Pink Floyd – At The End Of The Raimbow (sic) (Godfather Records GR 176/177)

At The End Of The Raimbow (sic) (Godfather Records GR 176/177)

Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA – September 22nd, 1972

Disc 1: Speak To Me / Breathe (2:49), On The Run (4:44), Time (5:59), Breathe (Reprise) (1:03), The Great Gig In The Sky (4:39), Money (6:26), Us And Them (7:52), Any Colour You Like (4:45), Brain Damage (3:55), Eclipse (1:52), One Of These Days (11:23), Careful With That Axe Eugene (14:01)

Disc 2: Echoes (29:04), A Saucerful Of Secrets (16:57), Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun (13:25)

Godfather Records’ At The End Of The Raimbow (sic) is a rather excellent version of what many Floyd fans consider to be one of their all-time greatest live performances. It’s a show that’s also quite historically notable since it’s believed to be the very last time they ever played “A Saucerful Of Secrets”, and the version of it on this recording will probably make any fan of this psychedelic classic regret that sadly they would never play it again.

This release must be either a copy of the circulated non-commercial CDR title Platinum Crackers or a derivative from it, which makes use of both of the audience-recorded sources known to exist from this night, one of them being from the master. Strong evidence to such is the fact that the playing times of each track on the first disc match up exactly with those of Platinum Crackers, and the ones on the second disc differ only very slightly by a few seconds each.

Regardless, the sound quality is excellent, being clearly superior to that of the old release Staying Home To Watch The Rain (Great Dane GDR CD 9013). And unlike Crackers (Zeus Z 2011001/2), which was released years after Staying Home and sounds slightly better than it but is unfortunately somewhat thin, and probably even worse, has a somewhat irritatingly harsh, raspy sort of high end, At The End Of The Raimbow has noticeably deeper bass and a high end that’s significantly less irritatingly harsh and raspy.

Furthermore, both “Any Colour You Like” and “Brain Damage” are seamlessly complete, whereas on Zeus’ Crackers approx. the last 40-45 seconds of “Any Colour” and the first 10-15 seconds of “Brain Damage” are unfortunately missing. On At The End Of The Raimbow, we have the complete show with no edits, cuts, fade-ins, fade-outs, etc., and even the tune-ups are included. Without the tune-ups, however, it would have been possible for Godfatherecords to squeeze both “One Of These Days” and “Careful With That Axe, Eugene” at the beginning of Disc 2 instead of the end of Disc 1, which would have made a somewhat better arrangement.

A highly-recommended title, At The End Of The Raimbow comes in a nicely attractive multi-gatefold digipack that features relatively uncommon or rare photos of each of the band members inside. Godfather Records obviously must have meant to title this release At The End Of The Rainbow, but somehow At The End Of The Raimbow ended up as what’s printed on the spine while the front cover actually just says At The End Of Raimbow. Nevertheless, such obvious typos alone would be a rather silly reason for not getting this fine version of one of the all-time favorite live shows of many Floyd fans.  At The End Of The Raimbow is one of the releases of the Hollywood Bowl ’72 show that has its last 3 songs in what’s believed to be the correct order in which Floyd played them that night, while “Staying Home to Watch the Rain” & “Crackers” apparently have the incorrect order for those last 3 songs.