50 Years Ago Today

Bob Marts · February 11, 2013

old school · February 11, 2013

Great find. I saw a still Jim Gilchrist posted of this session today on FaceBook. That is some cool history.

CrewC

fieldmixer · February 11, 2013

Very nice. I used to buy bootleg discs all the time growing up. Expensive hobby but so fun listening to all the variations, the studio chatter, and minute differences in performance. Surely contributed to the critical listening skills I employ today in my profession.

Bob Marts · February 11, 2013

Another link w/ some nice footage

Vincent Gates · March 7, 2013

Beautiful recordings. Love the dry vox on the right and reverb hard panned left.

Really opens up the mix.

studiomprd · March 7, 2013

" Love the dry vox on the right and reverb hard panned left. "

Love the dry vox on the right and instruments hard panned left.

that is how their first 'stereo' LP's were released

Jim Gilchrist · March 16, 2013

BBC Radio 2 did a day's broadcast centered around covers of the tunes from Please Please Me, each presented at the time each tune was recorded.

Very interesting and some lovely Beatles covers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQzvpzxJ7iE

Best regards,

Jim

old school · March 17, 2013

Cool idea for sure. The original sessions win hands down of course, but a fun romp at Abbey Roads.... Wish I could go there someday. I've been to Capital Records twice, Ocean Way a time or three. Love the rooms of historic music.

CrewC

Just like I love the big rooms of Hollywood movie magic n history. The vibe seems to drip off those places of creation, some good, others bad, to many ugly projects were recorded on those dusty days of history, but I do dig them.

Richard Lightstone, CAS · March 17, 2013

If you really want a great look back, read "Here There and Everywhere", by Geoff Emerick.

Henchman · March 17, 2013

Funny how they didn't need auto tune or micro ediitng.

John Steigerwald · March 17, 2013

George Martin did have a neat little trick of playing a note on a piano to offset an off pitch vocal, then mixing it in ever so slightly underneath to fool your ear into hearing the sung note in tune.

mono · July 20, 2022

mono · November 12, 2022

mono · March 1, 2023

" How Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ got an accidental Toronto premiere 50 years ago ( By Nick Krewen - Special to the Toronto Star Wed., March 1, 2023 )

Four days before the album was to be released worldwide in 1973 DJ David Marsden played it on his CHUM-FM show.

Fifty years ago this week, Toronto radio listeners unwittingly enjoyed the world premiere of the classic Pink Floyd album “The Dark Side of the Moon.”

Call it a happy accident, because things weren’t supposed to quite work out that way.

Back in 1973, Bob Roper was working as the Capitol Records promotion representative for Ontario. His job was to pitch Toronto radio stations his label’s latest music, with the hope that DJs and music directors would add it to their playlists.

Days before the official March 1, 1973 release of the latest opus by the British progressive rock outfit consisting of Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Richard Wright and Nick Mason, Roper was handed an advance copy of the album by his bosses.

“I got it at the end of the day and was told, ‘Take this home because, come Monday, this record is being released and, because this is a priority for Capitol worldwide, you need to have a good listen to it so we can promote it properly,” Roper recalled in an interview.

He listened to it twice, thought it was good and decided to procure a second opinion from someone he respected: CHUM-FM host David Marsden.

For Marsden, who had been following the band since their 1969 experimental psychedelic album “Ummagumma,” it was an alluring opportunity.

“I was a Pink Floyd freak, admittedly,” said Marsden.

A few months before, he had started a petition to persuade Toronto’s Concert Productions International and promoter Michael Cohl to bring the band to Maple Leaf Gardens for the first time.

“I found out that CPI were not going to book Pink Floyd because they didn’t think anybody wanted to see them,” Marsden said.

“I started a petition to get people to say they’d buy tickets, and kids in high schools everywhere were setting up desks in the hallways to get people to sign it.”

The resulting show sold out in 45 minutes, with Pink Floyd’s debut Toronto performance on March 11, 1973: 11 days after “Dark Side’s” release.

So when Roper handed Marsden the vinyl platter four days before it was supposed to hit shelves and Marsden played it during his 6 to 10 p.m. slot — twice, from start to finish — Roper thought he had scored a coup.

“Until I went into the office the next morning and caught proper hell.”

It turns out that Pink Floyd’s management and Capitol Records worldwide had big plans for the premiere that Roper had accidentally ruined.

“We preceded the world premiere by four days and, of course, CHUM-FM was only available in the Toronto area,” Marsden said. “But it was a world premiere as far as I was concerned.”

( https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/music/2023/03/01/how-pink-floyds-dark-side-of-the-moon-got-an-accidental-toronto-premiere-50-years-ago.html )

Bob Roper - Capitol Records: ( https://issuu.com/slitherproductions/docs/october_2019_issue_complete_online/s/152608 )

" An interesting fact is when I was working at Capitol Records and I got a test pressing of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon to take home and listen to, as I had to promote it.

The first pressing had no band cuts on the record. There were no individual songs, just straight through. They held it back because they realized radio plays singles and have to put the tone arm down (he laughs). "

" Then the years passed and something changed within Torry; she was no longer happy to be known as the “chorus singer on The Great Gig in the Sky“.

She wanted to seek a bit of acknowledgement after having being behind the scenes for so long.

In 2004, she sued EMI and Pink Floyd, wanting to be recognised as a co-author of the song along with Rick Wright, rather than just a performer.

She won the court case and, through an out-of-court agreement, she was refunded for the years during which her part on the record had not been truly recognised. "

( https://auralcrave.com/en/2018/05/27/the-great-gig-in-the-sky-the-story-of-pink-floyds-pearl/ )

Now ....Off on a slightly different and, "not necessarily or, exactly, 50 years ago today" ... tangent:

The Pink Floyd & Syd Barrett Story - JOHN EDGINTON DOCUMENTARY "UNFILTERED" INTERVIEWS - Playlist (31 videos) https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4-tKyR13ib59AK31LMUg2xFb_h2WtZcN