Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd | ||
 |
||
| Compilation album by Pink Floyd | ||
| Released | November 5, 2001 | |
| Recorded | 1967 - 1994 (compilation) | |
| Genre | Progressive rock | |
| Length | 151:11 | |
| Label | EMI (UK), Capitol (U.S.) | |
| Producer(s) | see individual albums | |
| Professional reviews | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pink Floyd chronology | ||
| Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980-81 (2000) |
Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd (2001) |
|
| Alternative cover | ||
 |
||
Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd is a compilation album by Pink Floyd. Released on November 5, 2001 in the UK and November 6 in the U.S. It reached #2 on The Billboard 200 in November, 2001 (it was kept from #1 in the US by Britney Spears' Britney but they did help her dethrone Michael Jackson's Invincible as Invincible plummeted to #3). It went Gold, Platinum and Double Platinum in December of 2001 in the U.S. It was recently listed as being certified Triple Platinum (three million copies sold) in the U.S.
This is the first album released on CD that includes "When the Tigers Broke Free", which appeared in the film version of The Wall. (The song later appeared on the 2004 re-release of The Final Cut.)
The compilation spans the career of Pink Floyd from their first single "Arnold Layne" in 1967, through to "High Hopes", the final track from their 1994 studio album The Division Bell. Each of the twenty-six tracks non-chronologically segues from one to the next with no break in the music (apart from a disc switch after thirteen tracks), courtesy of longtime producer-engineer James Guthrie. This was done to help recreate the concept-album feel of the band's mid-period work. All twenty-six tracks were newly remastered specifically for this compilation.
The album is, at times, criticised by hardcore Pink Floyd fans for its lack of material from Music From the Film More, Ummagumma, Atom Heart Mother and Obscured by Clouds, as well as for its shortened versions of "Echoes", "Marooned", "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" "Sheep," and "High Hopes". It can be argued, however, that the compilation is geared more towards casual and new fans of the band, rather than hardcore fans who already own all of Pink Floyd's albums.
The album's artwork is a collage of dozens of well-known Pink Floyd images, including screenshots from music videos, LP artwork and single artwork. On the front cover alone there is, among other things, the diver, businessman and blowing veil from Wish You Were Here, the rower and lake from The Rower (a film shown during the 1994 tours), a porcelain pig and cow from Animals and Atom Heart Mother, the Division Bell heads in miniature, a plane in reference to "Learning To Fly" and a picture of the ear underwater from Meddle.
Echoes was re-packaged and re-released in October 2006 with a special biodegradable wrap that "can be discarded".
[edit] Track listing
[edit] Disc one
- "Astronomy Domine" – 4:10 (from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn)
- "See Emily Play" – 2:47 (non-album single; appears on Relics)
- "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" – 1:38 (from The Wall)
- "Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)" – 4:01 (from The Wall)
- "Echoes" – 16:30 (abridged) (from Meddle)
- "Hey You" – 4:39 (from The Wall)
- "Marooned" – 2:02 (abridged) (from The Division Bell)
- "The Great Gig in the Sky" – 4:39 (from Dark Side of the Moon)
- "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" – 5:20 (from A Saucerful of Secrets)
- "Money" – 6:29 (from Dark Side of the Moon)
- "Keep Talking" – 5:57 (from The Division Bell)
- "Sheep" – 9:46 (abridged) (from Animals)
- "Sorrow" – 8:45 (from A Momentary Lapse of Reason)
[edit] Disc two
