January 22,1977 - No Warning

[bmet]

"....Tonight we play in its entirety the new Pink Floyd Album Animals..."
were the words from the DJ on the FM station in Toronto.I can still remember with shock and excitement those words.I had not been a Floyd
fan when DSOTM was released and I missed all the hype that the follow-
up LP WYWH generated.(After borrowing the LP from a friend I finally
purchased my own copy in Late '75.By then,the dark shrink wrap had been
discontinued).
[All through '76 I kept up on the music news via a subscription to Circus
Magazine and the occassional purchase of imported copies of Melody
Maker.There was no mention of the band making a new album].
I phoned my friend on his arrival home from his after school job and
he was surprised as well.(And he was more news conscious than I!).
So the hype of the album release was all of one evening as we listened
to the broadcast.The next day, (my 17th birthday), I ventured to a mall in Hamilton (within sight of the Ivor Wynne Stadium light towers) to purchase my first Floyd album on its official release date!

As a side note:That winter we dissected fetal pigs in Biology Class.
Lot's of pig noises were heard and attemps were made
to hang one from the ceiling but dripping formaldihyde
dissuaded the class from doing so.

[Richter_M.]

I envy you. You don't know what I would do to be born twenty-five years earlier. 95% of the bands I love are either broken up or have too many dead members. I wish I could have lived to experience Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Boston, and all those other great bands in their prime.

But when I really start to think about this, I'm almost glad I was born in the '80s. Had I been born earlier, I would have to wait to listen to Animals, The Wall, The Final Cut, etc. I can't imagine living before those beautiful works existed. Obviously I wouldn't have known what I was missing, but whenever I think about what it was like to experience 1969, I realize with a shudder, "there was no Dark Side, no Wall, no Zoso, no Fragile (the Yes one, not Nine Inch Nails), none of that incredible '70s stuff.

So which life is better? Living now and growing into all that wonderful music all at once, or living back then, experiencing the music little by little, as it was being created? I can't decide.

EDIT: Sorry for the tangent. On topic, why would the news of Animals not be public information before the album came out? Would this have been something the band desired to hold back from the fans, so as to surprise them, or was it poor advertising on the part of the record company?

[Tinkerbell]

Don't sulk, Richter_M...just think that all those older fans are, well, old. We're young, and fresh and debonair.
OK, so we missed the best of our lives, but we'll be here when everybody else leaves...

[bmet]

I was born in 1960 and often wish I'd have come along about 5 years earlier.In my opinion,all my favourite bands hit their peak around '72
-'75 (Floyd-'74-'75,Zep-'73,Purple-'73,Yes-'73,ELP-'74,Genesis-'73,and
Sabbath -73ish.To Name a few..).Instead of being 13 with little money
and no transportation to the major cities,I'd have been 18.
Of course....now I'd rather have been born 5 Years later and be 38
now...oh well!