Pink Floyd - The early years 1965-1972 box set

[Wolfpack]

How could I forget this Barrett exclusion:
No 'One in a Million'!! (Live Copenhagen, September 1967)

[jtull]

How could I forget this Barrett exclusion:
No 'One in a Million'!! (Live Copenhagen, September 1967)

They excluded that song maybe because of 'One in a Million' morphed into a 'Corporal Clegg' later on?

[RonBaker2003]

I pre-ordered mine at the Pink Floyd site. It was $550 +$23 for postage. I can't wait until it gets here...the phone gets turned off and everything else gets ignored until I get through all of it...and I'm playing it in order...and saving the 45s till last! Can't wait to get my hands on all that memorabilia! wow!

[MoreOrLess]

I am stunned by this release, I am not someone who has heard much of the bootlegs, so a lot of this will be new for me, for me all my dreams have come true, not sure I can afford the box set though, so I will be happy with the 2 CD release, then buy them individually next year. And I wonder if we will get another box set late next year too of mid era Pink Floyd

My guess is these releases show the "apprenticeship" of the band as they strived to make DSOTM and although there's probably more stuff, I can't see it getting the same treatment as this round.
From the six things available next year, my preferences are now Cambridge St/ation, Dramatis/ation, Devi/ation, Obfusc/ation, Germination and Reverberation. (My Tablet kept auto correcting to spell the words as they are on the discs!)

And I too was never as big for bootlegs myself. But when I saw the picture quality in their YouTube...

I'm not setting a time limit of getting those discs, but that's the order just from looking at the list. Plus the added expense of magazine appearances and radio interviews we'll get.
You can't trust the media to report Showbiz stories properly, let alone the truth.
Sky News reported the box and then reported fans were unhappy at the price! Conveniently ignoring the plan to release separately printed right before the list!

Never rule anything out of course but it does seem doubtful we'll get a release like this for the latter years for a number of reasons...

1.Theres already been a lot of extra material for those years released in more recent years.
2.Theres likely less in the vault for those years as the band weren't doing BBC sessions, filmed festival appearances, TV or generally playing around with different ideas as much.
3.Your taking a much more mainstream fanbase(or indeed an audiophile one) for the peak years meaning if anything does come out its likely to be in smaller packages that will potentially sell in larger amounts.

The lack of any unknown live recordings on this or previous boxsets does make it seem unlikely but I think after this the main "hole" is actually a recording of the 77 tour and I think that would sell very well just as a 2CD release.

I suspect your correct in terms of which sub releases will get the most attention, 65-67, 69, 70, 68, 71 and 72 in that order I'd say, the Barret era studio stuff, the Man/Journey concert and the Zabriskie Point outtakes are probably what's going to get the most attention.

[MoreOrLess]

I take it I'm correct in thinking that each years's multi disk package will be released separately rather than each individual disk?

65-67 - 2 CD, 1 DVD, 1 BR
68 - 1 CD, 1 DVD, 1 BR
69 - 2 CD, 1 DVD, 1 BR
70 - 2 CD, 2 DVD, 1 BR
71 - 1 CD, 1 DVD, 1 BR
72 - 1 CD, 1 DVD, 1 BR

or perhaps maybe just versions with DVD's? or a choice between DVD's and BR's?

[Hadrian]

I have a theory as to why we are getting this huge box set in the first place.

At first I thought it was envisioned as a golden jubilee for the band, to celebrate 50 years of Pink Floyd, but clearly there is no "Pink Floyd 50" marketing campaign out there - plus if that had been the case, the box set would have been released in October or November 2015.

I think that this box set is simply a grumbling resignation in the face of the current copyright laws; without the rule about things going into public domain in the UK after 50 years, this would've simply stayed in the vaults. The problem showed up in 2015 for the first time, and they faced the prospect of revisiting the problem every year from 2015 onward. Thus they decided to dump everything up to 1973 in one go (and now there is nothing to worry about until 2023).

I also think that 1965: Their First Recordings, which is included in the box set, came out last year because they had to do something with these earliest recordings but the box set was not ready (which illustrates the forced nature of the whole thing).

I think that we are simply benefiting from the copyright rules here, that the band is forced into action, and for this reason these releases have a hint of a f*ck you as well, expressed both in those unannounced 1050 vinyl copies in 2015, and a ridiculous price tag in 2016.

[RunForPresident]

Just a heads up. If you order the set from Amazon UK it costs $420 shipped to the US. Significantly cheaper than the $700 from Amazon US.

[Hadrian]

Here are some content details from Glenn Povey's latest book (The Complete Pink Floyd - The Ultimate Reference, 2016) with regards to Syd Barrett era (October 1965 to April 1968), and concerning completely unreleased tracks:

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
01) She Was a Millionaire (basic track recorded on 18 April 1967, Takes 1-3)

Album notes: Remarkably the sessions produced just two unreleased outtakes: a cross-fade link between Bike and Interstellar Overdrive, which indicates a different running order was originally conceived, and a track She Was a Millionaire. Although the track was abandoned by Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett attempted, but failed, to revive it during sessions for his second solo album, Barrett.

