"Echoes: The Best Of Pink Floyd" by PINK FLOYD – Tracks from 1967 to 1994 on Parlophone and Harvest Records featuring Syd Barrett (60ts Only), Dave Gilmour, Richard Wright, Roger Waters and Dave Mason (1970 to 1994) with Guests Clare Torry, Dick Parry, The Children Of Islington Green School, Michael Kamen, Guy Pratt, Sam Brown, Jon Carin, Tony Levin, Sampled Voice of Stephen Hawking and many more (Nov 2001 UK EMI 2CD Compilation with 26-Tracks Housed in A Card Slipcase - Transfers by Robert Hadley and Mastering/Remasters by James Guthrie, Joel Plante and Doug Sax) - A Review by Mark Barry...

 

 

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"...Learning To Fly..."

A very cleverly sequenced twofer that feels like it's always been there.

 

"Echoes..." takes it title from the side-2-long opus "Echoes" on their 1971 album "Meddle". The genius of this carefully correlated 2CD/4LP beast is that different periods segue into each other as if it was the most natural thing in the world and with the scrupulously transferred muscular Remasters (James Guthrie, Joel Plante and Doug Sax at Abbey Road) - it sounds the business too. Much to shine on, let's get to the crazy diamonds...

 

UK released 5 November 2001 - "Echoes: The Best Of Pink Floyd" by PINK FLOYD on EMI Records 5361112 – 7243 5 36111 2 5 (Barcode 724353611125) is a 2CD/4LP compilation with 26-Tracks. Original copies are housed in an outer Card Slipcase with a 'Peel Me' Sticker, have a 32-Page Colour Booklet and Audio Transfers from original tapes done by Robert Hadley with - Mastering/Remasters done by James Guthrie, Joel Plante and Doug Sax (Tracks segue into the next). It plays out as follows (all tracks in Stereo):

 

CD1 (76:50 minutes):

1. Astronomy Domine (1967 Debut LP, from "The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn")

2. See Emily Play (1967 UK 45-single)

3. The Happiest Days Of Our Lives (1979, from the 2LP set "The Wall")

4. Another Brick In The Wall (Part II) (1979, from the 2LP set "The Wall")

5. Echoes (1971, from "Meddle")

6. Hey You (1979, from the 2LP set "The Wall")

7. Marooned (1994, from "The Division Bell")

8. The Great Gig In The Gig (1973, "The Dark Side Of The Moon")

9. Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun (1968 2nd LP, "A Saucerful Of Secrets")

10. Money (1973, from "The Dark Side Of The Moon")

11. Keep Talking (1994, from "The Division Bell")

12. Sheep (1977, from "Animals")

13. Sorrow (1987, from "A Momentary Lapse Of Reason")

 

CD2 (78:36 minutes):

1. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 1-7) (1975, from "Wish You Were Here")

2. Time (1973, from "The Dark Side Of The Moon")

3. The Fletcher Memorial Home (1983, from "The Final Cut")

4. Comfortably Numb (1979, from the 2LP set "The Wall")

5. When The Tigers Broke Free (1982, from "The Wall (Music From The Film)"

6. One Of These Days (1971, from "Meddle"

7. Us And Them (1973, from "The Dark Side Of The Moon")

8. Learning To Fly (1987, "A Momentary Lapse Of Reason")

9. Arnold Layne (1967, 45-single)

10. Wish You Were Here (1975, from "Wish You Were Here")

11. Jugband Blues (1968, from "A Saucerful Of Secrets")

12. High Hopes (1994, "The Division Bell")

13. Bike (1967, from "The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn")

 

PINK FLOYD was

DAVE GILMOUR - Guitars and Vocals

ROGER WATERS - Bass and Vocals

ROGER WRIGHT - Keyboards and Vocals

NICK MASON - Drums and Vocals 

SYD BARRETT - Vocals and Guitars (60ts Only)

 

GUESTS: 

John Carin - Piano on "High Hopes", Keyboards on "Learning To Fly" and "Marooned"

The Children of Islington Green School - Child Choir on "Another Brick In The Wall (Part II)"

Michael Kamen - Piano, Arrangements and Conducting Orchestra on "The Fletcher Memorial Home" - Orchestration on "Comfortably Numb" 

Tony Levin - Bass on "Learning To Fly" 

Dick Parry - Saxophone of "Us And Them", "Money" and "Shine On You Crazy Diamond Parts 1-7"

Guy Pratt - Bass on "Marooned" and "Keep Talking"

Clare Torry - Lead Vocals on "The Great Gig In The Sky"

Doris Troy, Leslie Duncan, Liza Strike and Barry St. John - Backing Vocals on "Time" and "Us And Them" 

Stephen Hawking - Voice sampled for "Keep Talking" 

