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

Yes they're all mono. I was quite disappointed about that. So the stereo masters still exist!? Just in a different department? WTF.

You know this how? I want to believe...

 

This boxset makes me realize that I've never checked out the Zabriskie Point music before. Need to fix that.

 

About 'The Man & The Journey', is the gig from Concertgebouw Amsterdam 1969 the only (full) existing recording of the concept show?
Would be cool to compare it to another concert with the same setlist...

 

Once again, RonToon, MOB and the good people at Harvested have provided for us:



The Massed Gadgets of Auximenies
HRV CDR 009
14 April 1969 Royal Festival Hall, London


Track List
(Disc 1) 39:01
01 Daybreak (Part 1) 06:16
02 Work 08:40
03 Afternoon 05:25
04 Doing It 05:19
05 Sleeping 10:55
06 Daybreak (Part 2) 02:26

(Disc 2) 54:23
01 The Beginning 04:36
02 Beset By The Creatures Of The Deep 08:25
03 The Narrow Way 04:46
04 The Pink Jungle 04:18
05 The Labyrinths Of Auximenies 08:31
06 Behold the Temple Of Light 06:42
07 The End Of The Beginning 05:50
08 Interstellar Overdrive 11:15

 

Ah cool, thanks! Didn't know that. Is this a soundboard recording?

 

It's an audience recording and to be honest, it's not the best sounding IMO

 

If you like a brighter sound, then Let There Beeb More Light or if you like a fuller, warmer sound, then The Syd Barrett Tapes (Version 2). I personally like The Syd Barrett Tapes (version 2) better, but both are quite superior to the box tracks. I'm speaking of the '67 tracks. I don't know anything about the later stuff.

 

Roger's Boogie is possibly the worst song recorded since the invention of recording. Why they wanted to retain the copyright on this is beyond me. They should have just burned the tape and said "What song? We have no idea what you're talking about. Must be lost".

I've only read through about 7 pages of this 31 page thread so far, so forgive me if I say something already stated.
That being said, PF screwed up. They list the Blues that was the unbroadcast encore from the 71 BBC show as a BBC session from 68. They put a bloody awful version of the 67 session on there with a horribly loud high frequency squeal on it that makes it nearly unlistenable. Comparison with my bootleg version shows no squeal, although the bootleg has some gating artifacts from NR. No underwater burbling, tho. I prefer the bootleg. Haven't they heard of spectral repair? I can get (mostly) rid of that noise with consumer level software. Why can't they?

The new tracks from More leave the question: If Seabirds and Hollywood are instrumentals, then what is the song playing at the party in the film that was always called Seabirds on bootlegs? It's a vocal pop song.

I personally like the OBC remix, but I agree the guitars in Free Four are way too crisp. I like hearing the album with some vocal effects and spatialization processing on the instruments. I love the songs on that album, but can't listen to it because it's mixed way too dry.

Being one of the team that restored all the Zabriskie Point music a few years ago I'm pretty happy to find that there are several songs I've never heard on this, and better mixes of ones I have (Fingal's Cave is finally top quality). They also title them to associate with the film scenes. This may make me attempt a stereo restoration of the film soundtrack like the version we at MQR put out on DVD last year. That was a mono mix like the original film, and we had to guess where some of the music fit. We've thought about producing a stereo soundtrack by isolating the dialogue in the film and replacing all the other sounds (atmospheres, foley, incidental noises) in stereo. Now that we have new music, and definitive placement for them, a stereo mix of the film with all PF music may be in the future.

That's all for now. I've only had about 4 hours to listen to this stuff so far. I'll have more to say when I hear more

 

Man, can that Interstellar be that bad??

 

The mono for the live BBC 71 recording is rather annoying considering the stellar stereo that now circulates in those circles they obviously didn't consult...

 

It's great to finally listen to a high quality version of the 1967 Stockholm Show. Has anyone on here figured out whether this version included on CD 2 of Cambridge St/ation comes from the master tapes? I don't have the know-how to inspect the tracks.

Anyways, I think it's a fantastic show. For some of the tracks, the band kinda sounds like a British Velvet Underground tripping on acid. There's no getting past the fact that early live Floyd is dominated by Syd's meltdown style on guitar, with Rick playing off of his antics with his classic organ sound. There may have been others that played the Farfisa, but no one played it like him.

