For
vinyl-only traditionalists and collectors alike, the decision was made
to release Echoes as a (strictly limited) box set.
The exact number of
these produced is not clear - but is believed to be just a few
thousand. This is a shame, as it is quite a nice package.
Many people across the world seem
to be oblivious to this version of the greatest hits package; we have
not seen any advertising materials that mention the availability of the
set on those funny old black bits of plastic.
Nevertheless,
it is something that all Pink Floyd collectors will enjoy adding to
their collection - if they can find a copy, that is.
Your best bet is
to try some of the specialist music retailers that have a good number
of collectibles in their stock. It has now become very hard to source.
Split over four slabs of vinyl, the track listing is as follows:
RECORD 1 - side 1:
Astronomy Domine / See Emily Play / The Happiest Days Of Our Lives / Another
Brick In The Wall (Part 2) / Marooned / The Great Gig In The Sky
RECORD 1 - side 2:
Echoes / Hey You
RECORD 2 - side 1:
Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun / Money / Keep Talking
RECORD 2 - side 2:
Sheep / Sorrow
RECORD 3 - side 1:
Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 1-7)
RECORD 3 - side 2:
Time / The Fletcher Memorial Home / Comfortably Numb / When The Tigers Broke Free
RECORD 4 - side 1:
One Of These Days / Us And Them / Learning To Fly / Arnold Layne
RECORD 4 - side 2:
Wish You Were Here / Jugband Blues / High Hopes / Bike
If you do a comparison with the
CD track listing, you will see that the running order is fairly much
untouched - with the exception of record 1, where Echoes and Hey You
have been moved to side 2, with Marooned and Great Gig shuffling up.
This is of course due to the time limitations on a record.
It is extremely pleasing to see
how much care and effort has been taken over the design of this box
set. Corners have not been cut to keep costs down - the outer slip
cover is made from thick cardboard and is well constructed. It should
not fall apart, come unglued, or start peeling.
The
thickness of the slip cover should be evident from the picture to the
right - as you can see, it is almost the same thickness of each disc
including its cover.
That is another thing that has
impressed with this box set - many typical sets do not bother with
seperate, full thickness outer sleeves for the records in the box,
relying on the slip cover and the fairly flimsy inner covers to do the
job. Typically, that is not the Floyd way.
Seemingly an exercise in trying
to use as many different versions of the cover art as possible, you
will find six different versions on the different sleeves, along with
many smaller pictures and images from throughout the bands career, on
the back of the sleeves, and on labels themselves (examples of which
are shown below). Some of the pictures are classics, some are unused
concept drawings for artwork, and some are just plain weird - such as
the back of record four with a picture of someone's foot!
There are clearly a number of
pictures that could only have come from Nick Mason's private archives,
and as such, whet the appetite even more for the long-awaiting story of
the band he has been writing for some years. Nice work all-in-all and
definately one to add to your collection!
Each record has labels like these - one side has the tracks and a segment from the cover,
and the other side has slices of covers and images from their history; each one is different.
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