Pink Floyd The Early Years 1965-1972 -Anticip/ation

Syd almost certainly had a vocal melody as well as lyrics for Down In The Beechwoods as well as the untitled 9/67 instro (No Title/Experiment/Sunshine)...

Without doubt that recording is a basic track of an original Syd composition. Would be interesting to hear the pre-take 1 rehearsal takes that survive at the end of the reel. Especially considering Rick takes part (unlike the proper takes) and Syd uses his wah pedal to interesting effect. Possible he even sings off mic at times. Kind of like Brian Wilson's brief lead vocal between Do You Like Worms takes

 

Hiya Lou,

Almost certain the Jugband colour film audio is the scrapped 10/67 mono mix (logged at EMI on 10/24/67) that was briefly intended for use on a 45 with Remember A Day.

 

Glad to hear you're on some higher ground.

So, if RiG and Beechwoods are on the same reel, any idea why they left RiG off this set? You seem to know not only what is on various reels, but also what the tracks sound like, so was RiG a bad take?

 

I thought the Jenner Mix has the abrupt ending in 'Scream Thy Last Scream'?

 

Are there essentially only two (2?) *picture* sleeves, among the 5 singles? From the image below (which is cut from the larger picture of the box contents, all strewn about), it looks like "Apples and Oranges" and "See Emily Play" are really the only two 45's with actual "artwork" per se, plus the third one (in black and pink)?

Or my real question, rather, is what will the 'covers' of all five of the 45's all look like? I'd hoped to consider maybe framing a few of them, or maybe a triptych of my 3 favorites -- but I'm kind of surprised (from the image below), that the 45 artwork seems to be rather more limited than I was expecting.

 

There were no other single sleeves (during the original promo releases) like these on the picture. No proper sleeves for 'Point Me At The Sky' and 'It Would Be So Nice', just company sleeves.

 

The black and pink one is Arnold Layne. I love that it says "The Next Projected Sound of '67". Hindsight and all, but I like thinking about the fact that that tag line or similar was probably used for a lot of bands, and did anyone expect them to become as huge as they did?

 

It's funny that this sleeve was just released as a promo. In the Netherlands they used a similar artwork with a band photo, which was an official sleeve and not a promo at all.

Here's the UK promo sleeve, front & back:



And the Holland sleeve:

 

Thanks for chiming in, Chris! It's a shame that some of us care more about these things than the ones producing this release. They've been working on this for years and if not for all the secrecy (and what was the point of keeping it a secret really?) we would have been able to help out. Instead it's become an opportunity lost in regards to some of the definitive Syd-era material included and not.

 

Good question. The only reasonable (well, not really…) explanation would be that the live version from Stockholm is more representative of the song than the aborted studio version. Having said that, it does seem strange not to include the studio version to provide the complete picture.

 

If there were the opportunities for choosing a substitution for the 'It Would Be So Nice' and 'Point Me At The Sky' single artworks (the UK version just had company sleeves) I'd prefer the sleeves from the Netherlands (again).^^

 

Not all copies had the soundtrack replaced (mine has original track). The original audio sounds really bad, but we don't know how much of that is from the method used to play it back or transfer it.

 

I would love to hear any more information you could offer about these tracks that you might have uncovered Chris. Fascinating stuff.

Or any other unreleased Syd tracks.

 

Lana contacted me about this a few years ago when they were going to include the JB video for the Mortal Remains exhibition (which was cancelled). She was trying to figure out the unique mix that was attributed to the original video. I highly doubt that the original audio for this film will be included in this release, they'll probably overdub audio that's better quality.

 

Hey, Chris. Thanks. Would be nice if they used that tape as the soundtrack for the film, but I know that's expecting too much. Does the tape still exist? I can't find it in Random Precision.

 

I have a picture sleeve for the Italian pressing of Point Me at the Sky. It has a photograph of some cloud layers. The EMI/HARVEST logo, "PINK FLOYD", and title of song are printed at the top of the sleeve over this photo background.

 

That's really cool she was trying to figure out the correct mix.

