1977 - Download "The Spitting Incident" from Montreal Gig

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Keith Jordan
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1977 - Download "The Spitting Incident" from Montreal Gig

Post by Keith Jordan »

You can download an MP3 of the spitting incident (and the rest of Pigs on the Wing Part Two) below. This is what inspired the album The Wall I believe.

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1977-Montreal-Spitting-Incident-POTWp2.mp3
http://www.angelfire.com/va/battersea/spit.html
The night's opener, Sheep, was greeted with enthusiasm as soon as Waters belted out the first vocal line. The band seemed to be enjoying themselves but when Waters began to strum Pigs On The Wing part 1, the audience was noticeably talkative. Not more so than any other ballad you might hear at a concert, but you can just barely hear a couple firecrackers going off during the song. Waters played through the minute and a half song without incident and there was a brief pause before the next song, Dogs. This was greeted with more of a mild reaction than might be expected but Pink Floyd still sounded great. Unfortunately once the song ended, the night turned sour. Waters played the opening G chord of Pigs On The Wing part 2 once then stopped, then a second time, then stopped again. Just then a pop pierced the silence and the audience began murmuring about the self-indulgent fireworks. Waters was persistent and began a third time, this time making it to the lyrics. No sooner he'd gotten out the first line "you know that I care…" the air was split by a loud crack. Waters had had enough.

"Aww, for fuck's sake, stop lettin' off fireworks and shouting and screaming, I'm trying to sing the song!" This outburst was met with an approving roar from the audience, but he wasn't finished. You can tell from his tone that he had simply grown tired of the whole experience, as if he was a weary mother speaking to his spoiled, ill-mannered kids. "I mean I don't care…if you don't want to hear it, you know. Fuck you. I'm sure there's a lot of people here who do want to hear it." The audience cheered in agreement as Waters continued. "So why don't you just be quiet. If you want to let your fireworks off go outside and let them off there, and if you want to shout and holler, go and do it out there…I'm trying to sing a song that some people want to listen to. I want to listen to it." He then slowly began the song a fourth time, to which the audience quieted down some but after that kind of interruption it was impossible for things to be as quiet as Waters had hoped. The band played on reasonably well (they were, after all, professionals) but the audience murmuring and intermittent whistles can be heard over his straining voice.

Exactly when Waters spat at the fan is impossible to discern but just as Pigs (Three Different Ones) begins, you can clearly hear another fan's surprise. "Oh wow, did you see that?" It's possible he was reacting to a part of the show but this comment was only moments after Waters' outburst. Although he later described himself as "shocked" by his own behavior, he certainly did not show any remorse during that set. Towards the end of Pigs (Three Different Ones), during the keyboard solo, he yelled out "Come back! All is forgiven! Come on, boy! Come on, son!" The scathing tone of his voice was sarcastic as the song itself is, and he seemed to be relishing in his own misconduct. The whole ordeal was made even more macabre by the sinister drones of the music in the background. After the song finished he simply said "Thank you, we're going to take a break. We'll be back in vingt minutes [20 minutes]." As if there were any doubt as to what had happened, during the opening keyboards of Shine On You Crazy Diamond, you can hear people talking about the incident: "…some asshole kept letting off those fireworks..."

After a chanting of "encore, encore, more!" the setlist closed with Us and Them. Waters tried to make peace with the audience by saying, "OK we're gonna do another tune…just cause there's a few assholes down the front here, there's no need for everybody to get upset. This tune is called Us and Them, it's from Dark Side of the Moon…" He seemed to specifically mention the beloved album so the crowd would accept it, but quickly added, "And it's very quiet, so let's keep quiet…try to end this thing peacefully." The crowd was far from silent as you can clearly hear people chanting, "hashish, hashish…" and yelling during Gilmour's opening arpeggios. At this point in the show, however, one could hardly expect the crowd to keep quiet. After the obligitory "Thank you very much, goodnight," Waters addressed the crowd personally. "Thank you--take it easy. Don't worry about it! I don't…well I do, but I wish I didn't." Whether intentionally or not, his last four words had a bizarre echo repeat that was an approriate cap on a strange evening. The show actually closed with a blues jam, but this was cut short by Gilmour leaving for the mixing desk and roadies disassembling their gear, perhaps trying to put the whole tour behind them.
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Re: 1977 - Download "The Spitting Incident" from Montreal Gig

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Re: 1977 - Download "The Spitting Incident" from Montreal Gig

Post by Damn!t »

Wow.
It's been so long since I'v been able to download a piece of bootleg from NPF.
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Re: 1977 - Download "The Spitting Incident" from Montreal Gig

Post by Hudini »

Is that legal, Keef?
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Re: 1977 - Download "The Spitting Incident" from Montreal Gig

Post by danielcaux »

Sorry Keith, NO TRADING OF LOSSY FILES ALLOWED :lol:

I miss that kind of censorship!
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Re: 1977 - Download "The Spitting Incident" from Montreal Gig

Post by Keith Jordan »

Its fair under the Fair Use copyright act thingy I believe. For the purposes of comment, criticism and discussion. Its been made available in discussing the history of the band, the build up to the album The Wall and is only a tiny portion of the original copyrighted album. This Spitting Incident was an historical moment in Rock 'n' Roll history!! That sounds like Fair Use to me. 8)


So, legalities aside, what do you think of the whole spitting incident? Anyone know anything about it? Who was spat at? What were they doing etc.?
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Re: 1977 - Download "The Spitting Incident" from Montreal Gig

