The Electric Prunes (1965-1967) – ? Fan Albums

My favorite picture of the band.

For those not in the know, fan albums are the attempts of me and many others to take songs and put them on an album, typically they’re made to improve upon something, such as an existing album or to take non-album tracks and put them on an album.

Despite my mixed views on psychedelic bands, The Electric Prunes stand as a very quality example of the genre. While they had five albums before their 1990s reunion, that’s not nearly as appealing as it seems. After the third album, the entire band quit and was replaced! Thus, the last two don’t feature the real Prunes at all. Even the third features the band more minimally, with guitarist Ken WIlliams not on every track. The group’s singer only counts the first two of those albums as being kosher. I wanted to see if I could get a fourth (or third) “true” Prunes album from the 60s. In terms of stray tracks, there seemingly was a gold mine of high fidelity demos from 1965. However, the first session, which yielded a perfect twelve recordings, don’t have perfect sound quality and more importantly, aren’t that good of performances, nor do they have the band’s classic psych sound. After a little bit of fire in the beginning, the momentum of the thing kind of dies out. It’s not the worst thing ever, but not that interesting. I don’t even like to think of it as a real Prunes album. I do have a soft spot for teenage garage bands for all their faults. They can’t all be first lineup Kingsmen.

The Sanctions (1965) – Spotify

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “Boys”
2. “Long Tall Sally”
3. “Moon Dog”
4. “Somethin’ Got A Hold On Me”
5. “Money”
6. “Love Potion Number Nine”

SIDE B

1. “Jack The Ripper”
2. “New Orleans”
3. “What’d I Say”
4. “Chicago”
5. “You Can Help Yourself”
6. “Louie Louie”

PERSONNEL

• James Lowe – lead vocals, guitar
• Ken Williams – lead guitar
• Mark Tulin – bass
• Michael “Quint” Weakley – drums

After this, there was another demo session that I liked more, feeling like the halfway point between the first twelve recordings and the classic sound. The main issue is the low audio quality being worse than the studio songs. There’s also a few studio strays before the first album and then later on a few after the second album, which I really like. I originally was going to make an album of either every stray track after The Sanctions or at least those in between that and the first album, but problem is they don’t gel together at all. Even if I was to collect them, they’d be a very short twenty-four minutes. Thus, I like to think of them as being released as a series of EPs. Down the line, what if they were released as a compilation called 3Ps?

The Electric Prunes – I’m Free (1965) – Spotify

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “I’m Free”
2. “I’m Down”

SIDE B

1. “Too Many People”

BONUS TRACK

1. “Little (Li’l) Olive”

PERSONNEL

• James Lowe – lead vocals, guitar
• Ken Williams – lead guitar
• Mark Tulin – bass
• Michael “Quint” Weakley – drums
• Dick Hargrave – keyboard

The Electric Prunes – Ain’t It Hard And Three More (1966) – Spotify

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “Ain’t It Hard”
2. “Little Olive”

SIDE B

1. “World of Darkness”
2. “I’ve Got a Way of My Own”

PERSONNEL

• James Lowe – lead vocals, guitar
• Ken Williams – lead guitar
• Mark Tulin – bass
• Michael “Quint” Weakley – drums (tracks 1-2)
• James “Weasel” Spagnola – rhythm guitar (tracks 3-4)
• Preston Ritter – drums (tracks 3-4)

The Electric Prunes (1967) – YouTube, Spotify

The Electric Prunes – Underground (1967) – YouTube, Spotify

The Electric Prunes – Shadows (1967) – Spotify

TRACKLISTING
SIDE A

1. “Everybody Knows (You’re Not In Love)”

SIDE B

1. “You Never Had It Better”
2. “Shadows”

PERSONNEL

• James Lowe – lead vocals, guitar
• Ken Williams – lead guitar
• Mark Tulin – bass
• Michael “Quint” Weakley – drums
• Mike Gannon – rhythm guitar

