The Wall was my first exposure - every other year my Dad bought a cool album, and 1979 was The Wall (the previous was News of the World). Then I started hearing it all over the radio, along with a lot of Time and Money. Once In a while they break out One of These Days, US and Them, or Wish You Were Here. And then I found Animals in a friend's record stash, and Dogs caught my attention. Side two eluded me. I just plain didn't like Pigs (Three Different Ones), and I never made it to the Sheep outro early on (a few years later a friend pointed out the ripping guitar ending by Gilmour. In those days without internet or complete song background and recording history in the liner notes, we had no reason to believe it wasn't him. It became a favorite.

Went on to get the rest of the 79s stuff and happily saw them on the Momentary Lapse and Division Bell tours. I don't really like either album, or the Final Cut, or Waters solo material (Radio Kaos was ok). It's a shame really, because the post-Wall years featured a lot of workable material that could have been crafted into at least two more great Floyd albums. But alas, it was not to be. One of the best bands to hang it up before their time. Oh...imagine my disappointment severl years later when I learned it wasn’t Gilmour playing the guitar on Sheep.

There has been a small avalanche of live Floyd, circa 1970-1972 mainly, released over the last 12 months, in England. I have just had a quick count on Amazon UK and there are 14 there at the moment. These are bootlegs in all but name , though, and seem to be either FM or audience recordings. Looking at the reviews, the consensus of opinion seems to be that they feature great playing - but indifferent sound. They are not always what they seem, either. "Sound of Philadelphia" supposedly from that city 3/15/73 seems in actuality to be another version of Wembley 1974.

How Doc describes Floyds acid rock status is very much reflected by how I perceived them in the early 70's. "Relics" " Meddle" and "Ummagumma" were the first ones I got in 1972. Very far out, with an underground audience to boot. While it was immediately apparent that DSOTM was a great album , it was also the moment they went mainstream. By 1973, their image as lords of infinite space had been usurped by the likes of Hawkwind, Gong and Faust - and Tangerine Dream, who seemed to be inspired by the space epics Floyd had introduced and played up to 1972.

I didn't see them until Knebworth 1975 - a very indifferent show, with a set list almost the same as Wembley 1974 - except for "Have A Cigar" sung by Roy Harper.

....which one's Pink?
Seriously though. You know your stuff. Thanks for not abandoning us plebes.
You stay cool my dude.

Thanks Doc.

Doc here, who was a FloydNoyd long before he was a Deadhead............

Most of the story surrounding Wembley 74 is pretty well known, although why a broadcast of one single complete show wasn't done remains unclear.

To recap: The shows from Novermber 15 and November 16 were both recorded by the BBC. A mix of the DSOTM portions of both shows was broadcast on the BBC on January 11, 1975. The first half was from the 16th, the second half from the 15th. The Echoes from the Early Years box was from the 16th. Shine On, Raving & Drooling, and You Gotta Be Crazy--which appeared on the Wish You Were Here Immersion box set----were from the 15th. Why they did it this way, who knows BUT these are pretty much the highest quality sonic documents from this period.

Like most other bands, who didn't record all their shows unless prepping for an official live album, the Floyd apparently did not routinely record everything. Which means that there really aren't a lot of soundboards or even FMs of their best work, which in my opinion was 68 through early 73. However, with that being said, there are LOTS of audience recordings from that era, and some are even fairly decent.

The Floyd didn't ditch their acid-rock-cult classics until well into 73, but after DSOTM had been around for a while, they really got locked into a format and their old stuff pretty much disappeared (although, LOL, they did their last Axe in May of 1977 in Oakland). Still a great band, but much less interesting...........

Oh what I wouldn't give for a soundboard of my first Floyd show---Boston Music Hall March 14 1973. I do have a nice audience recording, and yes it brings back fuzzy but fond memories............

Floyd on,

Doc
One inch of love is one inch of shadow