Disco de Pink Floyd: “Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd [Remaster]”

Not even a double CD can come close to getting the complete "best" of Pink Floyd, and for a band whose music translates so well as complete albums (Dark Side, Animals, The Wall), some purists will bristle at this collection of singles. Also, while fans will be pleased to see so many albums represented, the selection of songs is sometimes curious. But beyond that, ECHOES is a welcome collection of 26 tunes with a real unique arrangement that hops around from 1967 to 1994 almost at random... and yet really well. Check out, for example, the psychedelic (yet relatively innocent) chords of See Emily Play as they fade into the trademark helicopter sounds of Happiest Days... or the back-to-back instrumentals of Marooned (obscure even for a Division Bell inclusion, but neat) right into the classic Great Gig... ECHOES has a great ability to showcase the three periods of Pink Floyd: pre-Dark Side, the "fab four" of Dark Side, Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall, and then the two excellent Roger-less albums, Momentary Lapse and Division Bell. Even the normally-ignored The Final Cut gets a nod with Fletcher Memorial (why that song, and not the more digestible The Gunner's Dream or Not Now John?). The inclusion of When the Tigers Broke Free, alone, (from the movie The Wall), makes Echoes an absolute MUST have for fans, even if the set does force feed us Barrett/pre-Dark Side era songs apparently at random like Jugband Blues (why two songs from Saucerful of Secrets??) and Bike (available on the extra CD in the 1992 Sine On boxed set). Still, it is such a treat to pop Echoes in and just hear what comes next as the songs jump from the 60s to the 90s to the 70s to the 80s. The album does a good job of getting plenty of must-haves in, like Comfortably Numb, Money, One of These Days, Wish You Wer Here, and Another Brick 2... though putting these Floyd 101 tunes on the same album as Astronomy Domine (great open) and Sorrow (great close to CD 1) is a real enjoyable culture shock varying from overplayed to rarely-heard tunes. Everyone will have their list of "What about?" songs missing from the set (my list includes Take it Back, One Slip, Welcome to the Machine, Green is the Color, and Run Like Hell). The amazing Animals set is once again represented by the time-efficient Sheep, (as on A Collection of Great Dance Songs) but Dogs is better! Still, after 7 years without a studio release from these guys (and nearly 10 years without a new Waters album), it was great to something Floyd on the shelves, and nice to even HAVE a new set list to debate. With a band like Floyd and their large arsenal of great music, not even a double CD will please everyone perfectly. Yet this is all timeless music, and therefore, even the scattered arrangement gets my highest rating.

Most "best of" collections for most groups seem to lack something. My expectations for "Echoes" were low. I was wrong about "Echoes." I have many "greatest hits" and many "best of," and this one, for one of the greatest progressive rock groups, is an absolute gem. While this album can never capture the greatness of Pink Floyd, it can intrigue you enough to go buy their albums.

I am least familiar with Syd Barrett's work in early Pink Floyd. The songs "Astronomy Domine," "See Emily Play," "Arnold Layne," "Jugband Blues," and "Bike," all written and sang by Syd Barrett, urged me to obtain Pink Floyd's early albums "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" and "A Saucerful of Secrets." This music is psychedelic and imaginative, and now I know why there is a "Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 1-7)."

I think it is a nearly bizarre truth that there is almost no such thing as bad Pink Floyd music. There is weak Pink Floyd music, and Pink Floyd music that is difficult to appreciate. However, Pink Floyd at their worst is still musically a force. When I listen to this music I remember the promise and potential of progressive rock through what many consider to be the glory years of progressive rock. Music from "Dark Side of the Moon," which set all sorts of longevity records on the charts, is represented, of course. However, Pink Floyd in the post-Barrett years has always been more than one album. There was the wonderful "Wish You Were Here," the epic "The Wall," and the bizarre and complex "Animals." Then there is the sonically pleasing "The Division Bell," and the often derided "A Momentary Lapse of Reason." There are also the albums "The Final Cut" and "Meddle." This album also includes one song from the movie "The Wall."

Note that this CD is listed as a "Special Edition." Pardon my cynicism, but, big whoop. The only thing "special" about this edition over the previous version of "Echoes" is the biodegradable plastic cover. If you have the original "Echoes" and tossed the plastic wrapper into the trash, I think you can rest assured that it is too late to get that plastic back into a barrel of oil. Buying another copy may help someone's bottom line, but not yours. There are three reasons to buy this album.

