Pages tagged “pink floyd”

Above: "Funeral for a Soldier" by Scott H. Spitzer for USAF (DOD 030403-F-1166S-001, public domain)

Tuesday was Veteran’s Day. Newly restored aircraft carrier the USS Intrepid—a ship that saw extensive combat in the Pacific during World War II—was rededicated as a museum in New York at Pier 86 on the Hudson River. In America, and in many countries around the world (where the holiday is known as Armistice Day or Remembrance Day), people took time to remember those who have served in their nation’s military, especially those who lost their lives.

The holiday is held on Nov. 11, commemorating the treaty that ended WWI, which was signed at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. In honor of Veteran’s Day, I’ve compiled this mix of songs (with my favorite lyrics included) about soldiers and the struggles they face, both during wartime and when they return home.

When do box sets go too far? Maybe when they parody an artist's most tragic downfalls? Or perhaps when they repackage what's already been repackaged a hundred times over? The survivor members of Pink Floyd, ever the experimenters, aim to once again push the boundaries of acceptable box set conduct when they release Oh By the Way - a 16-disc behemoth that contains the band's entire studio discography - on Dec. 4. Yup, everything from 1967's Piper at the Gates of Dawn to 1994's The Division Bell, just waiting at the ready to soundtrack your next stoner buddy get-together. How convenient!

Storm Thorgerson once again provides the artwork for the boxset, and the collection also includes a poster of... something. The individual album packages recreate the original vinyl artwork, so it's just like old-schoolers remember it.

No word yet as to whether the release will develop its own gravitational pull. It would be kind of ironic if your old copy of Dark Side of the Moon started orbiting around your new box set, though.

Related links:
PinkFloyd.com
SydBarrett.net
YouTube: Pink Floyd - "Comfortably Numb"

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First it was your bookstore. Then your electronics store. Then your clothing store and garden furniture store. You can now add your former MP3 store to the list of establishments made irrelevant by the tsunami of consumption that is Amazon.com. That’s right, the Internet behemoth has gotten into the online tunes business, and though it does not yet carry every song ever written, it may prove more appealing than Apple’s reigning king of downloads.

Amazon MP3, which has been launched in a beta version, offers two million DRM-free tracks, a business model based on the odd notion that once you buy something, you get to own it and do whatever you want with it. Yes, very odd.

The songs are also cheaper than on iTunes (half at 99 cents and half at 89 cents), as are albums, most of which going for under $9.99, with some rather inexpensive selections, such as Another Brick in the Wall Part II – The Remixes, a three-track album priced at $2.67.

So far, only two major labels are on board — EMI and Universal — but thousands of smaller labels are represented. If Amazon MP3 is a hit, expect more big labels to cozy up to the company. In time, the word "iTunes" may seem just as foreign to your ears as similar relics from long ago such as “independent local bookstore” or “the mall.”

Related links:
Amazon.com MP3 Beta
Apple.com/iTunes
Another Brick in the Wall Part II – The Remixes: Only $2.67!

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Along with the hubbub surrounding the 40th anniversary of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, it's important to recall that Pink Floyd recorded its debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn at the very same time in the very same Abbey Road Studios. Let us all be thankful, however, that the BBC has not commissioned Bryan Adams to contribute his interpretation of "Astronomy Domine."

Instead, commemoration will come Sept. 4 in the form of EMI-released special editions with the original UK track order - one two-CD version with a disc for both mono and stereo that will become the new standard, and a three-CD package with bonus tracks (all of Pink Floyd's singles from 1967, including "Arnold Layne"), B-sides ("Candy And A Current Bun," "Paintbox"), rarities (exclusive edit of "Interstellar Overdrive" from a French EP) and eight reproduced pages of a then-bandleader Syd Barret's notebook.

Although Piper is Barret's most significant work with Pink Floyd, having written every song but Waters-penned "Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk", the upcoming re-release is re-mastered by James Guthrie, who produced The Wall long after Barrett infamously wandered into the Wish You Were Here sessions an unrecognizably rotund and hairless creature. Regardless, The Wall is obviously nothing to shake a stick at, whatever that's supposed to mean, so Guthrie should do it up just fine. Maybe he's even thrown in a screaming sound effect or some Gomer Pyle dialogue, for kicks.

Video: "Arnold Layne"

Stream: "Bike"

Related links:
PinkFloyd.co.uk
EMIGroup.com

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