Classical Composer Reaction/Analysis to PINK FLOYD: ASTRONOMONY DOMINE (1967 & 1969 album versions)
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- Опубліковано 3 тра 2024
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#pinkfloyd #astronomydomine #pinkfloydreaction
In this #masterpiecefriday edition of #thedailydoug, I'm returning to the music of Pink Floyd with their early classic Astronomy Domine. We're breaking down, analyzing, and comparing the 1967 Piper at the Gates of Dawn version and the 1969 Umagumma version. It's quite a fun ride, with lots of musical twists and turns. I hope you enjoy!
Reference Video: • Pink Floyd - Astronomy...
Reference Video: • Pink Floyd - Astronomy...
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The best is voivod version : ua-cam.com/users/results?search_query=astronomy+domine+voivod
Imagine the conversation when this album was pitched to the record company:
"The opening track starts with flight announcements for the signs of the Zodiac, then it becomes a study of the existential terror of cosmic loneliness and how our subconscious minds use metaphor and symbolism to cope with it. The second song is about someone's cat."
"... and don't get me started on Pow R. Toc H."
oh yeah and by the way we're working on a song about a swampy paddock
🤣🤣🤣💯
and ends with BIKE
🤣🤣🤣🤣.... I guess the reception would be hinged on how stoned the person on the other side of the desk was! LOL!
100% Richard was such an amzing talent, much missed. Floyd would not have been Floyd without him
Richard was so underestimated. He was the glue that held Pink Floyd together.
@@lsbfilmproductions could not agree more
@@lsbfilmproductions He was the what made them come unglued.
Without the other band members Roger would just be Roger, not Pink Floyd.
@@bjhellstream AGREED!!!
Now you realize how innovative Pink Floyd was from the beginning and how it carried throughout their career.
If only they didn't split, they would have been bigger than the Beatles...The English wankers!...
Pink Floyds members are all masters of leaving space. Such restraint.
You can still see this live as Nick Mason has it in his Saucerful of Secrets set. If you get the chance, don't miss his tour.
Brit Floyd also has it in their set this year
They are incredible. I finally got to see Echoes live!
@@johnb2427 I'm seeing them for the third time in London at the end of June. Can't wait!
I got my ticket for this summer! His last tour was a blast.
Did it two times and it was great. Nick and his not-so-young friends play with enthusiasm as if they were fighting for their first record deal. So much fun!
Syd Barret was brilliant at capturing a theme.
When I saw you were reviewing this, I thought "Man oh man, he's gonna go nuts over those chord progressions/changes". 🤔
You didn't disappoint! 😇😀
Great show today!!
Yeah Baby: lots of people don't like Ummagumma, but I think it's GENIUS!
People who dislike Ummagumma are those who don't know a lot outside The Wall and DSOTM. Ummagumma studio album is all but easy listening, but I don't understand why discounting a masterpiece like The Narrow Way. To me the earliest albums pre-DSOM are Pink Floyd's best work. Change my mind.
Granchester Meadows being a stand out track, one of my favourite Pink Floyd tracks.
A trip to London and Paris I took as a high school student in 1978, when the trans-Atlantic portions of the flights--both on Air France--had Ummagumma as one of the music channels! I think I listened to a total of 18 hours of that album playing over and over.
@@slatvatfatcat really?? Wow that was cool! How things were in the 70s eh!
@@MattiaCampagnano I wouldn't dare try to (because I totally agree!).
When I heard the news of Syd's passing, I went into mild shock. I went downstairs to the studio and grabbed the Gretsch Peppermint Twist and turned up REAL loud. I just began playing a medly of Astronomy Domine, Interstellar Overdrive and Set The Controls For the Heart of the Sun.... over and over until I couldn't play anymore.
When they opened their show in the mid 90's with it, my head exploded. I've almost recovered.
🤘🧙♂🤘
Yes if you don't have Umma Gumma I strongly recommend you go ahead and buy one!!!!!!
For what it's worth, the VoiVod cover was excellent. I still listen to that one.
Yeah, it's brilliant.
Yeah...just had to have listen to that again as it's been a while. Superb!