(1) You have to have every album released by Floyd (the definition of Floyd fanatic).

(2) You are just getting into the group and you want an overview of their career to see if you should buy more.

(3) You absolutely have to have the song "When the Tigers Broke Free" from the movie "The Wall," which does not appear on the CD "The Wall."

Listening to these songs in the order on the CD is almost surreal as the album cuts back and forth between decades and band lineups. As I listen to this music I remember all that I love about rock, particularly progressive rock, and what I love about life and Pink Floyd, and then I wonder how we got here, and why David Gilmour thought Pink Floyd had run its course when it really had not. There is still time. We can only hope that one day the members of Pink Floyd realize that they were always greater than the sum of their parts. Until that time, cherish all the music from Pink Floyd you can get, because Pink Floyd is one of the few groups that managed to find the middle ground between art and entertainment. These songs and instrumentals will always be diamonds in my collection, and they will carry me forward and backward in time, until there is no time left.

Pink Floyd has released several hits compilations, but Echoes is the first to span the entire Floyd catalog. From the Syd Barrett led days to the more recent Roger Waters less incarnation, all their eras are representing including a previously unreleased song, "When The Tigers Broke Free" which is from The Wall movie. What makes the album extremely interesting, especially for Floyd fans who have these songs already, is the sequencing of the music. Not following the traditional greatest hits album track listing in chronological order, songs are sequenced to seamlessly flow into one another creating the effect of one long song suite per disk. All four band members were heavily involved in the song selection and sequencing, but unfortunately they never got into the studio together. Echoes is a great way for Floyd neophytes to be introduced to the band and for long time fans to get a new track and hear the music in a new and different way.

From the opening notes of "Astronomy Domine" to the weird laughing on "Bike", you know that you are on a music journey that only Pink Floyd could provide. This is a continuous project, meaning that the music doesn't stop except for when you have to change the disc.

For the fans of the Syd Barrett=era Pink Floyd, you won't be disappointed! Pink Floyd's first two hit songs, "Arnold Layne" and "See Emily Play", were composed by Syd Barrett and feature him on lead vocals. "Astronomy Domine" is a truly psychedelic song featuring Barrett and Richard Wright on lead vocals. "Jugband Blues" is the last song Barrett recorded with Pink Floyd before David Gilmour joined. And "Bike" has a certain whimsical flavor that only Barrett could provide.

There is one song featuring a five-member Pink Floyd (Barrett, Gilmour, Wright, Roger Waters, and Nick Mason). The song is "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun". This song was a concert staple of Pink Floyd until the early 1970s. Only Roger Waters has performed this song in concert since the early 1970s (during his 1984-85 Pros & Cons Of Hitchhiking tour, his 1987 Radio KAOS tour, and his recent 1999-2001 In The Flesh tour).

All the tracks sound great. Although the song "Echoes" is slightly edited, I think it still sounds great and that the edit was done quite nicely. The only song that I feel did not belong on this CD is "Marooned"...if you're going to put a song on a CD, put the whole song on there, not an excerpt.

This CD also includes the extremely rare song "When The Tigers Broke Free" (this song was released as a limited-edition single in 1982 with the movie version of "Bring The Boys Back Home" on the opposite side). This is more than a worthy addition to this collection...it is almost worth the cost of the CD.

Of course, what Pink Floyd collection would be complete without "Wish You Were Here", "Comfortably Numb", "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", "Money", "Us And Them", "Hey You", and "Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)"? I enjoy all the songs on this collection...my faves are "Echoes", "SOYCD", "The Great Gig In The Sky" (Clare Torrey has an AMAZING voice), "Keep Talking" (Gilmour shines on the talkbox), "Sorrow" (my favorite non-Waters PF song), "One Of These Days" (the only released song featuring Nick Mason on vocals), "Set The Controls...", "Comfortably Numb" (one of the best guitar solos in history), and "Astronomy Domine" (Syd RULES!).

They did a great job with this album which appears to blend seamlessly from song to song. No mean feat considering Pink Floyd's going through the Barret, Waters, Gilmour eras. There's the usual hits plus a few gems that one would have to buy the entire album just to get the one song.

Just a note, I'm glad they included "When the Tigers broke free" which was only available on the video or film and not included in the Wall soundtrack.