FMF©: Tell us about Record Store Day - you have something in the pipeline?
NM: Actually yes, we do. An EP I suppose you'd call it, of very early stuff. Prehistoric. But it's not what we - and one uses the term we in its loosest sense - planned. I don't know if you remember a Floyd compilation called Dance Tunes?
FMF©: A Collection Of Great Dance Songs?
NM: That's the one. There was an idea mooted to follow it up with a sister collection called Pastoral, showing the gentler side of our work. For some reason lost in the mists of time it became my project, and Storm even came up with a cover, one of his better ones. I put in some late nights on that one. Pretty pleased with the result. What they call deep catalog cuts, now, I believe.
FMF©: It never saw the light of day?
NM: Never saw the light of day.
FMF©: Why not?
NM: Well, let's just say that personalities got involved. So when this Record Shop Day thingie came up in a meeting, I suggested we bung out Pastoral, it was ready to roll, and there was some muted enthusiasm - two cheers, I think you could say. But alas, it was not to be.
FMF©: Personalities?
NM: Our Early Recordings is being released in its place. Opportunity duly missed.
FMF©: Do you think Pastoral might ever see a release? It sounds fascinating.
NM: I rather doubt it. But never say never.
It does, indeed, sound fascinating. Or as dull as a pict in a cave...
ReplyDeleteThis was originally programmed to be a vinyl release, about twenty minutes a side. That track list in full:
ReplyDeleteSide One
1 The Grand Vizier's Garden Party - Entrance (Edit)
2 Cirrus Minor
3 Wot's Uh ... The Deal
4 Green Is The Colour / Grantchester Meadows (Edit)
Side Two
1 Julia Dream
2 If
3 Red Queen (Edit)
4 Crying Song
5 Fat Old Sun
6 The Grand Vizier's Garden Party - Exit
I can see why the "personalities" (I suspect this to be a reference to Roger Waters) nixed the release - there are none of the obvious hits here that a compilation needs to sell, and perhaps too many "deep cuts", but it's a worthwhile project, and that Hipgnosis cover is a stunner!
Ol St. Nick produced the first punk records. Damned 45s. He'd want to know where the link is I'm sure. NP T.Rex Whack-a-Mole
ReplyDeleteI would probably give that a listen. (probably). Although never been a big fan of the Floyd, pink or otherwise.
ReplyDeleteFor me, late 'sixties through early 'seventies, they were the band me and the lowlife scum I called friends listened to more than any other band. It was something we all had in common. It all came back to the Floyd. The last album you played before crashing out was the Floyd, no question. They were my Beatles. During the 'seventies, Little Feat were my Beatles. The Beatles were my Beatles for maybe twelve months, '66-'67, which is about right.
DeleteI'm not really seeing much enthusiasm for this, so I think I'll save myself the trouble of uploading it.
Damn......and after hiring all those dancing girls....2 girls for every four and one half guys....bom diddy bom diddy.....and the cake for them to hop out of. I can't tell you how much acid I dropped while camping out at the fake VC village from John Wayne's Green Beret. It was a bombing range. There was live ordinance everywhere. We were chased by wild boar. It was wonderful. Eye vibing with alligators in the bomb craters we swam in. You gotta post.......
DeleteIn a private email, Mr. Mason writes thusly:
ReplyDelete"Please pass on my good wishes to Mr. West, and allow him to enjoy the fruits of my labours! I trust he will enjoy the mellifluous programme of audial delights! As to the other Four Or Five Guys©, they can - cordially - go fuck themselves."
You personal link, FGW!
Golly Gee Mr. Mason -- that's not very nice! I think Mr. Floyd's and your pre-Reagan era music is just swell. I hope Mr. West will not mind if I bogart his personal link. I'm sorry I was late in offering my appreciation and adulation -- I will strive harder.
DeleteI had to console a sobbing Nick Mason over Skype last night. Seems that the continued rejections for this album have caused him a personal crisis, and he's "thinking of quitting the band". When I asked him "what band?" he abruptly terminated the conversation. I do hope he's all right.
DeleteOh, my dear Throckmorton, salutations and felicitations, lad. My very most secret prayers have been answered by receipt of these celestial tones. The heavenly murmurings of angelic wings and cherubic visions of a most occult cosmic nature. My regards to our beloved Mr. Mason. I appreciate his wit, verve and his conception of the cyclic nature of time and it's more heavenly aspects by virtue of the splitting of it's very atoms into 4/4 time. Thanks to you both and to Lucifer Sam.
DeleteI bailed at Meddle, too. I admire Dark Side, play it very occasionally, but the spacey, transporting magic had gone by then. The rest of their catalog is an ordeal in depression for me, Waters' bitterness souring everything.
ReplyDeleteI too, or three now, bailed at Meddle. I've never purchased or d/l Dark Side. It was everywhere. I also bailed on Tull at Passion Play maybe for the same reason. Once everyone got IT, meaning the band had dumbed themselves down enough for US consumption, or in Tull's case tried to hard and people pretended to get it behind psychedelics but were overwhelmed. I say this in allusion to Zappa's 'America craves mediocrity' statement. I sometimes wonder. Hope this is coherent. I think I removed all the extra letters after the cat skittered across here.
ReplyDeleteYou nailed it, FGW. I remember "us Floyd fans" feeling betrayed by the success of Dark Side. Same as I felt for "Born To Run", but I was wrong about that, and even Joni's "Blue" (I was wrong about that, too). "Dark Side" is superbly put together, but "Wish You Were Here" is, well, it's awful. Could never understand why people rave about that. Or any of their later releases. Turgid, depressing, absolutely earthbound, bitter.
ReplyDeleteI was going to add turgid but I see you used it. I did dig Umma Gumma quite a bit so Dark Side was quite a stab. You must have seen the auction of Syd's tool shed on Ebay, the one he lived in, in his parent's back yard. Or, seen footage of the group admitting they never visited Syd, ever. That he came to the studio, eyebrows shaved off and they didn't recognize him. I'll have to give Dark Side a spin. Just the people I knew who thought they were cool and it was new.....and you have every LP from the beginning and every Blind Pig boot, and they just don't get it. Well, that was then.....Wish You Were Here is trash. Flowing on a miasma of waste water down the time event horizon of a bloody black hole.....Catch you later.
ReplyDelete