Pink Floyd - The Early Years 1965-1972 Box Set - Realiz/ation (Content, tracks, etc. ONLY!)

Yeah, Pink Floyd let the cat out of the bag 4 years before releasing "Animals"!

 

Yet, according to John Leckie (in Parker's book), "(...) Pink Floyd said yes for Syd. I meant this was... for 'Vegetable Man' I think thry approved it and that's why we went ahead and mixed it (...) they were going to give 'Scream Thy Last Scream' to Syd to put out". This was in '74. No idea why it didn't happen then.

 

But what actually exists from this supposed 'second dark act'? Aside from Scream and Vege-man?

 

I've always felt like there could be or needs to be a proper survey of Interstellar Overdrive. It seems like there's several different versions, recordings -- live and in the studio - mixes, edits and alts that need to be collected.

 

The Vegetable Man instrumental and a 90-second excerpt of Untitled (sometimes mislabeled "Sunshine") are powerful and significant parts of the band's story, I think. Also, excerpts of the studio Reaction In G are in circulation (I find the very different BBC Reaction preferable, although in substandard quality on Bonus Continu/ation).

There's some evidence that Untitled may be an attempt to remake unheard PF recording She Was A Millionaire (the intro of Untitled is the intro of Opel, and Opel's chorus reportedly turns up in a Barrett solo attempt at Millionaire). So really, Opel could be the remake of She Was A Millionaire (manager Andrew King recalled it was in waltz time), in which case I'm glad it happened.

 

I listened to the Latham tracks again today. It

Listened to Latham tracks today it is an interesting listen. A young Floyd 1967.

 

All this stuff is on bootleg.

Sunshine is a great groove a bit like Beechwood, but overall only a fragment at 1.30 mins long.
The Vegetable Man instrumental is also on bootleg. If there was a full alt. take to this as has been suggested it would be great to hear.
She Was A Millionaire (also called One in a Million?) would have been great as a studio version. At least we have the live version. Was there a lyric or was it an instrumental jam at that time?

I don't get the feeling that anyone really knows whether those tracks still exist. But it seems to me that they are never coming out, otherwise they would have squeezed them onto the box.

 

'She Was A Millionaire' and 'One In A Million' were two different songs, not the same one.

 

Lot of discussion on these topics throughout this thread, at your leisure to peruse. But a couple quick clarifications, some gleaned from others here....

One In a Million is a completely different song from She Was a Millionaire.

Millionaire is on no bootleg, it has never circulated. One take was recorded for Piper, but there's no indication it was ever mixed down and was likely taped over. Instrumental backing tracks for a Syd solo attempt in '70 absolutely exist, but remain unreleased.

Sunshine/Experiment is most likely (if not certainly) a taste of the 10-minute unreleased Instrumental on a mixdown of late '67 Syd Floyd tracks that was compiled for his solo sessions in early '68. That instrumental definitely exists, since that tape was apparently the source for other tracks released on the box (ex. In the Beechwoods). Tantalizing because the bootleg fragment is only 1:30, as you noted.

Also intriguing because the opening segment resembles Opel's opening chords, as someone noted a few posts above yours. And Millionaire (according to a writer who heard the '70 backing tracks) included the "I'm trying/I'm giving" section later used in Opel. These are two different parts of Opel, but the shared connection to that song leads some to speculate that Experiment/Instrumental is Millionaire. This doesn't seem to be a majority view, but in any case we know the rest of that recording exists in perfect sound quality and is a Syd song none of us has ever heard....

 

Hopefully David and Nick who control all things Pink Floyd and their designees like Andrew Jackson can release more early Floyd. I really like the Early Years Box but hope for Meddle and other album specific box sets.

 

Well, I hope Jackson either doesn't do the mastering or doesn't repeat the insane treble boost heard on Early Years.

 

That weird mastering is not on all the box set's content but on a couple tracks, especially the Pompeii and Obscured by Clouds remixes. I kinda think it was an accident.

 

I also find the first disc aside from the 1965 tracks to be extremely bright. The same singles tracks have the bright mastering on the vinyl but not the videos.

