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

I was always curious why nothing from Ummagumma was included in the Early Years box. Especially the unreleased live tracks. Anyone know what happened?

 

On Relics 'Paintbox', 'Julia Dream' and 'Careful With That Ace, Eugene' are stereo mixes. What you get in the Early Years box set are the original mono mixes.

 

In a way I think 'Give Birth To A Smile' from the Waters/Geesin album Music From The Body should've been included there, too. The track was performed by all four Floyd members.

 

But not a Pink Floyd number per se. Minor details, anyway.

 

Works was only a USA compilation, others places probaly had this album, but in UK, it wasn´t release.

 

It was considered for inclusion IIRC.

 

I love the actual film version. Heck, the entire actual soundtrack from The Body should get released. Make it a two disc with the re-recorded album

 

And from what I've heard, Waters was OK with it. Dunno why it was left off. Lack of space? The song could do with better sound quality than on the original cd.

 

Thanks andrewskyDE. Re the question of live Ummagumma outtakes - are there any that would be usable? Off the top of my head I seem to recall reading that some of the recordings done for this live release did not turn out too good.

 

There does exist a recording of Interstellar Overdrive. If I remember correctly an acetate of that song was pressed. But either the tapes were in bad shape or the recording wasn't that good (as you mentioned).

 

I posted this in the old thread but I spoke to
Andy Jackson and Andy Murray (from PF management) at the launch event in London. Here’s what I posted in 2016, and Ron remembered correctly :

We talked about the set for around 20 minutes. Some nuggets that you will hopefully appreciate:

• Nothing Part 14 is from a 2 track stereo mix down. No multis survive. AJ knew nothing about the early Echoes with alternate lyrics that was featured on the BBC Record Producers documentary a few years ago. (more on this later)
• Madamoiselle Nobs was remixed in 5.1 but the band didn’t want it included!
• AJ stated that the three tracks from 1972 Brighton Dome show features on the DSOTM Immersion set are the only surviving tracks in the archive. Another fan mentioned the Breathe recording from Classic Albums but he knew nothing about it. He wouldn’t be pressed on the topic (in a very polite way).
• Montreux 1970 is a stereo recording and they had no idea if it was direct from the desk or captured by onstage mics. AJ mentioned RonToon by name and confirmed that Ron had listened to confirm this was not previously circulated.
• Regarding the decision to remix OBC, AJ stated that they had access to the multitracks (16 tracks) and they all felt it would benefit from a remix as it was made in a rush. I commented on how wonderful Childhood’s End sounded - in particular the drums. AJ said there was some rather odd recording techniques for the drums on that album - for some songs, drums were on one track (mono), others in stereo. He mentioned that it was poorly engineered and it was difficult achieving good sound for the remix but I think he did an admirable job.
• He said that the fixing the off-air BBC tracks was challenging. At this point AM joined the conversation and essentially said if the track wasn’t of a releasable standard it wasn’t included.
• AM said that they’d received a lot of negative comments from fans saying ‘you haven’t included this’ etc and then went on to single out Seabirds. AM said that the track labelled as Seabirds was labelled as such on the original tape box. They didn’t change the name as this was how it was labelled and if they asked the band, they'd probably have no clue what they were talking about (i.e. if he phoned Nick up to ask “we’ve found a track labelled ‘x’ is that right? what should it be called?' the response would be muted). AJ had previously stated that the multitrack for More were missing (should have been caught by the live stream as it was part of his speech). During our discussion he speculated that this may have been an alternative attempt at fitting the particular mood required by the film. When asked by another fan about the 1976 songbook which features the lyrics, AM went on to say they located a tape with a Roger vocal but it was inaudible (he didn't indicate if this was the same as featured in the film More).
• AM mentioned visiting the BBC tape archive where they were able to take 96/24 transfers and he would take a photo of the tape box. AJ would then sit and listen to them (sometimes nothing was on them that was relevant - AJ mentioned old radio plays). AM also mentioned the old Britannia Row tape collection from which a lot of material was salvaged.
• AM then went on to mention Nothing Parts 1 to 24. He suggested that there were multiple surviving multitrack tapes (he indicated these were the same as featured in the Record Producers documentary when someone referenced them). He said that he had intended to include these when the project was in development and these tapes were lying about. However, Endless River took over and when the project received the final green light in December 2015, things moved so fast that this was forgotten.
• AM also added that the Continu/ation disc was intended to mop up stuff and it was quite full. However, he said the only two things that were dropped were an alternate remix of Free Four with different lyrics that AJ prepared when remixing the album (is this new information?). He said it was too jarring to include it at the end of the OBC disc. He also mentioned that Roger Waters had given permission to include Give Birth To a Smile from the Body soundtrack. But time constraints prevented this.
• With respect to some of the omissions, AM said if fans have access to things that the archive may not have, they are always keen to hear.
• For the Committee songs, AM said that that only two tracks were included as these were the only ones easily obtainable from the film soundtrack itself and were not obscured by narration. He joked that he wanted to call one of them ‘Do you play bridge?’ in reference to a line from the film but the band were not keen on this.
• With regards to the price of the box, AM said that it is expensive, but its also ‘bloody expensive’ to make. It will be limited but not to the point it will sell out before Christmas. He said that once it’s gone (he estimated March/April 2017), then its unlikely to be repressed and it will be the individual releases that will replace them. He said that he accepts fans will be unhappy about the decisions but was keen to stress that you can wait for the individual releases so if you’re a Syd fan, buy the first few sets, if you want OBC, buy that set.

