Like A Tube Train Up Your Spine

Three weeks ago I posted a Pink Floyd bootleg from 1972, and a few days later a guy called Mick posted one of the best comments I've read (see http://witchseason.blogspot.com/2007/03/sun-is-eclipsed-by-moon.html#comments). He inspired me to go back and revisit some other Pink Floyd bootlegs - things I have (or had) on vinyl but haven't heard in thirty years or more.

Thank you, thank you, Mick.

In those days, of course, there was no WWW and we had to hunt for our boots, but now they'e easily available for free dowload. Another comment to the same post sent me off to http://thinkfloyd.free.fr/roio/roio.htm, where I found a whole bunch of links to Pink Floyd bootlegs. I grabbed a few, and followed a few links until I found a download link for my fave Floyd bootleg of all - a 1971 gig at the Grosser Saal Musikhalle, Hamburg, West Germany which I still have on vinyl.

Listening to these tracks set me off on a bit of a journey into the past and reminded me what a phenomenal band the Floyd were in their heyday - which for me is the period 1970-1972, when I saw them maybe half a dozen times live. That was *my* Floyd period - I was too young to see them with Syd and lost interest almost entirely the day that DSOTM was released.

That was a mistake, though. Not because the post-DSOTM albums are better than I gave them credit for - they're not, IMO - but because the flaccid overproduced mess that was DSOTM killed my interest in the band completely.

A few days later I was chatting to a couple of people and mentioned 'old Pink Floyd' and they said "you mean Dark Side Of The Moon?" I said no, earlier. "Wish You Were Here?" "Animals?" No, I said, *early* Floyd - like Atom Heart Mother.

More.

Saucerful Of Secrets.

Blank looks. I felt *old* then... but not for long. Walking home with my ipod on full volume and shuffle, I heard One Of These Days from Boblingen, Atom Heart Mother from Montreaux, and that incredible version of Eugene from Hamburg - Jesus I'd forgotten that...

So here are four tracks that illustrate what Pink Floyd were about before they made it huge. They're all bootlegs, some mono, some poor quality, and I haven't really spent much time choosing them, but they're all *great*. As another person put it, there are no synthesisers or samples here, just four blokes - guitar, organ, bass and drums - making one hell of a racket.

And if you think "Oh yeah, Pink Floyd live - Ummagumma, right?" WRONG. This version of 'Axe' pisses on Ummagumma - and as for the other live tracks on Ummagumma, all I can say is SMOKING BLUES. Go get it.

For a brooch and a spice.

Pink Floyd - Live in the early 1970s

01 - One of These Days, Boeblingen, 15th November 1972
02 - Careful With That Axe, Eugene, Hamburg, 25th February 1971
03 - Cymbaline, 26th August 1970
04 - Atom Heart Mother, Montreaux, 21st November 1970

http://rapidshare.com/files/23080790/PF_Live.zip