Day Of The Animals (Sigma 77)
Madison Square Garden, New York, NY – July 2nd, 1977
Disc 1 (51:16): Sheep, Pigs On The Wing (Part 1), Dogs, Pigs On The Wing (Part 2), Pigs (Three Different Ones)
Disc 2 (70:09): Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 1-5), Welcome To The Machine, Have A Cigar, Wish You Were Here, Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 6-9), Money, Us & Them
Pink Floyd played four shows in Madison Square Garden during the first week in July on the Animals tour. Day Of The Animals is a new release documenting the July 2nd gig, the second show in the run. It is one of the most popular shows from this era since there have been titles in circulation since the days of vinyl.
“Dogs”, “Pigs (Three Different Ones)”, and the Wish You Were Here suite appeared as Caught In The Crossfire (Pharting Pharoah 13153 A/D), and was repressed on The Live Biography:Volume 4 – Have A Cigar on International Records (RSR-215).
The International Records people produced the first CD reference to this tape in 1989 by releasing the Wish You Were Here suite on Caught In The Crossfire on Neutral Zone (NZCD 89017) along with “Fat Old Sun” from the 1971 BBC session. The Wish You Were Here material was re-released the following year as Welcome To The Machine on The Swingin’ Pig 1990 (TSP-CD-061) and New York Live 1977 on Welfare Pig (WP203) and in 1992 as Live USA on Imtrat (imt 900.051).
A more complete tape surfaced on the fan produced ROIO In The Grassland Away. Prog King (Siréne-099) was released in 2005 and was sourced from the common tape with a second source for the encore “Us & Them” sourced from a DAT clone of the cassette master.
Day Of The Animals is a marked improvement over Siréne. It is more loud and clear, and the unstable parts in “Money” and “Us & Them” have been smoothed over nicely. A second tape source is used in “Shine On You Crazy Diamond Part 6-9” from 12:30 to 13:50 to correct the nasty defect in the first master tape. The alternate tape source is boomy, but still listenable.
Occurring during the fourth of July holiday weekend during a sweltering summer in the city are big factors in the electric atmosphere captured on this tape. New York State also recently passed a law decriminalizing marijuana (making it legal to posses less than 25 grams, but it is still illegal to smoke in public). Throughout the show there are very loud bangs (and I mean LOUD), the most noticeable occur in “Sheep”, in “Dogs” and several at the end of “Pigs (Three Different Ones)” plus at the end of the show.
July 2nd is the tightest and most calm of the New York shows. Unlike others, Waters doesn’t loose his cool during the fireworks (even though it is funny hearing him lose it, the blasts do affect his concentration). The Animals set is given an energetic performance.
“Sheep” actually begins the show quite mellow. It sounds both lazy and yet, at the same time, quite majestic in places. The melody presents a nice puzzle as it paints a soundtrack for an awesome spectacle.
After “Pigs On The Wing (Part 1)” they play a very aggressive version of “Dogs.” Gilmour in particular seems to take out his aggression on the guitar as he spits out hostile sounding riffs during the song’s run. He continues in the final song of the first set, the very long “Pigs (Three Different Ones).” His jam at the song’s conclusion ranks among his best for this song and it seems as if it would never end.
The second half has the complete Wish You Were Here LP, again very tightly performed. The sound quality is excellent for this part of the show. Some have even called this a soundboard tape, but it is an excellent audience recording.
“Shine On You Crazy Diamond Parts 1-5” receives a good response from the audience, as does “Welcome To The Machine.” The Scarfe video in particular seems to impress everyone.
After “Have A Cigar” the radio tunes onto a radio advertisement for the film The Other Side Of Midnight and some easy listening music. Gilmour and Wright dominate “Wish You Were Here” on vocals and a very powerful grand piano. Wright adds some pretty trills in the song before it segues into the menacing beginning of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond Parts 6-9.”
“Money” and “Us & Them” form the encore set. The former is augmented by [the band’s own] firework display, and the latter ends the show on a more mellow note. Day Of The Animals is a very good upgrade over the Siréne and is worth having.
2 Comments
The patch in “Shine” is that from the second source or from another show? This second source was described as “phenomenal” in the review of “Prog King”, but here it seems to be “boomy, but still listenable”.
I’m not sure about the 2-disc sets that others have, but mine, which I got a couple weeks ago, has Disc 1 with a total playing time of 51:41, & 73:06 for Disc 2. Thanks for the very interesting review.