Pink Floyd Discography thread v. 'On An Island, end V1'

[Nihil-Morari]

To me, Echoes is sort of like Yes' Gates of Delirium in that I think both are totally awesome, but they are both songs I can only listen to every once in a while.  Some 20-minute plus songs I can listen to somewhat regularly (the three from Transatlantic's first two albums, 2112, etc.), but something like Echoes is just so out there and different than I have to be in the right mood to wanna listen to all of it.

Haha, great. To me there's a difference too between digestible epics, and works-of-art-epics. The first are the ones you can listen to even two times in a row, the second are the ones you need to sit down for, maybe even work your way through, but the reward you get at the end is great. Funny thing is that Echoes is very much a digestible epic to me. I can even listen to it multiple times in a row.

[Ultimetalhead]

I love Meddle to death. Everything on it is awesome (though I find San Tropez slightly weaker). I absolutely adore Fearless, probably even more so than Echoes. Borderline sacrilege, I know.

[jammindude]

Fearless is, by far the most mellow way you could possibily say, "F-U I DID IT ANYWAY!"

[Podaar]

Everything about Meddle is wonderful. I'll take it just the way it is.

[Ben_Jamin]

I love the version of Echoes on Live In Pompeii.

[GentlemanofDread]

Okay, combination time. Let's do this.

Pink Floyd, movies, Barbet Schroeder. Not the film More this time, rather it's the french film, La Vallée. Never seen it. More out of lazyness rather than the fact I don't want to. But I know it's more lighter than More, so.. I suppose that could be good? Anyway, like More, the Band got to see an early version of the film and jot things down about ideas. Whilst their original thought was that they wouldn't have to do full songs and could just do little pieces, it turned out that they managed to create a whole series of well-structured songs.

The main reason for this was simple. Nick Mason recalls that the sessions were very hurried, and the band spent most of the time in Paris locked away in the studio. They were in there, 4 days, and just worked hard in getting stuff done that things developed. But, some facts about some of the songs on this album I've still not named yet, hmm? "Free Four" is the first Pink Floyd song to receive significant airplay in the US, and the second (After Corporal Clegg) to deal with Waters' dad's death.  "Childhood's End" was the last song Pink Floyd released to have lyrics written by Gilmour while Waters was still in the band. "Absolutely Curtains", the closing instrumental on the album, ends with a recording of the Mapuga tribe, as seen in the film.  They also got writing credits! Mason plays electronic drums on the title track of the album, which is..

Obscured By Clouds (1972)

1.  Obscured by Clouds (Written by Gilmour and Waters. Instrumental. 3:03)
2.  When You're In (Written by Gilmour, Waters, Wright & Mason. Instrumental. 2:30)
3.  Burning Bridges (Written by Wright & Waters, 3:29)
4.  The Gold it's in the... (Written by Gilmour & Waters, 3:07)
5.  Wots...Uh the Deal (Written by Gilmour & Waters, 5:08)
6.  Mudmen  (Written by Wright & Gilmour, 4:20)
7.  Childhood's End (Written by Gilmour, 4:31)
8.  Free Four (Written by Waters, 4:15)
9.  Stay (Written by Waters, Wright, 4:05)
10.  Absolutely Curtains (Written by Wright & Mapuga tribe, 5:52)

Okay, this is a cool soundtrack album. It feels more like an album than More did, and it's a solid album. The fact it starts with two instrumentals can throw someone off, but they're good solid tracks. The VCS 3 synths that Wright uses are amazing. It's a solid album, nothing too impressive but hey, it's certainly a nice easy to listen to album. "Free Four" is still a very light hearted take on an issue that will get more grim takes on it, so you should treasure it. The Mapuga Tribe are great at the end of "Absolutely Curtains", and by the way, what an amazing ending track name is that?

----

But, there was something else that came out in 1972! We're gonna have to flash back a bit for this, to 1970. Pink Floyd had done an hour concert in a television studio just as an experiment, to do concerts in unusual places. Adrian Maben had become interested in combining art with Pink Floyd's music, and so during 1971, he attempted to contact the band's manager, Steve O'Rourke. They arranged something.. interesting, to say the least. Eventually.

