CATCHING UP: ROGER WATERS CONCERT REVIEW

Seeing Roger Waters at Yankee Stadium this summer was incredible. It was the exact same Wall show that I saw in 2010, it was just bigger.

I wasn't reviewing the show for work, we didn't have a photo pass (unfortunately) and we bought our tickets, which were expensive and totally worth it.

I found the show even more moving the second time around, especially during "Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)," where young children were break dancing on stage wearing shirts that read "FEAR BUILDS WALLS." I think the meaning of the album, to Roger, has changed since he wrote it during his days in Pink Floyd.

It was obviously a very personal album when he wrote it. But now, I think it takes on a more global message.  He paints in broad strokes - during "Mother" when he sings "Mother, should I trust the government?" the answer is scrawled on the wall: "No Fucking Way."  That's an easy way to get cheers (especially from the formerly mulleted classic rock crowd who may watch a bit too much Fox... but then again, I would probably have enjoyed that line a bit more during the bu$h era). Still, the performance seems to not emphasize his unsuccessful relationships with his exquisite wife and mother, and more on the effect that war has had on him (and many others, making it an album that seems less about himself and more about the rest of the world).

Still, I walked away from the show elated at the incredible production I'd just witnessed.  And also moved. Still moved after thirty years, by this incredibly powerful and durable work of art.

TOMORROW ON THE MORNING JOLT: REISSUES!

Need any last minute gifts for the discerning rock fan in your life?  Well, tune in to SiriusXM OutQ's Morning Jolt with Larry Flick tomorrow at 9 am; we'll be discussing some great reissues that have come out in the past few months that will make great gifts.  (Don't have a SiriusXM subscription?  Go here to learn how to try SiriusXM on a trial basis).

First off is the newly released Jimi Hendrix box set, Winterland. I wrote about this a few months ago: the box set is drawn from six concerts Jimi played at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom over three nights in October of 1968. It's certainly not where I'd recommend a new fan starts, but it is an incredible collection nonetheless.  There's also a single CD version for those not looking to go the 4 CD box set route.

We're also going to talk about recently reissued Pink Floyd catalog. You can get the entire catalog as a box set for about $180, or get the albums individually.  There's also expanded versions of two of their greatest albums, Dark Side Of The Moon and Wish You Were Here.

Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band recently reissued their two classic live albums, Live Bullet and Nine Tonight. I recently kind of "discovered" the greatness of Bob Seger and I wrote about it earlier tonight.

Earlier this year, I wrote about the first five Queen albums which had recently been reissued. The rest of their albums have since been reissued and I'll talk about those also.

By the way, I'll be in the studio next week as well, talking about my favorite albums of 2011.  It wasn't a great year for music, but it was a good one, and I'm having a hard time narrowing it down.

THE PINK FLOYD REISSUES - THE FINAL WORD ON FLOYD

A couple of years ago, EMI Records orchestrated what was probably the biggest reissue campaign ever: putting out the remastered Beatles catalog. This year, they're rolling out the remastered Pink Floyd catalog.  They are very good at this kind of thing.

Floyd's catalog has been reissued before, but this is the first time it is being remastered (I think).  If you want  Pink Floyd's albums, straight up with no bonus tracks, buy the new reissues.  You can actually buy the entire catalog of studio albums (but not live albums) for about $180 via the Discovery box set.  (Full disclosure: I got all of the reissues from the label, but not as the box set, just as individual CDs.)

The sound is incredible and with Pink Floyd, fidelity is important. If you have these versions, you won't ever need anything else, unless you want to dive deeper with expanded editions.

So far, two of their albums have been expanded in two different forms, which is how it's done these days (see recent reissues by U2, Nirvana and The Rolling Stones).  The albums that have been expanded have "Experience" (2 CD sets with a disc of extras) and "Immersion" versions (much more lavish editions).

I bought a copy of the "Experience" version of 1973's Dark Side of The Moon for $25. The second disc is a live concert recorded at The Empire Pool in Wembley in 1974, and features the band performing Dark Side from start to finish.  It was cool to hear them reproduce the album in a more raw form - they had not yet become a completely slick stadium band. The "Immersion" version costs over $100 and has lots of extras that I didn't really want: DVD-audio, Blu-Ray audio, 5.1 remixes, surround sound remixes.  There are some video and audio elements that I was interested in, but not enough to spend the extra $75, given how many other reissues I've gotten this season.

