Pink Floyd - "Animals"

I listened to Pink Floyd's 1977 LP "Animals" this weekend, something that I'm not sure I've done in 25+ years.  I certainly listened to it enough during and immediately after college, but it was an LP I never acquired on vinyl or CD.  Despite not having listened to it in so long, it's an LP that I think of frequently.  More on that later.

To begin, it's arguably Pink Floyd's most "forgotten" LP, if normalized for the status of the band at the time.  Sandwiched between landmarks of 1973's "Dark Side of the Moon" and 1979's "The Wall", and even 1975's slightly lesser masterpiece "Wish You Were Here", with no singles released and song running times of "1:24", "17:04", "11:28", "10:20", and "1:24", "Animals" is a singularity in their canon.  You could make an argument for "Obscured by Clouds" or "More", but those were movie soundtracks and probably should not count.  Even "Atom Heart Mother" had radio-friendly"Fat Old Sun", and "Meddle" had concert favorite "One of These Days".  Maybe "Ummagumma"?  But it doesn't feel right to compare Pink Floyd ca. 1969 to Pink Floyd ca. 1977 -- they were two very different bands in the space of about 8 years. 

This not to say the LP was not consequential -- in addition to providing an iconic cover (for example, see The Orb's 1993 tribute), did well on the charts, and generally had a cultural impact, if for no other reason than its associated tour providing the inspiration for "The Wall".*   It's just this: when's the last time you listened to this LP?  Even though you probably also quite like it?  

Why do I think of "Animals" more than I listen to it?  The reason is a theory that I hope to pursue further in future posts: "Animals" is the kind of LP that rounds out and strengthens a band's discography.  While every band wants to have a run of "Dark Side of the Moon", "Wish You Were Here", and "The Wall", most bands need more "Animals".  And you know who has released several "Animals"-level LPs?  Radiohead.  Not to belabor the Pink Floyd -- Radiohead analogy too much, but I would argue that their last three LPs, "In Rainbows", "The King of Limbs", and "A Moon-Shaped Pool", are all "Animals"-quality: important LPs that round out and strengthen the Radiohead discography, while still being obscured by LPs like "The Bends", "OK Computer", and "Kid A".  Think about it. 

Standout songs: All, but with special mention to "Dogs". (Full LP)

Skip 'em songs: none.

Final Score: 9/10

* Also, the lyrics give us a preview of "The Wall": It's the same "stone" in both "Dogs" ("Who was dragged down by the stone") and "Hey You" ("Hey you, would you help me to carry the stone?").

Pink Floyd - "Live At Pompeii" (concert)

I own well-worn copies on VHS and DVD, but at work I've recently been playing Youtube versions of Pink Floyd's 1972 concert film "Live at Pompeii" in the background.  I've already covered the similar but far more rare "An Hour With Pink Floyd (KQED)" from 1970.  The latter was never commercially released and is regularly purged from Youtube, while the former concert film is still commercially available and also easy to find on Youtube.  Go figure.

This is an historically important film, showing the group on the cusp of their 1973 watershed, "Dark Side of the Moon".  But I just recently discovered that the interstitial studio footage of the band composing songs for DSOTM was 1) faked, and 2) added for the 1974 re-release of the film.  It is this 1974 version that I have on VHS. 

Somewhat unfortunately, the 2003 DVD version is the "director's cut", and nicely demonstrates that more is not always better.  The songs are the same, but director Adrian Maben has added all kinds of unnecessary of additional space and planetary stock footage.  I get it, "Pink Floyd == Space Music".  But one of the strengths of the original film is Pompeii as a character, almost a fifth member of Pink Floyd.  The long tracking shots of the empty Amphitheatre, the mosaics, volcanic imagery, all help to establish the film's feel, and the director's cut undermines the beautiful (albeit sometimes modishly incorporated) imagery.  Fortunately the 1974 version is an option on the DVD; the 2003 version is to be avoided.

Enough complaining about directorial revisionism -- Maben does deserve credit for making a concert film without an audience (has this been done since?) as well as not attempting to hide the small army of staff supporting the AV gear.  Replacing the audience with staff and infrastructure and playing to an empty Amphitheatre somehow captures the desolation of Pompeii.  The songs are split between 1968 and 1971, with only "Controls" and "Careful" appearing on the "An Hour With Pink Floyd (KQED)".

1. "Intro Song"
2. "Echoes, Part 1" (from Meddle, 1971)
3. "Careful with That Axe, Eugene" (from Point Me At The Sky, B-side, 1968)
4. "A Saucerful of Secrets" (from A Saucerful of Secrets, 1968)
5. "One of These Days I'm Going to Cut You into Little Pieces" (from Meddle, 1971)
6. "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" (from A Saucerful of Secrets, 1968)
7. "Mademoiselle Nobs" (from Meddle, 1971)
8. "Echoes, Part 2" (from Meddle, 1971)

Rather than linking to individual songs, all versions uploaded to Youtube in their entirety:

Live At Pompeii: 1972 Version
Live At Pompeii: 1974 Version
Live At Popmeii: 2003 Version

Bonus Links:

From the DVD, an interview with Adrian Maben: part 1, part 2, part 3.