The Electric Prunes – Stockholm 67 (Recorded 1967) – YouTube, Spotify

The Electric Prunes – Mass in F Minor (1968) – YouTube, Spotify

The Electric Prunes – Artifact (2001) – YouTube

The Electric Prunes – Rewired (2002) – YouTube, Spotify

The Electric Prunes – California (2004) – can’t find

The Electric Prunes – Feedback (2006) – YouTube, Spotify

Without Ken Williams:

The Electric Prunes – Return To Stockholm (2012) – can’t find

The Electric Prunes – WaS (2014) – can’t find

Thus, I frankly can’t make a real “fourth Prunes album”. At best we have a few strays which admittedly are sometimes great. As a consolation prize, there is the live album and also a reunion career which originally featured the three main members of the band. Two of them have since left. I haven’t really taken any look at the reunion era. I will say I know there are at least some strays from then, but I don’t know much about them.

“Oh by gee, by gosh, by golly. Life to him was oh so jolly. Dad, what happened to the Toonerville Trolley?”

This is a passion of mine and if one person likes what I do, I’ll feel honored. I like suggestions on what artist to cover next, so if you know of one you’d like me to look at, feel free to suggest ‘em!

My Attempt To Be As Accurate As Possible For A Stars Fan Album Series (& Alt History Story)

For those not in the know, fan albums are the attempts of me and many others to take songs and put them on an album, typically they’re made to improve upon something, such as an existing album or to take non-album tracks and put them on an album.

Various people, including myself, that have tried to resurrect Syd Barrett’s lost band for at least an album have had to make severe liberties. While I cannot avoid those, this project attempts to be as accurate as possible. My currently unfinished other project more so embraces how absurd this “band” could become due to the nature of the recordings we have.

I was attracted to a certain story on alternatehistory.com by someone named Massacote. Seeing as Barrett had a proper output that is also distinct from Pink Floyd from 1968-1972, this project moves the band back from forming in 1972 to 1969 and ultimately dissolving in 1972. My idea was, what would the output look like if the group still formed in 1972? Thus, any material released by these members before 1972 will not be included, as it would’ve been already released mainly as solo albums. At the same time, I wanted these albums to coexist with Massacote’s project, so this could basically represent a reunion. Note: Massacote’s project does use material from the early solo albums. You can essentially pick which timeline you want this to follow from.

Most of the tracks I’m covering are essentially one person’s solo work. Still, I think there’s enough cohesion to make them interesting listens. Also, these tracks at least at the time were unloved, so you could imagine that if the band was working together at this time, they might have been pleased to have some place to gather all these little oddities. This creates the issue that it would’ve taken until 1977 to get a studio album out by them considering how little there is to work with. It is nice that a few of the cuts here do feature collaboration between Stars members, so it’s not as solo-y as it could be.

The real band’s bassist, Jack Monck, had such little presence in available recordings that Massacote replaced him with Steve Took. The purist in me feels weird about this, especially because the actual Took seemed to basically never play bass. My resolve is to retcon the story. Monck may have left before the group’s first album, but he soon rejoined as just a helper. We can also say there are various bassists on the albums. Took would stay on to service other roles. While Took was never a Star in real life, he was friends with and worked with the members, so it’s not hard to believe he would’ve been involved, especially as we’re really scraping together a presence for Syd Barrett. Maybe he’d be used in lieu of more prominent Syd? The fourth and final album in the Massacote series actually features Monck a healthy amount, so we can say before that fourth album he once again was an official member. With the three albums I did, he is still official. There are some other minor retcons.

Lastly, while the first three Massacote albums all use recordings that were on solo albums or are otherwise unusable, the fourth, Live Extracts: Six Hour Technicolor Dream, doesn’t overlap and its material was recorded and given an imagined release in 1972. Thus, we can say that it is the first album in the universe where the band started in 1972.