I also bought a copy of the "Experience" version of 1975's Wish You Were Here for $25.  The second disc features a bunch of extras: a live version of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond (parts 1 -6)," as well as "Raving and Drooling" and "You've Got To Be Crazy," songs which ended up morphing into tunes from their next album, Animals. But my favorite extra is an alternate version of the title track featuring jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli.

Honestly, when I first heard about this reissue campaign, I was kind of ambivalent about the prospect of a Pink Floyd reissue containing any extras. Their classic albums seem so perfect that I wouldn't change a thing. And Floyd's mystique is such that, I don't want to see anything more than what they reveal.  On the other hand, the live Dark Side is pretty awesome, as are some of the Wish You Were Here extras.  I know that next year, they are going to do expanded editions of The Wall, and I'm curious what the extras will be. I've heard that they may also be doing an expanded Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, and I guess if there's unreleased Syd Barrett material, it would be cool to hear it.

TOMORROW ON OUTQ: REISSUES AND BOX SETS

Polish your debit cards, ya'll!  Later this morning on SIRIUS XM OutQ's The Morning Jolt With Larry Flick, I'll be talking about great gift ideas: namely reissues and box sets. 

Three of them I wrote about earlier tonight: Bruce Springsteen's Darkness On The Edge Of Town box set, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' deluxe reissue of Damn The Torpedoes, and David Bowie's deluxe reissue of Station To Station.

Also:

* The new Jimi Hendrix box set, West Coast Seattle Boy. A lot of it seems to be live and alternate versions of stuff. But it also has lots of recordings of Jimi as a sideman, before he went solo.  So you get to hear Jimi with The Isley Brothers, Little Richard and more. That's worth the price right there.

* R.E.M.'s reissue of their classic Fables Of The Reconstruction. Classic album, no question. But the bonus disc contains demo versions of the album.  Nice to have for fanatics, but for everyone else, the regular album should suffice.

* The latest installment of the Bob Dylan Bootleg Series, Volume 9. The Whitmark Demos features imperfect demo recordings from 1962-1964.  Some pretty cool stuff there, but not essential (I much prefer Volume 8, which covers 1989 - 2008).

* An Introduction To Syd Barrett is a single CD collecting Barrett's stuff with Pink Floyd and as a solo artist.  It's a great gift for people who don't know who he is - anyone who likes Floyd should be familar with this stuff, and if they're not, get this and help them out!

* And two Duran Duran dexlue reissues: they've re-releeased their Notorious and Big Thing albums, both with tons of extra stuff.

ROGER WATERS AT MSG: WOW. JUST WOW.

I finally saw Roger Waters' tour tonight: for those of you who don't know, he's been playing Pink Floyd's 1979 classic, The Wall, start to finish, complete with a humongous production. Just like at the select concerts they did to promote the album in 1979 and 1980 (and the one show Waters did in Berlin in 1990), an actual "wall" was built around the stage during the concert.  There were costumes, lights, gigantic puppets, and lots of video (the wall itself was used as a projection screen, but Roger also used the circular video screen that he, and Floyd, have always used at their shows). There was a lot to look at, nearly every song had a different visual aspect to it.

But it worked, and never seemed Spinal Tap-ed out. Because at the core of it is one of the greatest albums of all time, an incredible song cycle that works incredibly well, but most of the songs stand on their own as classics.  But the story itself is so moving: the story of a boy whose father went to war, never came back, and that boy was never the same.  This sense of loss, and the alienation that came from it, had influenced Roger Waters' songwriting throughout his career, but was most fully realized on The Wall. I wonder if it was therapudic for him: I wonder if it helped him to feel better afterwards.

Waters kind of comes off as a scary guy, although the recent cover story in Rolling Stone magazine went a long way to humanizing him (in my opinion). He really is a pretty sensitive guy: most of his rage comes at his anger with people being treated unfairly (or worse). During the intermission of the show tonight, and during "Goodbye Blue Sky," Waters projected names and photos of people who died in war (soldiers and civilians), he solicited these photos and stories via his website.

Anyway, the concert itself was incredible. The band was great, although  I didn't love the other singer - the guy who sang David Gilmour's parts. A few years ago, Roger was using Doyle Bramhall II, who I liked better.  But they always managed to keep the focus on the music, which is at the core of the whole thing, and hasn't lost any of its power, three decades later. Waters has said that this will be his last tour (I think he's close to 70), but he looked and sounded so good, I hope he does another one - if not a "Wall" tour, at least another tour where he plays songs from his entire career (including his solo stuff).

