the Mystery of EMBRYO

bahh! when i grow up i want to be Botley...

thats a great bootleg. The versions of Fat Old Sun and Cymbaline are great

Every live version of Embryo I've ever heard has been fantastic - has anybody noticed the similarity between that Gilmour guitar part and the solo at the end of ABITW 2? Genius!
In many ways I'm glad that the Floyd never released Embryo as it gives me an incentive to hunt down more live versions (four from 1970 and two from 1971 at the moment!)

I think the "Works" version (studio) of Embryo is more reminiscent of CWTAE. A little mellower, with lyrics, but a similar spookyness.

I have a live version of Embryo done in 1971 that has a much different mood. Lots of Gilmour guitar work makes it better, IMO, more of a rocker; and it has more of an "Echoes" or "ASOS" flavor to it.

IMO the Live versions are best, but get both, people.

yeah the live version is awesome, a lot different to the studio. i was actually really taken by surprise by the studio version, as I heard the live ones first. The studio version is pretty cool - would have fit well on ASOS or More. Also, does anyone else think that the melody is a frustratingly close to Let There Be More Light?'

Actually, what is interesting is that if you look at a lot of the songs which took up the bulk of their live sets in this era (Cymbaline, Green is the Colour, Embryo and to a lesser extent, Fat old Sun) they were played as rock songs live, with lots of soloing from Gilmour, yet the studio versions where very light, using almost all acoustic instruments, and little to no soloing.

Well they had to pad out 100 minutes somehow!

....well......they could have played a 20 minute long version of "Flaming" maybe?

They had enough problems just remembering the words to the 3-minute version!

My favorite Embryo is the first BBC one. It's bliss.

A little suggestion for a great live mix: start with The Show Must Go On from the Wall (studio version), and then place the Embryo I refer to above right after, with no gap between songs. The end of Show goes wonderfully into Embryo.

I've noticed.

As was mentioned before... the ROIO called "Smoking Blues" is awesome. Definitely worth tracking down. Not only is Embryo and Green is the Colour great, but there's a nice blues improv tune done during that show too. Look really close at the cover of the album and you'll see why they called it Smoking Blues (hehehe).

And there is a brilliant version of Atom Heart Mother which is interesting to hear without the choir, i think. And the version of Astronomy Dominie I think is better than the live one on Ummagumma

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bH6dxhmHsv0

Incredible Pompeii-esque video clips of the Floyd performing the freaky midsection of this lost classic. Check out Gilmour's facial expression while he makes silly muttering noises with his epiglottis!

Excellent find Botley!

Sounds like Cymbaline to me though.....near the end of the clip.

They did sound alike, way back when - but check the 1970 BBC recording for reference.