 

Same here. Just recently revisited book (what a great book!) and hasn't find it either. But IO take 6 that was used on Piper 3 CD wasn't even mentioned as existing in the book, but they have discovered it. Which is again proof - get your lazy ass off sofa and make proper work instead saying "we don't have anything".

 

Mine either. I actually stumbled upon two sources of original audio and both are beyond atrocious (although rehearsal tape from Blackhill office sounds even worse). I originally uploaded original version on youtube about 4 or 5 years ago...

 

But it is in the book! It's on pages 35 and 37. Or do you mean the tape was assumed to be lost?

 

Yes, but you must see appendix about tapes that are still at EMI. IO is not listed as existing on the reels.

 

Yes, thanks. I realised that and edited my post, but you beat me to it

 

I imagine that comes from compilation reel with early mixes. This is vintage mono mix, not direct take from multitrack that was remixed in 2007. That version is still my favourite, just smokes with punk intensity.

 

Yes, but I meant all the early UK singles, except the sleeves made for the promo singles.

 

Great posts recently; many thanks to all. So, as I understand it, the main gaps in the Syd stuff as we know so far are as follows:

• The 1966 demo of Interstellar Overdrive is missing. Nobody knows why, but perhaps there is a rights issue or it was otherwise deemed not important enough. It does circulate unofficially in excellent quality anyway.
• Multis exist for the Arnold Layne/Candy and a Currant Bun single, but no attempts have been made to capitalize on that via new stereo mixes or alternate mixes and so forth. It is known that Joe Boyd is vehemently against this idea. All I can say to that is gee, I wish he didn’t have that view. But he’s Joe Boyd. So he gets to have any view he wants. Whether or not Boyd’s wishes have influenced the compilers of the box set is unknown.
• Multiple alternate takes and mix-downs from the Piper At The Gates Of Dawn sessions remain in the vault. As far as fans know, these items exist, but we do not know if they were auditioned for this release, and if so, why they were rejected. Are the tapes in bad condition? Are the takes simply deemed not interesting enough or unusable? Once again, here is the full list (apologies for the redundancy, but it has been many pages since it last appeared and I figured what the hell):
  • Bike (RM1, alternate vocals/lyrics, no harmonium)
  • Lucifer Sam (RM1, early version)
  • Chapter 24 (alt take 5)
  • Pow R Toc H (RM1, alt mix)
  • The Gnome (alt mix)
  • Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk (alt mix)
  • Interstellar Overdrive (rough mix, take 2 unedited)
• From the August reel we are getting “In The Beechwoods” but not “Reaction In G” (“Instrumental” on the tape). Again, we can only speculate on the reason for the omission.
• The September recording logged as “No Title” (bootlegged as “Sunshine” or “Experiment”) has been omitted. There has been speculation that it might be present under one of the John Latham recordings, but as I understand it, we are now sure that is not the case (No Title is from September, whereas John Latham is from October 20 at De Lane Lea Studio). Correct?
• The September BBC session for the Top Gear show is almost certainly sourced from an inferior BBC copy, and not from the Bernie Andrews high-quality recording that we know exists. It is unclear what if any efforts were made to remedy this, but it appears none (as far as we know). My personal hope is that all egos will be pushed aside at some point enough to ultimately get this out to the fans for purchase, even if further down the line.
• Other late-1967 alternate takes remain in the vault. As with the above-listed Piper recordings, we think they exist, but do not know why they have been omitted:
  • Jugband Blues (alternate overdubs)
  • Vegetable Man (alternate takes)
  • Paintbox (early version)
  • Remember a Day (alternate mono mix)

Oh, and there's also the mono version of the A Saucerful Of Secrets LP.

Is that an accurate summary? Any additions?

Footnote #1: Chris M, very glad to see you back contributing and are high and dry. Hope the hit to your CD collection isn’t too devastating.

Footnote #2: what does “RM” stand for? I think I’ve seen that referenced with Beatles recordings too, but I’ve never seen it anywhere else, and it proves quite un-Googleable…would like to know what everyone else seems to know already…