The Floyd
Posted by: Kevin-W on 05 December 2002
Dunno about anyone else, but I've got a soft spot for Ye Olde Pinke Floyde. First ggot into 'em in 76, they were the first band I ever liked, so it's a bit like your first girlfiend - you never quite get over it.
Mind you, they'e produced some rot over the years, namely A Momentary Lapse Of eason, The Wall (better as stage show than an album), Atom Heart Mother and Obscured By Clouds.
I think Animals is a really underrated album, but my fave is, I tthink, Ummagumma. It's pretty adventurous for a 1969 mainstream LP, and a llot more listenable than John & Yoko's avant-garde noodlings. And isn't the live album (Astronomy Domine and Careful With hat Axe Eugene especially) the best tthing they ever did post-Barrett.
You can't fault Echoes or Shine You Crazy Diamond either.
What does everyone else think?
Kevin
Mind you, they'e produced some rot over the years, namely A Momentary Lapse Of eason, The Wall (better as stage show than an album), Atom Heart Mother and Obscured By Clouds.
I think Animals is a really underrated album, but my fave is, I tthink, Ummagumma. It's pretty adventurous for a 1969 mainstream LP, and a llot more listenable than John & Yoko's avant-garde noodlings. And isn't the live album (Astronomy Domine and Careful With hat Axe Eugene especially) the best tthing they ever did post-Barrett.
You can't fault Echoes or Shine You Crazy Diamond either.
What does everyone else think?
Kevin
Garyi - acid came a couple of years later ... by that time it was Amon Duul II or nothing 
With Saucerful, it was the descending organ bit with mellotron accompaniment at the end of the title track that did it for me [anything with mellotrons does .. I'm a mellotron pervert] - seemed almost spiritual, though with hindsight I can see it's Roger stretching his portentousness muscles for the years to come. BTW, my CD is awful - EMI are usually reliable with mastering, but this sounds very thin, esp. compared to Piper. Maybe they were just trying to overdub too much. How's your vinyl - noticeably worse than any of the other early ones? I've got one of the initial CD issues, not the newer 'original mastertape' ones, though that's never a guarantee of anything, as we know.
I suppose I'm basically a Syd Barrett nut. Piper At The Gates Of Dawn could be by a different group, and the Barrett solo albums are more of a followup than Saucerful is, except for the instrumentation. Oddly this didn't seem apparent at the time. It's interesting to wonder what would have happened if it had been Roger rather than Syd who had the nasty turn. I suspect a couple of blinder albums and then oblivion - Roger was the one with the long term vision, I suspect. Anyway, I recommend persevering with Piper - it does get to you eventually, it's just a bit spikier. Also, how do you rate More? To me, this seems to embody the best of Rog - spacey, but unpretentious. Being a soundtrack, it doesn't hang together that well, but eventually I think it works out. I would love to get my hands on the complete soundtrack to Zabriskie Point which was composed but never issued. It must be a boot somewhere. Ditto Live At Pompeii. As the film exists, why has the music never been issued? And where's the DVD?
Incidentally, you were bemoaning that you'd got stuck a few weeks ago. Writing this has brought back a few gems from ths period which you might uncover in a lucky boot. Some are probably collector's items and appropriately shrinkwrapped, but you never know. Apologies if these have been mentioned - memory's the first thing to go for us acid casualties. Anyway:
Kevin Ayers: Joy of A Toy & Shooting At The Moon [esp the former - should be a treat on a good system. Later Island stuff isn't as good]
East Of Eden: Mercator Projected & S.N.A.F.U. [Decca/Deram superb production values - I like the first, you'll probably prefer the second. They look dickheads on the cover - don't be put off]
Caravan: 1st album on Verve. We all know about the others, but this has a completely different sound, probably a house producer with attitude. 'Gandalf's Garden', my coffee table mag of choice at the time [there was a matching shop at World's End where the assistants wore robes and you could buy trepanning instruction manuals and kit!] said you could 'taste the sand of desert blankets' which you possibly can.
