benedict

My brother says it is mentioned - 20 tracks, allegedly - in a long feature in the latest Mojo but he sometimes gets things wrong!

NB) While doing a quick websearch I came across the following online radio: http://www.vinylfm.com/

benedict

Should've checked Amazon first!Cheaper at CDNow, apparently, before postal charges.... or click the picture for the full skinny courtesy of Geoff's "pricegrabber" link. Remember to consider using the DVDTalk affiliate links if/when you come to buy

(I tried a forum search before posting this but, unfortunately, it twice timed out!)

Jepthah

JMO - the words "Pink Floyd" and "compilation" don't belong in the same sentence.

benedict

Point taken, although - as someone mentioned on another thread some months ago - they did already realease "A Collection Of Great Dance Songs"

I bet a compilation won't sound as good played in synch with The Wizard of Oz film....

I am something of a philistine and often will plump for compilations of bands rather than buying a slew of their albums: I guess with Floyd one could pick up the two or three considered to be the best but I expect that my compilation urge will get the better of me next month: all I have now is a Roger Waters solo disc!

Some say that the random play button on CD players is also a bane because it interferes with people playing albums tracks of older LPs in the order that they (allegedly) were placed deliberately by the artistes.

This would be even more true of the concept-type album brought out by bands such as Floyd.

However, having heard a fair bit of their material, and read/heard various band members in interviews/documentaries, I believe that there is the scope for an inspired tracklisting i.e. where tracks from different albums are selected and ordered in a complementary fashion. Whether or not that is what appears on the compilation is anyone's guess at the moment. So far all I know is the name of the (new) first track: "When The Tigers Broke Free"

Seeing as how they now seem to have trouble producing new material, I have to wonder if this release means the end of Pink Floyd as a recording entity....

Jason

Pink Floyd's music doesn't really lend itself well to the compilation model.

It may be an asthetic nightmare, but a CD with Money, Another Brick in the Wall, Wish You Were Here, Have a Cigar, and Welcome to the Machine would probably sell really well to the casual or classic rock fan.

reverb

Also:
Relics (1971)
Works (1987)

Keep in mind that 'they' means record company not artist in most compiliation/best of scenarios.

purplechoe

I just want Delicate Sound of Thunder to be released on dvd. WTF is taking so long?

porieux

I'm still hoping for Live at Pompeii to be released on DVD someday. It's really the only PF vid I'm interested in, but it is soooo cool

Anyone heard anything about a Pompeii release?

Jepthah

Wow. Saw a half-pleasing and half-nauseating TV commercial on a Los Angeles network selling this Echoes compilation through the (800) # route--seemed to be a good 1-2 minutes long with voiceover and everything. Used clips from Live at Pompeii, the 1967 film w/Syd Barrett, Wall 1980 tour, Wall feature, and of course a medley of the songs.

PF have made hundreds of millions of dollars over the years I'd wager and they're repackaging their catalogue to extract millions more again. Hey, if it increases people's awareness of great music and makes new fans I suppose that's cool.

benedict

<small></small>Unless I am thinking of Genesis, I understand that some years back (perhaps 20!) Pink Floyd's investment manager ripped them off to the tune of several millions and it wasn't small change at the time (though doubtless they still had houses, cars and pension plans left over).

Normally it annoys me when I see re-re-remastered special editions of albums by the likes of Bowie, Queen etc which strike me as "milking it". I don't know whether they personally drive such exploitation or if it is more down to the record companies/investors.

Another nice Pink Floyd fan site
Roger Waters site he has a live album out soon (In the Flesh) and a new album/tour scheduled for 2002.

grunter

When are the words "Pink Floyd" and "compilation" ever NOT in the same sentence? Greatest hits this. Boxset that. On and on and on.

Illinois Enema Bandit

Not sure about PF, but Genesis had a road manager who ripped them off big time on their '78 tour
The live album in question was released last year. We patiently await the DVD version

benedict

Arnold Layne, oh, yes

I think I read SA/CD but typed CD!

Jepthah

PF are an album band.

Box set ("Shine On" from 1992) is one thing. A good value if, like me, you had nothing of theirs on CD when buying it.