I think Ummagumma is the band's most underrated album. Of course there is "Dark Side", "Wish You Were Here" and "The Wall" but "Ummagumma" shows what a raw diamond the band was in the early years. The first two live sides show how creatively the band worked out their studio work. “Careful With That Axe, Eugene” is the best example of this. Prog-rock and experimental rock reign supreme on the studio-sides. Me and my bird always loved "Grantchester Meadows". My bird (a bugdie) began chirping when I played that song.
Grantchester Meadows is the best song on the album - well, on the studio disk anyhow. A lot of the rest doesn't really work for me.
Omg, I love it! The first time I heard this song was in the early 80s. I was tripping on shrooms!
Syd was the driving force then. He had brilliant ideas but was overwhelmed by them.
Careful with that Ax Eugene is worth a listen.
Voivod does a great cover of Astronomy Domine on their album Nothingface!
Glad someone else mentioned it. Pretty unique cover and tune at the time it came out.
@@wingnutbert9685 Agree! Love Voivods guitar players jazz chords and phrasing in metal. Unique time signatures!
Now you need to react to Interstellar Overdrive!
There’s a live version with Sid era Floyd doing Interstellar Overdrive and Astronomer Domine
Definitely do the one from the London '66-67 EP, it's definitely the definitive version!
The thing is, just playing the song on Guitar or Bass is so satisfying, just doing a vamp off it is so fun, the whole structure just puts you into a trance like state as a player. Great piece to learn.
You have to hear all the albums before The Dark Side. It's amaizing how they can start with The Piper and get growing.
Growing? there was no growing from perfection, and when they lost Syd, they had to re-start the whole thing again.
Growing would've been if Syd could've had the opportunity of developing his musical ideas and the rest would've followed him, as it was supposed to be from the beginning
Piper is probably the greatest PF album. I find albums like DSOTM, WYWH and the Wall deeply depressing. Piper is the opposite.
I am happy you tackled a little more from 'Ummagumms', the live track is worth it. Two other studio tracks that are worth it is "Grandchester Meadows" and "The Narrow Way". Fascinating stuff.
Les Claypool and Sean Lennon also played a cover of this song in The Claypool Lennon Delirium.
Came to say the same. Would love to see him react to their version. It was amazing live.
Colonel Les Claypool, the Zappa of the 90s (saving the distance), another genius. With The Claypool Lennon Delirium they also covered some, at least 2 come to my mind now, King Crimson songs (In the Court of the Crimson King and Thela Hum Ginjeet).
Doug would have to honor the many facets of Colonel Claypool.
oooh....haven't heard that! Thanks! I'll check that out! I wonder if Doug's heard any Primus?
There are two bands within Pink Floyd. The first founded by the brilliant Rogers (Barrett and Waters), who created a unique dissonant style, unlike anything before or since. They influenced everyone from the Beatles on their psychedelic album to geniuses like David Bowie. The other band is a little less sparkling, but maintained its own style and produced sharp albums, with a strong humanist content and political criticism of the capitalist model that tries to mold people like robots, in the family, at school, at church and at work, targets more constant in his lyrics. Pink Floyd was an avant garde band, which reflected the feelings of their time for eternity.
I remember seeing pink floyd live 1984 Birmingham alabama and this song opened the concert i was shocked but pleasantly suprised loved it.
1994?
must be 1994, they didn't tour in 84. AD was also on the Pulse live album
I first heard this song when it was covered by Voivod.
great cover !
Same here, also a great version of the song.
Rick loved the jazz chords and progressions. That's part of what made "The Floyd" sound. That and David's guitar.
And in the beginning the interplay between Ricks key board playing and and Syd's guitar playing.
Great video Doug! Worth noting that Gilmour also played this song on his recent solo tours so you could actually review a 3rd version. :)
This song has a special place for me as it was the opening track when I saw Pink Floyd live in 1994. I can still picture the lighting of the stage everytime I hear it.
The only time I got to see Pink Floyd live - Arrowhead Stadium, June, 1994 - what a great way to start the show!
@@OldRod99 Saw them in the Superdome New Orleans.
I can still remember back in 1969 when I was in junior high school and there was a "head shop". It was dark inside and mysterious. They had black light posters everywhere and sold pot paraphernalia, jewelry, posters, and incense among other "hippie" things. There was always music playing. The place was my first exposure to Floyd.
Wow!