And finally, you can't mention "Live at Pompeii" and not mention the Beastie Boys "Gratitude", in which the entire video is a love letter to "Live at Pompeii".

Pink Floyd - "Cymbaline" (forgotten song)

I'm always surprised at the rare concert footage you can find on Youtube.  Not long ago I found this June 15th, 1971 recording of Pink Floyd performing "Cymbaline" in a church (Abbaye de Royaumont, France) for French TV.  Supposedly it is available on the bootleg DVD "Pro-Shot In Europe 1969-1972", but I have not been able to find a copy.  The sound quality is great, but the cinematography is... "interesting".  I think the idea was to capture the feel of the church itself, but instead it seems like the cameraman can't find the band for the first minute or so.  Once the camerman discovers where the band has setup their gear, it settles into a good video (typical for the era, a single cameraman wanders amongst the band as they play).

I've already covered the song in the context of the 1970 concert "An Hour With Pink Floyd (KQED)" (also only available as a bootleg DVD).   The KQED version is similar, but slightly longer and maybe a little bit heavier. Also, it features an odd 30 second pause in the action starting at ~6:00. 

The studio version originally appeared on the 1969 "Soundtrack from the Film More".  A really good LP in its own right, I have this on tape (recorded during college sometime), but I really need to get this on CD. 

The June 1971 recording might be one of the last live performances of "Cymbaline"; by the time of the October 1971 recording of "Live at Pompeii", "Cymbaline" had been replaced by new material from "Meddle".

It might be my favorite Pink Floyd song, and it is surely one that I can listen to over and over again. 

The path you tread is narrow
And the drop is shear and very high
The ravens all are watching
From a vantage point nearby
Apprehension creeping
Like a tube-train up your spine
Will the tightrope reach the end
Will the final couplet rhyme?

Cymbaline - live 1971-06-15 (from "Pro-Shot in Europe 1969-1972")
Cymbaline - live 1970-04-29 (from "An Hour With Pink Floyd, KQED")
Cymbaline - studio version (with footage from the movie "More")


In case you were wondering, the final couplet doesn't rhyme.

Pink Floyd - "When the Tigers Broke Free" (forgotten song)

I'll just assume that everyone has seen The Wall at least a dozen times and spare you the exposition on the cultural impact of the LP and film. I'll remind you that most of the songs on the 1979 LP and the 1982 film are slightly different, with many versions re-recorded, Bob Geldof (who played Pink in the film) singing lead on some, etc.

But do you remember "When the Tigers Broke Free", the only non-LP song in the film? It is split in two parts and interpolates "Another Brick in the Wall Part 1". The death of Roger Waters' father in WWII and his subsequent absence during his youth influences a lot of Waters' music, but this song is the most detailed and provides significant historical detail. For example, we can deduce that his father died in Italy during Operation Shingle. I don't often reproduce entire lyrics, but in this case they succinctly motivate the entire franchise that is "The Wall":

It was just before dawn
One miserable morning in black 'forty four.
When the forward commander
Was told to sit tight
When he asked that his men be withdrawn.
And the Generals gave thanks
As the other ranks held back
The enemy tanks for a while.
And the Anzio bridgehead
Was held for the price
Of a few hundred ordinary lives.

And kind old King George
Sent Mother a note
When he heard that father was gone.
It was, as I recall,
In a form of a scroll,
With gold leaf and all.
And I found it one day
In a drawer of old photographs, hidden away.
And my eyes still grow damp to remember
His Majesty signed
With his own rubber stamp.

It was dark all around.
There was frost in the ground
When the tigers broke free.
And no one survived
From the Royal Fusiliers Company C.
They were all left behind,
Most of them dead,
The rest of them dying.
And that's how the High Command
Took my daddy from me.

WTTBF was released as 7" single entitled "The Wall -- Music From The Film". As the name suggests, the single was supposed to be from a soundtrack LP for the film, to complement the 1979 LP. That soundtrack LP never materialized, but instead morphed into the 1982 LP "The Final Cut" (which did not contain WTTBF), the LP that pretty much ended Pink Floyd as we knew it. The 7" single was the only release for the song until the 2001 greatest hits compilation "Echoes" and then the 2004 re-release of "The Final Cut". Despite these belated re-releases, I'm guessing that most of us have only heard the song in the context of the movie.

While musically simple, it is a good song and suits the storyline of the movie/LP well. It also hints at the direction that the solo work by Roger Waters would take in the mid-80s.

When the Tigers Broke Free: (parts 1 and 2 from the film, spliced together): YouTube.

When the Tigers Broke Free, the B-side alternate version of "Bring the Boys Back Home": YouTube.


N.B. In case you did not know, a "tiger" was a formidable German tank from WWII.

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.