After his original plan of mixing the band with assorted paintings had been rejected, Maben went on holiday to Naples in the early summer. Guess what he did when in Pompeii? Lost his passport. He had to go back to the Pompeii amphitheater and find it. Whilst wandering it, in the silence,  he thought the silence and natural ambient sounds present would make a good backdrop for the music. So, that was it. We were going.

The band insisted on playing live, and brought their regular touring gear with them. So, you hear that sound? That performance? All Floyd. They even got their 24 track recorder in, all the way from London!  It took 3 days, and there was not enough power for it all to run, blowing every time. How did they fix this? A huge cable from the local town hall, of course.

Shots that were done in Pompeii were either the band walking around, mud, or the band playing. Anything involving the band playing, they did in short takes so they could splice it together after the band had a listen and a look to check it was okay. Other shots were done, after they ran out of time in the Pompeii Amphitheater, were done in Paris. But when these were done, we got, well..

Live At Pompeii (1972)


1. "Intro Song"
2. "Echoes, Part 1" (from Meddle, 1971)
3. "Careful with That Axe, Eugene" (from Point Me At The Sky, B-side, 1968)
4. "A Saucerful of Secrets" (from A Saucerful of Secrets, 1968)
5. "One of These Days I'm Going to Cut You into Little Pieces" (from Meddle, 1971)
6. "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" (from A Saucerful of Secrets, 1968)
7. "Mademoiselle Nobs" (from Meddle, 1971)
8. "Echoes, Part 2" (from Meddle, 1971)

Intro Song is a very early version of Speak To Me from Dark Side of the Moon. Fun fact over, this is my second favourite Pink Floyd live thing. Echoes. ECHOES. Even split into two parts, it's just fantastic, and well, it's amazing. It's not the definitive version, that's still the studio version, but this great. Careful with That Axe, Eugene, however, on this, IS it's definitive version. It's the perfect length, it's the perfect delivery and that scream is everything I love about it. Hooooly.

The rest of the tracklist? It's solid. Well, maybe not Mademoiselle Nobs (aka Seamus), but it's a good listen. Nothing that I would consider to be the best live version in cases, but if you've not heard or watched it yet, I suggest you should fix that. Just, take time out of you day, relax, and watch it. I promise you. It's great.

[Ben_Jamin]

Carefuk With That Axe Eugene, I can't find any better live version than on this release. I wish I could get a cd of it.

[ReaperKK]

I really enjoy Obscured. To me it seems as if it's the most straight ahead rock album PF has ever done. The songs are concise, they well put together and flow pretty well. I really should listen to this album more than I do.

[jammindude]

Obscured has always been among my all time favorite PF albums.   It's still a "dark horse" favorite of mine.

Wot's...uh the Deal is probably my favorite, but beyond that it's hard to pick out a clear winner.   The album is just really consistent and awesome. 

[hefdaddy42]

Just finished Obscured By Clouds.  Overall, very satisfying (except for Free Four, yuck), but I doubt it will have a tremendous amount of replay for me.

[KevShmev]

That sums it up for me, too, although I like Free Four a lot.  Very consistent and enjoyable album, but it's never been one I've revisited often at all.

[jingle.boy]

That sums it up for me, too, although I like Free Four a lot.  Very consistent and enjoyable album, but it's never been one I've revisited often at all.

Get out of my head!!!!

Gotta say, I enjoyed Obscured a lot more than I remembered.  I think this will make it back into the rotation when I'm in the mood for some Floyd.

[jingle.boy]

Double post, ftw!

Really enjoyed Pompeii a lot more than I remembered too.  Set the Controls was fabulous.  Man, too bad I didn't have this album in my arsenal back in my teenage years when I could/would light one up at the drop of a hat.  This is one psychedelic album, from the psychedelic band, at the peak of their psychedelic period.

[GentlemanofDread]

Following the release of Meddle in 1971, the band assembled for an upcoming tour of Britain, Japan, and the United States in December of that year. You know what this means? BAAAND MEETING, at Nick Mason's house. Whilst in the meeting, Roger Waters had the idea that they could make a new album whilst touring, using the tour to develop all of their possible ideas. Yep. That was what was happening on that. The idea for it? Things that make people go mad. The idea that the album should have one unifying theme was agreed on, and Waters, Gilmour, Mason, and Wright participated in the writing and production of the new material, and Waters created the early demo tracks at his Islington home in a small recording studio he had built in his garden shed.

