Speculative Pink Floyd Early Years Immersion Set

That is quite correct. The multitracks of Piper are playing the great gig in the sky.

Sadly, you are not. Only the "Mathilda Mother" and (partly) "Arnold Layne" 4T-multitracks still exist, possibly "Candy and a Currant Bun" on the Arnold reel. The 2T masters are, of course, still intact.

As far as I know, all the separate tracks for "Arnold Layne", as well as the fold-downs (submixes, bounces, whatever you want to call them) are on the same 4T-reel. A zero generation, full field stereo mix of the song could easily be created.

 

I don't understand this guy.. He finally doesn't want to release his the only known recordings with Pink Floyd? Besides he will got some amount of money for this. It's like Pete Best doesn't want to see release of Beatles tracks with him. I also not sure if Klose have any power to prevent this tracks for release. King Bee is also widely bootlegged, anyone with youtube and internet can find it and hear himself already.
What's the source of your info about considering this tracks for Barrett compilation? Also why then Mason constantly teased us all for several years about this session if they don't want to release it at some point?

 

No, there's Matilda Mother takes + reel of early mixes for several tracks + Peter Jenner take chatter for Astronomy Domine.

Not sure if Walk With Me, Sydney are actually from 1965. This must be recorded around late 1963-64 and possible as publishing demo to attract interest. Certainly pre-Syd era.

Stockholm tape is of very good quality besides muted vocal. Unlistenable?! Half of the tracks are instrumentals anyway..

 

I recall reading it on David Gilmour's blog. It's fairly common knowledge. Nick Mason has mentioned it in several interviews, as well.

I don't know if Mr. Mason has particularly "teased" anyone with the tracks, but rather he has acknowledged that they do, in fact, exist. (At least the two tracks -- "Lucy Leave" and "I'm a King Bee" -- that we already know of.) Also, Mason has stated many times that he would like to see them released. To be fair, he has called them both "lovely" and "very embarrassing". Make of that what you will.
If my intution is worth anything at all, it seems it all comes down to liquidity. Revenue. Moolah. Dead statesmen. Green. In other words: money. Large scale vinyl releases and boxes are nearing the end of their retail run, let's face it. It's not worth it financially anymore. I doubt the Immersion boxes made back their production costs.

 

That would explain why the major labels are pushing for large scale boxsets then.

EMI have been communicating with many of their artists in the past year or so, trying to put together extensive archive releases. If such releases were "not worth it financially anymore", they wouldn't be doing them.

 

As far as I have been informed, a low-quality demo of the track recorded in 1965 was kept by an aquaintance of keyboard player Rick Wright. Roger Waters still remembers the song, and can recite the lyrics on demand: Clickety-clickage

The group did not exist in 1963; Syd was only 17 at the time. A university music group called Sigma 6 existed, however, that included both Waters and Mason. Waters and Barrett were not playing together yet by 1963. Since the Waters-penned novelty song indeed is about Syd, I find the scenario unlikely.

The three taped concerts have eighteen tracks in total, out of which 7 are instrumentals ("Pow R Toc H" and IO twice each, "Reaction in G" thrice), but I get your point. Even so, the sound is definitely not of high enough quality to warrant an official release.

 

David Gilmour has said he has no problem with "Vegetable Man", and "Scream Thy Last Scream" getting an official release, but he has no say in anything that was recorded before he joined Pink Floyd.
I hope they consider doing something to coincide with the upcoming Syd Barrett documentary, as there's enough unreleased Syd material, both with Pink Floyd and solo, to make a pretty good collection. Start with the earliest recordings, and go all the way up to Syd's final sessions in 1974 ("If You Go, Don't Be Slow #1" and "Boogie #2" perhaps).

 

It might be of service to note that almost all of the song titles given to the shambolic (and in my opinion utterly worthless) 1974 Syd Barrett session are later inventions; on the only remaining studio sheet all the tracks (if they are titled at all) are called "If You Go". In any case, the 1974 recordings are Syd Barrett solo material, and they would be rather malplaced on a Pink Floyd release.

 

Ironically, it is Dave who carries the torch for the Syd era (considering he wasn't in the band then). He is covering Astronomy Domine on his latest solo tour, and has performed See Emily Play & remember a day

 

Considering that Nick Mason is currently focusing on rapidly relocating himself with a variety of automobiles and that Roger Waters is focusing on, ..well, Roger Waters, there are not many other choices left. That said, Pink Floyd did rather consistently perform AD during the David Gilmour era.

 

I could well be wrong but I don't think the '81 Earls Court shows were filmed in their entirety. I remember reading that only 4 or 5 songs were filmed for the Wall film, and later not used. When introducing Mother in his Wall shows, Waters talked about the footage, saying "some of it still survives" before duetting with himself on the song.

