An open letter to James Guthrie & Pink Floyd

kennyr

of course I am up for anything Floyd!!!!

Signed.

Excellent idea. Well written and well thought-out post.

For some reason though, I doubt we will get anything resembling this idea anytime soon. For whatever reason, Pink Floyd have been one of the worst bands when it comes to "raiding the vaults."

We have had two box sets now (Shine On and Oh, By The Way) that were just the albums and no bonus tracks (save for the much-appreciated Early Singles disc in the Shine On set). Hopefully your post lets them know we want more.

Yes, the Piper reissue was very nice. I wish they would have given the same treatment to A Saucerful of Secrets in 2008, and then to More and Ummagumma in 2009, and Atom Heart Mother this year. But alas, it seems that despite immense fan interest, and much dollars to be made, the Piper reissue will have to do us for a while.

For one thing, I would like to finally see an official release of "Vegetable Man." I know it seemed like an insensitive song to put out in 1968 or 1974, but good grief, Syd passed away four years ago and the song is one of the worst-kept secrets anyway. Put out something that beats bootleg quality already!

I would like to see an official release of the "Best of tour 72" (early DSOTM material) you just cant get the tracks "Travel sequence" (latter replaced by "On The Run"), Religious Theme (Replaced by "GGITS" thankfully), and "Dave's Scat Section" (Replaced by "Any Colour you Like"). Some of the DSOTM material a year before release is quite interesting.

Also "Best of Tour 72" is probably Floyds best known and most sought after bootleg

Also another track I would like to be released from the vaults although I dont know the name is the improvisation piece they played on BBC during the Apollo 11 moon landing, I have never heard this piece and would love to hear it. If they released it they Could call it "Bright Side of the Moon".

As This piece was played Live on TV to millions of people in the UK while Niel Armstrong was walking about on the moon It is a notable piece in UK history.

Personally I would like to see my favorite era 1970 - 1977 era concerts on DVD and officially released....I mean all the other Prog Greats have remastered 8mm film concerts released and not just bootlegged Id like to see floyd in there hey day.. Like i get to with Yes and all the other prog rock greats

Nice idea!

Aside from restoring some of the 60s material, and things like Relics, some of their other compilation albums should be remastered also, or at least the few "rare" songs on some of them should be put into one disc--then again, I think that would ruin the idea of having the original artwork on those compilations.

Works should be remastered, (2013 marks its 30th anniversary) along with A Collection of Great Dance Songs (30th anniversary next year, I believe), and probably the couple of live albums should get a new treatment as well: Delicate Sound of Thunder and Pulse.

...Or maybe my suggestions above are not such a good idea, and you can think of another way a restoration could be done.

On a side note, what I'd really like to see is a release of all the BBC recordings that they did. I particularly remember a beautiful version of Julia Dream which sounded completely different to the one we're familiar with.

The Beatles and Led Zeppelin (amongst others) have had commercial success from releasing their BBC recordings. As well as the full Radio 1 'In Concert' programs the Floyd made there, there's probably enough other material to make a CD's worth.

Well, well, well...do you think the Floyd and James Guthrie read this forum?

The "Immersion" and "Experience" versions coming out later this year actually contain some rarities! Never thought I'd see these kind of releases from the Floyd.

Of course, the big record labels are doing a lot of this kind of thing lately (vault clearing, re-selling you the albums you've already bought four or five times already, etc.). Since the Floyd only re-upped their contract with EMI for, what, another 10 years, it seems EMI is intent on milking this back catalog for all it's worth.

More power to 'em, I say. Except for The Discovery Studio Album Box Set seems a little crass considering that Oh, By The Way just came out a few years ago. They could have and should have put Relics and Works in this set, or at least include a disc full of non-LP tracks (like The Early Singles but expanded) in with this set.

Anyway, who's re-buying some or all of the Pink Floyd discography come November?

At around £90 per package, I think not.

Well, maybe Santa Claus/Father Christmas will be nice to you and get you one or two of the Immersion Editions.

I've ordered the Dark Side Immersion box, simply because it contains the most rarities yet announced of all the "Why Pink Floyd?" series, but at my extremely modest salary there's very little chance I can afford to get the other boxes (for now). That said, I'd love to see a Relics Immersion box released someday — it would pretty much fulfill exactly what I described in this open letter! — but I'm not holding my breath.

Incidentally, at some point in the last ten or fifteen years, someone assembled an official "Pink Floyd At The BBC" compilation, but Waters vetoed its release for containing what he felt were slightly sub-par performances. There's an outside chance that he might soon reverse his stance, if the concept for that release was revised from a standalone compilation into a bonus disc, in the vein of the "Experience" editions... I think these recordings would fit in better with the rest of the catalogue if presented as curiosities/alternates, instead of as a live album in its own right. At least now there is some hope of it happening!

http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/blo...ebuilding-wall

Great to hear that this idea has finally reached Nick's ears, after two whole years of lobbying! Thank you to everyone who supported it.

Let's hope this all works out for the best...