Here is a link to Massacote’s telling: https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/rock-albums-from-alternate-timelines.369850/page-14

Without further ado:

After the Live Extracts project, everyone was excited to keep going other than Syd Barrett, who seemed tired and demoralized, especially after hearing bad reviews. Despite how uncommon they were, they caused him to be more reclusive. Long-term members Steve Took, Twink, and Jack Monck were unwilling to continue without him. Newer singer Bruce Paine was more excited to do more, especially another live album. He was voted out. Barrett was extremely awkward in the studio, but more comfortable in either informal jam sessions or live. Thus, Paine got his way. The material was not as fruitful as anyone hoped, as Barrett was unreliable. With the help of outtakes, the album was completed.

“I’m starting to understand why [Pink] Floyd fired him.” – Bruce Paine, 1972

STARS – L.A TO LONDON BOOGIE

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “Sea Cruise” (Six Hour Technicolour Dream Cambridge 1972)
2. “Baby Lemonade” (Sounds of the Seventies)
3. “L.A To London Boogie” (Six Hour Technicolour Dream Cambridge 1972)
4. “Ice” (Six Hour Technicolour Dream Cambridge 1972)
5. “Dominoes” (Sounds of the Seventies)
6. “Nadine” (Six Hour Technicolour Dream Cambridge 1972)

SIDE B

1. “The Snake” (Pink Fairies John Peel Session)
2. “Drinkin’ That Wine” (Six Hour Technicolour Dream Cambridge 1972)
3. “Sweet Little Angel” (Six Hour Technicolour Dream Cambridge 1972)
4. “Love Song” (Sounds of the Seventies)

L.A to London Boogie was released to mixed reviews. This caused Barrett to become somewhat nervous and upset that he quit the band and wouldn’t come back. Seeing as the three remaining original members were unwilling to continue without Barrett, Paine left for other groups. Twink and Took continued to work on ideas and record tracks, either for a hopeful Barrett reunion or their own duo album; they weren’t satisfied and got caught up in other bands. Every now and then, they would give another shot at things, sometimes with Monck.

In 1974, primarily after the recent hits by Pink Floyd and T. Rex, interest renewed in those bands and its members. Various artists cited Stars as an influence. Thus, Polydor sought to get the band back together to make more records. Twink and Took agreed if they could get Barrett and Monck agreed on that condition and that he could get some of his songs included, as he failed to get them out as a solo artist. After checking in on Barrett, the members agreed they should wait a little longer. When approached in late 1965, Barrett seemed reluctant, but was a little more interested after a jam session with the other members. Still, Barrett was unwilling to commit to the degree everyone hoped for. This included not writing new songs, claiming he hadn’t done so in many years.

Barrett recorded guitar for the others, often separately from them, but he did provide unfinished recordings of him with Pink Floyd, which were finished by the other Stars often without him. For this album and the next, Barrett more enthusiastically contributed his paintings to be album covers. Despite how many recordings were started years prior, Flophouse Blues was praised for how cohesive it is. Still, it was considered behind the times, despite about half the album having been written shortly before production. The then current members of Pink Floyd demanded to not be credited, as they weren’t satisfied with their original contributions. Stars agreed. It is often a point of debate which elements were by Floyd and which were redone by Stars.

STARS – FLOPHOUSE BLUES

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “Flophouse Blues (In The Mountain Grill)” (Steve Took – Crazy Diamond)
2. “I Wanna Be Free” (The Rings)
3. “Four Letter Words” (Jack Monck – Inside The Whale)
4. “Automobile” (The Rings)
5. “Butterfly” (Pink Floyd)
6. “Leaden Day” (Jack Monck – Inside The Whale)

SIDE B

1. “Teenage Rebel” (The Rings Rehearsal Tapes)
2. “Syd’s Wine” (Steve Took – Crazy Diamond)
3. “Double O Bo” (Pink Floyd)
4. “I Wanna Get High” (The Rings Rehearsal Tapes)
5. “Lanky (Part One)” (Syd Barrett – Opel)
6. “Flophouse Blues (Reprise)” (Steve Took – Crazy Diamond)

For their next record, the band attempted to be more current, embracing more punk, while not abandoning their roots. Ironically, the lead track was “Do It ‘77”, though the album ultimately wasn’t released until 1978. While the band wanted to keep going, Barrett was so disinterested that it seemed wiser to quit while they were ahead, while still first finishing the album. Some stray guitar tracks performed by Barrett were found or recorded anew. While those demos were criticized by many, with one person calling it “Junk”, they were liked by Stars. They overdubbed it and thought it made for the perfect final chapter of the group.