A Saucerful of Secrets
01) Scream Thy Last Scream (basic track recorded on 7 August 1967, Take 4; unspecified recordings overdubbed onto Take 4 on 20 December 1967; vocals overdubbed onto Take 4 on 11 January 1968)
02) Reaction in G (recorded on 15 and 16 August 1967; Takes unknown)
03) Vegetable Man (recorded on 9, 10 and 11 October 1967; Takes unknown)
04) John Latham (recorded 20 October 1967; Takes unknown)
05) Instrumental (Recorded 20 October 1967, Take 1)
06) In The Beechwoods (recorded 20 October 1967, Takes 2-5)
07) Early Morning Henry (recorded 23 October 1967, Take 1)
08) The Boppin' Sound (recorded on 13 February 1968, Take 1; remixed on 13 February 1968, RM1)
09) Richard's Rave Up (recorded on 13 February 1968, Take 1)

Album notes: The unreleased track Scream Thy Last Scream was originally proposed as the follow up to single See Emily Play, and coupled with Vegetable Man it is the most widely bootlegged of Pink Floyd outtakes not to have received an official release at time of writing. Further outtakes included an aborted attempt at their live favourite Reaction in G in August 1967, and the previously undocumented tracks The Boppin' Sound and Richard's Rave Up. Three oddities were also recorded at De Lane Lea: John Latham, a track that was commissioned for an art installation by the artist himself; an untitled instrumental; and In The Beechwoods, which was abandoned but copied for Barrett in May 1968 for his initial solo recordings. One last outtake, entitled Early Morning Henry, was removed from the studio the day it was recorded by producer Norman Smith, and is now vanished forever.

The book also discusses other recording sessions during this time (those that produced 1965 demos and 1967-1968 singles), but there are no completely unreleased tracks from these.

All in all, ten tracks in total in various stages of completion, enough material for a single LP.

[MoreOrLess]

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[MoreOrLess]

I have a theory as to why we are getting this huge box set in the first place.

At first I thought it was envisioned as a golden jubilee for the band, to celebrate 50 years of Pink Floyd, but clearly there is no "Pink Floyd 50" marketing campaign out there - plus if that had been the case, the box set would have been released in October or November 2015.

I think that this box set is simply a grumbling resignation in the face of the current copyright laws; without the rule about things going into public domain in the UK after 50 years, this would've simply stayed in the vaults. The problem showed up in 2015 for the first time, and they faced the prospect of revisiting the problem every year from 2015 onward. Thus they decided to dump everything up to 1973 in one go (and now there is nothing to worry about until 2023).

I also think that 1965: Their First Recordings, which is included in the box set, came out last year because they had to do something with these earliest recordings but the box set was not ready (which illustrates the forced nature of the whole thing).

I think that we are simply benefiting from the copyright rules here, that the band is forced into action, and for this reason these releases have a hint of a f*ck you as well, expressed both in those unannounced 1050 vinyl copies in 2015, and a ridiculous price tag in 2016.

Isnt the rumour that Nick Mason is one of the drivers of this project? I could see the copywrite situation being used by him or others as a motivator for Waters and perhaps Gilmour to sign off on it. I would add as well that if a lot of this material started to come out legally from non Floyd sources that would obviously limit the demand for an official boxset and so might mean we never get to see it given a (hopefully) top quality mastering job.

Personally I would say that I think this material is well suited to such a release. Granted were all big fans of the band but I think you could argue that bar perhaps some of the Barrett era material and the Man/Journey show theres not really anything here that by itself is going to attract a great deal of attension outside of hardcore Floyd fans if released by itself. This big release on the other hand has that extra sense of purpose to it in that it tracks the evolution of the band over this era.

[Wolfpack]

01) She Was a Millionaire (basic track recorded on 18 April 1967, Takes 1-3)

This information is based on paperwork.
The tape itself is lost.

[Jimi Dean Barrett]

. One last outtake, entitled Early Morning Henry, was removed from the studio the day it was recorded by producer Norman Smith, and is now vanished forever.
.

Mystery! Norman wanted the band to come up with stuff and the stuff they produced he removed from the studio! And Syd was thought to be crazy?

[jtull]

. One last outtake, entitled Early Morning Henry, was removed from the studio the day it was recorded by producer Norman Smith, and is now vanished forever.
.

Mystery! Norman wanted the band to come up with stuff and the stuff they produced he removed from the studio! And Syd was thought to be crazy?

This is interesting:

"William Henry Butler (born December 18th 1940), often known as Billy Butler, is a Canadian musician, composer, sound designer, record producer and recording engineer. William got his start in the British music industry during the Sixties as a recording artist (singer/guitarist) signed to EMI Records’ flagship label Parlophone under the musical direction of engineer/producer Norman “Hurricane” Smith (Beatles, Pink Floyd)"

He William Butler wrote the song "Early Morning Henry". Pink Floyd did cover that day.

[Hadrian]

The only tape that Povey explicitly labels as lost is Early Morning Henry because Norman Smith took it out of the studio for reasons unknown, but it is still unclear if that means destroyed.

One should keep in mind that many of those ten tracks mentioned above are abandoned works in progress. For example, if only basic track was recorded for She Was a Millionaire, that is most likely without any vocals, and it could very well be just drums and bass guitar or alike. In other words, some of these might be pointless as release material even for this box set.

[Hadrian]

@jtull

William Henry Butler was connected with Norman Smith, see here: https://earlymorninghenry.wordpress.com/