- "Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 1-7)" – 17:32 (abridged) (from Wish You Were Here)
- "Time" (w/ "Breathe (Reprise)") – 6:48 (from Dark Side of the Moon)
- "The Fletcher Memorial Home" – 4:07 (from The Final Cut)
- "Comfortably Numb" – 6:53 (Lengthened to include part of "Bring the Boys Back Home" - from The Wall)
- "When the Tigers Broke Free" – 3:42 (from the film version of The Wall, also appears on 2004 remaster of The Final Cut)
- "One of These Days" – 5:14 (from Meddle)
- "Us and Them" – 7:51 (from Dark Side of the Moon)
- "Learning to Fly" – 4:50 (from A Momentary Lapse of Reason)
- "Arnold Layne" – 2:52 (non-album single; appears on Relics)
- "Wish You Were Here" – 5:20 (from Wish You Were Here)
- "Jugband Blues" – 2:56 (from A Saucerful of Secrets)
- "High Hopes" – 6:59 (abridged) (from The Division Bell)
- "Bike" – 3:24 (from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn)
[edit] Trivia
According to James Guthrie, the following songs were considered for inclusion[1]:
- Brain Damage (Waters; from The Dark Side of the Moon)
- Eclipse (Waters; from The Dark Side of the Moon)
- Interstellar Overdrive (Barrett, Waters, Wright, Mason; from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn)
- Careful with That Axe, Eugene (Waters, Wright, Gilmour, Mason; B-side to "Point Me at the Sky", appears on Relics and The Early Singles)
- Fearless (Waters; from Meddle)
- Breathe (Waters, Gilmour, Wright; from The Dark Side of the Moon)
- Paranoid Eyes (Waters; from The Final Cut)
- Mother (Waters; from The Wall)
- Your Possible Pasts (Waters; from The Final Cut)
- Fat Old Sun (Gilmour; from Atom Heart Mother)
- San Tropez (Waters; from Meddle)
- Atom Heart Mother (abridged) (Waters, Wright, Gilmour, Mason, Geesin; from Atom Heart Mother)
- If (Waters; from Atom Heart Mother)
- Scarecrow (Barrett, from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn)
- Chapter 24 (Barrett; from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn)
- Dogs (Waters, Gilmour; from Animals)
- Nobody Home (Waters; from The Wall)
- Young Lust (Waters, Gilmour; from The Wall)
- The Gunner's Dream (Waters; from The Final Cut)
[edit] Charts
Album
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | The Billboard 200 | 2 |
| 2001 | Billboard's Top Internet Albums | 1 |
[edit] Credits
- Syd Barrett- Guitar and Vocals on Astronomy Domine, See Emily Play, Arnold Layne, Jugband Blues and Bike.
- Roger Waters - Bass Guitar, Guitar on Sheep, Tuba, Tape effects and Vocals
- David Gilmour - Guitars, Fretless Bass on Hey You, Bass guitar on Sheep and High Hopes, additional keyboards, drum programming on Sorrow and Vocals
- Richard Wright - Keyboards, Organ, Piano, Synthesizers, Clavinet, and Vocals
- Nick Mason - Drums, Percussion, Tape effects and Vocalisations on "One of These Days".
with
- James Guthrie - Remastering, Percussion on The Happiest Days Of Our Lives, drill on Hey You.
- Islington Green School, led by Noel Davis - choir on Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)
- Jon Carin - Additional keyboards on Marooned, Keep Talking and High Hopes
- Guy Pratt - Bass on Marooned and Keep Talking
- Clare Torry - Vocalisations on The Great Gig In The Sky
- Sam Brown, Durga McBroom and Carol Kenyon - backing vocals on Keep Talking
- Dick Parry - baritone and tenor saxophones on Money, Shine On You Crazy Diamond and Us and Them.
- Michael Kamen - orchestrations on High Hopes, The Fletcher Memorial Home and When The Tigers Broke Free and piano on The Fletcher Memorial Home.
- Lee Ritenour - acoustic guitar on Comfortably Numb
- 8 members of the Salvation Army (The International Staff Band) - Ray Bowes (cornet), Terry Camsey (cornet), Mac Carter (trombone), Les Condon (Eb bass), Maurice Cooper (Euphonium), Ian Hankey (trombone), George Whittingham (Bb bass), and one other on "Jugband Blues".
- Storm Thorgerson - Cover design
