I’m certain each of us has our own personal experience in relation to Pink Floyd‘s masterpiece, Dark Side of the Moon. The band itself had conceived the album as a concept reflecting themes such as conflict, greed, the passage of time, death, and insanity. Indeed, the album struck such a universal chord during those early years of the 1970s, both the band and the public having witnessed the death of the idealism borne of the 1960s and the emerging cynicism of the 1970s, the tracks of Dark Side of the Moon were a sort of common recognition of a shared humanity. Perhaps, at very least, that’s why the album “remained in the charts for 741 weeks from 1973 to 1988, longer than any other album in history.”
Personally, being a lover of live music, I find myself returning not to the studio album, but to this three source mix of Pink Floyd‘s performance at Empire Pool, Wembley, London, on November 16, 1974. Join me along this journey of musical history…
Speak To Me
[audio:SBN_20110130_01 Speak To Me.mp3]
Breathe
[audio:SBN_20110130_02 Breathe.mp3]
On the Run
[audio:SBN_20110130_03 On the Run.mp3]
Time
[audio:SBN_20110130_04 Time.mp3]
The Great Gig In The Sky
[audio:SBN_20110130_05 The Great Gig In The Sky.mp3]
Money
[audio:SBN_20110130_06 Money.mp3]
Us And Them
[audio:SBN_20110130_07 Us And Them.mp3]
Any Colour You Like
[audio:SBN_20110130_08 Any Colour You Like.mp3]
Brain Damage
[audio:SBN_20110130_09 Brain Damage.mp3]
Eclipse
[audio:SBN_20110130_10 Eclipse.mp3]
Echoes
[audio:SBN_20110130_11 Echoes.mp3]
Line-up:
David Gilmour – guitar, vocals
Roger Waters – bass, vocals
Richard Wright – keyboards, vocals
Nick Mason – drums, percussions
Dick Parry – saxophone
Vanetta Fields – backing vocals
Carlena Williams – backing vocals
it remained there because it is so frigging good plain and simple. peace and love to all you zappa heads on this fine sunday morning.think frank would kick my ass if he heard me say peace and love?
Ve-ry ve-ry nice.
I’ve always wondered, why Pink Floyd did not release live albums, one after the other – I see it as a big-big mistake. I’m sure tapes like this exist, but as time goes by – okay, the value won’t disappear, but the people who was there and who might like it so much would deserve it. I would deserve it. 🙂 Or as tour-documents, these might be important. Or maybe in 2050?…
I have a good recording from ’77 Oakland, but not as good in quality as this one – but I sure like the live version of Animals. Is there a HQ live version of that tour, too? That would be fun.
Thanks!
[quote comment=”23860″]it remained there because it is so frigging good plain and simple.
peace and love to all you zappa heads on this fine sunday morning.think frank would kick my ass if he heard me say peace and love?[/quote]
I may be a life long Zappa/Mothers freak, gooey miles, yet I have to admit that I’ve been a fan of Pink Floyd for just as long, but for entirely different reasons. Certainly, there were points of crossover between Zappa and Pink Floyd, musically, yet Floyd retained a group unity and mythos which allowed them to create some of the greatest musical masterpieces of the 20th Century. Personally, I can understand why FZ played with them:
Nick Mason: Frank Zappa is really one of those rare musicians that can play with us. The little he did in Amougies was terribly correct. But he’s the exception. Our music and the way we behave on stage, makes it very hard to improvise with us.
[quote comment=”23867″]Ve-ry ve-ry nice.
I’ve always wondered, why Pink Floyd did not release live albums, one after the other – I see it as a big-big mistake. I’m sure tapes like this exist, but as time goes by – okay, the value won’t disappear, but the people who was there and who might like it so much would deserve it. I would deserve it. 🙂 Or as tour-documents, these might be important. Or maybe in 2050?…
I have a good recording from ’77 Oakland, but not as good in quality as this one – but I sure like the live version of Animals. Is there a HQ live version of that tour, too? That would be fun.
Thanks![/quote]
I’ve always wondered why they didn’t release live albums either, Balint. Then again, like Zappa, Pink Floyd concerts were really bootlegged a lot. If one takes the time to do the research, and the audio comparisons, I’m quite certain quintessential live concerts of all Pink Floyd releases can be found.
Speaking of quintessential Pink Floyd, though, I would direct you to the Pink Floyd’s Box Set ‘A Tree Full of Secrets‘ which contains a compilation of rare Pink Floyd singles and demos, ultrarare editions, acetates, different mixed editions, and outtakes from session recordings. Torrent here.
One of the first bootlegs I ever owned….and i’ve not heard this for maybe 20 years. Rick Wright’s lead lines are still burnt into my memory even now – that sound of the synth on Any Colour is awesome!
Matt.
Anyone know which singer did the wailing on Great Gig In The Sky? Actually it sounds like a duel in places.
My CD of this is called BBC Archives 1974. The sound quality is excellent. And Echoes is a great encore. Love it. There must be some more quality recordings of this vintage that could be released officially surely. I suppose getting them to agree on anything these days is an impossibilty though 🙁
[quote comment=”23879″]Anyone know which singer did the wailing on Great Gig In The Sky? Actually it sounds like a duel in places.[/quote]
WikiPedia says Clare Torry. They took the best parts out of three takes.
I’ve been on a bit of a crusade for the Norwegian punk band Kjøtt (Meat) lately. Here’s one of their best songs, Kald Feber, with a female vocal section which reminds me a bit of The Great Gig in the Sky.
http://heim.ifi.uio.no/ksvalast/kjott/Kald_feber.mp3
Although they had become rather more sophisticated at this point (1981), it’s sort of untypical (and funny) that a punk band would do this, when you consider that Pink Floyd was a major hate object among the punks. Johnny Rotten of Sex Pistols even had a t-shirt with the slogan “I hate Pink Floyd”.
Waters and co were considered boring old farts, while Syd Barrett was everybody’s hero in those days.
So sorry, I’ll always find more interesting Sleep Dirt than Dark Side of the moon…
[quote comment=”23879″]Anyone know which singer did the wailing on Great Gig In The Sky? Actually it sounds like a duel in places.[/quote]
As I listen to the track here, I realize that I answered the wrong question earlier. Well here’s the band on that night in November 1974 (according to WikiPedia again):
Tour band:
David Gilmour – guitar, vocals
Roger Waters – bass, vocals
Richard Wright – keyboards, vocals
Nick Mason – drums
Additional musicians:
Dick Parry – saxophone
The Blackberries (Venetta Fields & Carlena Williams) – backing vocals
Although I like the Wall more, I must say that Dark Side Of Moon is a masterpiece and should be available in every public library’s rack of CDs for anybody who hasn’t heard it yet.