'Shine on You Crazy Diamond'is offered here as Parts 1-7, lifting a couple movements that originally appeared on the second side of 'Wish You Were Here' (1975) and appending them onto the first five originally on side one. 'Echoes,' originally from 1971's 'Meddle,' has been cut from nearly 24 minutes to 16:30.

Though the promotional release and the 'Echoes' version differ slightly.) (The song's first appearance on CD was 1990's 'The Wall Berlin '90,' a six-song promotional-only release from Waters. Originally released in '82 as a single with 'Bring the Boys Back Home,' the song was going to be part of a soundtrack album, and, later, featured on 'The Final Cut.' In the end, the soundtrack never came to fruition, and the song didn't make it to 'The Final Cut.' Its inclusion on 'Echoes' is the song's first release on album, as well as its first commercial digital release. 'It's impossible to represent Pink Floyd on two CDs,' Guthrie was quoted in USA Today as saying, 'but within this limited framework, it does represent some of the band's favorite songs.'įor completists, 'Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd' contains a handful of cuts worth the purchase.įirst and foremost, this 26-track collection marks the first major release of 'When the Tigers Broke Free.' The song was included in the 1982 film 'Pink Floyd The Wall,' though it wasn't part of the 1979 album. Longtime Floyd collaborator James Guthrie compiled the album with input from band members Waters, David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Rick Wright. The album contains nearly two-and-a-half hours of songs - many segued into the next. The nonlinear songlist here is a little surprising. (Who remembers 1992's 'Shine On' box set and its odd hopscotching across the group's 30-plus-year history?) On 'Echoes,' a selection from the Roger Waters-heavy 'The Final Cut' (1983) - practically disowned by the band's current line-up - sits alongside 1980s and '90s material Waters once discounted as a Floyd 'forgery.' Music from both factions of Waters' mid-'80s split with the band rubs shoulders with the early Floyd of Syd Barrett's days. The 2-CD set is the most inclusive compilation in the band's history. For fans who dream of the ultimate Floydian reunion - one that would bring together members of Pink Floyd from across the ages - 'Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd' might be the closest they'll get.

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