In what has become an annual tradition, in the closing days of each year, veteran artists quietly release bootleg-quality recordings in order to preserve their copyrights, owing to a not-entirely-clear European Union ruling stating that artists must “use or lose” (i.e. officially issue) sound recordings within 50 years of their creation. If they do not, the recordings then go into public domain and become fair game for anyone to release legally without compensating the creator(s).
The practice began to gain steam around 10 years ago, as early recordings by Bob Dylan, Motown Records, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and others reached the half-century mark, but because the material wasn’t previously considered strong enough for official release even as an archival item, the artists usually bury them in limited-edition CD collections or brief streaming availability. (Head here for more details on so-called “copyright dumps.”)
Despite their vicious, decades-long internal squabbles, Pink Floyd are among the most savvy artists when it comes to the value of their catalog, and two years ago they began essentially repossessing bootleg recordings of concerts from their early career by posting them on streaming services for a few weeks — thus officially releasing them —before taking them down. The group officially released nearly all of their ‘60s-era material, regardless of sound quality, on a sprawling boxed set in 2016, but owing to the much larger number of bootleg recordings from the early ‘70s and afterward, the “copyright dump” tactic became necessary. So late in 2021 they released a dozen concerts from 1970 through early 1972, and last year they dropped 18 concerts from ’72 that showed the fascinating evolution of “Dark Side of the Moon” as they essentially workshopped the album in concert before recording it.
Right on schedule, about a month ago, they released another 18 about-to-expire concert recordings on streaming services, in the same semi-concealed locations as previous years, and with similar psychedelic art: For example, on Spotify, they’re buried nearly at the bottom of the “compilations” section of their catalog (basically the last place anyone would stumble upon them), with awkward title formats like “Live at the Rainbow Theatre, London, UK (early show) – 4 November 1973.”
While any such motherlode is exciting for fans, this batch is less exciting than the previous ones. The concerts, spanning from March 6 (just a few days after “Dark Side” was released) to November 4, featuring “Dark Side” in with around 75 minutes of of earlier material — which, by Floyd standards, adds up to six songs. But setlists are almost identical and the sound quality ranges from just awful (Jersey City, Toronto) to not bad (New York, the second night at London’s Earl’s Court) to actually pretty good (Vienna and Hollywood, Fla., although the latter show is marred in places by audience members shouting about “fuckin’ ass people” who wouldn’t sit down; however, in a sociological sense, the comments from stoned 1973 Florida Pink Floyd fans are arguably just as fascinating as the music).
Nearly all of the recordings contain 16 songs and clock in at between two and two and a half hours. The playing is generally strong throughout, reaching cruising altitude after the first couple of dates, but as aways with Floyd concerts, the singing is very uneven and often off-key. While there is some variety in the solos and instrumental sections (and a few of the recordings only include the “Dark Side” section), it’s basically the same set for the entire year, although “Childhood’s End” is only played on the first few shows before being replaced by “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun.” While we only needle-dropped most of the recordings, it seems the Vienna concert — aka “Live at Vienna Stadthalle, Austria – 13 October 1973” — is the strongest in terms of both sound quality and performance, although the tape slurs in a couple of places during “Echoes.”
Pink Floyd already have released a high-quality concert recording of their 1974 tour, which also includes “Dark Side” in full (and, unfortunately, some very off-key singing) and are presumably holding back even more for a still-to-be-released boxed set from this era, so these are obviously for serious fans only. But the past two batches vanished from streaming services within a few weeks, so listen while you can …