 

But I assume everyone who shells out for TEY has already bought Relics a long time ago.

 

The box can still be easily purchased at retail price. So it's nowhere near as limited as people thought. Maybe it has been repressed after all?

 

Probaly will be limited like Beatles in Mono CD box set

 

This one bugs me. Because some of those '67 BBC tracks had annoying buzzing throughout that I was about to remove without ill effect in about 20 seconds.

If RiG and Set the Controls were considered releasable standard, I have a hard time imagining how bad something had to be to not qualify.

 

• I'm so curious about this (possibly) Seabirds tape with inaudible Roger vocal. Do the rest of the instruments sound ok? If so, one wishes they'd have included it, a la Beechwoods or even Committee. The 3CD Village Green has an instrumental VG with a barely audible scratch vocal (or vocal track bleed) and it just adds to the intrigue. If it's a whole different, never-heard song, so much the better.
• Still don't get why they didn't just use the Free Four alt lyrics for the remix proper? If I were king....
• I'd have preferred these items + Give Birth to the '74 Echoes on Continu/ation, but I'm probably in the minority and I do appreciate why they included the latter.

 

I played the Obscured By Clouds remix this week for the first time in a while and my God this is such a wasted opportunity because it's so damned bright! I could barely play it, it was torture. Any chance of a vinyl release of the remix with the treble reeled in just a little??!?

I miss Doug Sax.

 

Quite, and the completely different versions of 'Lucifer Sam' and 'Bike', that still linger in the vaults apparently, would have been welcome additions to Continu/ation (or Cambridge St/ation) as well.

 

I think it's a great recording. I actually love that version and listen to it a lot regularly. I know a lot of people say it's a bad version, but I just don't hear it that way.

 

Let's get a deluxe edition of Ummagumma with both complete concerts (Mothers Club Birmingham and Manchester College Of Commerce) on CD!

 

Your idea is as great, but also naive. It's not going to happen. I hope I'm absolutely wrong, of course.

 

If there really was any more in the can from those concerts, wouldn't it have seen the light of day on the Early Years box?

Is there any *conclusive* evidence that there's any previously unreleased material from either of the dates that the live material from Ummagumma comes from?

And I mean conclusive.

 

Yes. The version of Interstellar Overdrive. John Peel owned a copy of it. It's on Youtube.

 

From which of the two venues is that?

 

I have no idea.

EDIT: Search for "Ummagumma Tapes".