DID PIGS FLY? ROGER WATERS AND DAVID GILMOUR PERFORM TOGETHER

I usually deal with music news on twitter, but I had to write about this. Over the weekend, Roger Waters and David Gilmour performed together!

Over the past few years, Waters has expressed interest in rejoining Pink Floyd.  At the very least, he'd probably like to have the rights to the band name, which he unwittingly lost when he quit the band in the mid-'80s.  For his part, Gilmour has expressed that he wouldn't want to work with Roger again, and doesn't want to do Pink Floyd anymore.  After a lengthy tour for his last album, he pretty much said he doesn't know when he'll even do another solo album.  He doesn't want to work with himself!

For his part, Waters has toured quite a bit, doing very Floyd-centric concerts (he hasn't done a new album in decades).  His last tour saw him doing Dark Side Of The Moon in its entirety, and his upcoming one will see him doing The Wall, complete with the legendary production from Floyd's 1979-1980 tour.

Anyway, this Gilmour-Waters reunion was prompted by Gilmour, who wanted Waters to perform "To Know Him Is To Love Him" at a charity event, which Waters didn't think he could sing. Long story short, Gilmour said he'd join Waters for "Comfortably Numb" at one show on his Wall tour if Roger would join him. Pretty amazing.  Read the whole story, from Roger's point of view, at his facebook page.

ROGER WATERS TO TOUR FOR "THE WALL"

A few months ago, I wrote about a rumor that Roger Waters next tour would see him performing the Pink Floyd classic album The Wall. Well, it's true! He announced it today on his revamped website. Roger also offers his explanation for why he is staging this tour at this particular time.  If you're a fan, check it out. Roger's last tour saw him performing Dark Side Of The Moon, so I guess this was a logical concept for this tour.  He hasn't actually put out a new album (other an Ca Ira, an opera that he composed) in nearly two decades. Although he has done some new songs, like "Each Small Candle." Anyway, find the tour dates at his site, I am definitely not going to miss this tour. I expect that it will have an even better production than what Pink Floyd used in 1980 when they promoted the album on a brief tour.

ROGER WATERS TO PERFORM "THE WALL" ON TOUR?

Today I heard a rumor (and also read about it a bit in Rolling Stone) that Roger Waters may go on tour this year, performing Pink Floyd's The Wall. That would be pretty amazing, and I'll report on it as soon as I hear more! If anyone has heard about this, please comment!

KNEBWORTH GETS A 20TH ANNIVERSARY REISSUE

Wow, it's been twenty years? I remember working at sleepaway camp over the summer and listening to the live broadcast of this concert over the radio. The concert featured British rock royalty, and raised funds for the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy and the Brit School of Performing Arts. Nordoff -Robbins "specializes in transforming the lives of children and adults constrained by illness, disability, trauma or isolation, through the power of music." It's easy to understand why so many musicians would donate their time and efforts. Learn more about Nordoff-Robbins here.

The concert itself was incredible.  Tears For Fears, a very hot band at that time, opened. They were followed by two legendary U.K. bands that never caught on here, Cliff Richard & The Shadows and Status Quo. And then it got really good.

Robert Plant, who was absolutely huge at that moment thanks to his hit album Now & Zen performed, and towards the end of his set was joined by Jimmy Page. Phil Collins, one of the biggest stars in the world played a solo set.  After a few songs, most of his band (minus drummer Chester Thompson and guitarist/bassist Daryl Stuermer) left and Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks joined for a Genesis set. Then Phil's band rejoined for a huge-ass "Turn It On Again" medley. Eric Clapton and The Dire Straits (both at their commercial peaks) performed a set together, playing songs from both catalogs, and then were joined by Elton John for some of his songs (including his then-#1 single "Sacrifice"). 

Paul McCartney, who was at the time on his first tour in over a decade and played an abbreviated version of his usual show. And, believe it or not, he wasn't the headliner: Pink Floyd (the post-Roger Waters version, alas) closed the show. I lost my CD version of the show, and ended up finding it on eBay and buying a new copy. I really like some of it: especially Plant's set, but before and after Page joins.  He was really enjoying having a hit album, I think. I also liked the Clapton/Elton/Dire Straits thing. Plus it brings back memories of listening to it over and over that summer (of course we taped it off the radio. I wish I still had the tape, since not all the songs made it to the album).  But now, Eagle Rock Entertainment is reissuing it (unfortunately with no bonus tracks).  It comes out March 23.

