April 29, 1970
Fillmore West, San Francisco, CA, USA
Welcome to the month of Pink Floyd, where I’ll be celebrating
the 30-day countdown until the release of the Early Years box set. Technically,
it’s 31 days, but I’ll be celebrating the 31st day differently…
maybe. I’m bad at commitment.
The plan is to look at 30 random concerts from Pink Floyd
history, even going past the content covered in the Early Years.
The concert in review a soundboard recording from the
Fillmore on April 29, 1970. Thank you, Fillmore, for hosting the majority of my
early 70s soundboard bootlegs. Well, it’s mostly Grateful Dead, but there’s
others too.
This concert isn’t part of any tour, taking place in a
period after The Man and The Journey Tour and before the Atom Heart Mother
World Tour. It was a time to iron out the wrinkles in songs like Embryo and
Atom Heart Mother.
Why is this soundboard? Because Bill Graham is great, I don’t
know. There are two different soundboards recorded from this, in two different
venues, because life is great. One is this and the other is from a KQED TV
recording.
1970 recordings are pretty different between each other. It
might open with Astronomy, Atom Heart Mother, Embryo, or even Echoes. Hell,
four concerts even opened up with Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast. You might even
get an orchestra and choir, or for some reason a ballet…
We get a Grantchester
Meadows! They played this as an opener between 1969 and 1970. No extended
solos or anything fancy here, just two acoustic guitars playing behind vocals
provided mostly by Waters, and Gilmour in the chorus. There’s also a two “organ
solos,” but they have more of a improv sound than a solo sound, because that’s
what fits the music.
And that transitions into Astronomy Domine perfectly, somehow. Two songs that shouldn’t exist
together do. Wright’s keyboard work is fantastic during the middle space part,
and I’ve always loved the quick fade-in sound he does in this song. And Waters
goes for those screams. If only the quality of the bootleg was a bit better,
then it would’ve been perfect.
“If I could remember what it was that we were gonna play
next, I’d tell you, but I can’t so I won’t.”
“Ok. I’ve been reminded.” It’s Cymbaline. It’s part of the Man and the Journey, it’s part of the
More soundtrack, and now it’s the longest lasting song from the More period. Cymbaline
always has so much potential live, as long as it’s done well. Everything about
this is great; the first solo and the accompying drums is a high point in the
performance.
Roger laughs at some people in the front row before he says
this gem, which gets the crowd.
“When we’re in England, we’re making a new album at the
moment, and this next thing that we’re gonna play is going to be one side of
it.”
It’s The Amazing Pudding, oh uh, Atom Heart Mother. They start the intro tape, and it’s so weird to
actually hear that tape starting. There’s no fade in, it’s just Waters saying “ok”
and then click. So this is a pretty early version of the song, not the
earliest, but it is called the Amazing Pudding. The main structure is there,
but it does come with more drumming including an intro and several different
drum fills. Fine by me, because Mason knows what he’s doing. The Mother Fore feels
slightly different, like there’s more time before the Gilmour single-man choir,
which has a different setup as well. I don’t know if it’s improvised each time,
or if it’s an early rendition. If you could only listen to one part of this,
get someone to isolate the Funky Dung section of it for you. Or just make time
for the whole thing, because it’s Atom Heart Mother.
The second set (or at least the set after a short break) opens
up with Embryo. Poor, poor Embryo.
Your majestic live sound has been neglected for so long. I especially like the
guitar work for the intro, it reminds me of the guitar in Astronomy Domine. And
with more jazz-like jamming in the middle of Embryo, this concert has soft rock
(Grantchester, Green is the Colour), Psychedelic rock (mostly everything), and
jazz rock (Embryo, parts of Atom Heart Mother) It has everything, so you can’t
hate it. It even has that seagull-wah effect from Echoes. Embryo with Echoes as
part of the song? It’s impossible to hate. Listen to this right now.
“Cunningly run together” is Green is the Colour, which runs into Careful with That Axe, Eugene, something that started with the Man
and The Journey tour. It’s nice to hear Green is the Colour, but Gilmour was
trying to get those really high notes and his voice was not taking that shit.
He does do a “la-la-la” part at the end that fades into Careful with That Axe,
Eugene. I’ll agree with Waters, these transitions are so odd but work so well. The
best part is the Waters being creepy in stereo, followed by drumming and
soloing with Gilmour chanting.
Set the Controls for
the Heart of the Sun has some interesting, random cuts between different
qualities of the recording. It’s an interesting rendition of the song, going
for a sort of loud jam as the intro and several different parts before finally
ending the song with the familiar part of the song, including lyrics.
The concert ends with a tune called A Saucerful of Secrets, “if you can call it a tune.” It is more of
a tune live, but it still is a weird thing to end with. There’s not much I can
say about it, except you get some Mason drumming at the end before it cuts out.
That’s right, my version cuts out at 7:17, so probably more than half is
missing.
This is an amazing concert. Everyone is at their best here.
Enjoy it while it lasts, because the Atom Heart Mother tour will have a more
mature title song, and once Dark Side hits most of these songs will magically disappear
for a long while. Really, I think the rule is take any Floyd soundboard you can
find and hold on to it forever.
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