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For a good portion of the last
decade, virtually all sources of Pink Floyd’s March 18th, 1973
concert were attributed
to
The Palace Theater in Waterbury, Connecticut due to the fact that it
was the venue corresponding to the date on
their tour itinerary, however Floyd in actuality performed twice on
the 18th; though scheduled for a late show at
New York City’s Radio City Music Hall on March 17th, the band didn’t
actually take the stage until well after 1 a.m.
the following morning in front of a massive Saturday night audience.
Early tape traders knew the recordings they had were from Radio City
Music Hall, but when additional sources
surfaced years later with the March 18th date, determined to be of
the same show, you can just imagine the confusion
that swept through trader’s circles as people started insisting they
were from Waterbury based upon the date alone.
Of course, it’s natural to become excited, ambitious, and
overly-enthused at the notion a previously unreleased tape
has come to light - unfortunately, sometimes this results in
blindness towards logic; let’s just contemplate a few
facts here: there are at least 5 known sources from the March 18th,
1973 Floyd concert - now, consider in 2008,
the population of Waterbury is roughly 108,000, while New York
City’s five boroughs alone boast a number close
to 8,275,000 people.
Next, rewind almost 26 years and consider the
likelihood that there were 5+ tapers in the audience
of a small Connecticut city - 20 miles from both Hartford and New
Haven on a Sunday night, yet none present at the
famous Radio City Music Hall on a Saturday night? I’m afraid that
concept is simply preposterous.
Add to all of this the fact that it is widely known amongst
Deadheads that the Grateful Dead, who were in
New York City performing several nights at Nassau Coliseum the same
week, attended Floyd’s concert at Radio City
Music Hall to witness the New York debut of Dark Side Of The Moon
live in quadraphonic sound, and on one of the
sources someone close to the taper is overheard saying “the Dead
just left,” subsequently confirming this concert is
in fact New York City and not Waterbury.
Finally, a quick surf around the ‘Net to the various Floyd reference
sites reveals that even databases that once attributed
this performance to Waterbury now indicate there is no known source
for the Connecticut show, and that all existing
sources are different perspectives of the Radio City Music Hall
concert!
What this all boils down to is all of the fan-produced and ProCDR
titles from the past - from Pigs On The Wing’s Dark Side Of
Radio City to the Siréne Waterbury 3 Source Matrix bonus disc are in
actuality from the New York City show, thus
Godfather’s aptly titled Obscured By Father Time finally puts an end
to all the mystery and confusion with the silver
debut of Pink Floyd at Radio City Music Hall, March 18th, 1973!
As usual, Obscured By Father Time is housed in the trademark
Godfather tri-fold cardboard sleeve, and I have to say that
the label is making great strides graphically with every subsequent
release as this one features even bolder
use of color, insightful commentary, plus era-appropriate photos.
In terms of packaging, there are few other labels coming
even remotely close to Godfather, and with more “exclusive” releases/debuts
each month, they’re starting to set a
standard by which all others will soon be judged.
This would all be for naught if the audio content were shite,
however this is seldom the case and more often than not quite
the opposite, considering the majority of Godfather releases are
sourced from soundboards or low generation copies.
The only
exceptions appear to be when they have the opportunity to release
something extremely rare/valuable to collectors
in the form of a silver debut, such as the case in point here.
The audio content can be characterized as clear, favoring the mids,
and having a very lively quality.
The drums,
while audible, tend to be a bit distant compared to the guitars,
keyboards, and vocals which are very forward
in the mix.
Roger
Waters’ bass cuts through but again has more of a upper-midrange
quality here, so dialing in a bit of extreme lows
along with a touch of highs should yield the ideal balance for most
listeners.
The only
negative sonically is the fact that there is a bit of upper end
distortion, particularly during the loudest passages, throughout - however, if played at a loud volume through large speakers,
Obscured By Father Time would register
few complaints (and even with headphones this minor issue fades into
the background as you acclimate to the recording).
This is
primarily due to the fantastic performance of the band which finds
them well-rehearsed and inspired, eleven dates
into their first North American tour of 1973.
The droning opening of “Obscured By Clouds” sets the tone for the
first set of the evening, which is the more spaced-out
of the two due largely to the dominance of Richard Wright’s
keyboards, in this case the Mini Moog (model D).
Though
little more than an intro piece, it is nonetheless effective as a
perfect segue into the uncharacteristic bombast of
“When You’re In” - certainly one of the heavier and harder rocking
songs in the Floyd discography.
Floyd would
only perform songs from the Obscured By Clouds soundtrack from the
end of 1972 through 1973, so documents
such as this are extremely valuable and welcome.
