Pink Floyd - Echoes - The Best Of

Discussions about Pink Floyd and Solo Official Album CDs and DVDs.

Rate this album

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7
27%
4
10
38%
3
7
27%
2
2
8%
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Total votes: 26

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Creek
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Re: Pink Floyd - Echoes - The Best Of

Post by Creek »

I'm glad I have it, I like the way SOYCD parts 1-7 are arranged back to back. And all so, I actually like the way Marooned leads into the Great Gig in the Sky.
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Re: Pink Floyd - Echoes - The Best Of

Post by flippikat »

J Ed wrote:I dont see a problem with Fletcher referencing specific politicians from a specific time
the whole album is about that specific moment in time (the Falklands war and Thatchers first term in office) and reexamining the memories of another war from another point in time ... its about having a sense of history and understanding how the present fits into that history

so is the Neil Young song Four Dead in Ohio dated and irrelevent because its referencing a now obscure action during Nixons regime? hell, Nixons also namechecked in Fletcher, as is the even ancienter Senator McCarthy
I think the Neil Young song I mentioned is cool because it does give incentive for younger listeners to learn about what was going on before they were born, and it would be cool if these teenage girls sitting next to Danielcaux felt curious enough to learn about Thatchers regime and how the world was changing at that time and why
Good point - Ohio has become more than just a reaction to the horror at Kent State.
I wasn't even born when the shootings happened, but hearing the sheer passion in that song I just *had* to read about what happened - and although a similar situation is unlikely to happen in the USA, you can see parallels in movements like the Arab Spring.

Roger's songs reference a more pressing problem in the western world - the insidious, seductive use of political power, money & nationalism to influence the population.
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Re: Pink Floyd - Echoes - The Best Of

Post by Fingals Cave »

I think the choice of tracks is mostly okay, but I hate the crossfades between the songs. That really kills it for me. I would have liked to put the CDs on random play to get a different order each time - anyone else who tried that will know what I mean about how awful the crossfaded fragments sounded. I hated the the edit of Echoes too.
It meant I only listened to the CDs a couple of times.
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Re: Pink Floyd - Echoes - The Best Of

Post by Vegetable Layne »

drafsack wrote:Astronomy Domine
See Emily Play
The Happiest Days Of Our Lives
Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)
Echoes
Hey You
Marooned
The Great Gig In The Sky
Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
Money
Keep Talking
Sheep
Sorrow
Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part 1-7)
Time
The Fletcher Memorial Home
Comfortably Numb
When the Tigers Broke Free
One of These Days
Us and Them
Learning To Fly
Arnold Layne
Wish You Were Here
Jugband Blues
High Hopes
Bike
Honestly, this is as good a collection as we could've gotten. The only albums that should've been accomodated were Atom Heart Mother, and its not exactly well-liked by the band. I could also see a Best of The Film Soundtracks set by them, so its no big loss.

I love most of the segues, particularly the one from Us and Them to Learning to Fly - a better transition than from Signs of Life to LTF, IMO. And from Sheep to Sorrow is another fave. Also, people here seem to critisize Bike's placement, but remember - Astronomy Domine and Bike bookended Piper, so the choice is surely intentional. As for the edited Echoes and SoYcD - well, OK, its too bad, but then again, if you want the full version, go get the CD's themselves. If anything else, SoYcD is actually the first track of WYWH but extended, so I don't understand the fuss.

That being said, its not a perfect compilation - how could it be? Keep Talking should absolutely not have been part of this set. Place Careful With That Axe, Eugene in its place, and you have a more solid list (not to mention segues between Money and Sheep much better). And if I had to choose absolutely one TFC track (given When The Tigers Broke Free was soon going to be the retroactive other TFC track), it'd be The Gunner's Dream, and it'd be right after Learning to Fly (learns to fly, then that place gets shot down, etc.).

But we have to remember, this was compiled by Gilmour, mostly. Which would explain the lack of TFC, the use of two AMLOR tracks and THREE Division Bell tracks, not to mention a certain vocal presence being more dominant over others. Its a good list overall, but the bias isn't exactly invisible.
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Re: Pink Floyd - Echoes - The Best Of

Post by dj865 »

Has anyone noticed the nasty hiss/ poor audio quality of this album?
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Re: Pink Floyd - Echoes - The Best Of

Post by Master_Chief »

dj865 wrote: Fri Jan 10, 2020 9:31 am Has anyone noticed the nasty hiss/ poor audio quality of this album?
I've just given it a quick listen on Spotify and it sounds quite respectable. I can't hear any hiss or noticeable lack of quality. I also have the four disc vinyl boxset which sounded fine the last time I played it.
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Re: Pink Floyd - Echoes - The Best Of

Post by azza200 »

Vegetable Layne wrote: Thu Apr 21, 2016 9:06 am
drafsack wrote:Astronomy Domine
See Emily Play
The Happiest Days Of Our Lives
Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)
Echoes
Hey You
Marooned
The Great Gig In The Sky
Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
Money
Keep Talking
Sheep
Sorrow
Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part 1-7)
Time
The Fletcher Memorial Home
Comfortably Numb
When the Tigers Broke Free
One of These Days
Us and Them
Learning To Fly
Arnold Layne
Wish You Were Here
Jugband Blues
High Hopes
Bike
Honestly, this is as good a collection as we could've gotten. The only albums that should've been accomodated were Atom Heart Mother, and its not exactly well-liked by the band. I could also see a Best of The Film Soundtracks set by them, so its no big loss.

