Never understood why Point Me... and Careful... were passed over in favour of two Piper tracks. Masters of Rock was originally from 1970 (as 'The Best of Pink Floyd'), when Point/Careful had been released, so it could've been the perfect Early Singles collection.
I can understand it to a degree, back in the early 70s, to highlight some tracks off the first few albums, to entice the Dark Side crowd to buy the early albums after hearing the tracks on Relics, but this is a different time, the people buying Relics now already would have Piper etc. I get the nostalgia of the set, but at the same time, something more comprehensive and complimentary to the core albums would have been great. Ever that Cre/ation - The Early Years 1967-1972 2CD release two years ago didn't mop up all the early singles totally, yet had three tracks from Obscured With Clouds (albeit remixed, but still kind of superfluous).
Specially taking into account that there's still plenty of room in the "Masters Of Rock" compilation LP for the "Careful With That Axe, Eugene" single to have been included without sound quality loss. That's the only reason why I'm getting the "Relics" reissue.
Wondering about a comparison between an original pressing Piper, reissue Piper, and the new mono. I own the others but not the RSD mono. Is there a significant sound difference/improvement?
Personally I prefer the stereo Piper reissue over the Mono RSD version. I wouldn’t over pay for the Mono if you just want the music and are not a completest.
I don't have an original pressing of Piper, but I have both the stereo and mono reissue LP's and the mono is much better. The stereo reissue isn't bad at all but the mono is much more pleasurable to listen to. As a comparison between my various CD and vinyl copies, I have dug out my old late 90's CD of Piper recently, this is the stereo mix remastered by Doug Sax, and it is still very lovely sounding and bests the reissue LP. Alternatively, the best CD reissue of the mono mix (the 2007 remaster) is not as pleasing a listen as the reissued mono LP to my ears.
I have the mono RSD and is very good, unfortunately I don't have an original to compare but knowing how my gear can sound when fed with the right stuff I would say there is a good chance a UK original will beat the re-issue despite it being pretty decent. The thing with Piper unlike the wall you need to pay fairly good money for a good early original.
Thanks guys for the info on the mono Piper. I'll probably hold off for now as I'm pretty content with my stereo versions. I think I have Piper from A Nice Pair and that sounds great. The reissue was well done too. I do like/love the early material but probably not a Syd Barrett nut like some folks.
That version of Piper substitutes one or two live tracks for the studio versions. Other than that, it's identical in content to the original issue.
A Nice Pair was a straight re-issue of the first two albums, repackaged together with new artwork, released in 1973. There are no substitutions of alternate tracks on either LP...
That is what I believe. Great double album. It was the stereo versions of both Piper and Saucerful. Re Relics anyone any thoughts on why this was released at all back in 1971 and what if any involvement did the Floyd band/management have in its release? Also why was it on Starline? Nice Pair of course was a great idea following on from the Darkside success.
That's true for the UK release. However, on the US version "Astronomy Domine" is represented via the live version from Ummagumma instead of the correct studio recording. Also, "Interstellar Overdrive" is faded slightly early, and "Flaming" is in mono.
It is, though I'm not sure what's gained by substituting one of the tracks. There's a disclaimer on the back of the US release in very small type informing the potential buyer of this, but of course it's not the kind of thing someone grabbing the set out of the rack would notice right away. Just one of those odd things.
I'm echoing some of the previous comments here. I'm not sure why Relics was reissued in our day and age. With the recent reissue of the entire catalogue, why perpetuate the problem the original release (almost fifty years ago) had? At least it kind of made more sense then as some people already had the other songs on 45s that were not on the album. PFR could have easily issued a ''Relics'' as a double album and include all the other missing songs like It Would Be So Nice etc. I'm still scratching my head...unless they're planning a Relics II and thus make more money than releasing a double album?
By changing "Astronomy Domine" to a live version and using the mono single of "Flaming," Capitol was able to call it a compilation album instead of a straight reissue of two LPs, which lowered mechanical royalty rates to the band. Also see all the Capitol reissues from the '70s that cut songs (Sinatra, Beach Boy). More money for the label, less for the band. Probably had a lot to do with Floyd then bolting for Columbia.
Plenty of old fossils like me enjoy listening to relics. Plus it has a great cover, which is good to colour in with my paintbox. Plus where else can I get Arnold, Emily, Julia and Eugene on the current vinyl reissues? We will have to bide our time waiting for something else...
That's odd. I could have sworn that I heard an explanation that it had something to do with the fact that neither "Astronomy Domine" nor "Flaming" appeared on the US-edition of Piper. "Flaming" was a US-single, so they were able to use that. Basically the problem was that Capitol had to re-create Piper without having the proper tapes to re-create the UK LP. But your explanation seems equally probable.