There was one like that in San Jose California in the early 70s. I’d have described it the same way.
I'm pretty sure, if memory serves, that the live version was the first Pink Floyd song I ever heard. I bought Ummagumma from a neighbor's garage sale when I was a kid, having no idea who Pink Floyd were. I just liked the cover and the song titles. That album still holds a special place in my heart, and "Astronomy Domine" set the stage (so to speak). Rick Wright's organ solo still gives me chills. It somehow always makes me think of the cold, lonely desolation of a barren heavenly body or a little astronaut in a little spaceship silently hurtling through the cosmos. It's such an evocative piece of music.
This was the very first album I every heard from Pink Floyd back in 1970. A friend of mine invited my over to his house and we smoked some hash. He gave me a set of headphones and put this album on. I laid there from star to finish and was hooked forever on Pink Floyd.
One of my fav PF songs.
I listened to this song , & album-Ummaguma- around the time came out. I was c.17. Blew me away! I like the live version too best, but the studio recording is good. Thanks for putting on Doug!
I am too young to have had the honour to have experienced Pink Floyd perform this masterpiece.
But I have experienced Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets, and will do again. Awesome stuff.
And here is VOIVOD's cover of "Astronomy Domine."
Story went that David Gilmour heard this version, and decided to start playing the song again in concert.
ua-cam.com/video/bvXaLZZ6M3M/v-deo.html
PHENOMENAL ❤
This is the very best performance of the song. Mind-blowing 😊
I have had both albums for decades and can't pick a clear favotite. Great analysis Doug!
Some Pink Floyd songs have not been, for me, very accessible. Your enthusiasm and knowledge teach me greatly to appreciate these songs as well. Thank you very much for that.
The Claypool Lennon Delirium also does a cover of this track. Main players are Les Claypool of Primus and Sean Lennon.
Great version, worth searching on You Tube for.
My other favourite track from ummagumma is a saucerful of secrets
I don't think I'd ever listened to these back-to-back before. I love how Syd's influence pervades even the version he isn't on.
There is also a heavy metal cover of Astronomy Domine by a band Voivod. Highly recommended.
You should check out the cover version by Voivod. It's brilliant.
Pink Floyd played this live for a BBC arts programme back in 1967 after which Roger Waters and Syd Barrett were interviewed by a music critic and violinist, I think his name was Hans Keller or something similar, who was not impressed at all, but at the end of the interview he says , well I don't like it but they have an audience and anyone with an audience deserves to be heard. The clip is still around on U Tube I think.
I loved all the experimental stuff Floyd did when it came out, but it was an acquired taste and most people didn't like it at all. It was Richard Wright's keyboards that got me into Pink Floyd in the first place, always seemed to remind me of 1950s and early 60s sci-fi movies and TV shows. The song Astronomie Domine makes reference to British comic book hero, Dan Dare, from the late fifties and early sixties. He was a spaceship captain who like all great spaceship pilots of the time battled aliens, space pirates and other nefarious characters. The talking at the beginning of the studio version was I believe Peter Jenner calling out the names of planets, constellations and moons.
You should hear the Voivod version
Love love love the wonder you bring to listening to music!!! And especially love when you talk some of the theory going on. So insightful and inspiring! Thank you! 😊😊
The live version from the Pulse tour ('94) is also pretty awesome
Imagine being in the audience when it was started up for the first time in 23 years ...
boring and bland
@@Llanchlo I was...not the first show, but I saw the Pulse tour
I have always been mesmerized by that crazy composition
Canadian band 'Voivoid' does a good version. A band that started out as noise punk metal and became the Pink Floyd of Thrash Metal.
I had the pleasure to see and hear this performed by Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets.. A delightful show of early pre DSOTM material of which I was too young to see Pink Floyd perform. I now have seen and heard all of Pink Floyd’s catalog of music played by them or some incarnation of them…
Umma Gumma was my intro to Pink Floyd in 1970, so I would favour the live version. Their live performance of this masterpiece in 1969 was a sign of things to come, culminating in their Pulse tour. At the end of everything, for me it always comes back to Pink Floyd.
voivod's version of this has to be the best floyd cover version ever
Roger Waters fans will probably go for my jugular, but Pink Floyd's special, spacey sound (with everything that has meant since the '70s) was built on David Gilmour's guitar and Rick Wright's keyboards (plus the vocals of David and also Wright and Waters), the lyrics and concepts of Roger Waters (with input from the other members of the band).