Sam Brown, Durga McBroom, Carol Kenyan, Jackie Sheridan and Rebecca Leigh-White - Backing Vocals on "Keep Talking"

 

Original issues of "Echoes..." come in a card slipcase with what's become known as the 'Peel Me' sticker and the windows within windows artwork is a masterclass in references - the cow and pig on the windowsill ("Animals"), the two steel faces barely visible on the inner room for "The Division Bell", the swimming man and blowing scarf for "Wish You Were Here", the bicycle and axe up by the wall on the inner booklet depicted Syd Barrett's period with Floyd in the 60ts (careful with that Axe Eugene), the patient on the steel-framed bed for "A Momentary Lapse Of Reason" - the white-brick facia of the building for "The Wall" and on it goes. 

 

CD1 in the 36-page booklet takes up the first half of the inlay, you then have to turn it upside down and read the second half for CD2 from it's first page. All the lyrics are there, basic album references and guests highlighted - Clare Torry's voice-shredding turn in the beautiful "The Great Gig In The Sky" or Dick Parry's classy Sax contributions on both the "Dark Side" and "Wish You Were Here" albums. New and cleverly placed images fill up gaps in-between - again all of it referencing their back catalogue in some way. And the read is horizontal for the words of the songs, sideways for the LP references and so on - it's a masterpiece of typesetting for damn sure. All of it of course everything carrying the artwork of STORM THORGERSON - the designer so associated with the band and the HIPGNOSIS album artwork which are an iconic as the records.

Compiled by James Guthrie and Pink Floyd, transfers from 1/4-inch original master tapes were carried out at Abbey Road by ROBERT HADLEY with the Mastering done by a team of three - JAMES GUTHRIE, JOEL PLANTE and DOUG SAX. They have even played the tapes back on old machines with all manner of EQ corrections done - in short these tracks sound amazing.

 

It won't take hardcore fans (or even the casually curious) more than 10-seconds to realize that huge swathes of their catalogue is missing from this twofer - the "More" Soundtrack from June 1969, the erratic but frankly rubbishy double-album "Ummagumma" from November 1969, their first real steps into Prog Rock with October 1970's "Atom Heart Mother" (holy cow) and more inexplicable for me - the wildly underrated June 1972 album "Obscured By Clouds" with the hit "Four Sails" on it. I'm amazed that say the lead-in big-synths title track "Obscured By Clouds" or "Wot's Uh The Deal" weren't used - but naught. 

 

On the upside - and for a band so closely associated with the Seventies - you might think Floyd songs from the trio of 80s and 90s LPs would stick out like a sore thumb - but three from "The Division Bell" (1994) and three from "The Final Cut" (1983) and "A Momentary Lapse Of Reason" (1987) sit rather well alongside their more celebrated earlier pals. This is also the very best I've ever heard them on CD anyway.

 

Hardly surprising to find that they begin and end the vault's trawl with two from the Syd Barrett line-up of Pink Floyd - both culled from the mighty-psychy 1967 debut album "The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn". But as you can imagine its the Seventies and to a lesser extend the Eighties that dominate both CDs. Clever segues include the World War II spoken diatribe of "When The Tigers Broke Free" from the movie version of "The Wall" (Roger Waters fronting a Michael Kamen conducted orchestra and choir) which then wind-intro swishes into the opening track of 1971's Meddle album - "One Of These Days" - it's a brilliant mishmash. And that Gilmour guitar solo in "Days" accompanied by the piano and band is fantastic (I remember you could never get any oomph out of the 1971 Harvest LP). That in turn effortlessly slithers into Dark Side's big ballad "Us And Them" from 1973 - that sexy saxophone still shimmering after all these years. 

 

Astonishing moments abound, but none more so that the brilliant sequencing of Parts 1 to 7 of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" from 1975's "Wish you Were Here" - an album I am sure often eclipses the mighty 'Dark Side' in the hearts of Seventies Floyd fans. Straddling  - that unbelievable Dick Parry Saxophone solo wailing away alongside Gilmour's beautiful guitar part. And a compilation like this allows punters to revisit the better cuts on "The Division Bell" like the piano-plinking string-laden "High Hopes" that makes for a weird-but-it-works strange bedfellow with Saucerful's "Jugband Blues" that preceded it.

 

Floyd are a peculiar band - for me a roller-coaster ride of genius and cack in inharmonious tandem with each other - yet as I said earlier - the sequencing here makes you enjoy it all but in a fresh way - no mean feat for a 'Best Of'. 

 

"I'm not afraid of dying...I don't mind dying..." says the mad Irishman during "The Great Gig In The Sky". And after hearing much of this (and enjoying it) - I think even he would stick around for the audio improvement on offer on here. Well done to all the lunatics in the Pink Floyd park...