A dozen previously unreleased Pink Floyd records quietly appeared on streaming services this week, like an echo from the past. All of the shows took place between 1970 and 1972, during which time the band unveiled Atom Heart Mother (1970), Meddle (1971), and Obscured by Clouds (1972), and had already started performing tracks from Dark Side of the Moon (1973).
A near-complete performance of Dark Side in the sequence is shown on one recording — a March 1972 Tokyo show — a full year before the album’s release. The tracks are loose and jammy in a way that you won’t hear in the studio version. Many of the album’s well-known sound effects have been replaced, and “Money” has some odd percussion.
The recordings from September and October 1971 are significant for being sandwiched between dates when Pink Floyd was locked up in the old Pompeii amphitheater, performing in front of a ghostly audience for a concert video broadcast the following year. The live albums include performances of tracks from the film, such as “Echoes,” “A Saucerful of Secrets,” and “One of These Days,” which all appeared in the film’s Pompeii sequence.
The recordings are all copyrighted to Pink Floyd Music Ltd., implying that these are official Pink Floyd releases of the band. It’s possible that their release will be timed to allow the recordings’ rights to be extended.
For this reason, Pink Floyd likely unveiled the EP 1965: Their First Recordings in 2015. The recordings were later reissued in the band’s Early Years box set.
