Pink Floyd - "The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking"

 

SIDE A

1. Apparently They were Traveling Abroad

2. Running Shoes

3. Until We Sleep

4. Go Fishing

5. For the First Time Today

SIDE B

1. Murder

2. Cruise

3. Near the End

4. Every Stranger's Eyes

5. The Moment of Clarity

A combination of Roger Waters "The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking" and David Gilmour's "About Face" into an imaginary Pink Floyd album for 1984. Click here for a YouTube playlist of the album.

Pink Floyd - "Animals" (reimagined)

Last month I posted about a double album version of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here. I included two live tracks, "You've Got to be Crazy" and "Raving and Drooling," that Floyd would later rewrite as "Dogs" and "Sheep" for the band's album Animals. A comment was posted by danielmartin273 asking what then would Animals have been without those two tracks. Until his comment, I hadn't really considered it. My response was "Maybe the remaining tracks from Animals along with selections from Gilmour's solo album?"

But afterward, I started thinking about it a bit more. Removing "Dogs" and "Sheep" from Animals takes away more than half the album because both tracks are so long. Besides Gilmour's first solo album being released in 1978 (a year after Animals), Richard Wright also released his first solo album that year. So I looked to both to see if I could cannibalize and recreate Animals (don't ask me what would then happen to the solo albums -- this could go on forever).


SIDE A
1. Pigs on the Wing (Part 1) 
2. I Can't Breathe Anymore
3. Pigs (Three Different Ones) 
4. Cat Cruise 
5. Message from the Sheep (Field Recording) 

SIDE B
1. Deafinitely 
2. No Way 
3. Pink's Song 
4. So Far Away 
5. Pigs on the Wing (Part 2) 

First, I wondered if I should even call the album Animals, as the remaining tracks all have "Pigs" in the title. But two tracks I included led me to keep the album title. Also, the lyrics to "Pigs on the Wing (Part 2)" include the line, "And any fool knows a dog needs a home," so there's at least one other animal reference.

Since "Dogs" and "Sheep" were essentially written back in 1974, only the "Pigs" tracks were new. I wonder if Waters' strong Type A-personality pushed other band members' potential contributions aside in order to create his concept for an album loosely based on "Animal Farm." It seems possible given that both Gilmour and Wright picked the time right after Animals and its supporting tour to release their first solo albums.

I looked for outtakes from Animals hoping to find something that hadn't been included initially, but there appears to be nothing other than one very short track of sound effects (which I used -- more on that later).

When it came to choosing which tracks to use from the solo albums, I decided against any that weren't completely written by a band member. I didn't think the band would go for that at this point in their career. That left us with six tracks from Gilmour's self-titled album and nine from Wright's Wet Dream album.

Like the actual Animals, this version of the album begins and ends with the two parts of "Pigs on the Wing." I used Gilmour's "I Can't Breathe Anymore," "Deafinitely," "No Way" and "So Far Away." I couldn't resist Wright's "Cat Cruise" to add an additional animal-titled song. And "Pink's Song" sounded like something that should be on a Pink Floyd album, both musically and title-wise.

I found "Message from the Sheep (Field Recording)" on a bootleg. It's supposedly an outtake from Animals. It's basically just a bunch of sheep yelling, "Baa!" I found it amusing, and at 37 seconds, it seemed like a good way to end the first side. It ends up being sort of a reprise of the end of "Pigs (Three Different Ones)."

The two sides are fairly even, being 21:47 and 20:41 respectively.

Interestingly, I think this sounds more like a Pink Floyd album than the actual released Animals because of more input from Gilmour and Wright. To my ears, after Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd releases became increasingly more like Roger Waters albums with the rest of the band backing him.

Since we're keeping the album title, at first I didn't see a reason to change the album cover (especially since the only animal shown is the floating, inflatable pig). But then I thought in keeping with using earlier concept art for my double disc version of Wish You Were Here, I'd do the same with this entry. This was a concept sketch by the design group Hipgnosis for Animals that the band rejected. I assume if it had been chosen, Hipgnosis would have created a more finished artwork, but this rough sketch is as good as we're going to get.

Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here (double album)

With Pink Floyd's massive fame following the release and success of Dark Side of the Moon, the band wasn't sure how to follow it up. One idea was to use everyday items around the home as instruments. The working title of the album was Household Objects. After a few weeks of banging on pots and pans and strumming rubber bands, the group gave up on the idea. 

In addition, Pink Floyd had been working on and performing two songs while on tour in 1974: "You've Got to Be Crazy" and "Raving and Drooling." Interestingly, neither one ended up on the subsequent album Wish You Were Here. Instead, both songs were reworked as "Dogs" and "Sheep" respectively for the band's 1977 album Animals.

I thought it might be interesting to combine what was released in 1975 along with other music the band was working on to expand Wish You Were Here into a double album. For this project, I've combined tracks of the actual Wish You Were Here with music the band had produced for this and other projects.

SIDE A
1. Shine on You Crazy Diamond, Parts I-V - 13:32 
2. Welcome to the Machine - 7:32

SIDE B
1. The Hard Way - 2:46
2. You've Got to be Crazy [live] - 18:13

SIDE C

1. Have a Cigar [alt] - 7:12

2. Raving and Drooling [live] - 14:30

SIDE D

1. The Travel Sequence - 2:21

2. Wish You Were Here [alt] - 6:14

3. Shine on You Crazy Diamond, Parts VI-IX - 12:30

I was a little leery at first of mixing studio and live tracks, but it's certainly something Pink Floyd has done before. But with the inclusion of new tracks, some rearranging was necessary to make the length of each album side relatively the same.