Recently, Waters made a personal cover of the album Dark Side of the Moon, listening to what he did allows us to fully appreciate what Gilmour and Wright's contribution meant and means to make Pink Floyd what it was and what it still is.
Conversely, Gilmour's solo work and post-Waters Pink Floyd, being quite far from the conceptual and lyrical richness of Pink Floyd in its splendor (which, for me, is the period from 'Echoes' (which closes the Meddle album) to The Wall - with Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Where Here being the band's masterpieces) is more than respectable and Pulse (the concert footage) a delight for the eyes and ears.
Richard Wright was never underestimated by the old Pink Floyd fans, in fact (as one of them since the mid-70s), I always had him in very high esteem. His synth intro on Shine on You Crazy Diamond parts VI-IX always gave me a deep thrill and still gives me goosebumps when I listen to it. The atmospheres that characterized Pink Floyd's sound would never have existed without the magic of Rick Wright's keyboards.
I might go for your jugular: David wasn’t in the band when they developed that sound. Don’t know which members were responsible for it, but the band was renowned for it before Piper (I remember reading reviews of their performances at UFO).
@@richardlovell4713 I am referring to the definitive Pink Floyd sound that is prefigured in Echoes and continues in The Dark Side of the Moon and subsequent albums.
In the purely psychedelic stage, the name of the band and the style were defined by Syd Barrett. In The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, almost all the songs are by Barrett (except two signed by the 4 members of the band and one signed by Waters). In Pink Floyd's second album, A Saucerful of Secrets, David Gilmour already appears (playing in the style of that time of the band) in many of the songs (Syd Barrett only writes and sings 'Jugband Blues'). Then comes the purely experimental stage with Waters increasingly occupying the role of leader, which over time caused more and more short circuits with the other members, especially Gilmour and Wright (who he even expelled from the band).
Personally, I believe that, just as Barrett's mind and psyche collapsed, Waters' ego became enormously inflated, he despised his peers and believed himself to be the owner of Pink Floyd and, as such, wanted the band to cease to exist. ..
On a recent Spotify exclusive Roger Waters openly says that they were horrified because of what happened to their friend and song writer. He had to fill for him whole his life but never replaced.
In case you don't see the comment I just made on one of your Maiden vid's from a few years ago, I love seeing you listen to this type of music, especially the heavy stuff. Traditionally educated, listening with an ear that usually resides within the rules and structure of traditional music frame work. So much fun seeing you react to the unusual and out of the box writing of musicians that often have little to no music education. Their writing based on gut and ear and experimentation being appreciated by you is great to see. I'd be interested if it's influenced your work and outlook and pushed you to break the rules set out by your formal education? Granted, it's always hard to tell for ones self if it has.
Laid up for a time and will enjoy a binge sesh of your vid's. Thanks!
Bert the Weldor
Oddly drove past Erdington (the home of Mothers) yesterday - you'd never guess one of the worlds greatest music venues was ever there!. But then you read who played at this small club, it reads as an unbelievable list - for a small venue in outer Birmingham.
So glad you are here!! Your analysis is always appreciated!! Thank you, Doug!!!
They opened the 4 shows I saw on the Division Bell tour with Astronomy Domine. It was Dave, Nick, Rick, and Guy Pratt only on stage for this in 94.
Yes, I remember them opening with this at Earls Court on the Division Bel tour 🙂
Great stuff.. Love the shaker moment, BTW 😂
I learned guitar by playing their 1st album. Sid is not normal or is his guitar playing. Love every song on Piper at the Gates of Dawn. But the Ummagumma version, and David's melodic sense of his interpretation of Sid's song is what kept me playing the guitar. Richard's melodic sense and harmonic ambience on his keyboard, is the glue of that band ;)
Unfortunately, Floyd's American label wasn't quite up to the advanced level of the band -- IIRC, they left "Astronomy Domine" off the original release in favor of something else, " See Emily Play", I think. I didn't get it until the A Nice Pair double repackaging of the first two albums years later. I heard the Ummagumma version first. I don't have the religious background to say with any certainty, but I have always assumed that the whispering at the beginning of the original is supposed to sound like a Latin mass done over a NASA communication link. I could very easily be wrong. The other big difference I hear is the number of effect pedals the band has gotten their hands on.