FLAMING LIPS BRING IN 2010 WITH "DARK SIDE OF THE MOON"

I am not a huge Flaming Lips fan, but I do enjoy some of their music, and I definitely respect their seemingly-boundless creativity. I think it's cool that they are going to be covering Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon on New Year's Eve. Find out more at the Lips' website.

DAVID GILMOUR PAYS TRIBUTE TO RICK WRIGHT

David Gilmour was on the British show Later... With Jools Holland talking about his new live album, and he performed a moving tribute to the late Richard Wright. He did Pink Floyd's "Remember A Day" from A Saucerful of Secrets, which Wright wrote and sung.  See the clip here. 

DAVID GILMOUR REMEMBERS RICHARD WRIGHT

None of the members of Pink Floyd (other than Roger Waters) are very talkative, so I thought it was bitter and sweet that David Gilmour wrote a little bit about his late bandmate Richard Wright on his web site.

Oddly, Wright passed away just as the latest issue of the cool British magazine Uncut, with Floyd on the cover, came out. It has a list of the top 30 Floyd tunes, as selected by Gilmour, Floyd drummer Nick Mason, and their famous fans. The #1 was the entire "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" suite.

RICK WRIGHT R.I.P.

Pink Floyd's keyboardist Rick Wright died today after a short battle with cancer. I got to interview him once about ten years ago. We were talking about his then-semi-current solo album, Broken China, but I couldn't resist asking him about the Dark Side Of The Moon/Wizard Of Oz rumors. He was really cool. Without saying it, I could tell he'd like to play with Floyd again, and he got his chance, twice. Once, of course, was at Live 8, and after that, the post-Roger Waters version of the band performed at a tribute to their original leader, Syd Barrett. I'm glad he had that closure. 

WHICH ONE WAS PINK?

There’s a school of thought that says that the only good music that Pink Floyd did was with their original singer/guitarist/songwriter Syd Barrett. That lineup of the band, which also included bassist/vocalist Roger Waters, keyboardist/vocalist Rick Wright and drummer Nick Mason, only released one album – the classic Piper At The Gates Of Dawn – and a few singles. Eventually, they hired guitarist/singer David Gilmour to tour with them, because Syd became unable to function on stage, and eventually, they just pushed Syd out of the band.

Should they have changed their name? Tough call: it’s like, was Fleetwood Mac really Fleetwood Mac once Peter Green left? Well, a lot of Fleetwood Mac fans may not know who Peter Green is. And a lot of Pink Floyd fans may not really know Syd. Classic rock radio plays an awful lot of Floyd, but nothing earlier than Dark Side Of The Moon. Indeed, I considered myself a Floyd fan for a long time and didn’t know who he was.

The first I’d heard of the Syd-era songs was on the Works compilation. It was just a totally different Floyd than the one I knew. Then, a few years later, on Roger Waters’ Radio KAOS tour, he played the video for “Arnold Layne” in the middle of the show. It intrigued me, and I went back and learned a bit more about Syd Barrett. A lot of artists like to act crazy/mad/weird, but Syd Barrett was the real deal, and turned this madness into some really cool music for a short while, before he lost it.

I’ve read the story about Syd showing up at the studio when Pink Floyd was recording the Wish You Were Here album – much of which is about Syd. Ironically, they didn’t recognize him at first, even though the band members were involved in producing Syd’s solo recordings. But after that, his family asked the band members to stay out of Syd’s life. They made sure he received his royalties, so he must have been OK financially. I’d read that his sister said that he painted a lot. He would paint something and then destroy it. That’s a pretty pure expression of art, in a way. I wonder if he was happy. Most people assume that because he withdrew from public life, he was miserable. But I wonder if he wasn’t doing exactly what he wanted to in the last years/decades of his life. Of course, I don’t have any real insight to his mental issues. Probably more celebs should try this kind of complete withdrawal from public life.

Anyway, there’s a new deluxe reissue of Piper At The Gates Of Dawn out, it actually includes everything Floyd did while Syd was in the band. It also includes a replica of some of Syd’s original artwork circa 1965, which is interesting and a little scary. I would recommend this to any Pink Floyd fan, particularly those who aren’t as familiar with the Syd Barrett era. It’s practically a different band from the one that recorded Dark Side, Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall (four of my favorite albums) but it is interesting to hear what the band was like in the early days. But more than that, the music really stands up. Even if Pink Floyd never made another album after Syd, this music would ensure their place in music history.