We open and close the album the same way: with "Shine on You Crazy Diamond." In fact, the first side remains exactly the same, with the inclusion of the track "Welcome to the Machine." 

For Side B, it opens with the instrumental "The Hard Way," a leftover from Household Objects. The only other known music from that aborted album is "Wine Glasses," which the band incorporated into "Shine on You Crazy Diamond." So there was no need to add it as well. The side closes with "You've Got to be Crazy," recorded live at Wembley Stadium.

Side C opens with a longer, alternate version of "Have a Cigar" that features vocals from Roger Waters and David Gilmour instead of Roy Harper. The next track is the live "Raving and Drooling," also recorded at Wembley Stadium. 

Side D starts with the instrumental "The Travel Sequence," which is actually an outtake from Dark Side of the Moon. That is followed by the album's title track. I used an alternate version, which is longer and features the prominent playing of Stephane Grappelli on violin. And as stated earlier, the album closes with the rest of "Shine on You Crazy Diamond."

All of these tracks, including the live ones, can be found on the box set Why Pink Floyd...? The cover art was actually originally designed by Hipgnosis for Wish You Were Here but was rejected by the band.

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NOTE: Since publishing this post, I've discovered that studio demos recorded for "You've Got to be Crazy" and "Raving and Drooling" are available on a bootleg called The Extraction Tapes. So, if you don't want live tracks mixed with studio ones, you could sub those.

Pink Floyd - The Man and The Journey

In 1969, Pink Floyd was touring with a show that was alternatively titled “The Man and The Journey” and “The Massed Gadgets of Auximenes.” The show was a concept that involved two parts. The first was about a man going through the usual bits of daily life, and the second was some kind of journey, possibly more cerebral than physical.

At one point, the band considered issuing a live album of the show but ultimately decided to go in a different direction and issued Ummagumma. One of the problems may have been the length of the program. Pink Floyd recently released the compilation box set The Early Years, 1965-1972, which includes a show recorded in Amsterdam that runs about 84 minutes.

Ummagumma included live recordings on sides one and two, and studio recordings on sides three and four. However, the studio cuts were actually solo recordings – each member of the band got half a side.

For this re-imagined album, I wanted to recreate The Man and The Journey using the studio tracks from Ummagumma. But to flesh out the album, I required two live tracks from Ummagumma as well as one non-album single. I also rearranged the tracks to better fit the concept.

SIDE A

1. Grantchester Meadows (daybreak, part 1)
2. Sysyphus [pt 3] (work) 
3. Sysyphus [pt 4] (teatime) 
4. The Grand Vizer’s Garden Party [pt 1] (entrance) 

SIDE B

1. Biding My Time (afternoon)
2. The Grand Vizer’s Garden Party [pt 2] (doing it!) 
3. Several Species Of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together In A Cave And Grooving With A Pict (sleep/nightmare)
4. The Grand Vizer’s Garden Party [pt 3] (daybreak, part 2) 

SIDE C

1. Sysyphus [pt 1] (the beginning) 
2. Careful with That Axe, Eugene [live] (beset by creatures from the deep) 
3. The Narrow Way [pt 3]
4. The Narrow Way [pt 1] (the pink jungle) 

SIDE D

1. Sysyphus [pt 2] (the labyrinths of auximines) 
2. The Narrow Way [pt 2] (behold the temple of light) 
3. A Saucerful of Secrets  [live] (the end of the beginning)

First, I took the tracks from Ummagumma that had been part of “The Man and The Journey” show. Then, I removed those tracks that had already been featured on previous Pink Floyd albums. Finally, I tried to fit in the remaining Ummagumma tracks where they seemed to make the most sense concept-wise.

The album starts with “Grantchester Meadows” (as Daybreak, Part 1), but instead of using the Ummagumma version, which only features Roger Waters, I used the BBC recording, which also includes David Gilmour. Then come parts three and four of Richard Wright’s “Sysyphus” (for the Work and Teatime sections, respectively). Side A concludes with part one of “The Grand Vizer’s Garden Party" (as Entrance).

The second side opens with “Biding My Time” (as Afternoon), followed by part two of “The Grand Vizer’s Garden Party,” (Doing It!). The rest of Side B continues with “Several Species Of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together In A Cave And Grooving With A Pict,” (Sleep/Nightmare); and part three of “The Grand Vizer’s Garden Party (Daybreak, Part 2).

So ends “The Man” portion. “The Journey” then begins.

The first part of “Sysyphus” begins Side C (as The Beginning). I initially wanted to use the b-side single version of “Careful with that Axe, Eugene” (as Beset by Creatures from the Deep), but it’s too short and would have resulted in Side C being much shorter than the other sides. So I went with the live version from Ummagumma which is three minutes longer. This is followed by the third and first parts of “The Narrow Way,” the last track (as The Pink Jungle).

The final side opens with the second part of “Sysyphus” (as The Labyrinths of Auximines), followed by the second part of “The Narrow Way” (as Behold the Light of Auximines).

The album concludes with the live version of “A Saucerful of Secrets” (as The End of the Beginning). This presented a minor dilemma for me -- I'd wanted to leave out any songs that had appeared on previous Pink Floyd albums. But I'm left without an ending. For the live performance of "The Man and The Journey," the show ended only with the "Celestial Voices" section of "A Saucerful of Secrets." But since Ummagumma includes a live version of the entire song, and because the fourth side would be a bit short without the full version, the whole song is included.

By rearranging the tracks, the album immediately resembles more of a group effort than the arrangement of Ummagumma.

The cool album cover art is the work of http://idesignalbumcovers.tumblr.com