Early Pink Floyd was musically far more advanced than their later stuff and unique even against over groups at this time
Pink Floyd was never "mainstream" Doug, At least when it came out. lol Glad you fixed the shaker as well! Please keep naming the key. It's helping my ear.
Indeed
They did it on the Pulse DVD too in 1994. Great interpretation.
one of my ATF floyds is track one on album one. it boggles my mind that this was being recorded in the same place and at the same time as Seargent Pepper. you've featured covers before... Voivod's cover of AD is awesome... I think you'd dig. thanks for this one! like a hit of smelling salts. in a good way. :-)
I'm afraid, Arnold Layne was not part of The piper at the gates of dawn, it was the first Pink Floyd's single, in 1967
It was on the USA release of the Album. The record companies in the USA had the annoying habit of putting single releases on albums, happened with the Beatles as well.
Thank you for the great vid as alwaysm love this channel Doug!
I'm seeing Nick Mason live in June this year, for 2nd time. He has a all-star band with him doing early PF - cant wait. Am hoping this one features.
You should really check out the cover Voivod did of this.
Doug, you need to listen to the version by the Canadian metal band Voivod, from their breakout album, Nothingface… Actually, you need to listen to the whole album, Prog Metal at its best…
There's a video of Pink Floyd doing this song with Syd Barrett. Later in the video both Syd and Roger Waters are interviewed. Interesting stuff
Capolavori entrambi, both are masterpiecies
Rick's interludes on the Farfisa Compact Duo organ and Binson Tape Echo unit are wonderful
I think I hear Roger's voice here in the live version, more than Dave's. When you've listened to as much PF as I have over 50 odd years, you can recognize them almost instantly. The only one who never sang was Nick, apart from one very rare track.
If you want some "Intense Avant Garde Piano/Organ listen to Richard's Sysyphus 1,2,3,4 and "Awesome Wild Space Guitar" from David on his Narrow Way 1,2,3 from Ummagumma!
Hi Doug, my name is Richard Finlan. I watch you now and then here in South Wales and really enjoy your takes on certain music. Have you reacted to The Nice live version of the Intermezzo from the Karelia Suite on the Five Bridges album yet? It's brilliant as they play with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Joseph Eger. Also there's a good live version from a Swedish tv programme on UA-cam where you can see bassist Lee Jackson using the cello bow to great effect. Check them out and thanks for all the great stuff.
PINK FLOYD Played Live in the BBC studios while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were walking on the Moon.
I love it. One of my absolute Floyd faves. Umma Gumma is a pretty challenging album, so is Piper, but it’s really wild to hear how much they changed, and how quickly.
You can hear Holst's Mars, Bringer of War in Astronomy Domine.
I think you may be right.
the first E chord is a 079900 to 068800 on guitar, its like a Eb5 over open Emin its a really cool movement
As a teenager when this came out, it feels I have to remind some people that this was Psychedelia - what we used to call "underground" music (substance-fuelled) and was not meant to follow established music theory. The whole point was THE SOUND. Man!! Thanks for having a go, though!
Oh, btw, Birmingham, UK is pronounced "Birming-um" but no biggie...
Following their increased success and fame from Dark Side, the band rereleased their first two albums in a release called “A Nice Pair” and the Astronomy Domine on that version of Piper is actually the one from Ummagumma
You mention their experimental "bend," you should really listen to the whole of The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.
Richard Wright was a magician with those notes
Excellent discussion, I love both versions, I have the idea that the studio version is provocatively avant-garde and the live version more consciously introspective even looking back at the origin piece
Yes, some great stuff, the Ummagumma version is the best version for me. Also from that experimental double album, do the Narrow Way, David Gilmour's contribution to the studio disc, it is a killer track for me. Great stuff, Enjoy! 🎵🎸🎤🎹🎶
If only the vocals had as much presence as on the BBC version ua-cam.com/video/DL__p_nHtnQ/v-deo.html
@@bookhouseboy280 Thanks for the tip, perfect for a Saturday evening!