The basic structure of "Us and Them" was taken from a piece originally composed by Wright for the film Zabriskie Point, and the opening line of "Breathe" came from an earlier work by Waters and Ron Geesin, written for the soundtrack of The Body. Original rehearsals for either the tour, the album or both occurred firstly in a warehouse and then the Rainbow Theatre (Which there are some LOVELY bootlegs for.) They also purchased extra equipment, which included new speakers, a PA system, a 28-track mixing desk with four quadraphonic outputs, and a custom-built lighting rig. This came up as nine tonnes and three trucks needed to move it around.

Really, before the album came out, the only real break they seemingly had was when they recorded "Obscured by Clouds", because they spent a lot of time of rehearsing, fleshing out ideas, before, really.. releasing this album.

The Dark Side of The Moon (1973)

 Track Listing

    Speak To Me (1:30)
    Breathe (2:43)
    On The Run (3:30)
    Time (6:53)
    The Great Gig In The Sky (4:15)
    Money (6:30)
    Us And Them (7:34)
    Any Color You Like (3:24)
    Brain Damage (3:50)
    Eclipse (2:06)

This masterpiece is where people are most likely going to enter in. It's a great album, not my favourite Pink Floyd album, but it's THE Pink Floyd album. You think of this album, and how special it is. Because, well, it's special. I love it. Maybe not as much as everyone else but.. My favourite track is Eclipse, and that's simply because how magnificent it ends. But let's go through the rest of the album. Speak To Me/Breathe is a pretty incredible opening salvo of music, even if I'm not too sure how Breathe fits into the theme that Pink Floyd was going with. On The Run is interesting work from Richard Wright, but not much to really focus on it for me other than nice.

Time is great, it's very.. English, really. Cynical and a bit humphty, but Great Gig In The Sky is.. not for me, really. I'm just not a fan of the female vocal performance, really. Or the actual person. Money is pretty good, a rocking tune that by now you'd learn to expect and love, but Us and Them is just better for me. Mellow, smoother, a more rewarding audible experience. Especially the sax use. Love it. Any Colour You Like, I feel it got hurt more by the cuts that were made to it during the refining process, it was usually about six to seven minutes long and it fit quite nicely. But Brain Damage and Eclipse are, well.. otherworldy..

[jammindude]

What could possibly be said about this album that hasn't been said before.   It speaks for itself.   It's just damn near perfection, and only slides down my list of Top PF albums for the same reason Moving Pictures moves down my Rush list....overplay. 

I actually find On the Run to be one of the deeper and most thought provoking tracks in PF history...because it tells a very definite story without saying a single words.  As such, it forces your mind to paint the picture instead of having descriptive words paint one for you.     The only other song I've ever heard that painted a picture of what was happening so well with no words whatsoever is...Jacob's Ladder.   Which doesn't really count since it does have words, but my point was that I would know what the song was about even if there were no words. 

Which still makes On the Run the greatest "painting with music" song I've ever heard. 

On a side note: Listening to this while watching The Wizard of Oz is totally everything it promises to be (if it's synced up properly).   Absolutely mind blowing.

[The Curious Orange]

Nice to see Obscured by Clouds[/i[ getting some much deserved love. I thought I would be the only person praising it.

Dark Side of the Moon. The moment everything changed. Not the first concept album, by any means, but the first to really hit the public conciousness and show that rock music could be somethng...more. One of the biggest selling and most important albums ever recorded.

But it also broke the Floyd. Up to this point they were basically four school-friends messing about - DSOTM turned them into one of the biggest bands on the planet and brought an enormous amount of record company pressure to bear. The band would never be the same after this. And neither would rock and roll.

[Zydar]

Dark Side Of The Moon is my favourite album of theirs, with Time being a Top 2 PF song if I would rank them (Shine On You Crazy Diamond would be the other Top 2 song). I remember when I first bought the CD, it was my first foray into progressive rock. I would lie in my bed and have this album on repeat (the clocks in the Time intro would freak me out!) just absorbing everything. A true classic.

[RoeDent]

DSOTM is a classic! A 43-minute rock symphony that also finds the time to pioneer techno music (On the Run).