However, there was another show filmed and Waters talked about it in quite disparaging terms in a 1987 interview with Q Magazine: "I've continuously stamped on any attempt to bring that third-rate, tacky video out. It doesn't do justice to what was a very theatrical event". I've seen it myself and it's really not very good.

 

The song titles are on the tape box of the material from the August 12th 1974 session the was deemed as having potential with further work, and probably named by either Peter Jenner or John Leckie, so they're as close to being official titles as we're ever going to get. It seems like at the time they were just trying to get enough new material to fill out an album, along with other unreleased tracks. But I agree that almost all the 1974 recordings are nowhere close to being releasable, and just show that Syd's heart wasn't in it anymore.

I was thinking about some kind of "Syd Barrett Anthology" release when talking about the '74 recordings, to accompany the upcoming "Barrett: Have You Got It Yet?" documentary, rather than a Pink Floyd release. Apologies if I didn't make that clear.

 

Nearly half of the Stockholm set is comprised of instrumental numbers....forget about the vocal numbers and you still have 30 minutes of '67 PF live in excellent quality with some very inspired playing from Syd. We're talking a crystal clear stereo recording of the '67 Floyd live with Syd Barrett very much leading the band. Difficult to imagine why at least Pow R Toc H and Interstellar Overdrive would not see release.

 

There is more than enough 1967 material to compile a Syd era Immersion set. Things like fully realized, radically different early versions of Bike, Lucifer Sam and Jugband Blues....the finished 10 minute 'John Latham' film soundtrack recorded at the legendary De Lane Lea sessions that yielded Jugband/Vegetable Man/Remember A Day, backing tracks to two unreleased Syd originals recorded at Sound Techniques as potential follow up singles to See Emily Play....

 

Maybe because there are umpteen versions of those numbers already available? I'd rather have "Reaction in G" from Stockholm. Granted, since almost all the longer Syd era live numbers tended to dissolve into what David Gilmour called "psychedelic noodling", I guess it does not much matter which envelopes they would choose to release. (If one wants to be a bit crass, one could say that they were all essentially the same song, only book-ended by recognizable intros and codas, mere vehicles for potentially endless improvisation.)

 

True but none with Syd in excellent sound quality. The Stockholm instrumentals have some tedious moments for sure but both have several thrilling moments led by Syd's improvisation. I wouldn't characterize them as noodling....Interstellar is more reserved here than the 1969-70 versions. Syd's playing is focused throughout the gig.....the tedious bits are when he lays back and waits for the others to improvise. I too would prefer the Stockholm 'Reaction In G' if I had to pick one. IIRC it is 8-9 minutes long.

 

Yep, the Stockholm interpretation of "Reaction in G" is clocked at 8:18; it is indeed the only complete version of the track in tolerable audio quality. The Copenhagen and Rotterdam recordings are basically white noise.

 

Ah, Reaction in G... I absolutely adore it, especially the Stockholm one. It's just so good. I especially love the intro. Syd's guitar work sounds so cool, so different and inventive. What a shame it is we never got a studio version of it. I remember when I found out about this instrumental and immediately loved it (I always thought it had a very distinctive and unique sound) and then seeking the studio version only to be totally disappointed that there's none.

They truly are the band that for me did the best psychedelic music.

 

Isn't the circulating Stocklholm tape an audience tape of an audience tape played in a theater? A properly mastered version of the direct tape should be releasable. Better than some of the live audio released by the Velvet Underground on recent box sets.

 

http://www.soundbard.com/soundbard/...on-mixing-roger-waters-and-pink-floyd-in-5-1/

 

It's nice to discuss the unreleased material, but I'm just hoping that, if an early years set does come out, they get the released stuff right.

I would love to have a mono Saucerful complete with mono singles from Apples and Oranges to the end of that run of post Syd singles in 1968. Plus Embryo. And all relevant unreleased items also, of course.

 

Those just seem like bizarre sessions overall. They basically set Syd up in a studio even though he had no material, and recorded whatever he played, right? I mean, he didn't go in there and say "these are the songs I'm doing today." The impression I get from what I've read is that he was cajoled into being there at all.

 

We don't really need the Apples and Oranges/Paint Box single since these tracks are Piper era tracks and have been released as few times in limited form. But I would love to have a mono Saucerful with the two remaining singles as well as the throwaway single that should have been a single "Scream Thy Last Scream"/"Vegetable Man." Plus any outtakes from this period. I waited for the Saucerful mono CD in 1998 after the Piper mono CD from 1997.

 

Don't understand why as I feel OBC and AHM are just as good as anything they did.

 

Those scarves have been very handy these past few cold winters.