Compilations? A joke. I don't know anyone who is a "casual" PF fan and owns any of them. "Bonus" tracks can now be had brought to you by the letters M and P and the number 3.

bigjim25

According to track listing at SamGoody.com, here's what's on the set!
1) Arnold Layne
2) See Emily Play
3) Astronomy Domine
4) Bike
5) Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun
6) Jugband Blues
7) One of These Days
8) Echoes
9) Time
10) Great Gig in the Sky
11) Money
12) Us and Them
13) Shine on You Crazy Diamond
14) Wish You Were Here
15) Sheep
16) Another Brick in the Wall Part 2
17) Happiest Days of Our Lives
18) Hey You
19) Comfortably Numb
20) Fletcher Memorial Home
21) When the Tigers Broke Free
22) Learning to Fly
23) Sorrow
24) Marooned (Excerpt)
25) Keep Talking
26) High Hopes

Frank TJ Mackey

According to all news services i looked at today it's a 35-year 2 disc retrospective (as you can see by the track list in post above here) and had input from all three Pink Floyd members plus Roger Waters.

I think this thing will work.....and be great. Of course hardcore fans of any band don't like to hear songs out of context off albums but this would especially be nice for people who don't have the money to go out and buy all the old albums and things.

Interesting idea anyway.

superspeck

I'm right there with you. We had the Laserdisc at the music store where I used to work and we played the hell out of that thing!

bothanspy

I'm not sure if you guys picked up on this, but supposedly, this whole album is mixed together as one continuous song.

SPY -who is looking for a source on this right now

KnightLerxst

My jaw dropped when I saw the commercial for this. I was actually planning on making a mp3 of When The Tigers Broke Free from the Wall dvd...never got around to it.

This sounds like a very cool compilation.

reverb

Hmm, there's nothing on it that hasn't already been on an officially released CD. Yes, the full cut of "When the Tigers Broke Free" has been released in the U.S., albeit on a promotional CD.

bothanspy

http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/2...pink-floyd.htm

THE GIST
Due in November on Capitol in the USA and EMI elsewhere, the double album includes nearly 2 1/2 hours of remastered tracks mixed as one continuous piece of music. Songs include See Emily Play, Money, Shine on You Crazy Diamond, Wish You Were Here, Comfortably Numb, One of These Days, Arnold Layne and, for the first time on CD, When the Tigers Broke Free, a song from The Wall film that was released only on a limited-edition vinyl single. The 26-track set, to be available on CD, cassette and vinyl, was assembled by producer and engineer James Guthrie with input from Floyd alumni David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Nick Mason and Rick Wright.

THE REST

The career of Pink Floyd — non-stop

By Edna Gundersen, USA TODAY

Pink Floyd echoes in the music of countless prog-rock offspring who have emulated and embezzled the band's dark, ambient experiments since the mid-1960s. Now the groundbreaking British group is reviving those blueprints in its first offical career-spanning collection, Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd.

Due in November on Capitol in the USA and EMI elsewhere, the double album includes nearly 2 1/2 hours of remastered tracks mixed as one continuous piece of music. Songs include See Emily Play, Money, Shine on You Crazy Diamond, Wish You Were Here, Comfortably Numb, One of These Days, Arnold Layne and, for the first time on CD, When the Tigers Broke Free, a song from The Wall film that was released only on a limited-edition vinyl single. The 26-track set, to be available on CD, cassette and vinyl, was assembled by producer and engineer James Guthrie with input from Floyd alumni David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Nick Mason and Rick Wright.

"The trickiest thing is getting four strong personalities to agree on what to include," Guthrie says. "About 80% was unanimous, and the last bit involved a bit of diplomacy. It's impossible to represent Pink Floyd on two CDs, but within this limited framework, it does contain some of the band's favorite songs."

Longer tunes required prudent editing, including shaving 7 minutes off the title track's original 23 1/2 minutes. "We're close to finalizing the running order," Guthrie says. "The band is going over three different mock-ups. We decided early on that a non-chronological order would be more interesting to listen to."

Toxygen

From part of an interview with Nick Mason (long):

The Pink Floyd interview
By PAUL CANTIN
Senior Reporter, JAM! Showbiz
Attempts to mine the Pink Floyd archive for new releases may be close to an
end with the November appearance of "Echoes: The Best Of Pink Floyd," says
the band's drummer Nick Mason.

