By Marc Dutro
Inspired by Sam's latest list, I thought I would throw my two cents in
with an album review of the newly released Echoes - The Best of Pink
Floyd. This album represents the first
collaboration between David Gilmour and Roger Waters since the bands break up
in 1983 (the band later reformed in 1986 sans Waters). It's interesting to note that even though
the Gilmour and Waters did work together in assembling this album, they did so
through intermediary James Guthrie, co-producer of The Wall, and never actually
spoke to one another during the entire project; That, my friends, is a grudge
of epic proportions!
The album does an excellent job
of covering all three eras of Pink Floyd, the Syd Barrett years, post-Barrett,
and post-Waters. The album appropriately
opens with the first song off The Pink Floyd's 1967 debut album, The Piper At
The Gates Of Dawn, Astronomy Domine.
It's an excellent song, and probably the only song off the first album
to not sound overly dated when played now.
I heard this performed live during their Pulse tour in 1994 and it was
awesome. This song also features some
of drummer Nick Mason's best work. The
order of the rest of the album is seemingly random, but it's edited in such a
way that one song flows effortlessly into the next. Next in line is another Syd Barrett psychedelic ditty, See Emily
Play which has a distinctive feel of both The Beatles and The Doors. The Happiest Days Of Our Lives/Another Brick
In The Wall pt. 2 transports us from the whimsical world of Barrett into the
harsh realm of Waters. Roger Waters
really only wrote about three things, war, school, and insanity, but he did it
well and this is his masterpiece. The
Wall is followed by Echoes, which is off Meddle, one of their most under-rated
albums. When the band wrote this album
they were finally getting around to forming their distinctive sound which would
culminate in their first mainstream success two years later with Dark Side Of
The Moon. Hey You is next and guess
what? Roger's angry, that's pretty much
a common theme for him. Marooned is the
first post-Waters song on the album, it's just a pity that they couldn't have
chosen another one. While this is a
great instrumental song, it really would have done better here with a stronger
piece to follow up a Waters powerhouse like Hey You. They compound the problem by following it with The Great Gig In
The Sky, probably the most powerful instrumental piece they ever performed and
sadly the last real creative input we would see from keyboardist Richard Wright
until The Division Bell in 1994. Waters
serenades us with Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun next, this is
probably my least favorite song on the CD set.
It's off the second album, Saucerful of Secrets; The band had officially dumped Syd Barrett
by this point and Gilmour had taken his place on guitar, but they were still
struggling to find creative leadership.
Roger Waters was taking his first tentative steps as that leader and did
a remarkable job under the unfortunate circumstances, but the "rawness"
of the song still comes through. Next
come Money, it's one of the only PF songs that I get tired of because it's
overplayed, enough said on that subject.
Keep Talking is one of the coolest songs ever for two reasons; First,
it's a very well written song, second, it features Stephen Hawking on the
intro. Nothing is more beautifully
ironic than a man who cannot speak unassisted stressing the importance of
communication. The first CD ends with
Sorrow, one of the better tracks from A Momentary Lapse Of Reason. Where the first CD opened with a song by Syd
Barrett, the second opens with a tribute to him, Shine On You Crazy
Diamond. Time is the next in line
followed by The Fletcher Memorial Home off The Final Cut, probably the worst
Pink Floyd album ever made. This was
the last album produced under the direction of Waters and every song on the
album is by him. Guess what? Roger's
angry. Tensions were high in the band
and Richard Wright had already left the band in disgust immediately following
the tour for The Wall and the rest of the band immediately went their separate
ways soon after this album. Interesting
little side note; When Pink Floyd
reformed in 1987 to make A Momentary Lapse Of Reason only Gilmour and Mason
rejoined officially, but Richard Wright performed all the keyboards on the
album and did officially become part of band again in time for the album
tour. If you own the album you will see
that only Mason and Gilmour are pictured in the band's photograph and Wright is
listed with the rest of the session players.
Okay, back to business.
Comfortably Numb and When The Tigers Broke Free are next, good solid
Wall material. The instrumental One Of
These Days is next. It features some of
the most innovative composition that I've ever heard. Roger Waters manages to show his phenomenal skill at bass on this
song and Nick Mason gets the honors of the only vocal in the piece, "One
of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces!" Not many bands could pull that off. Another Dark Side Of The Moon classic, Us
And Them, is next, followed by what was probably their greatest commercial
success since, Learning To Fly from A Momentary Lapse Of Reason. This song works well, but in general I think
that Momentary Lapse Of Reason was a relatively weak album for the same reasons
that plagued Saucerful Of Secrets.
Gilmour assumed leadership of the band and the duty fell to him to take
them in a radically different direction.
I think for this reason they weren't able to give the album a focus, a
problem they later solved with the release of The Division Bell. Arnold Layne is the first single ever
released by Pink Floyd and has never been heard since until this
compilation. It's a very enjoyable
song, and very psychedelic in nature. A
unique little ditty about a panty-sniffing transvestite who steals womens'
attire from clotheslines in the middle of the night.
"Arnold Layne has a strange hobby..." The Syd Barrett oddball song is followed by
the second tribute to him, Wish You Were Here, a wonderful, poignant song, made
only sadder by knowing the plight of Barrett's mental deterioration. As if to illustrate the point Jugband Blues
is the next song, and the only song of Barrett's to make it onto Saucerful Of Secrets. At the time of this recording it was easy to
see the toll that paranoid schizophrenia, further compounded by Syd's
psychedelic drug use, had taken. The
song little more than Barrett's rambling flight of ideas against a backdrop of
music. It would be the last time that
Barrett recorded with the band. High
Hopes is next, and competing the album is Bike off their first album. While Barrett is still coherent for this
song his decline is evident compared to the focused clarity we heard in the
open song Astronomy Domine.
So. in conclusion I would
highly recommend this album. Despite
their differences Waters and Gilmour did an admirable job of not only
representing every era of Pink Floyd, but pretty much every album as well (with
a few exceptions). This is definitely a
must for the Pink Floyd fan, but it's accessible enough that anyone could find
something they like.