Pink Floyd
The Early Year 1965 – 1972
(Pink Floyd Records)
Pink Floyd’s The Early Years 1965 – 1972 features a sprawling bunch of music. Tunes range from the band’s Syd Barrett years, with their classic pastoral English singles like “Arnold Layne†and “See Emily Play,†to the more experimental, early stuff like “Careful With That Axe, Eugene,†“Grantchester Meadows†and live moments from pre-The Dark Side of the Moon, which is always a treat coming from the Floyd, who never officially released a live album from this period. In fact, I’d say it is these live moments and then a bunch of stuff from their soundtrack work (mainly from the film Zabriskie Point) that are the real gems on this new collection. In fact, what’s really fun is hearing the Floyd’s instrumental tracks used in that Michelangelo Antonioni film (notably Floyd keyboardist Rick Wright’s contributions) and realizing how they later morphed into more recognizable Pink Floyd tunes (especially on Dark Side). There is also a live in-concert version of “Atom Heart Mother,†the title track to one of the seminal pre-Dark Side Floyd albums that infiltrates the listener’s brain perfectly for what this classic band was all about so many years ago. As with lots of remastered, repackaged stuff coming from Pink Floyd, you can get the couple of discs of The Early Years 1965 – 1972 on its own, or with all of the tons of goodies in the big package. Yes, it’s that gift-giving time of year folks. Why not be pink?