[Orbert]

Every once in a while, I run into somebody who doesn't understand why The Dark Side of the Moon was such an incredible, groundbreaking album.  They say things like "I like The Wall better" or "concept albums are so cliché'.  Okay, groundbreaking means you can't look at what came later because it didn't exist yet.  Similarly, you can't invoke the cliché rule because it didn't exist yet, either.  We didn't even call it a concept album; we didn't know what to call it.  For most of us, it was just great music, and so cool that the sides each flowed together as a single track, and that there were also recurring lyrical and music themes pushed it to even the next level.  And on top of that, the songs themselves are accessible; most of this album gets regular airplay on FM radio stations.  The songs are both simple and complex, the production is excellent, and the themes are universal.

And if they still don't understand why, in 1973, this was so amazing, I simply stop associating with them, for they are not worth my time.

[Zydar]

[jingle.boy]

The band would never be the same after this. And neither would rock and roll.

You're right, and they were better for it.

Great post by Bob, as usual.  This album helped take progressive rock of the 70s in a whole new direction, and give other artists ideas to do things they never thought of.

It's a shame that the two best tracks are the ones I enjoy the least, just as JD put it, because of overplay.  I really find myself enjoying the rest of the album so much more than Time and Money.  Great Gig is a masterpiece of a vocal ad lib, and I get goosebumps every time I hear it.

[KevShmev]

I still say Dark Side is more of a thematic album than a concept album, but that is probably an argument for another day...

Either way, Dark Side is the best album ever.  It is musical perfection.

 

[hefdaddy42]

Easily my favorite PF album, and one of my favorites from anyone.

Hell, when I was a senior in high school (89-90), this was still the favorite album for most people I knew.

Also, not that it means anything, but I think that DT did a great job reproducing it live.

[ThatOneGuy2112]

Yeah, I know it's at this point the thread starts becoming a little more lively and I'm just perpetuating that prediction. Sue me. I feel I can only contribute when it comes to the albums I'm really familiar with, so going through some others real quick...

Atom Heart Mother still remains in my eyes Pink Floyd's most underrated album. It's not their best but it's just that I feel that all their best albums have more or less gotten the attention and praise that they deserve, while AHM get's overlooked quite a bit. The title track suite is honestly one of my favorite PF songs ever and the rest of it ain't too shabby either.

Meddle is all sorts of awesome, and not just for Echoes. One of the These Days is a fantastic, energetic opener and Fearless is quite catchy. Echoes is tied with Shine On You Crazy Diamond for favorite PF song ever, and is up there among my favorite songs of all time as well. It blows my mind just how captivating it still is after hundreds of listens.

And then there's The Dark Side of the Moon. It's amazing how much influence this album has even after 40+ years. Not just musically but culturally. I won't even get into how ground-breaking it might have been back during its release--that was simply far before my time. But it's impressive and surreal how so many people, even in younger generations, know of it. I lost count of how many people I saw in high school wearing the shirt, and while most might question as to whether or not they've actually listened to the album in its entirety, I still think it's amazing how that famous triangle and rainbow transcended from just being an image on an album cover to a cultural icon.

The album itself is one of the most genuine and amazing experiences to be had. It may not be my favorite PF album, but it flows the most well throughout. I can't think of a single song that falls flat--they all bring something new to the concept and even the instrumentals on here make you conjure a story to go along with it by the sounds and moods they invoke. It's one of the most thought-provoking albums of all time, and I feel that you learn something new about it with each listen.

[jingle.boy]

I can't think of a single song that falls flat--they all bring something new to the concept and even the instrumentals on here make you conjure a story to go along with it by the sounds and moods they invoke. It's one of the most thought-provoking albums of all time, and I feel that you learn something new about it with each listen.

Not only is the not a single song that falls flat, there isn't a single moment that falls flat.

[Podaar]

This is not, currently, my favorite PF album but it was for such a long time that you could call it a tie, really. It can still take me away to those rainy afternoons of my teens, when I would curled up in my listening chair with head phones on in the dark and just absorb the tangible mood of the music.

Besides, the opening of Time was the theme music for our local television stations Saturday afternoon Sci-Fi Theatre. I still think of Godzilla movies, reruns of The Twilight Zone and the movie Children of the Damned during that section.