The interesting thing about this lineup/era is that they sound like they are very amateur players, in the most awesome way possible. Roger sticks to his pentatonic/blues riffs, Nick's fills always feel like they're about to fall out of time (they rarely do), Rick's playing is very grounded in his signature scales, and Syd sounds like a fearless madman playing whatever the hell he feels like playing on his guitar.

There's something incredible about hearing Syd nonchalantly strum his slightly out of tune guitar on the poppier tunes, playing the songs probably as he wrote them. It brings a human element to these songs that isn't there on the otherworldly 'Piper', reminds us that Syd was, at the core, a songsmith. I can definitely see this CD having replay value.

 

It's weird hearing the new Pompeii mix. The original was always kind of muddy/somewhat low fidelity sounding to me (or at least the version I had). The new one is a little bit too bright. I do think the distortion on the drums has always been there, it was just buried under some mud and hard to hear.

 

Anyone have thaughts on the new 5.1 Pompaii? The original quad is going to be tough to beat, especially OOTD.

 

I ran it once but not with full attention. The title track at the beginning has a tremendous bass boost to which I might get used to. It is rather the same as with Childhoods End which I had downloaded earlier. But that is the only thing where I might have an issue with. In general it sounds very clean and transparent, positively different. My personal highlight after first listen is Mudmen, which always was my silent favorite on that album. I think it's an harpsichord we hear on the high notes. These sound really come out if space.

 

Song 1 is a nice instrumental. It's in 7/4 time and has things reminiscent of Cymbaline. They should have worked more on that.

Roger's Boogie it's like Frankenstein, has a choral part followed by a guitar arpeggio which has absolutely no relation to the previous one. Happily, they used this arpeggio on "Cirrus Minor".

 

When I first heard this, I was enraged. How is it possible that in a 600 USD box they have not included, at least, the same stereo mix of great quality that has been available for many years (15?) for free on the internet? Obviously they were lazy. They have not even done a minimum search, because even youtube has much better versions than the ones included in this box.

 

Might be a stupid question, but who's singing on Rogers Boogie?

 

Possibly, although there are several other contenders for that questionable accolade elsewhere in this box.

On the other hand, if Roger's Boogie had appeared on any recent Radiohead album, it would probably have been hailed as an act of godlike genius.

 

Odd! I had pretty much the same conversation but they assured me it would arrive in the Nov. 19-25 window.
It baffles me how these were pre orders and they are being shipped late.

 

I love Roger's Boogie

 

Thank you very much for the detailed review.

 

Today I had the chance to listen to some of the tracks on the new box set...I have to say that I am mostly interested in the Syd stuff...as I am familiar with some of the 1967 BBC recordings from several b**tlegs, I was very disappointed about the sound quality of some of the tracks included on the official box set...they sound like collected from various sources, quality reaches from excellent to very poor in my opinion...what do you think ?
The new mixes of "Vegetable Man" and "Scream Thy Last Scream" sound good, but way too clean and modern / digital to my ears...would be great to get the Jenner and Jones mixes in pristine quality from the original tapes to compare with each other version...but I am sure that will never happen.
Very annoying thing is the dropout on "Lucy Leave"...I am sure it would have be no problem to fix that...cause on bootleg sources, the dropout is not there...
And, what the hell, does "Echoes - Live Wembley 1974" on a box set that reflects the recordings from 1965-1972 ??? Sure, now we have the entire concert spread over three discs (DSOTM + WYWH Immersion box sets + the new box set), but wouldn't it be much better to have the full Wembley concert released as a stand-alone double CD / 3 LP for example ??? Mhm...not sure what to think about the wntire thing. Maybe I will by Volume One of the new box set next year, cause the early Syd stuff is the most interesting stuff on that compilation I think (at least for me). I will listen to the new Pompeii remix soon - can't wait !!!

 

Thanks for the review. Very informative.

Question: where does "Baby Blue Shuffle" fit into this setlist? The two boots I've heard insert that track in different positions.

 

thank-you. ill check them both.

 

I heard or did I imagine that it was to remind Roger Waters that they made this.