STARS – VEGETABLE MEN

TRACKLISTING

SIDE A

1. “Do It ‘77” (Twink And The Fairies)
2. “Lucky Charm” (Steve Took – Crazy Diamond)
3. “Back On The Train” (1st Version) (Jack Monck – Inside The Whale)
4. “Enter The Diamonds” (Twink And The Fairies)
5. “Vegetable Man” (2010 Mix) (Pink Floyd)
6. “Blues For Ray” (1st Version) (Jack Monck – Inside The Whale)
7. “Psychedelic Punkeroo” (Twink And The Fairies)

SIDE B

1. “Molecular Lucky Charm” (Steve Took – Crazy Diamond)
2. “Junk” (Syd Barrett 1974 recordings by Richard Hall)

Though Vegetable Men received mixed reviews and less than stellar commercial success, it and the band’s other albums gained massive cult followings and were considered underappreciated classics. The group spoke highly of their time, especially being pleased with it being a wakeup call they should work to get Barrett some help.

“We loved Syd. He was the soul of the band and we didn’t want to lose that. Floyd’s song about him hit us like a ton of bricks and we just knew we had to be there for him.” – Twink, 2005

LINKS

1. Lean Out Your Window (1970) – YouTube
2. Beautiful Deceiver (1971) – YouTube
3. Uncle Harry’s Last Freak Out (1972) – YouTube

Below Is All That Is Canon To The Started In 1972 Timeline

1. Live Extracts: Six Hour Technicolor Dream (1972) – YouTube
2. L.A to London Boogie (1973) – YouTube
3. Flophouse Blues (1977) – YouTube
4. Vegetable Men (1978) – YouTube

This is a passion of mine and if one person likes what I do, I’ll feel honored. I like suggestions on what artist to cover next, so if you know of one you’d like me to look at, feel free to suggest ‘em!

Syd Barrett 1971-1974 Stray Tracks Review

Syd Barrett with Stars in 1972

February 16th, 1971 Show for Sounds of the Seventies

The spacious guitar and vocals are beautiful. The “pleases” sound pleading. An announcer says Syd was writing lots of new songs. That appears to be false, so it’s curious where he got that information from. “Love Song” doesn’t get a chance to really take off as this version is shortened for some reason.

“Last Minute Put Together Boogie Band (‘Cambridge’ – January 27th, 1972)”

It’s hard not to love an audience clapping for Syd as he goes on stage. Musically, all you get is a little noodling, probably not even by Syd. Still, this doesn’t hurt to have.

Last Minute Put Together Boogie Band ‎- Six Hour Technicolour Dream Cambridge Show (Only the tracks with Syd) (January 27th. 1972)

Starting “Drinkin’ That Wine” with the singer saying it’s the sort of track you listen to while going to church and getting drunk is a pretty amusing way to start this, perfectly capturing its tone of a bluesy hippie band. “Number Nine” has a great instrumental section. The singer is very soulful, most notably on “Gotta Be A Reason”. Near the end of Reason, the guitar sounds similar to the playing on “Interstellar Overdrive”.

Steve Peregrin Took Tracks, “Molecular Lucky Charm” and “Syd’s Wine”

Syd’s presence is not confirmed. The sound quality is not great, especially for the vocals. The guitar playing and noises create a really solid atmosphere and seem like something Syd would come up with. The entrancing guitar is reminiscent of “Terrapin”. Syd used a lot of tap percussion, like bongos, which Wine has. I think it’s pretty likely Syd is on these. Regardless of the vaSydity, these are interesting psychedelic folk tracks that also feel like T. Rex for obvious reasons.