Comus: again two albums - one on Dawn, the other on Virgin. I think the Virgin one's better.
Quintessence - any but the first [just called Quintessence]which doesn't do it, though the cover's amazing.
Pretty Things: SF Sorow, but especially Parachute - both Norman Smith produced, like early Floyd [did you see him on the EMI documentary last week - seemed to treat Floyd with contempt, rather sadly - still he knew what he was doing with the knobs] talking of knobs, Pretty Things' lead singer has now decided he's gay, BTW [bit late if you ask me, as now no oil painting to put it mildly] and bizarrely has tied hitting on me at home of mutual friend - what do you say? Nothing really, except show him the sofa. But enough name dropping, the music's excellent and Parachutes compares v. well with same period Floyd.
and slightly later ....
Quantum Jump - two albums, I think on some Decca offshoot [and thus demo sound] Head honcho was Rupert Hine, whose solo albums on A&M from the 80's are also brill. His girlfriend wrote the words, and she was very good at it.
Jade Warrior: any - heard a reissue recently [fab 2 CD complete Island set] and was amazed at how good they are - really prescient [sort of proggy/ambient/world].. at the time I thought they were a bit bland, but I couldn't have been more wrong. They weren't popular at the time, although there were a lot of copies of the first one around, and I don't think they're that sought after even now - you stand a fair chance of nabbing one of these.
much later ....
How do you feel about 1979-1983 powerpop? The Motors / Yachts / Original Mirrors & pre synth duo syth duo stuff like Dalek I Love You / Fad Gadget have a certain charm - the first Orchestral Manoeuvres album is wonderful, even though the rest aren't.
Funnyfarm - there's definitely a Saucerful one as well, I've seen it. I suspect that the remixes might not all be by the same people, which would account for the different mixes on Absolutely Ambient. Those master tapes must have been scuttling in and out of EMI like yoyos.
throb
[This message was edited by throbnorth on SATURDAY 07 December 2002 at 17:19.]
With Saucerful, it was the descending organ bit with mellotron accompaniment at the end of the title track that did it for me [anything with mellotrons does .. I'm a mellotron pervert] - seemed almost spiritual, though with hindsight I can see it's Roger stretching his portentousness muscles for the years to come. BTW, my CD is awful - EMI are usually reliable with mastering, but this sounds very thin, esp. compared to Piper. Maybe they were just trying to overdub too much. How's your vinyl - noticeably worse than any of the other early ones? I've got one of the initial CD issues, not the newer 'original mastertape' ones, though that's never a guarantee of anything, as we know.
I suppose I'm basically a Syd Barrett nut. Piper At The Gates Of Dawn could be by a different group, and the Barrett solo albums are more of a followup than Saucerful is, except for the instrumentation. Oddly this didn't seem apparent at the time. It's interesting to wonder what would have happened if it had been Roger rather than Syd who had the nasty turn. I suspect a couple of blinder albums and then oblivion - Roger was the one with the long term vision, I suspect. Anyway, I recommend persevering with Piper - it does get to you eventually, it's just a bit spikier. Also, how do you rate More? To me, this seems to embody the best of Rog - spacey, but unpretentious. Being a soundtrack, it doesn't hang together that well, but eventually I think it works out. I would love to get my hands on the complete soundtrack to Zabriskie Point which was composed but never issued. It must be a boot somewhere. Ditto Live At Pompeii. As the film exists, why has the music never been issued? And where's the DVD?
Incidentally, you were bemoaning that you'd got stuck a few weeks ago. Writing this has brought back a few gems from ths period which you might uncover in a lucky boot. Some are probably collector's items and appropriately shrinkwrapped, but you never know. Apologies if these have been mentioned - memory's the first thing to go for us acid casualties. Anyway:
Kevin Ayers: Joy of A Toy & Shooting At The Moon [esp the former - should be a treat on a good system. Later Island stuff isn't as good]
East Of Eden: Mercator Projected & S.N.A.F.U. [Decca/Deram superb production values - I like the first, you'll probably prefer the second. They look dickheads on the cover - don't be put off]
Caravan: 1st album on Verve. We all know about the others, but this has a completely different sound, probably a house producer with attitude. 'Gandalf's Garden', my coffee table mag of choice at the time [there was a matching shop at World's End where the assistants wore robes and you could buy trepanning instruction manuals and kit!] said you could 'taste the sand of desert blankets' which you possibly can.