I love most of the segues, particularly the one from Us and Them to Learning to Fly - a better transition than from Signs of Life to LTF, IMO. And from Sheep to Sorrow is another fave. Also, people here seem to critisize Bike's placement, but remember - Astronomy Domine and Bike bookended Piper, so the choice is surely intentional. As for the edited Echoes and SoYcD - well, OK, its too bad, but then again, if you want the full version, go get the CD's themselves. If anything else, SoYcD is actually the first track of WYWH but extended, so I don't understand the fuss.

That being said, its not a perfect compilation - how could it be? Keep Talking should absolutely not have been part of this set. Place Careful With That Axe, Eugene in its place, and you have a more solid list (not to mention segues between Money and Sheep much better). And if I had to choose absolutely one TFC track (given When The Tigers Broke Free was soon going to be the retroactive other TFC track), it'd be The Gunner's Dream, and it'd be right after Learning to Fly (learns to fly, then that place gets shot down, etc.).

But we have to remember, this was compiled by Gilmour, mostly. Which would explain the lack of TFC, the use of two AMLOR tracks and THREE Division Bell tracks, not to mention a certain vocal presence being more dominant over others. Its a good list overall, but the bias isn't exactly invisible.
Yeah but TFC is not exactly the most well known album and has songs casual fans would know. The album is aimed at casual fans who may not know much of the Floyd back catalogue

If you look at the list a majority are radio friendly hits which the general non pink floyd fan may know a song off Brick P2 Money, WYWH, LTF etc have heard on the radio at some point in their lives.

Roger and the others were consulted on creating this compilation to say its biased is a bit silly. Something which you have pointed out as it clearly bothers you that much because David compiled it. The song selection was done in a voting process between them all not solely DG
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Re: Pink Floyd - Echoes - The Best Of

Post by Kerry King »

azza200 wrote: Mon Jan 13, 2020 12:44 am The song selection was done in a voting process between them all
Consequently Fletcher Memorial Home and Keep Talking.

I don't think it's a great album for introducing new listeners to pink floyd. DSOTM is a more exciting "introduction" to pink floyd than this album.
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Re: Pink Floyd - Echoes - The Best Of

Post by mabewa »

I think that Echoes is the best and most complete attempt at a career-spanning compilation we'll ever get from PF.

But the whole concept of doing such a thing with a band with such a long and varied catalog, and with such long songs that lend themselves poorly to complications, is kind of a fool's errand.

It's better to start with one of their classic albums and work from there.
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Re: Pink Floyd - Echoes - The Best Of

Post by space triangle »

It's shame they didn't include 'Wot's uh the deal' or 'Mudman' at the Echoes - The Best Of. Both songs sounds a much more true 'Floydian' than 'When the Tigers Broke Free' and 'The Fletcher Memorial Home'. The 'Tigers' and 'Fletcher', belong much better into the 'Roger Waters - Flickering Flame - The Solo Years ' compilation.
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Re: Pink Floyd - Echoes - The Best Of

Post by theaussiefloydian »

There are some curious choices on the tracklist on occasion, but for my money it's one of my favourite compilations ever. It just flows very nicely, and some of the transitions are just fantastic ("Us and Them" to "Learning to Fly" for example.) Definitely something I listened to regularly all through the later part of high school and something that's still very dear to me today.
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Re: Pink Floyd - Echoes - The Best Of

Post by Master_Chief »

This has probably been posted somewhere before, but I’m just revisiting my vinyl boxset of Echoes and have just rediscovered the terrific transition between ‘Us and Them’ and ‘Learning to Fly’ on side A of the fourth and final record. As someone who really appreciates the transition into ‘Any Colour You Like’ on DSOTM this was a pleasant surprise, as I’d completely forgotten it.
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Re: Pink Floyd - Echoes - The Best Of

Post by scmods »

The best thing about this release was that it was promoted as "mixed into one continous piece of music" which I was very excited about.

Then it turned out that all they had done was just leave no space between the tracks, with no mixing or overlapping, and some very questionable choices about what follows what.

So I went and made my own "Best Of" CD's, in which I DID mix the tracks into one continuous piece of music. 2 CD's - one covering everything up to and including Dark Side, and one for WYWH onwards. And although I don't use CD's any more, I still listen to my compilations a lot, each CD as one single track in my collection.
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Re: Pink Floyd - Echoes - The Best Of

Post by theaussiefloydian »

scmods wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 1:17 am Then it turned out that all they had done was just leave no space between the tracks, with no mixing or overlapping, and some very questionable choices about what follows what.
Some of the choices are a little head scratching. But for my money some of the lineups work really well. I love the transition between "Us and Them" and "Learning to Fly", and the lineup of "Wish You Were Here" to "Jugband Blues" to "High Hopes" is pretty effective.
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Re: Pink Floyd - Echoes - The Best Of

Post by scmods »

The one I remember as being particularly jarring was the straight-through-without-a-pause run-on of:

Far away, across the fields
The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
To hear the softly spoken magic spells
Take all your overgrown infants away
Somewhere
And build them a home...

I mean, I'd have thought it was pretty obvious that Time needed to be followed by a track with at least of a bit of an opening before the lyric starts, and that Fletcher Memorial needed to follow a track with a bit of an instrumental ending. Neither of those should have been too difficult to find in the Floyd catalogue.