"We haven't got much other archival stuff left," Mason told JAM! Music in a
Canadian exclusive interview via telephone from his home in England.

"We could do the not-quite-best of Pink Floyd as the next album, and then
finally do the very worst of. There is a bit of a restriction on that sort
of thing," Mason chuckled.

"Echoes" (out Nov. 6) is a double-disc set featuring 26 songs drawn from
across the band's career, starting with the proto-psychedelia of the Syd
Barrett years, through the salad days of bassist Roger Waters' stewardship
for "Dark Side Of The Moon," "Wish You Were Here," "Animals" and "The Wall,"
and on to the latter-day releases with guitarist David Gilmour at the helm.

There have been past attempts to summarize Pink Floyd's career: "Relics"
(1971), "A Collection Of Great Dance Songs" (1981), "Works" (1983) and the
"Shine On" box set (1992), not to mention the live albums "Delicate Sound Of
Thunder" (1988), "Pulse" (1995) and last year's "Wall"-era live set "Is
There Anybody Out There?"

The twist on this collection is that the music has been arranged
non-chronologically into cross-faded medleys. As well, the "Wall"-period
rarity "When The Tigers Broke Free" has been added to the set.

But beyond this, Mason said it's hard for him to imagine drawing another
release from the Floyd archive.

"We really don't have much. Considering the length of time we have been
going, our output has been pretty meager. There aren't a lot of other live
things. It was almost luck that we found 'The Wall' recordings -- they were
half-forgotten really," he said, referring to the concert album drawn from
the tour in support of that album.

The 30th anniversary of their breakthrough "Dark Side Of The Moon" album is
coming up in a couple of years, which could theoretically lead to some kind
of tie-in release. But Mason pointed out that the record's 25th anniversary
was feted just a few years ago with another reissue of the "Dark Side."

"I suppose we could do it every five years. Great idea. I'll make note of
that. And then we could finally package the 50-year one, a five-album set
with five different covers," he laughed.

"There's a point where it would become deeply embarrassing without doing
something new."

But something new -- say, a new studio album from the active members of the
group to follow on 1994's "The Division Bell -- is also a dim prospect.
Although he has recently announced some modest-sized solo shows, Gilmour has
said he isn't keen on embarking on another tour of Floydian proportions. And
it's unlikely the group would prepare another new studio album unless there
was a commitment to head out on the road for a year of support dates, Mason
said.

So for now, the closest the group is likely to get to "something new" is
"Echoes," which is okay with Mason.

"Best-of albums always, I think, come from the record company. Perhaps they
look at their sales sheets and think: What can we do?," Mason explained.

"Having said that, I have got plenty of best-ofs in my CD collection by
other people. There's nothing wrong with them.

"What is perhaps interesting in this one is we tried, not to take a
different view, but we had serious, fairly lengthy discussions on whether to
run it in chronological order, whether to do any editing, and whether to do
any cross-fading. All of which we did do in the end."

The idea for "Echoes" came up last year when the label floated the idea to
Mason, Gilmour, keyboardist Rick Wright, and wayward bassist-turned-solo-act
Roger Waters. Given the history of rancour among the band members, it's no
surprise that Mason says they never met around a boardroom table as a group
to discuss the project.

Instead, the issues surrounding "Echoes" were decided by e-mail and with
longtime engineer James Guthrie serving as a diplomatic intermediary, about
everything from the song lineup to whether to make the set a single, double
or triple CD package.

"I should say it is unfortunately like a lot of group relationships. There
is a fair amount of angst about the whole thing," Mason said. "At the end of
the day, we have to find some way to work together, even with the ones we
have fallen out with, or who have fallen out with each other.

"You use some people, particularly James Guthrie, who we all like and trust,
and they can take a view we can all go along with. Or at least, we can find
out the bits that we are arguing about, rather than just having one big
fight about everything."

Despite all the stylistic, line-up and leadership changes, Mason said he has
been impressed by the level of continuity across the group's career.