Post by Keith Jordan »

As well as the "Spitting Incident" Pink Floyd played "Drift Away Blues" as something to gome home after! Followed by a simple "Goodbye" from Roger Waters! During the performance, the band sounded completely uninterested, even after 13 1/5 minutes of it! :lol:

What a terrible concernt the Montreal one was!!
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Re: 1977 - Download "The Spitting Incident" from Montreal Gig

Post by danielcaux »

I always thought it was an emotional outburst of Waters' frustration trying to deal with the crazy and unrespectful crowd...until I heard the bootleg, that is. It seems to me, by the sound of it, that it was more like some spontaneous theatrical gimmick he thought to be OK at the moment, some kind of shock theatre "a la" Jim Morrison; "What? Hey!.. Come back pig! come back! all is forgiven! come on BOY!" he screams and whistle and it sounds like he is still acting on "character" doing his CWTAE screech mixed with a pig wail ("oink oink oink oink oh yeah!"), trying to lure the kid close enough for "spit range", it was quite an elaborate and clearly premeditated behavior, and as Ron Geesin said, with usual Waters' "perfect timing".

He screams some more things after "come on son" but I can't understand them quite right.
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Re: 1977 - Download "The Spitting Incident" from Montreal Gig

Post by Yucateco »

Keith Jordan wrote: What a terrible concernt the Montreal one was!!
Terrible? It has the best Shine on Part II EVER! Gilmour is going crazy in the last 15 minutes of it!
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Re: 1977 - Download "The Spitting Incident" from Montreal Gig

Post by J Ed »

danielcaux wrote:I always thought it was an emotional outburst of Waters' frustration trying to deal with the crazy and unrespectful crowd...until I heard the bootleg, that is. It seems to me, by the sound of it, that it was more like some spontaneous theatrical gimmick he thought to be OK at the moment, some kind of shock theatre "a la" Jim Morrison; "What? Hey!.. Come back pig! come back! all is forgiven! come on BOY!" he screams and whistle and it sounds like he is still acting on "character" doing his CWTAE screech mixed with a pig wail ("oink oink oink oink oh yeah!"), trying to lure the kid close enough for "spit range", it was quite an elaborate and clearly premeditated behavior, and as Ron Geesin said, with usual Waters' "perfect timing".
He screams some more things after "come on son" but I can't understand them quite right.
indeed its really a return of the PictRant
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Re: 1977 - Download "The Spitting Incident" from Montreal Gig

Post by danielcaux »

It also reminds me a lot of the "Run Like Hell" rant, it kind of prefigures the "persona" he will adopt during those Wall songs. Perhaps that's why Mr. Pig was released during "In The Flesh/RLH", as a reference or re-enacting of the "Pigs" incident.
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Re: 1977 - Download "The Spitting Incident" from Montreal Gig

Post by lostplay »

danielcaux wrote:It also reminds me a lot of the "Run Like Hell" rant, it kind of prefigures the "persona" he will adopt during those Wall songs. Perhaps that's why Mr. Pig was released during "In The Flesh/RLH", as a reference or re-enacting of the "Pigs" incident.
great great show

the crowd had been let in 8 hours before the show start
and they all got wasted . it was a national canada holiday .
so by the time the show started the fans were already toasted and acting very poorly . my boot is almost ruined by the hashish guy .

this show for all the hype and stuff about david and roger is a one off top tour show
the shine on version is crushing
drift away blues was way cool too.

yet who can say almost every 77 show was great
oakland is also a top show with its last ever axe
david could have played WTTM a bit better
but every other song has david at a god like level
the money versions were his best




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Re: 1977 - Download "The Spitting Incident" from Montreal Gig

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Re: 1977 - Download "The Spitting Incident" from Montreal Gig

Post by Keith Jordan »

Indeed. I like Roger Water's quote about the event leading him onto writing The Wall...
"There's an exhibit based on The Wall at the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, and they asked me for a quote to put up as graffiti on it. And this is what I wrote: 'In the Old Days, pre-Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd played to audiences which, by virtue of their size, allowed an intimacy of connection that was magical. However, success overtook us and by 1977 we were playing in football stadiums. The magic was crushed beneath the weight of numbers. We were becoming addicted to the trappings of popularity. I found myself increasingly alienated in that atmosphere of avarice and ego until one night in the Olympic Stadium, Montreal, the boil of my frustrations burst. Some crazed teenage fan was clawing his way up the storm netting that separated us from the human cattle pen in front of the stage screaming his devotion to the demi-gods beyond his reach. Incensed by his misunderstanding and my own connivance, I spat my frustration in his face. Later that night, back at the hotel, shocked by my behavior, I was faced with a choice. To deny my addiction and embrace that comfortably numb but magic-less existence or accept the burden of insight, take the road less traveled and embark on the often painful journey to discover who I was and where I fit. The wall was the picture I drew for myself to help me make that choice.' That's a good summation of it."
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Re: 1977 - Download "The Spitting Incident" from Montreal Gig

Post by AtomHeartMomma »

Just wondering what was the date of "The Spitting Incident" from Montreal Gig. I attended the Animal's 77 concert on July 4, 1977 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. During the first half of the concert, there were those who were stupid enough to throw firecrackers into the audience below them. This behavior was booed by the audience, but the concert played on. During the intermission, it was announced over the PA system "Pink Floyd requested that no more firecrackers be set off". Surprisingly, there were no more incidences of fireworks. The fact that the audience honored the request was reported in the Entertainment section of the newspaper the next day.