A SAUCERFUL OF STRATS by PETE PROWN
Note: Jackaboutguitars would like to thank Pete Prown for providing this cool article to the site.
Pete Prown is a “noted American guitaraist and music journalist” who has written many guitar books including ‘Legends of Rock Guitar’ which he co-wrote with author and guitarist HP Newquist and ‘Shred!: The Ultimate Guide to Warp-Speed Guitar’ which he co-wrote with Rich Maloof. Pete is the GEAR EDITOR at VINTAGE GUITAR MAGAZINE and is also the leader of the “progressive rock” band Guitar Garden. Pete’s guitar music can be found at www.cdbaby.com/Artist/GuitarGarden. For more of Pete’s guitar work see EAR CANDY.
PINK FLOYD’S CD CATALOG GETS A MASSIVE REISSUE
By any standard, Pink Floyd has one of the mightiest catalogs in rock ‘n’ roll, a 14-album pantheon from 1967 to 1994 that has few rivals. Every so often, EMI remasters the batch with fresh sonics and, no question, this latest round gives Floydheads serious reason to rejoice. Let’s take a peek and check out the new goodies.
The big news is what’s being called the Immersion and Experience editions of Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, and The Wall (this last one coming out in a 7-CD/DVD set). The Immersion sets are expensive, multi-disc sets with CDs, books, new artwork, and swag, but cooler are the Experience sets, which are expanded 2-CD editions. Every other disc in the Floyd catalog is being reissued as single Discovery discs that are simply remastered.
For both Dark Side and Wish You Were Here, each set includes a second disc of concert material from 1974 concerts at London’s old Wembley Stadium. This is significant because Pink Floyd is just about the only major band from the ’70s that never released a live album in its golden era. Therefore, a vintage recording of Floyd playing Dark Side in its entirety, as well as various tracks from Wish You Were Here, are almost revelatorya veritable rock ‘n’ roll Holy Grail. In addition, Pink Floyd regularly auditioned new songs in concert. For example, you can hear fledgling songs called Raving and Drooling and You Gotta Be Crazy that wouldn’t appear until the Animals album three years later. After that they became known, more famously, as the Floyd classics Sheep and Dogs.
While these are the band’s best-selling albums, hardcore Floydophiles will say these are merely the tip of the iceberg. For starters, you can’t really talk about psychedelic guitar without including 1967’s The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and 1969’s Ummagumma. The former is quintessential British psychedelia, featuring the late, great Syd Barrett on guitar, a trailblazer who’s echo-laced riffs provided a dark counterpart to the Beatles’ upbeat Sgt. Pepper’s