HPRRP011- PINK FLOYD
IF PIGS COULD FLY
Jan 23, 1975 (Westfalenhalle - Dortmond, Germany)
CD1
1-1. Sheep 12:02
1-2. Pigs On The Wing (Part 1) 1:32
1-3. Dogs 18:22
1-4. Pigs On The Wing (Part 2) 2:06
1-5. Pigs (Three Different Ones) 17:42
CD2
2-1. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (1-5) 13:35
2-2. Welcome To The Machine 7:50
2-3. Have A Cigar 5:25
2-4. Wish You Were Here 6:30
2-5. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (6-9) 15:41
2-6. Money 9:31
2-7. Us And Them 7:41
"Here Come the Pigs!"
Pink Floyd were ready with their new album “Animals”. The album was
recorded during the summer and fall of 1976 in a new studio built in
Islington, North London and contained both old and new material. Ever
since the end of 1974, and all the way through the many legs of the 1975
tour, the band frequently performed ‘Raving and Drooling’ and ‘You’ve
Gotta Be Crazy’, two brand new songs that failed to make the final cut
of “Wish You Were Here”. Reluctant to throw away such good material, the
band re-structured the two unreleased songs around the concept of the
new album, respectively re-naming them ‘Sheep’ and ‘Dogs’. New material
written to accompany those two older number included “Pigs (Three
Different Ones)” and a two-part song called ‘Pigs on a Wing’. Roger
describes this as a love song to his wife Carolyne. Other motivations
for the album, according to Waters, included moralist Mary Whitehouse
and the rising conservative politician Margaret Thatcher. Both received
the brunt of his scathing sarcasm.
As always, the band wanted the world to
take notice of their new work. They adopted the new floating pig mascot
for both symbolic and practical reasons. The cover of the new album
shows the pig floating over the London Battersea power station. To get
this picture, the graphic artist wanted to superimpose the pig into a
standard picture. The band had other plans and insisted that a 40 foot
helium filled Zeppelin of a pig be made, inflated, and launched over
the site.This spectacle was arranged with a film crew, tethering crew
and even a sharp shooter in case the giant pig broke loose and needed to
be shot down. Unfortunately, the first day’s attempt was unsuccessful
due to weather. The next day the photographs were taken but before they
would return the zeppelin to the ground, the wind broke the tethering
lines and the huge inflatable pig was loose. This problem was further
complicated by the fact that no one remembered to ask the sharp shooter
to come back for the second day. The pig floated around London for quite
a while before landing in a field near Canterbury. Though it was
obviously unplanned, the band could not have asked for a better
publicity event. This brings us to the present PRRP release. Dortmund,
Germany, January 23rd 1977 was to witness the very first show of the
1977 Animals Tour. The new album was to be released the day of this
performance, therefore no one in the audience was very familiar with the
new material. Saxaphonist Dick Perry joined the band again on this tour,
while Terrance “Snowy” White was asked to provide back-up rhythm guitar.
Pink Floyd once more split the show into two sets. The first set
consists of the whole “Animals” album while the second presented –for
the first time- the complete “Wish You Were Here” album. Two encores
were also provided, both taken from the “Dark Side of the Moon” album.
The combination provided an excellent chronicle of the Pink Floyd
approach to music at the time and received a warm reception for this
very enthusiastic German crowd.
Notes from the Re-Master
The source for this audience recording is generally good but a number of
problems needed to be fixed. For some reason, many of the songs were
spliced together, making an abrupt cut during the audience applause. We
presume this was done to shorten the recording but none the less we had
to smooth these transitions in order to maintain the flow of the
concert. The hiss level was quite high so it was localized and reduced.
The sound quality was good with music signal clearly present up to
11,000 Hz but the tonality needed adjustment. The low treble range was
particularly harsh and piercing during Gilmour’s guitar solos and the
saxophone leads. Selective attenuation of those frequencies reduced this
audible annoyance. At rare times the bass overwhelmed the other
instruments and needed to be reduced as well.
During a five minute segment on disc 2
the left channel lost significant treble. This was restored as well as
possible. At the end of “shine on you crazy diamond” the recorder
probably had battery failure since the pitch and tempo fall noticeably.
This was adjusted to be consistent with the rest of the show but brief
variations remain. Conversely, during a section of disc 1 the tempo and
pitch are unusually increased. This section was slowed back to the tempo
and pitch of the rest of the show. Many brief dropouts occurred. Some
were removed while others were pasted over to be less noticeable.