 

I have not heard the discs yet, but I have listened to the various tracks that have been complained about quality wise; the Pompeii, Obscured By Clouds remix, and the first disc tracks. I have Rhapsody/Napster set on the best resolution, and I find really no problem with any of these, concerning "brightness", or sound quality. This is just my observation to be thrown into the mix.

 

I think if David Toop had simply said he didn’t like the Latham tracks it would have been okay — but to intimate that there’s a right way to improvise could be an oxymoron at worst and a misunderstanding at best of what Pink Floyd was doing on the John Latham material.

Firstly, while they were most likely improvising, their intent to me was not to make improvisational music but rather provide sonic texture to match the visual textures on the screen. They weren’t cutting an album.

Secondly, of course Pink Floyd were successful at musical improvisation and made quite a name for themselves doing just that at clubs like the UFO — but to be fair, I don’t believe Toop was saying Floyd couldn’t improvise — he was just saying the Latham tracks fail as musical improv, which I think isn’t fair to the Latham tracks.

Lastly, I think the John Latham tracks are among the jewels of this set. I understand if they’re not to everyone’s liking but they provide so many insights to me. They’re like the freakout parts of a track like Interstellar Overdrive, distilled 4 times and running about 50 proof.

 

Anyone noticed the slight (tape?) dropouts in the Farfisa Organ? They're audible throughout the whole John Latham performances. Was it intended that way?

 

He lost me when he made his ad hominem attack near the end to the effect that Pink Floyd became a "dull" group.

 

Oh, I know! There's no question Pink Floyd changed after Syd left, but I've always been amazed at how fast they came fully into their own after suffering what seemed like a catastrophic loss of nearly every aspect of their musical persona. I sometimes wonder if people hear their darkness after Syd left and mistake that for "dull." I don't think it's the same thing. Syd was indeed an intensely "bright" presence, but Pink Floyd quickly settled into a darkly atmospheric space, with menacing black holes lurking where bright objects once shown. So to speak.

 

I agree it's an extra treat, showcasing another place they could & did go. Mason describes the Committee soundtrack as more sounds than music in his book; same thing here (if even more so). If this had been used for the film, and bad, incomplete copies had circulated over the years, I think people would've been clamoring for its release, if not for its musical than for its historical value.

Not something I play often, but when I'm up for it I really enjoy it. I'm glad they released it. Just wish they'd have included that 10-minute Instrumental, too, since it was right there. It didn't need to be one or the other, if they'd nixed just a couple of the previously released items on disc 1. A third disc would obviously have been better : ) and made room for the '66 Interstellar and other goodies.

 

The 1966 version of 'Interstellar Overdrive' would've been nice being on Cambridge St/ation.
Instead we got it on a one side 12'' vinyl for Record Store Day (which is great though). But so the Early Years set doesn't present anything from the year 1966...

 

I was so hoping for that "I Get Stoned" demo.....!!

Or is it good to still have something elusive to wish for?

 

Free improv/free jazz is some of my least favorite stuff overall. Which isn't to say that I like none of it, but it's success rate for me is nowhere near the success rate of most other genres for me, and I probably tend to like it the most when it's the most uncharacteristic . . . because I tend to most like "tunes"--I like the sort of structures, with carefully planned tensions and releases, with balances of repetition and variation, etc. that you find in precomposed tunes. Too much free improv/free jazz sounds too noodly and unstructured for my tastes.

 

Glad to hear more commentary on "John Latham."

I'm still grappling with how restrained Syd is on the recording. I honestly wouldn't be able tell it was Syd at all if I heard the tape without any info.

Following tips from others, I loaded the session into Audacity and raised one side a bit higher. I forgot the details but the "remix" made it sound much better. I believe layering sections on top of each other, or extracting certain sections would produce an interesting clip also. Someday I may try that.

 

The track works well with the film; I wonder if they saw it beforehand or were even improvising to a projection to it the studio.

 

I agree, and playing while watching the film would make a lot of sense. They would then be "reacting" rather than playing. It would explain the sound of the approach.