Pink Floyd Eclipse - A Piece For Assorted Lunatics Label: Harvested HRV CDR 004 CD1: 1. Speak To Me (1:10) 2. Breathe (3:09) 3. Travelling Sequence (5:21) 4. Time (5:50) 5. Breathe (Reprise) (1:06) 6. Mortality Sequence (3:55) 7. Money (7:31) 8. Us And Them (7:38) 9. Scat (6:17) 10. The Lunatic Song (3:49) 11. Eclipse (1:47) 12. Tuneups (2:11) 13. One Of These Days (7:50) 14. Careful With That Axe, Eugene (12:19) CD2: 1. Echoes (24:10) 2. Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun (13:21) 3. Childhood's End (8:35) 4. Blues (4:46) Total length: 120 min 45 sec 28.04.72: 107 min 24 sec 01.12.72: 13 min 21 sec Source: AUD[LOW]>SHN Quality: EX/VG+ CD1: All tracks: The Auditorium Theater, Chicago, Illinois, USA. April 28th, 1972. Speak To Me > Breathe > On The Run > Time > Breathe (Reprise) > Mortality Sequence > Money > Us And Them > Any Colour You Like > Brain Damage > Eclipse > <[ROGER: This is called 'Careful With That Axe, Eugene'.] Careful With That Axe, Eugene >< CD2: Tracks 1, 2: The Auditorium Theater, Chicago, Illinois, USA. April 28th, 1972. [ROGER: This is called 'Echoes'.] Echoes [ROGER: This is called 'Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun'.] Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun CD2: Tracks 3, 4: Palais des Sports de L'ile de la Jatte, Saint Ouen, France. December 1st, 1972. Childhood's End >< Blues Comments: U.S. Tour April 14th-May 4th, 1972 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Review : ECLIPSE - A piece for assorted lunatics (Harvested 012) [ypal's comment: why Harvested 012? it is actually HRV CDR 004] Recorded at the Auditorium Theatre, Chicago, April 28, 1972 for the "Dark Side Of The Moon" performance. Recorded at the Palais des Sports, ST Ouen, France - 2nd of December 1972 for the 2 bonus tracks : Childhood's End and Blues. [ypal's comment: the disc cover says 1st of December] About THE PERFORMANCE : as for the 17.2.1972 show ("The Best Of Tour 1972" Swingin'Pig records), the 28th of April performance of Dark Side Of The Moon is an early performance (a pre-release) of "Dark Side" performed in a slow tempo (Breathe, Time...). The Travel Section (instead of "On The Run") is an energetic jam, with a good riff by Dave. And what is titled "The Mortality Sequence" (in place of "The Great Gig In The Sky") is a kind of church service with Rick Wright playing a chord progression on organ (a bit reminiscent of "Celestial Voices") The melody of "Time" and "Money" is sung a little differently : Dave sings the melody of Money in the same way as Roger did on his acoustic demo (which can be found on "Total Eclipse" - Great Dane or on "Pinkie Milkie") : Get a good job with more pay and your Ooo okay ^^^^^^^^ the melody of these lines were not the same as the final version of "Money" Well... What can I say more... That's all. Altough there is a very nice solo on "Time", the band seems to have a lack of energy. This impression is emphasized since they performed "Dark Side" in a slow tempo. But the 17.2.1972 performance (that can't be ignored), which was performed in the same way, is FAR BETTER in my opinion. About the 2 bonus tracks : Childhood's End, which lasts more than 8 minutes is great with some nice improvisations in the middle of the song (at one moment the chord progression is reminiscent of "Empty Spaces/What Should We Do Now" !). "Blues" is a number of... well... blues... A familiar track for RoIOs collectors... :-) About THE SOUND QUALITY : EX- (the "Dark Side" show) / VG+ (the 2 bonus tracks) This is an audience recording, but the sound is clear and the crow is quiet. The bass is too loud. I would rate the sound quality of the "Dark Side" show EX-. The sound quality is obviously not as good as "The Best Of Tour 1972" (EX+/SUP- ) which is THE EARLY DARK SIDE SHOW TO GET with the Hollywood Bowl 22.9.72 show (BOWL De LUNA - Harvested). Nevertheless ECLIPSE is a COMPLETE SHOW (there is no "dropouts" during the songs, all songs are complete) contrary to "The Best Of Tour 1972" ("Time" and "Us And Them" are unfortunately cut); and the bonus track "Childhood's End" makes this CD special. I would rate the sound quality of the 2 bonus tracks VG+, though they are quiet "listenable". -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Let's go track-by-track, shall we? For those not in the know, it's a pre-release DSOTM set recorded on 25-Apr-72 in Chicago, USA. [ypal's comment: actually it's 28-Apr-72] Some general notes: the sound quality throughout the DSOTM set is excellent, given that it was probably recorded by a guy who spent the whole evening trying not to trip over his reel-to-reel recorder. Decent stereo separation, and no digital noise or gaps - kudos to the dubbers before me that took extra caution! Packaging is very nice, but I think I could live without the Distortion Magic on the band pic on the back. Mind you, Rick now bears a striking resemblance to my Uncle Ed! And Dave looks like he wasn't just *smoking* bananas. ANYWAY, without further adieu, the review: 1. Intro: Speak to Me in sheep's clothing. One kind soul asks the band to "beam him up". Who says Floyd isn't space music? 