Track Listing

1. Terrapin
2. Gigolo Aunt
3. Baby Lemonade
4. Effervescing Elephant
5. Two Of A Kind
6. Baby Lemonade
7. Dominoes
8. Love Song

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #220161 in Music
• Released on: 2004-03-29
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Live

Customer Reviews

Depressing, misguided, and poor value
A few years ago, David Gilmour was asked about the Pink Floyd's BBC radio sessions, which are well worn on the bootleg circuit. He replied that the band had got some tapes from the BBC with an eye toward releasing them, but they didn't think they were good enough. Actually the opposite is the case: the 1967-9 BBC sessions are some of the early Floyd's best recordings, including the best ever readings of "Flaming", "Scream Thy Last Scream" and "Point Me At The Sky" as well as brilliant and unusual versions of the likes of "Vegetable Man", "Jugband Blues", "Julia Dream" and work-in-progress versions of "The Murderotic Woman", "The Massed Gadgets Of Hercules" and "Baby Blue Shuffle In D Major". Maybe the band are about to relent -- but the fact is, right now all we're getting is endless permutations on Syd Barrett's final sessions, of which this is a new low point. Why -- please tell -- weren't the two 1967 Floyd sessions put on here?

The answer may be that the Floyd retain quality control, hence Gilmour's comment above. Barrett seemingly doesn't have the power of quality control, and his sessions are up for grabs. This CD consists of 20 minutes (yep, that's the running time) of barrel scrapings, but unless you're an absolute completist you won't find anything to differentiate these sloppy, half-hearted versions of his solo tracks from the sloppy, half-hearted versions that filled up the "Crazy Diamond" boxset, and this is certainly much less engaging than any number of 1967 rareties/muddy live sets/"Piper" outtakes all us completists already have.

First, five tracks from Top Gear, 24 February 1970, rattled out versions of "Terrapin", "Gigolo Aunt", "Baby Lemonade" and "Effervescing Elephant" (droned out over 1 minute running time) along with the undistinguished "Two Of A Kind", now generally agreed to be a Richard Wright number. Throughout, Barrett's vocals and strummed acoustic guitar are accompanied by bass and bongos from Gilmour and Jerry Shirley. But nobody's heart is in the job.

The other three tracks were recorded off the radio, so the quality is bootleg-foul, and consist of the remnants of a 16 February 1971 session consisting of "Baby Lemonade", "Dominoes" and "Love Song". There's no attempt to mop up any of the Stars or later sessions, no matter how bad they might be.

The cover shot is one of those well worn dishevelled Syd photos trucked out, each time, to show the Dangers Of Drugs, kiddies. Barrett's story is certainly a depressing one, but possible morality tales aside, it's even more depressing that money is still being made off the back of hangovers this bad. Assuming the idiots have given up knocking on his door, at least Barrett has some peace now, though god help him if he ever ventures in a record shop and is confronted with this CD, or the recent DVD. At least "Crazy Diamond" had a colourful cover, despite the title. But Syd Barrett's name, reputation and memory will never be rescued as long as stuff this disrespectful keeps coming out. Enough.

Mixed quality / mixed review
The first review of this albm was a little harsh. Yes, very bad value and just a 4-page booklet. The studio versions are pretty similar to the already-available versions, but recording quality is good, and it's nice to hear slightly different versions from the already-released tracks.
The last 3 tracks are very fuzzy recordings but interesting in their own way. But yes, this is for completists only and def not for 'an intro to...' fans. Get the 'Best Of' compilation and 'Piper at The Gates of Dawn'.
I agree with the first review - the early BBC Pink Floyd Top Gear recordings would be fantastic to have. I waited by my radio, recording these via a mike in 1967+, but my giant tapes are now no use to me. The ones that stay in my mind are 'Flaming', 'Cymbeline' (retitled 'The Narrow Way'?)and 'Embryo' (released on a Harvest label vinyl sampler then quickly deleted, I think).