The 1974 guitar recordings

The 1974 recordings do feature Syd’s proficiency and unique style. While they are obviously incomplete, they do satisfy an itch for those willing to scratch the bottom of the Syd barrel. These prove that Syd still had guitar talent in 1974. These aren’t nearly as directionless as people say. You can detect some care in the playing. These would work as guitar lines of a full song. I wonder who the bassist is. “Boogie #2” has some cool psychedelic guitar playing in the beginning. “If You Go, Don’t Be Slow #1” has particularly warm sounds, though overall there’s sadly too little going on. Most of the tracks could benefit from more to make them last the time they do, but they’re still nice to listen to and not a bad way to spend twenty minutes.

“Boogie #2 (Fragment – Bernard White ‘94 Mix)”

This is too fragmented to get much out of. It’s certainly far less listenable than the original version of this song. The mix doesn’t even sound very different.

“Was That Okay”

This is just Syd saying he thinks something was okay. No music! Of course this is the best track of the lot!

The 1974 recordings with bass and drums added by Richard Hall

A fan version by a Richard Hall adds bass, drums, and minor effects, which brings this to another level, medleying many songs and amplifying the impact they need. Here you get the softer side of Syd’s playing, the jam side, the meaner side. If this album was finished and released at the time, with Syd then retiring, it might be considered a solid and appropriate send off, with him touching on his various eras, while still being extremely solid all the way through.

OVERVIEW

One of the more elusive Syd projects is Stars, a band with bassist Jack Monck and drummer John “Twink” Alder that was only around briefly in 1972. While some of their shows were recorded, none have surfaced. While I wouldn’t turn down any Syd content, these don’t interest me compared to most of his canon because they were playing songs Syd already recorded in studio with Pink Floyd or for his solo work. That is unless there were really some new songs or new sections for old songs. However, we kind of get some Stars material in the above recordings. While the 1971 stuff’s bassist is usually credited to David Gilmour, Monck has also sometimes been. It’s not impossible it really was Monck. The Took recordings probably have Twink on drums (It’s not for certain as Duncan Sanderson is also credited on drums on the compilation album which features them). The closest we get to Stars is the Boogie Band, which has a concert recording where Monck and Twink are on every track, and Syd is on some.

While these later recordings aren’t as approachable as earlier ones, they still are solid, especially in their guitar playing and offer a fascinating final musical chapter for this otherworldly person. For those interested in more artistic expression from Barrett can go to his painting and sculpting. Every bit of Syd is well worth at least a single listen/experience.

Pink Floyd – 1969: Dramatis/ation (2016) Review – Except It’s More So Me Fangirling Over “The Man and The Journey”

Pink Floyd in 1969

Pink Floyd’s weakest two years have seemed to be 1968 and 1969. If you remove the 1967 tracks from the group’s second album, A Saucerful Of Secrets, then what’s left and the two 1969 albums are among the group’s most tedious. A lack of direction and reverse-engineering of their sound makes the once and later great band seem like a poorly thought out Rutles-styled parody that misses the mark. 1970 and 1971 both progressed out of this slump, with some truly great material present, though there were still misfires. Anyone just listening to the studio albums may think that they simply forgot how to make good music for two years, though there are some inessential gems in the mix. The Early Years box set offers an interesting nuance to that story by including rare and/or non-album material. Painting their escaping of the shadow of former leader Syd Barrett far more explicitly.

The 1969 volume is especially fascinating, as it has significant strengths and also weaknesses over 1968: Germin/ation. It damn-near forces me to throw out my bible on when the band was or wasn’t good. For disc one, we’re treated to a bundle of psychedelic experiments that hit strange tones. “Hollywood” is a novel instrumental that features what feels like nice noodling. It pays from being very short. The “Theme from Film ‘More’ – Beat Version” starts with a good groove. The bass gets some time to shine, but the track drags too long on too little an idea. The same can be said for an alt version of “More Blues”. “Seabirds” feels like a modified version of one of the band’s best post-Syd instrumentals, “A Saucerful Of Secrets”. What’s here is good, but just listen to the Saucerful track. They’re so close, except “Seabirds” isn’t as strong. It has this eerie whir that you can take or leave. I’m in the middle. The track naturally benefits from building atmosphere, succeeding better than other songs that force it in. “Embryo” is the last studio track. It fails from feeling too much like an idea and not a coherent piece of music.

