Description
Pink Floyd is not only one of the greatest bands of the 20 century, they are also one of the greatest stories. Broken into triads, Floyd is the narrative of three men, each grappling for his own view of what it means to be alive, what it means to be real and what it means to be human.
Roger Waters’ personality was hated but his music loved. David Gilmour’s musicianship was respected but his records’ were ignored. Syd Barrett’s ideology was explored but his career was destroyed. All three are tragic in their own way. Each the owner of a decade that somehow sums up the band and themselves. Syd — the discovery of the hippie movement 60s. Roger — the inherent fear of the cold war and authoritarian 70s. David — the lack of self-awareness of the 80s.
Pink Floyd were legendary, creative, exploratory and impactful. Dark Side of the Moon was on the Billboard Top 200 from 1973 until 1987. Think about that. But now, in 2016, it seems the band is never to reunite, and so, the archiving projects begin. This two-disc set is culled from the larger 27 disc released on the same day. The large set looks to be what it promises, 27 discs of mostly unreleased Pink Floyd stuff for super fans (there are many).
This smaller selection though, had the capacity to be exactly what many fans who aren’t in their 60s living on their 401k’s wanted. To take the best and rarest moments from the set and toss us a bone. That is not what happened. The two tracks that are most desired are “Vegetable Man” and “Scream Thy Last Scream” — unreleased until now Syd Barrett tracks, of which there are precious few. What we got though, is a confusing mix of Relics and random live tracks.