"If you take it apart, you would say Syd's lyrics were much more whimsical
and freer, whereas Roger's were much more specific and dour. And yet there
is a similarity between 'Piper At The Gates Of Dawn' and 'Dark Side Of The
Moon.' I think it is probably an element that has to do with the technique
of recording. That is part of the whole business, the change in the way
records were made when we started, multi-tracking, overlaying sound, which
started with Syd and has continued to the present day," Mason said.

"It is curious the band has kept a surprisingly strong musical identity,
despite having three strong musical protagonists. It might be a similarity
to Fleetwood Mac; you go through enormous changes in personnel, but there is
a style adopted.

"It is very much more that thing of someone else taking over and continuing.
It sounds very British to say 'taking over the tradition,' but they were
already steeped in it when Dave took over or Roger took over. They were
really continuing something they understood and were involved with."

Mason agreed to reflect on a few key tracks from "Echoes":

"Arnold Layne"
(first single -- 1967) "It was our first real recording session. We had been
in a studio and we were familiar with recording, but it was that thing of
having a proper producer (Joe Boyd) that definitely made a difference.

"When we were working with Syd doing the first songs, Syd was not the crazy
diamond that he is now perceived to be. He was perfectly capable of
assembling a track as a record, rather than a 15 minute piece. We were not
trying to curb him in at all. He understood the medium and just got on with
it.

"I have not seen (Barrett) in years, although there are occasional
sightings."

"Astronomy Domine"
(from "The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn" -- 1967)

"It is a great piece to play. It is a great energy song, really. But also,
it is abstract enough that it still works. The songs that we found more
difficult were songs like 'Echoes,' which lyrically are more ... I don't
know, they are more part of '60s thinking. 'Astronomy' is ... wacky is too
lightweight. The lyrics are abstract, the way they tumble around. It is a
song that still works, and that is the test. You can't put your finger on
it, but it is okay. It's scary, it is almost eternal."

"Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun"
(from "A Saucerful Of Secrets" -- 1968)

"That is one of the tracks I did listen to again, and I thought had lasted
well. I don't know why. I look back on that now, and I just remember being
influenced by (drummer) Chico Hamilton from (the Newport Jazz Festival
concert film) 'Jazz On A Summer's Day.' I remember seeing that when I was a
kid and going YES! That is good. And having the chance to do something that
was vaguely related -- Chico Hamilton was a little more advanced than I
technically, but I suppose this comes by through influences. You can pick up
an influence without being able to do a quarter of what that influence
does."

"Jugband Blues"
(from "A Saucerful Of Secrets" -- 1968)

"That was a good example of something that was discussed at some length. But
the feeling was it was such a powerful farewell from Syd. The lyrics there
stop being abstract and become as sad and down and wistful as anything Roger
wrote, very personal again. In a way, what one wanted to do was to put
across a bit of the range of Syd's writing. 'Jugband' is a wonderfully
tragic piece. It is very poignant, that is the word I am looking for."

"Money"
(from "Dark Side Of The Moon" -- 1973)

"By then we had developed a style of using natural sounds rather than
musical notes for everything. I just remember searching for sounds to make
that rhythm track with. In some cases, we were taking sound effects, in
others we were creating them ourselves.

"It is easy to sample something, but sampling can take forever to find the
right sample. On 'Wish You Were Here,' there is the sound of a door opening
and closing. We could have gone around searching for the right door. But
what we did is record a fridge door at EMI. It sounded right. It was right
there, it took no longer than sampling. You put it down and it is there. You
get quite good at it.

"You also get hidebound, of course. We made the transition to digital
editing two years later than everyone else, because we got used to working
with razor blades."

"Us And Them"
(from "Dark Side Of The Moon" -- 1973)

"Surprising that 'Dark Side' did so much better than 'Saucerful Of Secrets.'
It is a better album, but I'm not sure it is 10 times better, if you get
what I mean.

"I think 'Us And Them' and 'Great Gig In The Sky,' probably owe a lot to the
non-Pink Floyd element, i.e., Dick Parry, who played saxophone, and Claire
Torry, who did the major part of the singing. It sort of lifted up and above
what the band have done. For me, the interest is the bit that isn't the
band. It adds that extra element to make them as strong as they are.

