It’s been a while since I’ve talked about a Pink Floyd or Casino Records release, so here’s something new and exciting that covers both areas. When it comes to collecting Pink Floyd (both official and unofficial releases), it can be just too much to keep up with. Aside from The Beatles who are indisputably the most bootlegged band in history, Pink Floyd is almost certainly number two, with Led Zeppelin probably coming in as a close third. People want to hear Floyd material and will keep buying it, no matter how many times they buy the same show, or in some cases, no matter how bad it sounds. I must admit that I’ve been sort of guilty of this myself in the past, but I am now making a conscious effort to be a bit more selective. Like many record collectors, I’m lacking in both space and finances, so some restraint only makes sense.
Personally, the Animals era is my favorite time in Floyd history. So, about 1974 (if you count early versions of songs like “Raving and Drooling” and “You’ve Gotta be Crazy”, which I do) until about 1978. A typical concert would cover highlights from The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, possibly Meddle, and of course Animals itself, which these days, I would say is my all-around favorite Floyd album. With the never-ending stream of boots being churned out in recent years, I’ve pretty much limited myself to only collecting from this period, unless something exceptional pops up. Animals In Paris is obviously one of those releases that I knew I had to have as soon as it was announced.
Pink Floyd did four shows in Paris during the 1977 tour, and the one on February 25th has been widely bootlegged for years. It’s regarded as the best show of the Paris run and has been pressed to vinyl many times by many different labels. Animals In Paris (February 22nd), by contrast, has seen much less circulation. As a matter of fact, this pressing by Casino Records is the first time that the complete show has made its way to vinyl, which is very exciting. It might not be quite as perfect or as highly regarded as the 25th, but it’s an amazing performance, nonetheless.
Animals In Paris is a 3 LP set that’s limited to only 400 copies worldwide. It comes on red, clear and blue marbled wax, and is housed in a tri-fold sleeve with full artwork, liner notes and a numbered hype sticker. Each copy is sealed in a heavy weight, resealable outer sleeve, which is standard for Casino releases. The records themselves are high quality and heavy-weight and come in poly-lined sleeves to protect them from scratching. The labels are themed with the flying pig and Animals font and look great. All three of my discs were flat, clean, and free of any visible defects, but I gave them a standard cleaning before spinning them.
Audience Recording – Pavillon De Paris, Paris, France – 22 February, 1977
A1 Sheep
A2 Pigs On The Wing Part 1
B Dogs
C1 Pigs On The Wing Part 2
C2 Pigs (Three Different Ones)
D1 Shine On You Crazy Diamond Parts 1-5
D2 Welcome To The Machine
E1 Have A Cigar
E2 Wish You Were Here
E3 Money
F1 Shine On You Crazy Diamond Parts 6-9
One important thing to put out right away is that the running order on this set doesn’t reflect what happened in real life on the night. If you haven’t noticed, this happens all the time with bands that played long sets, and especially with Pink Floyd. Floyd had very long songs, like “Dogs” “Pigs (Three Different Ones)” and obviously stuff like “Echoes”. Sometimes, these songs take up entire sides of an LP just by themselves. Other times, these tracks are broken up over different sides of a disc, which can really take the listener out of the concert atmosphere, so to speak. More often than not, labels just change the order of the songs so everything fits better, or to reduce the number of LPs needed to press the show. I talked about this same issue on another release not too long ago with Oakland 77, which you can check out here.
Really, I understand why they have to do it this way. They could have added an extra LP, but then instead of being a 3 LP set in a gatefold, maybe it turns into a box set. This, of course, raises the price to produce the set for the label, which gets passed on to collectors. Having an extra disc would also sometimes result in just one very short side, or maybe even an entire blank side that you have nothing else to do with. What do you do then? Add bonus tracks or interviews? Do an etching? Leaving it blank? I’ve seen people do all three, but for the most part, I’m ok with the label changing the order, as long as the editing is solid. Thankfully, Casino did an incredible job here, and the editing is excellent to my ears. If you didn’t know any better, it would be easy to assume that this was the real running order of the show.
Some shows end up being very out of order, but the only change here is that they took “Money” (which was the encore) and switched it for the second half of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 6-9)”. It does seem a bit strange on paper that the encore would be the track they moved forward, but when you listen to it, it falls into place and sounds pretty good. There will be some purists out there that aren’t happy with this switch, but I think it was worth it if that’s what needed to be done to finally get this show on wax.
As far as the performance and recording itself goes, this is an audience recording, but it’s a fantastic one. Right away, we can hear that we’re in for great audio quality as soon as “Sheep” kicks in. “Pigs On The Wing (Part 1)” has some sort of wind sound effects added in which sound cool, and the volume gets a little boost during this track. We also get a great version of “Dogs”, which I think is one of my favorites. A lot of people prefer the American shows on this tour, but I think this date, along with the 25th in Paris, are hard to beat. The band was fresh and energized, and I think it shows in a great way.
“Pigs On The Wing (Part 2)” has a spiced-up guitar solo that Gilmour fans will especially love. It’s got that raw, vintage Gilmour tone that’s absolutely unmistakable. “Pigs (Three Different Ones)” has a much different feel to it than other recorded versions. Water’s bass is very dominating in the mix, and of course Gilmour is killing it with a lengthened and semi-improvised solo. The keyboards are also tastefully dominate, and the whole song ends with a monster, building outro. At this point, a “20-minute break” is announced by Roger, which nicely rounds out Side C. This is a good place to cut, and all the cutting and fading on the whole set is professional and well done. No spaces between tracks or other nonsense like that.
When “Shine On” comes in on Side D, I realized that this really could be released officially if Sony wanted to put it out. The sound is amazingly clear, and the pressing itself is just silent. The guitar solo dominates this track, of course, and is Gilmour at his best. Watching him just let loose in person, at what was maybe the prime of his career, had to be an amazing experience for fans lucky enough to be in the audience that night. “Have A Cigar” continues in much the same way, with David putting on a clinic.
“Wish You Were Here” almost has a country type of feel to it as a result of Water’s bass line, and I think it’s a nice variation. Otherwise, it’s a typical, classic performance of the song. “Money” is also a pretty typical performance, but it’s got a lot of applause mixed in, undoubtedly because it was actually the encore piece of the evening. You can tell that there is a difference in the audio here, but not of a lower quality or anything. It almost feels like it could be from a different source, but any feeling of change is probably just from the change in running order.
Ending with the second half of “Shine On” actually works pretty well, so I wouldn’t let this change deter you from getting this set. Honestly, I would say that this show is so well done, and of high enough audio quality, that I would recommend it to someone who was just getting started collecting bootlegs. Many times, inexperienced collectors will have unrealistic expectations of how an audience or soundboard recording should sound, and they’ll end up disgusted with what they hear. I think Animal In Paris is good enough that nearly all reasonable fans and collectors would be happy with it.
As far as ratings go, pressing and packaging for Animals In Paris is an easy 10/10. The LPs are high quality, and the colors and packaging look great. The audio source is around an 8.5/10 for me, and I don’t think it can get much better than this. If someone wants to press this show later in the correct running order, I will probably buy it. Otherwise, this package is going to be very hard to beat. Being that it’s limited to only 400 copies, I think this one is going to go fast after people hear about how nice it is. As always, now is the time to find a copy!
Happy hunting!