Next is “Granchester Meadows”, which makes use of really tasteful crisp vocals and guitar playing. “Green Is the Colour” works for similar reasons, while “Cymbaline” and “The Narrow Way” suffer for the main complaint I’ve levied at this era. The last five tracks of disc one are nice versions of the band’s best long and ethereal tracks. The riffs are consistently really nice and seem to breed better concepts than their weaker experiments. They have simple ideas and engross you with their playing that feels very thought-out.

Disc two covers the live concept album, The Man and The Journey. While it can be off putting that it features some of the same tracks as the groups’ weaker albums, this is easily the best Floyd album between the Syd Barrett-era and The Dark Side Of The Moon. The key difference is that this album has a point. The tracks make use of silence or repetition to build emotions and strong feelings, not because they need to concoct a factory-made Pink Floyd song. The group is very fluid and in-line, which is ironic as the album they decided to work on instead of Man featured only solo tracks by members of the band. Man would benefit from a studio recording, so the instruments could really leap out and maybe more vocals, but what we have is an engaging experience that feels very 60s and very Pink Floyd, instead of trying to go for what could be “trendy”. It tackles an idea the band will return to, criticizing Capitalism and relating to the human experience, though in a different way. The instrumentals capture the vibe of what someone might go through.

A stand-out track is “Work”, which features unconventional instruments that sound like someone working, while being very rhythmic. It sounds like what the never completed Floyd album, Household Objects, might’ve sounded like. Here, the band does versions of songs generally not done very well on other recordings. One example is “Cymbaline”. That track is now called “Nightmare” and really does feel like one. Apparently that’s what it needed to be emotional? You need more than just yelling the name of the song! This second disc is a great series of music that, in a sense, negates their second to fourth albums by doing better versions of tracks from those albums. You could call it a highlight reel, though it stands on its own. You’d have a better experience going from the group’s first album, then Man, then their fifth; than listening to the first five studio albums.

OVERVIEW

It feels like an insult to give most of the praise for the first half to tracks that they did on studio albums better. It proves they still had the ability to be good and meaningful, but struggled to make and showcase something new that works. Even The Man and The Journey does take from some excellent earlier cuts, though not very much. The Man and The Journey is the definitive 60s Pink Floyd project without Syd Barrett and proves they had something going right. Similarly with my review of the 1969 compilation, this is a nice album for a Pink Floyd fan that wants to know what the band was up to, but doesn’t need an ungodly amount of redundant tracks. If that concept album at the second half was released at the time without the audience noises and with light overdubs to give more “pop”, it would probably be seen as a classic rock album and an essential listen, unlike the similarly-lengthed Ummagumma they worked on instead. Even what we have is an essential listen, despite it not being in the most obvious of places. While 1969: Dramatis/ation has some of the most tired Floyd tracks, it has enough good material to be worth a visit. This review should be a good guide for what is and isn’t pleasurable to listen to.

Pink Floyd – 1968: Germin/ation (2016) Review

Pink Floyd in 1968

Pink Floyd has one of the most interesting trajectories in terms of quality. Many bands start alright, get to great, then fall to bad. Pink Floyd started great, went to bad, great again, then finally bad again. Music that breaks the convention is sprinkled throughout. The first “bad” era started in 1968, Pink Floyd’s second year of significant recording. The reason is one of rock music’s great tragedies, the mental decline of the band’s leader Syd Barrett. While he was able to make good music in his far too brief solo career, the rechristened Pink Floyd needed time, despite being armed with a better guitar player in David Gilmour. The 2016 boxset The Early Years 1965–1972 chronicles highlights of the group’s recordings post-Syd. As a set, it’s admirable, giving you the gist and necessary recordings without being too tedious. Those that want to hear what the band were up to in 1968 outside their LP A Saucerful of Secrets should give this a listen. As the music itself goes, tedium is an issue.

