Pink Floyd – Echoes In The Gardens (Heart Breakers HB-801-1/2/3)

Echoes In The Gardens (Heart Breakers HB-801-1/2/3) 

Boston Garden, Boston, MA – June 18th, 1975

Disc 1 (54:22):  Raving And Drooling, You’ve Gotta Be Crazy, Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part 1-5), Have A Cigar, Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part 6-9)

Disc 2 (55:16):  Speak To Me, Breathe, On The Run, Time / Breathe (Reprise), The Great Gig In The Sky, Money, Us And Them, Any Colour You Like, Brain Damage, Eclipse

Disc 3 (21:27):  Echoes

There are two audience recordings in circulation for Pink Floyd’s June 18th, 1975 Boston Gardens show.  The first one to surface was used for the vinyl release Pigs Wishes And Moons (Moonchild Records 0054 A/D).  “Raving And Drooling” fades in, “Shine On You Crazy Diamond Parts 1-5″ has a cut, “Shine On You Crazy Diamond Parts 6-9″ fades out and “Us & Them” is missing the beginning and some collectors complain that it is too top heavy with the emphasis upon the treble. 

This source was used for the earliest compact disc releases as well.  Crazy Diamonds (PYCD 059-2 Triangle Records) was published in 1990 and was the first CD release of an entire 1975 US tour set.  Boston Gardens, 18/6-1975  (Space Music PF001/2) and Spaceball Ricochet (PSR CD 567893-2) followed, also utilizing the first tape source. 

Almost a decade later a second, phenomenal sounding and more complete source appeared.  This tape is remarkable for amount of detail captured from the quadraphonic system utilized by the band. The manner in which the sounds swirl around is almost perfect and provides one of the clearest experiences of Pink Floyd in the mid seventies every committed to tape. 

It can be found on Raving & Drooling (Watch Tower WT2004124/5) and Nice Live Pair (Highland HL677/8).  The latter was issued in both a four disc edition, where it was coupled with the June 17th Nassau Coliseum show, and separately as Live At The Garden.  Sigma released this show two times.  Rave Master (Sigma 3) is another version of the Hopkins tape and its follow-up Definitive Rave Master (Sigma 52)

The Heart Breakers label were the first to issue this on their title Echoes in the Gardens (Heartbreakers HB-801-1/2).  Spread over three discs and packaged in an attractive gatefold sleeve with David Gilmour on the cover, it proved to be the label’s most popular title and selling out rather quickly.  A second edition followed with different cover art featuring a full stage shot and packaged in a fatboy jewel case. 

The set list is the same as they introduced the previous summer when they played several gigs in France.  It is admirable for a band to have the unmitigated hubris to devote the first hour of the show to unreleased, new musical compositions. 

All of the new songs in some way address the devastating effects of the insincerity in the music industry, both universally and with Syd Barrett in particular.  “Raving And Drooling” sounds massive as it crawls across the stage.  “You Gotta Be Crazy,” introduced by Waters as “another new song,” is played at a slower tempo than the versions the previous year.  “This one…(choking noises)…is called ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond.” 

Compared to the first two songs, these three are much more polished and closer to their final arrangements which is probably why they chose to record them for the next album.  As Waters sings “Have A Cigar” his voice doesn’t crack much.  It is still one of the great, unsolved Pink Floyd mysteries why he wrote a song out of his range.  Gilmour might have been able to handle it, but sonorous voice would clash with the hostility of the lyrics.

The second disc contains the second half of the show, the entire Dark Side Of The Moon, and the encore “Echoes.”  “Speak To Me” is very long and the audience clap along with the heartbeat as it fills the rafters of the Garden.  The excellence of this recording is more apparent on this disc since it does a great job capturing all of the sound effects employed by the band.  The clarity of the detail on this tape is nothing short of astonishing as the auxiliary sounds swirl around.  The synthesized chaos of “On The Run” is a pure adrenaline rush. 

The cash registers before “Money” seem to shake the seats as the band deliver a hot version of the song.  Parry plays a sultry saxophone solo before Gilmour’s studied guitar solo.  “Any Colour You Like” is more than eight minutes a jamming before the piece’s finale of “Brain Damage” and “Eclipse.”  After Waters thanks everybody for coming the band play a twenty-two minute version of “Echoes” as the encore.

For Pink Floyd in 1975, there are many excellent sounding tapes.  Collectors debate between Boston, New York and the Los Angeles Millard tapes from the spring tour.  All of these shows capture their own vibe and are worth having.