[masterthes]

My introduction to Pink Floyd. What an amazing album. More than half the tracks I would easily put in my Pink Floyd favorites (I'm probably in the minority here, but I have a very eh approach towards Money, but if I do listen to it, I prefer listening to the version on Pulse)

[The King in Crimson]

My introduction to Pink Floyd. What an amazing album. More than half the tracks I would easily put in my Pink Floyd favorites (I'm probably in the minority here, but I have a very eh approach towards Money, but if I do listen to it, I prefer listening to the version on Pulse)

I always slag "Money" for being the over-played, radio hit track of the album, but then I listen to it and I'm like "Ah, fuck it, Money is awesome."

Dark Side of the Moon is my favorite album of all time, easily. It's a very cohesive album that is very much a case of the whole being greater than the individual, but damn are those individual parts so good. "Time" is one of my favorite songs of all time, "Speak To Me" and "Breathe" is one of the best album openers ever. "On the Run" is alright, probably my least favorite on the album, but I'd never skip it. It's an integral part of the experience and with Dark Side, the experience is king. Don't fuck with the experience. "The Great Gig in the Sky" is absolutely phenomenal. I love how much emotion is packed into that song. "Money" is a great little song, the hit, the popular song, but it still smokes and somehow never gets old. "Us and Them" and "Any Colour..." bring the energy of the first half down and get the listener sedated and ready for the closing punch of "Brain Damage" and "Eclipse."

Dark Side also has the honor of being one of the albums I really got into when I was first digging deep into music. I'd play it all the time driving to and from work and it really helped me to appreciate that an album was more than just a collection of songs. Placement and length mattered (that's what she said!) just as much, if not moreso, than the overall catchiness of a single song. I can still remember driving home during the summer, late at night, the stars glimmering up above and the scattered lights of the small rural towns between work and home flickering in the dark like little fluorescent fireflies. "Great Gig..." would come on and I'd roll down the windows, crank the volume, and just try to sing along.

Maybe most of my fond memories are due to nostalgia but, even to this day, I can put on Dark Side and still summon up glimmers of those same feelings even if I'm no longer a bright-eyed, optimistic 19 year old with the whole world ahead of me. Even the cynical bastard in me can still get a bit giddy for that all too brief 42 minutes from the first seconds of "Speak To Me" to the final moments of  "Eclipse."

[?]

What can I say? Dark Side is an undeniable classic, even though I prefer the three albums that followed it

[The Curious Orange]

Birth. Life. Paranoia. Have. Have Not. Insanity. Regret. Death. What more could you want from an album?

Originally the piece ended with TGGITS, and was performed like this on many demos, but as the piece grew longer, the birth-life-death part of the narrative was compressed onto side one, and the madness/insanity themes were stripped out onto side two. Brain Damage was one of the last parts to be written.

I saw Waters on the Radio KAOS tour, he played Speak to Me/Breathe/TGGITS (with Claire Torry as special guest), Brain Damage and Eclipse as an encore. A very special night I'll never forget.

[Nihil-Morari]

Can't say anything else than that there's something about this album that makes it sound unlike any album ever, by any artist. The first half minute sets it up so perfectly, and the way it flows... It's soooo smooooooth

[jingle.boy]

*FANTASTIC POST*

Great post.  Oftentimes, albums can invoke that nostalgic feeling, but in this case for those of us that experienced it for the first time in the 70s or 80s, that nostalgia only makes it better.  It's simply a magnificent album.

[Jaq]

It may seem trite to say "it's Dark Side of the Moon. What else needs to be said?" but it also fits. This is one of the most iconic albums in rock music history for a reason, after all. It's personally my most iconic album of the 1970s, if only for its seemingly eternal stint on the Billboard charts. Hearing it finally dropped out of the top 200 was a moment of genuine shock to me: it'd been there forever.

Fucking brilliant album, even if I've grown to like the next two more over the years.

[GentlemanofDread]

So, Quick ruling, what's the rule on uploading bootlegs of other bands for discography threads? Only I want to share one from DSOTM era.

[jingle.boy]

So, Quick ruling, what's the rule on uploading bootlegs of other bands for discography threads? Only I want to share one from DSOTM era.

I assume you mean posting some links to bootlegs?  Seeing as how others have done it (I've seen it in the Rush 'tour' thread), and as long as they are not commercially available recordings, I don't think it's against the rules.