Comus: again two albums - one on Dawn, the other on Virgin. I think the Virgin one's better.
Quintessence - any but the first [just called Quintessence]which doesn't do it, though the cover's amazing.
Pretty Things: SF Sorow, but especially Parachute - both Norman Smith produced, like early Floyd [did you see him on the EMI documentary last week - seemed to treat Floyd with contempt, rather sadly - still he knew what he was doing with the knobs] talking of knobs, Pretty Things' lead singer has now decided he's gay, BTW [bit late if you ask me, as now no oil painting to put it mildly] and bizarrely has tied hitting on me at home of mutual friend - what do you say? Nothing really, except show him the sofa. But enough name dropping, the music's excellent and Parachutes compares v. well with same period Floyd.
and slightly later ....
Quantum Jump - two albums, I think on some Decca offshoot [and thus demo sound] Head honcho was Rupert Hine, whose solo albums on A&M from the 80's are also brill. His girlfriend wrote the words, and she was very good at it.
Jade Warrior: any - heard a reissue recently [fab 2 CD complete Island set] and was amazed at how good they are - really prescient [sort of proggy/ambient/world].. at the time I thought they were a bit bland, but I couldn't have been more wrong. They weren't popular at the time, although there were a lot of copies of the first one around, and I don't think they're that sought after even now - you stand a fair chance of nabbing one of these.
much later ....
How do you feel about 1979-1983 powerpop? The Motors / Yachts / Original Mirrors & pre synth duo syth duo stuff like Dalek I Love You / Fad Gadget have a certain charm - the first Orchestral Manoeuvres album is wonderful, even though the rest aren't.
Funnyfarm - there's definitely a Saucerful one as well, I've seen it. I suspect that the remixes might not all be by the same people, which would account for the different mixes on Absolutely Ambient. Those master tapes must have been scuttling in and out of EMI like yoyos.
throb
[This message was edited by throbnorth on SATURDAY 07 December 2002 at 17:19.]
I agree with most of the comments in this thread about the trancxe remixes - some of 'em are a darn sight better than the originals! 
More is also underrrated - one of the Floyd's most diverse records, too, with bits of folk, space-rock, trippy stuff, odd attempts at/pastiches of ethno-authenticity, hell, there are even two heavy metal tracks!
I agree wholeheartedly with everyone who says that the PF legacy has been really badly trated (by the band and their manager Steve O'Rourke, I suspect, rather than EMI). There are grillions of classic boots out there, some of them in very good sound quality; that's not to mention the fab BBC sessions AND the two unreleased, but oft-bootlegged, Scream Thy Last Scream and Vegetable Man.
So come on chaps, what about a vote for an Anthology-style box with all unreleased stuff in 2003, rather than the umpteenth re-release of DSOTM (30th anniversary SACD etc yawn)?
Anyone agree?
More is also underrrated - one of the Floyd's most diverse records, too, with bits of folk, space-rock, trippy stuff, odd attempts at/pastiches of ethno-authenticity, hell, there are even two heavy metal tracks!
I agree wholeheartedly with everyone who says that the PF legacy has been really badly trated (by the band and their manager Steve O'Rourke, I suspect, rather than EMI). There are grillions of classic boots out there, some of them in very good sound quality; that's not to mention the fab BBC sessions AND the two unreleased, but oft-bootlegged, Scream Thy Last Scream and Vegetable Man.
So come on chaps, what about a vote for an Anthology-style box with all unreleased stuff in 2003, rather than the umpteenth re-release of DSOTM (30th anniversary SACD etc yawn)?
Anyone agree?