Pink Floyd – On The Run - Live in Boston 1972 (1972)

Second selection from last week's boot fair purchases was this unofficial release of Pink Floyd's 1972 concert at Boston Music Hall (that's Massachusetts, not Lincolnshire), again only a couple of quid new. It's of interest as an outing for Dark Side Of The Moon, a year before it was released as a studio album.

It's an audience recording, cleaned up a bit, but the lack of quality is obvious, particularly in the opening heartbeat of Speak To Me as the crowd get restless, but then there's a very recognisable embryonic version of Breathe, with a completely different On The Run from the album - this is a decent enough guitar / organ noodle. No alarm clocks here to introduce Time, and the intro feels a little low key without the strident chords on the studio recording but, again, the core of the song feels pretty developed (although parts of the vocal might be about to move up an octave), before the reprise of Breathe, and a piece called The Mortality Sequence, an organ theme below spoken word tapes, which are fairly unintelligible on this recording. It's clear why this was dropped, and we all know how the first half of DSOTM was improved by Richard Wright and Clare Torry.

Money sounds great, despite a guitar/organ section replacing the eventual sax break, and similarly Us And Them, although later on in the piece there are some very noticeable sound quality wobbles, and later on Brain Damage, there sounds to be a chunk missing. Those criticisms made, it's a fascinating listen to an early version of the album's songs, nearly a year before release.

The second CD has four long tracks, opening with One Of These Days from Meddle, almost twice as long as the album, a lot wilder, but with less impact (could be the recording, could be live limitations), followed by a fifteen minute noodle through Careful With That Axe, Eugene, which, other than the frantic shouty middle bit, doesn't seem to go anywhere. Next there's an extended and pretty faithful version of Echoes, half an hour of Floyd misbehaviour, with pleasing results, despite the sound quality not being the highest. Finally, there's a piece called Blues, fairly nondescript, listenable extended 12 bar blues jam.

On the whole, it's a worthwhile release as a snapshot of Pink Floyd, a year before the release of DSOTM, and an interesting document of how the piece began to develop, and the sound quality rarely intervenes in a decent listen. Certainly recommended (especially at the knock-down price of £1.99 at the market).

Link to this concert

4* - a great document of an early outing for DSOTM