The band, especially with David Gilmour, succeeds at long and ambitious tracks that have the time and scope to fulfill what they’re going for. The format of releasing singles is very limiting, which the group soon realized. After two post-Syd singles, they essentially stopped doing them. The first four tracks are those singles and flip-sides, while the fifth and sixth are studio tracks that seem like they could have been recorded with the intention of being singles. Much of these feel like they may have either been intended to be longer, but then too shortened; or intended to be shorter, but lengthened to fit in with their sound. Either way, there’s a sense of directionless-ness. The group wanted to prove they could still be a good band and more importantly pay the bills. The product of that is it seems like someone had a riff or idea that’s very ambient or ethereal, then it was stretched to the length of two and a half to six minutes.

“It Would Be So Nice” in a sense feels like an album. Tempo changes and different sections litter it. A psychedelic vocal makes it feel like a parody of its genre and Pink Floyd specifically. Its b-side “Julia Dream” captures a similar tone, with double tracked lead vocals and air-y sound beyond belief. Neither feel like the band had an interest in even doing the music, but instead reverse engineered it after listening to other psychedelic bands like The Zombies. They turned up the trends to the max. Flutes and organs and everything blast at you, despite also featuring many slow and quiet moments. It’s everything, and thus nothing. The next single is “Point Me at the Sky”. While a little cheesy with Roger Water’s yell-esque singing style, it doesn’t outstay its welcome and captures its mood well. David Gilmour’s guitar and Richard Wright’s organ have a magical way of giving life to the music. The organ somewhat emulates Church music, without taking too much from it. It’s a nice touch to mix that Church-style with psychedelia. The track is quite nice and breezy, being the best studio cut here. “Careful with That Axe, Eugene” has good potential, but doesn’t do much with it. It’s cold and trippy, but doesn’t have an impact. At one point Roger screams and it feels like just another thing there. Perhaps the band realized the error of their ways because their Ummagumma album features a much longer and much better version. The studio version does go past its welcome at almost six minutes, but not too badly.

The last two studio tracks, “Song 1” and “Roger’s Boogie”, feel like demos, possibly being so. You could believe the band were just noodling and playing around one day, these being the product. The very coarse voice on Boogie is irritating, though not gratingly so. Neither are essential, but they are much better than Nice and Dream, as at least they’re straightforward. The final seven tracks were recorded for BBC Radio, some being of the studio tracks prior. While they are similar to the studio versions, there are some flourishes. The guitar on “Julia Dream” resonates more and would’ve benefited the studio version. “The Massed Gadgets of Hercules (A Saucerful of Secrets)” trims down the studio version of it on its s/t album. Due to the similarities, if you like a studio version of a song, you’ll probably like the live version here. The only notable one is “Interstellar Overdrive”, which is quite different from the Piper at the Gates of Dawn version. Other than using a little bit of the original, it’s basically a different song. This ends the album well. The room to let the ideas breathe and epic feeling make it a good finale. Despite the more muddled sound quality, the guitar and drums’ moments to stick out soar quite well. It feels like a creepy and fun little trip into rock space.

OVERVIEW

Pink Floyd has seen better days. For the sake of having the most consistent catalog, it would be better to leave most of these on the cutting room floor. This is still a good document, despite the downfall of making you think that what wasn’t included must’ve been even worse than the lowlights here. Whether that’s true, who knows? I have a soft spot for “The Committee” soundtrack, fortunately remastered by Albums That Should Exist. Those interested in what I personally would recommend and re-listen to should check out both versions of “Point Me at the Sky”, “The Massed Gadgets of Hercules”, and “Interstellar Overdrive”. The rest is best left aside.