At The End Of The Raimbow (sic) (Godfather Records GR 176/177)
Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA - September 22nd, 1972
Disc 1:
Speak To Me / Breathe (2:49),
On The Run (4:44),
Time (5:59),
Breathe (Reprise) (1:03),
The Great Gig In The Sky (4:39),
Money (6:26),
Us And Them (7:52),
Any Colour You Like (4:45),
Brain Damage (3:55),
Eclipse (1:52),
One Of These Days (11:23),
Careful With That Axe Eugene (14:01)
Disc 2: Echoes (29:04),
A Saucerful Of Secrets (16:57),
Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun (13:25)
Godfather Records' At The End Of The Raimbow (sic) is a rather excellent
version of what many Floyd fans consider to be one of their all-time
greatest live performances. It's a show that's also quite historically
notable since it's believed to be the very last time they ever played
"A Saucerful Of Secrets", and the version of it on this recording will
probably make any fan of this psychedelic classic regret that sadly they
would never play it again.
This release must be either a copy of the circulated non-commercial CDR
title Platinum Crackers or a derivative from it, which makes use of both
of the audience-recorded sources known to exist from this night, one of
them being from the master. Strong evidence to such is the fact that the
playing times of each track on the first disc match up exactly with those
of Platinum Crackers, and the ones on the second disc differ only very
slightly by a few seconds each. Regardless, the sound quality is excellent
, being clearly superior to that of the old release Staying Home To Watch
The Rain (Great Dane GDR CD 9013). And unlike Crackers (Zeus Z 2011001/2)
, which was released years after Staying Home and sounds slightly better
than it but is unfortunately somewhat thin, and probably even worse, has a
somewhat irritatingly harsh, raspy sort of high end, At The End Of The
Raimbow has noticeably deeper bass and a high end that's significantly
less irritatingly harsh and raspy. Furthermore, both "Any Colour You Like"
and "Brain Damage" are seamlessly complete, whereas on Zeus' Crackers
approx. the last 40-45 seconds of "Any Colour" and the first 10-15 seconds
of "Brain Damage" are unfortunately missing. On At The End Of The
Raimbow, we have the complete show with no edits, cuts, fade-ins,
fade-outs, etc., and even the tune-ups are included. Without the
tune-ups, however, it would have been possible for Godfatherecords to
squeeze both "One Of These Days" and "Careful With That Axe, Eugene" at
the beginning of Disc 2 instead of the end of Disc 1, which would have
made a somewhat better arrangement.
A highly-recommended title, At The End Of The Raimbow comes in a nicely
attractive multi-gatefold digipack that features relatively uncommon or
rare photos of each of the band members inside. Godfathe Records
obviously must have meant to title this release At The End Of The Rainbow,
but somehow At The End Of The Raimbow ended up as what's printed on the
spine while the front cover actually just says At The End Of Raimbow.
Nevertheless, such obvious typos alone would be a rather silly reason for
not getting this fine version of one of the all-time favorite live shows
of many Floyd fans.
Addendum: At The End Of The Raimbow is one of the releases of the
Hollywood Bowl '72 show that has its last 3 songs in what's believed to
be the correct order in which Floyd played them that night, while
"Staying Home to Watch the Rain" & "Crackers" apparently have the
incorrect order for those last 3 songs.
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