2. Breathe: The first song to sound quite a bit like what eventually got on the record later that year. The audience is there, but very quiet. I guess the success of DSOTM really did change things. Hopefully the same fate does not await bands like Radiohead the next time they tour. 3. The Travel Section: Rick at his most noodly! I haven't heard many early DSOTM shows (two or three total, I'd guess) but a lot of this precursor to On The Run sounds like an almost-free jam. The rhythm section truddles along, while Rick and Dave jam along. I don't know if it's far and away better than the VCS-3 exercise that got on album, but it's definitely an interesting piece. Actually, it fits the general vibe of the suite better than OTR, so in that context it's fantastic - it ties Breathe and Time together very nicely. 4. Time: Bereft of chiming clocks, naturally, but otherwise quite similar to what eventually got on the record (esp. Nick's punching about in the back), except the melody is sung a little differently. The impressive SQ of this recording reveals a fascinating variety of drum sounds. Ah, there's Dave and Rick singing (not sure if I hear Rog), Rick's even "lying supine in the sunshine". Lately, the lyrics to this song have been weighing heavily on my mind, so the song's impact is devastating. Great version. 5. Home Again: Indexed as a 1-minute reprise to "Time", but with an almost undetectable transition. Lots of reverb on the vox at the end. 6. The Mortality Sequence: Hmmm, the "preacher" version of Great Gig. Again, I hope I don't have to choose between the Torrey's chilling vocal on album and the ultra-Floydian soundscape and ethereal keyboards on this recording. 7. Money: Again, it sounds like the boys had this song figured out rather early on, as "Money" here is similar to the album. Dave sings on key, and does an admirable job of yelling out the choruses. Ah, there goes Rick on the keys again - and here goes the 4/4 break in all its glory! Most of those in attendance this night would have never heard this song before. If they'd come to the show expecting to see Atom Heart Mother and Saucerful of Secrets, I wonder what they thought of this rock-out! I'm impressed, certainly. The SQ of the vocals drops off a bit for the final chorus, but that really just accentuates how good most of the recording is compared with, say, Great Gig on the Moon. Restrained applause AFTER the song - good on you, Chicago! 8. Us & Them: Lethargic and cathedral-like, in other words, perfect! Is that a splice after the first verse, RonToon? No matter, it flows together very well. I think I hear Rog singing in the back of the chorus. Not exactly Crosby, Stills, and Nash, but it works rather well none-the-less at filling out the sound. You gotta love big choruses. 9. Scat: I suppose this was the title before Rog let us choose any colour we liked :) Starts out much like on album, in other words it's loosely based on the same chord progression in Breathe. This one's mostly Dave's show, with what sounds to me like his signature minor-chord pentatonic noodling used to full effect. Thinking back about it, his guitar tone in '72 is very similar to what it was in '94 - nothing on "Eclipse" sounds like the Animals or The Wall tours, to be sure. 10. The Lunatic Song: Is that Nick playing a wooden block way in the back? He's busy on the cymbals, but there's someone doing doing "cluck-clucks" on something back there. Another testament to the clarity of this recording :) Spontaneous applause half-way through after "rearrange me 'till I'm sane" - were they showing films of world leaders on Mr. Screen back then? 11. Eclipse: "Interesting" fire alarm loop running through this song, with churchbells at the end, like High Hopes at treble-speed. 12. Childhood's End (1st bonus): From a different show, and a source of lesser quality that the DSOTM set. But, whoa, I can see why this was selected as the "filler" for this disc. What a fantastic version of one of my favourite "Dave" songs. Rog actually hops around on his bass, too! Why couldn't they do this number on later tours, especially '87 or '94?? Why oh why??? Four musicians, all on exactly the same page - eight and a half minutes of pure, unadulterated bliss. 13. Blues (2nd bonus): "And a little 12-bar blues to take y'all home". It is what it is. Pretty generic, if you ask me, especially when held up against the standard set by Childhood's End. But I have always been more interested in what English guitar players did to the blues in the '60s than the music that inspired them, so I'm somewhat biased. There you have it. On Stef's Great Scale of All Things Floydian, with 1 being Unlistenable Shite and 10 being Comfy Numb Solo #2, I'd give it a good solid 7. Recommended. At the risk of sounding like a raving sycophant (I am, but that's not the issue) I don't think it will hurt to commend Harvested for selflessly tracking down such good sounding recordings and distributing them to us who can most greatly appreciate them. I only wish I had a CD-R maker and some connections in the trader underworld so I could return the favour. --------------------------------------------------------------- ypal's comment: I think there is a filling from a different show in Us&Them, or at least it starts to sounds a bit different beginning at 01:19 until 01:47... During this 30-second piece the tape hiss is suppressed, and when it comes back to the original you can notice that the rhythm speed has just been slightly different.