Friday, February 20, 2009

Pink Floyd - "An Hour With Pink Floyd (KQED)" (concert)

I found this gem while researching the Roger Waters review below. I've labeled it as an "LP Review", but that is not quite accurate. Apparently on April 29, 1970, KQED in San Francisco recorded a Pink Floyd show and broadcast it. I don't know much more than that. I'm of the impression that the show was done especially for KQED, but I'm not certain.

I've always enjoyed their 1971 recording (1972 release) "Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii", and this is certainly similar. While "Pompeii" features several tracks from the LP "Meddle", "KQED" features two from "More", one from "Atom Heart Mother" and one from "Ummagumma". I happened to find this because I was considering reviewing "Cymbaline" as a "forgotten song". The studio version is nice, but the live version is amazing -- a must listen.

I've been unable to find a DVD bootleg of the concert (I would get it just for "Cymbaline"), but there are various portions on the web. YouTube user "FranksValli" has kindly split the concert into nine pieces. The track listing, with YouTube links, for "KQED" is:

0. (Intro)
1. Atom Heart Mother (part 1, part 2)
2. Cymbaline
3. Granchester Meadows
4. Green Is The Colour
5. Careful With That Axe, Eugene
6. Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun (part 1, part2)

Tracks 5 & 6 are arranged similar to the "Pompeii" release. Two blogs, "Palace of Exile" and "Clandestine Sound Lab" provide URLs for getting the videos directly. I'm still hoping for someone to make a nice bootleg.

(2009-12-01 edit: the YouTube account hosting the above links is suspended and the videos deleted, but you can still find the entire video at Google Videos. And I did find a bootleg DVD for sale, but the URL is now defunct.)

(2010-06-17 edit: I've been able to find new YT links for all but "Intro" and "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun". The old links have been left intact.)

(2011-11-08 edit: Here is the entire concert in a single YouTube link. We'll see how long this one lasts...)

(2013-02-15 edit: here's another upload of the entire concert)

2013-11-04 edit:  I think all of the above links have been removed, so here's a version on Dailymotion.  If only KQED/PF/whomever focused their energies into releasing an official version instead of just removing the unofficial versions from the web...

Also, I'm removing this from the "LP Review" category and retroactively putting it in the category of "concert". 

And since I labeled this as an "LP review":

Standout tracks: All, but especially "Cymbaline".

Skip 'em tracks: none.

Final rating: 10/10.

3 comments:

  1. In case you want another place to watch this at...
    http://my.mail.ru/mail/igor.konovalov.61/video/1113/1124.html

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  2. Thanks for the link -- it seems all of the previous links are dead. You'd think PF would spend their time officially releasing this video instead of trying to scrub it from the web. ;-)

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    1. That is sad really, I thought I read a rumor someplace that KQED's master copy of this has deteriorated to the point it wouldn't play anymore, at least that's what I've heard. But yeah, I suppose this is a case of having to agree between both parties on this matter (PF and KQED), as long as the original master is available and can be used.

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