Sound Quality: A+
Performance: B
Overall: 4/5 Storage (see below)
This is the audio recording of the KQED TV program that is out on the interwebs as a DVD, I have this and the quality is pretty good so I will stick to that. The sound is perfect because it was recorded for the TV broadcast of course but you know my feelings on soundboard recordings, they lack something special.
Treating this performance as a TV show, it is not really that great, the performances are pretty standard but good, best track, for me, is 'Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun' (see below).
Track breakdown.
Cymbaline: The Sounds effects portion of this track are clear but short, just a few footsteps before the bang. Pretty good version
Grantchester Meadows: Again the effects are nice and clear, as you would expect from a TV recording. Decent version, Rick's piano is nice, everything well balanced.
Green Is The Color: Nice version, there appears to be a brief, minor tape warp, hardly noticeable though. This song never gets much extra stuff flourishes but is well performed.
Careful With That Axe, Eugene: Fairly good, nothing special though
Atom Heart Mother: This is the first track on the TV show, not sure why the order is different, and it includes airplane sound effects. Rick's Keyboards play the main riff which is different. About 10 mins in there is another one of those brief tape warps which again is noticeable but not easily. This version is totally different from the normal one, even without the brass sections, there is a organ solo and it is only about 16 minutes long. I have to say I didn't care for it, as a person who likes the song (without orchestrations), I didn't care much for the organ work for the main riff.
Set the controls: This is the highlight for me, really spaced out middle section.
Summary: Good but get the video instead if you can.
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Original Info…
Pink Floyd: America
Format:
CD
Catalog:
CDP 746297-2
Misc.:
<no info>
Produced:
<no info>
Date:
700429
Matrix:
Disc: 1 CDT-BERLIN TGP 129 01
Cover:
Front: Same as the roio Screaming Abdabs: Brain Damage (BRAINDAM), but with "PINK FLOYD" in red letters in upper left corner, and "AMERICA" in yellow in upper right. As the cover for Brain Damage says: "Picture of Floyd outside Rainbow Theatre doing a 'sieg heil' greeting".
Sources:
29 Apr 1970, KQED TV Studios, San Francisco
Tracks:
Disc: 1
1. Cymbaline 8:45
2. Grantchester Meadows 7:31
3. Green Is The Colour 3:46
4. Careful With That Axe, Eugene 8:52
5. Atom Heart Mother 16:48
6. Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun 11:31
Total Time: 57:15
Band:
Roger Waters
Nick Mason
David Gilmour
Rick Wright
Xref:
Darkness Over Frisco
Colourful Meadows
Quality:
VG+ -HERWIG
VG- / VG -ANDREAS
Comments:
This is _exactly_ the same record as "Darkness over Frisco", click for click, pop for pop. Tracks have same length. Even the Matrix# of the CDs seem to be identical! -HERWIG
I haven't heard the xrefs, but I think they are about the same sound quality since they are most likely from same source. A bit weird that the guys making the record have messed around with the order of the tracks, though. The 'real' playlist (the order the songs where performed at the radio show) is the following: 1. Atom Heart Mother, 2. Cymbaline, 3. Grantchester Meadows, 4. Green is the Colour, 5. Careful with that Axe Eugene, 6. Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun. The xref Colourful Meadows has this 'correct' chronological playlist. Both 'Darkness Over Frisco' and 'America' has the same miss-ordered tracks, making me believe one of them is a more or less direct copy of the other. It's not a huge problem though, one could always program the cd-player to play the songs in the correct order. It's more interesting (IMHO) to hear the songs the way and order they were performed and all the stuff between.
Sound quality is as good as it get from a 30 year old recording of a radio broadcast :-)
All in all a very nice record. A bit laid back show. Nice way of spending an hour. -ANDREAS
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