Over 40 years since they formed in Cambridge and now with only three surviving members out of their crucial five, Pink Floyd are about to embark on a major reissuing project, one that will see previously unheard tracks released for the first time.
The Guardian, and many other news hubs, reports that all 14 Floyd studio albums will be re-released under the series name of Why Pink Floyd…? 1973’s Dark Side Of The Moon will be available as a six-disc “immersion” box set or the comparatively sedate two-disc “experience” version, as well as digitally and as collectors’ vinyl.
As well as that, there will be collecters’ box sets and remastered studio recordings.
The unheard tracks include a version of the song Wish You Were Here, quite remarkably, featuring violinist Stephane Grappelli.
Another highlight of the massive project will be the new version of the Wish You Were Here album, originally released in 1975. This will be available on five discs, including live recordings from a 1974 tour and a 20-minute version of that long old dog of a track, Shine On You Crazy Diamond.
They go even further with 1979’s The Wall, which will be a seven-disc set, some of which will be previously unreleased demos.
A new general best-of is also in the works.
As the Guardian notes, this marks the end of some unpleasant legal nonsense that messrs Gimour, Waters and Mason had been engaging in with EMI. Last year the terrible trio went to court to prevent the label selling individual tracks through iTunes and the like, though ten months after that the band did sign a deal allowing the sale of single track downloads.
The band formed in 1965 and became a seminal band on the psychedelic underground scene in London, thanks largely to the effervescent talent of leader Syd Barrett (who died in 2006). That culminated in probably their best album, The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, a little time after which Barrett left the group in a lysergically-induced psychological mess, with the Floyd eventually heading in a prog-rock direction. They certainly didn’t make a good record after 1972’s Obscured By Clouds.
Needless to say, the box sets, reissues and so forth are probably going to cost a buck or two. Here is a reminder of the good old days:
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