(On claims that "Dark Side Of The Moon" was written to sync up to visual
cues in "The Wizard Of Oz")

"I haven't (tried it). But I hope someone else will do it when I'm there. I
can never quite be bothered to do it. I can assure you we never worked with
the film when we were working on the track. That would be so convoluted a
way of making a record."

"Shine On You Crazy Diamond"
(from "Wish You Were Here" -- 1975)

"I think it was never intended to be a concept album, say the way 'Dark
Side' was. 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' became a Syd-related thing. I'm sure
you've heard the story of Syd just appearing in the studio, some of us not
having seen him for years, literally. It is one of those very, very strange
things that happened and helped us crystallize the idea that it was about
absence."

"Sheep"
(from "Animals" -- 1977) "'Animals' was done in our own studio in London and
was fun to make. It was a much more domestic operation.

"We didn't have a view of any ("Animals") track being stronger than the
other. Time constraints. I think it was a bit of a tough toss-up as to which
would go on ('Echoes'). As far as I can remember, it could have been
'Sheep,' could have been 'Dogs.' If it had been the other way around, there
would be discussion about why 'Dogs' and not 'Sheep.'"

"Another Brick In The Wall (Part II)"
(from "The Wall" -- 1979)

"I think 'The Wall' was such a big magnum opus, really. It sort of took
various lessons of 'Dark Side' and took them further. It was the most
thought-out, and it brought in extra expertise with (producer) Bob Ezrin,
(string arranger) Michael Kamen, (engineer) James Guthrie. We brought
everything we could to it.

"It took the most work of anything we'd ever done, and contained the most
work. It is not necessarily the hardest, but it contained so much thinking
about how to do stuff. And the shows were such a development. They were
everything we had learned over 20 years, put together properly.

"Even if you are involved in the most dreadful punch-ups with your
colleagues, there is enormous satisfaction in making a record. There is bad
stuff, but the simple fact that you made it, and it is there, is a good
thing. And it is there. Despite the punch-ups, just listening to it is a
reward."

"When The Tigers Broke Free"
(outtake from "The Wall" sessions)

"We were lucky to have that one track lurking around. I think we just didn't
have room (on 'The Wall' originally). We had put everything and the kitchen
sink on, so it got left off. There are probably other albums where bits got
left off -- particularly the soundtrack album ones, but not anything that
could make a piece in its own right."

"Learning To Fly"
(from "A Momentary Lapse Of Reason" -- 1987) "Before the '87 tour, we were
all in Toronto for two or three months. We rehearsed at the airport, which
was a great arrangement. We had a big hangar to rehearse in. And we like
airplanes.

"For me, the nicest thing with 'Learning To Fly' was the background noise of
take-off, which is myself and the guy teaching me to fly at the time
recording it all. Because there was that flying thing, we did something with
MTV where they gave an airplane, a small aircraft away, to a prize-winner,
along with a set of flying lessons."

"Keep Talking"
(from "The Division Bell" -- 1994)

"With 'The Division Bell,' most of the concept was set down in the writing.
It's like U2; by the time pop stars are getting in advancing years, they
become less connected with the problems of teenage love, except for their
children's problems. And so consequently, inevitably, they are going to move
on to other subjects and things that capture their imagination."

From David Gilmour's 2001 Meltdown show:
Anonymous Fan: "When's the next floyd album?"
DG: "Who gives a ****"



- Toxygen

benedict

bothanspy & Toxygen, GREAT POSTS!!!

(The non-chronological fadeout thing is almost exactly what I had in mind in a thread in Other and alluded to above).

The BBC currently has some interesting interview links and streaming material from the album: BBC/Floyd Event

bigjim25

Some sale prices for it on 11/06!
BestBuy $14.99 (hot price)
KMart $17.99

adia4625

I feel lucky to have the vinyl single of "When the Tigers Broke Free". Its cool theyre finally releasing it on CD now. (I got a CD copy from Napster a year ago cause I wanted that song so bad on CD and I dont have a turntable anymore.)

For those of you who havent seen Floyd in concert I feel bad for you since It doesnt sound like it will happen again. I saw them in 94 and it was one of the most incredible concerts Ive ever been to. And Ive seen alot!