An audience member is overheard commenting “It felt like I just took
a little trip” after “When You’re In,” and this sums
up the first set perfectly; “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The
Sun” begins with another unique drone that is much deeper
and darker than “Obscured By Clouds,” featuring ominous, slowly
drifting chords courtesy of Richard Wright before
Gilmour enters with the main motif.
It is clear
at this point that we’re leaving the terrestrial realm for the
remainder of the first half with three lengthy,
spacey epics in a row.
One of the highlights of this concert is “Careful With That Axe,
Eugene” which is bristling with tense energy from the outset,
and replete with a large quantity of Waters’ maniacal vocalizations.
The quadraphonics surely had the audience looking
over their shoulders and shivering at the sounds of madness captured
here!
A brief fade
follows the last strains of the piece, but no music is lost and the
intro of “Echoes” is likewise intact.
It’s difficult to discern whether or not Richard Wright was
intentionally developing the intro “pings” a bit or if it’s the
simply
the results of tweaking the Binson Echorec, but either way this
anomaly provides a good identifier for this concert and
sounds fantastic.
The audience
recognize the song instantly and roar with approval from the very
first hint. What follows is a fabulous rendition
of what many consider to be Floyd’s crowning achievement, and this
is one of the last tours before Dick Parry’s saxophone
solo was incorporated much to the chagrin of some longtime fans (including
myself, though sometimes I don’t mind it).
There is a
brief “skip” at the 20:05 mark, but literally only a second or two
is missing and there is no drop out.
Disc 2 features the “Dark Side Of The Moon” suite in its entirety,
and this would be the first post-LP release performance of the massive work in front of a New York audience, who would’ve been
largely unfamiliar with it due to the fact that the albumhad only been released 8 days prior in the USA and differed greatly from
the primordial version performed at
Carnegie Hall the previous May.
As per usual, the sound seems to improve slightly for the majority
of “Dark Side Of The Moon” but there are a couple small
issues to address here beginning with another “skip” at the 3:51
mark in “The Great Gig In The Sky” (again, no drop-out, just
a couple seconds or less missing).
More
significant than that is the rather harsh editing in of another
source at the 1:10 mark in “Brain Damage” that carries us through to the end of the song
where another edit brings us back to the previous
source for “Eclipse” -
this is a bit jarring but at least it’s
musically complete.
Needless to say, the band perform flawlessly and there are some very
cool details that make this version special
including Richard Wright’s tweaking of the cutoff filter towards the
end of “On The Run” to a succession of rather frenzied
bends from Gilmour about 6:45 into “Any Colour You Like.”
Overall, the suite sometimes feels a bit “pushed” as if the
tape is running a touch fast, but it lends a powerful driving feel
to “Money” and prevents any lulls otherwise.
There’s one final fade out and back in before the encore “One Of
These Days,” but as with the rest of this collection, most of
the tune-up is there and no actual musical content is lost.
There is a
brief instance of tape deterioration at the 1:14 mark, but it passes
swiftly.
As with the
majority of this concert, it is the minute details that make it
special, in this case Wright’s Moog-based experiments
at the conclusion of the song set it apart from other renditions.
Unfortunately, towards the end of the disc, the upper end distortion
grows increasingly audible, however this doesn’t soil
this release much due to the quality of the performance.
Thus, while Godfather’s release is a combination of sources, the
editing is handled professionally with the sole exception
of the “shocking” sonic twist in “Brain Damage,” but it’s likely
this is the best they could do with the copy they procured
(several fan-produced titles of this performance opted for the
matrix method, and I imagine Godfather received a copy
of one of these, then remastered it…but without ALL of the original
source tapes, it would be difficult to smooth out a
previous patching job that was somewhat shoddy).
Nevertheless, Obscured By Father Time is an extremely important and
welcome release from Godfather, as this show
in particular did indeed contribute directly to the changing
fortunes of the band (as mentioned in the liner notes), with so
many important people in the audience(and a horde of tapers as
well); though Floyd would return to North America for a 2nd
leg in June of 1973, the next tour proper (in 1975) would find them
performing in venues double or triple this size - not only
the result of the unexpected success of “Money” on the radio, but
also years of legendary live spectacles such as this.
Obscured By Father Time marks the third silver Floyd debut in a row
from Godfather Records, and I say “keep ‘em coming!”
Yes, it’s a bit more raw once again (compared to some of the
Springsteen, Zeppelin, or U2 releases from the label), but
this release in particular is something of a coup in that after all
the assumptions, conjecture, and speculation related to the
March 18th, 1973 recordings, Godfather have delivered a resounding
statement that eliminates all the past confusion
related to these tapes - considering the historical relevance of
this concert, it’s about damn time someone pressed it on silver!
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