Sound Quality: A-
Performance: A-
Overall: 4/5
Welcome to the first concert of the Animals tour there is a simple way to determine that on this tour, Roger kindly shouts out the number for us in the 'Pigs (Three Different Ones)' song. The crowd is very ruckus this would have been a solid 'A' if the crowd had been less boisterous, it was not bad during the 'Animals' half because it was soon after the release so the fans were not familiar with that music. The second half was a real problem though, sure you want the crowd getting into it and this didn't go as far as the infamous Montreal gig that spurred Roger to create 'The Wall' but it made me knock down for sure and caused it to miss 5 out of 5.
The performance was great too, not perfect by any means, see the notes, but great. The highlight for me was 'Pigs (Three different ones)' and it is a shiny example of how sometimes live versions are better than in the studio.
Track breakdown...
Sheep: Spirited version, bags of intensity, loved it. Roger changes up my favorite lyric of all time - 'Wave upon wave of demented avengers march cheerfully out of reality into the dream.' This version also has an extended ending where it spaces out a little.
Pigs On The Wing (part 2) : Extra guitar solo part, the riff sounded different from the 8-track version. It reminded me ofsomething else but I can't place it, please comment if you know it!
Pigs: Piercing feedback a handful of times, not too loud but very noticeable. Extended guitar solo, nice work.
Welcome To The Machine: This is where the crowd start to et very annoying they start clapping, mainly because timing is slightly off, as you know Floyd is very hard to clap to, the time signatures are different and change inside of songs. Once the keyboard solo section starts up though it does die down. Then picks up later right at the end during the final sound effects but they are audible over the top. I know folks are enjoying themselves but please people this is not heavy metal show, you don't join in to the words, they don't repeat parts of the song and urge you to join in!
Wish You Were Here: More clapping during the intro. A fun note though - Dave bravely keeps singing thru a laugh when, what sounds like, a fog horn sounds! Not sure where that came from.
Shine On You Crazy Diamond (6-9): Nice solo, slight drop out noticeable before the piano/organ section
Money: Little bit thrashy during the verses and the guitar solo starts off with low volume compared to the rest of the band but it goes up during. Crowd gets into it again during the solo. The solo is long and goes thru several phases including a real jazzy one which is great. It gets trashy again after the jazzy part of the solo before the vocals pick up again. It sounds like the rhythm guitar is a little too loud so the strumming is just too overpowering.
Really good bootleg, not as good as 'Plays The Animals' but worth picking up if you can find it.
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Original Info…
PRRP011
PINK FLOYD
IF PIGS COULD FLY
Jan 23, 1977 (Westfalenhalle - Dortmond, Germany)
CD1
1-1. Sheep 12:02
1-2. Pigs On The Wing (Part 1) 1:32
1-3. Dogs 18:22
1-4. Pigs On The Wing (Part 2) 2:06
1-5. Pigs (Three Different Ones) 17:42
CD2
2-1. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (1-5) 13:35
2-2. Welcome To The Machine 7:50
2-3. Have A Cigar 5:25
2-4. Wish You Were Here 6:30
2-5. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (6-9) 15:41
2-6. Money 9:31
2-7. Us And Them 7:41
Dortmund, Germany, January 23rd 1977 was to witness the very first show of the 1977 Animals Tour. The new album was to be released the day of this performance, therefore no one in the audience was very familiar with the new material. Saxophonist Dick Perry joined the band again on this tour, while Terrance 'Snowy' White was asked to provide back-up rhythm guitar. Pink Floyd once more split the show into two sets. The first set consists of the whole Animals album while the second presented for the first time- the complete Wish You Were Here album. Two encores were also provided, both taken from the Dark Side of the Moon album. The combination provided an excellent chronicle of the Pink Floyd approach to music at the time and received a warm reception for this very enthusiastic German crowd.
Notes from the Re-Master
The source for this audience recording is generally good but a number of problems needed to be fixed. For some reason, many of the songs were spliced together, making an abrupt cut during the audience applause. We presume this was done to shorten the recording but none the less we had to smooth these transitions in order to maintain the flow of the concert. The hiss level was quite high so it was localized and reduced. The sound quality was good with music signal clearly present up to 11,000 Hz but the tonality needed adjustment. The low treble range was particularly harsh and piercing during Gilmour's guitar solos and the saxophone leads. Selective attenuation of those frequencies reduced this audible annoyance. At rare times the bass overwhelmed the other instruments and needed to be reduced as well.
During a five minute segment on disc 2 the left channel lost significant treble. This was restored as well as possible. At the end of shine on you crazy diamond the recorder probably had battery failure since the pitch and tempo fall noticeably. This was adjusted to be consistent with the rest of the show but brief variations remain. Conversely, during a section of disc 1 the tempo and pitch are unusually increased. This section was slowed back to the tempo and pitch of the rest of the show. Many brief dropouts occurred. Some were removed while others were pasted over to be less noticeable.
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