Ah, working on Saturday afternoon. Does it get any better? Of course it does, but what am I going to do about it?I made it midway through 1970 today. At Folsom Prison, Abbey Road, Beggar's Banquet, Band of Gypsys, In the Court of the Crimson King. Good stuff all, but the album I enjoyed most was Pink Floyd's A Saucerful of Secrets. These guys have been so overplayed on Classic Rock radio that its hard to listen to their "commercially viable" records (Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, The Wall) and not be bored by over-familiarity.
I extended that feeling of overkill to their entire catalog and therefor haven't listened to any Pink Floyd in years. But listening to A Saucerful of Secrets helped me re-align my perception of them, removed from all the tired t-shirts and black light posters. It is really an incredible record; artistic and atmospheric without the pretentious overindulgence that would come to characterize their music in the 70s. It was the first record without Syd Barrett (though one of his songs, "Jugband Blues", is included in all its incongruous glory) and it marks their transition from his cracked-pop psychedelia to ethereal space-rock of their later records. I can't wait to re-listen to the rest of their early stuff.
Speaking of space-rock, I never doubted the greatness of King Crimson's early material, but it was nice to listen to In the Court of the Crimson King straight through again. I wish they had retained the same personnel from album to album, because the constantly changing line-up makes their back catalog a bit dicey. I love Islands and Starless & Bible Black, but am kind of ambivalent to the rest of their older material. Damn you Robert Fripp!
Got the Stooges' Fun House coming up, should be just the thing after all this prog-rock. Time to go home. Cheers.
5 comments:
You need to hear: The Piper at the gates of dawn By Pink Floyd.
I had that one a long time ago, but I cannot find it. I have Echoes, which has a lot of the material from PatGoD on it, but I'd like to hear the whole thing again.
I meant Relics not Echoes
I can make you a copy some time. I have a mix of the record that was apparently mixed by Syd B himself. Who knows if thats true or not but this alternate mix of the record has afew little things on it that differ from the proper released version.
sounds cool, i'd love to get a copy. the FF show is on the 7th of next month, just to remind you. would you have any interest in seeing Battles this week (friday) at the drunken unicorn?
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