There’s a version on Gilmour at Gdańsk and Nick’s SAUCERFUL OF SECRETS also keep this alive. On UMMA GUMMA there is also the beautiful melodic GRANCHESTER MEADOWS which prefigures some of the later Pink Floyd. For me Rick Wright shines with vocal harmonies but the extraordinary keyboards that really are a defining feature of the sound. I really love the live tracks which are extraordinary and were very much the go to back in the day for ‘heads’ using ‘herbal supplements.’ It’s also a platform for their ability to improvise. Nick and David also shine here.
They performed this song again on their Pulse Live album from 1994. Great version as well.
Some of the quiet tracks off Ummagumma accurately predicted New Age non-rock instrumentals of the 1980s.. Oh that organ, Italian, pronounced "FarFeeza." The time sig in the later AD is like a 12/8 - it's in 4/4 but you can COUNT 123/456/123/456 on top of the 4/4.
DOUG -- I don't know how nor where !!! Sorry!
The live half of Ummagumma remains some of my most frequently played music.
Same, my wife hates it though. I have to wait until shes not home. Lol
@@doscwolny2221nooooo! I used to play it in the car on long trips. I know EVERY NOTE.
I don't want to trivialize what they accomplished on that first album but I suggest partaking in some herbal delights and listening to Piper on headphones straight through. You will find a whole new appreciation for it.
Voivod's cover is great
To get the two chords in the intro its easier when played on the guitar cos it goes to an E major open strings position and then a half step down for the A D and G strings and because it is played with open strings you still play the low and high E and B which creates a lot of dissonance between the Eb chord and the E and B from the open strings that were part of the E major its a neat move love the dissonance !!
Arnold Layne was The Pink Floyd's first single; it was not on Piper... Dawn.
The entire Piper... Dawn album is worth a listen, even if you don't end up liking all of it. My two favorite songs from it are this and Lucifer Sam (for which there is a fun animated fan-made video (not sure who did that)).
My first two faves by them are Piper... Dawn and Animals, after that come Dark Side, Meddle and Saucerful...
EDIT: I've heard Ummagumma lots of times but never owned it... Ordered! Arriving tomorrow 😃
One of my most common daydreams, where I try and imagine what if scenarios, has always been - What would Pink Floyd have produced had Syd been able to carry on. I want to go to an alternate universe where that happened.
I think it’s a moot point. I’m not sure they would have made this type of music in the first place, if it wasn’t for Syd’s drug use. And therefore his decline was a foregone conclusion.
Nice video. What i have to say is that Rick Wright was responsible for the Psychedelic sound of Pink Foyd more than any other member. He was the colour of the Psychelelic sound of the band and also made the songs more atmospheric.
Each of them has a special place for me, but I enjoy the earlier version more.
Piper and Saucer are my favorite PF albums. The later stuff is great and definitely has a broader appeal, but it's really a completely different band.
Kind of like Genesis with and without PG.
Space rock at its best. Pink Floyd during its very quirky early years. Rick Wright showcasing amazing skills regarding unique composition and tonality.
One of the most difficult things for those today is to realise how groundbreaking this music was when it was released. This was definitely not mainstream music then: Pink Floyd were considered leaders of an Underground Psychedelic movement which threatened conventional popular music. There’s an interview with them at this time on UA-cam where the interviewer is quite open at how disturbed he was by their music.
“This is Nuts !” That’s undoubtedly Syd Barrett’s influence. The band changed direction after he was (probably rightly) ejected from the band. His subsequent solo work was somewhat ‘nuts’ too.
Concerning the first two chords (at least on the first version), it comes from guitar 6 strings fingering. With lowest string first, the Emajor is : E(open string) B(2nd fret) E (2nd fret) G#(1st fret) B(open string) E(open string). Shifting every fingers a half step down (keeping the open strings) gives : E Bb(first fret) Eb(first fret) G B E (a mix between Emajor and Ebmajor). Keeping the beat on the low E and you get the result. It is not "intended harmonic complexity" but "off the rules" serendipity : what will happen if i move my fingers ... weird ... i keep it.
Syd Barrett's two solo albums "Barrett" and "The Madcap Laughs" are SUPERB. Disjointed and warped but great nonetheless.
The Best Cover Version made by the Heavy Metal Groupe *VOIVOD*. Its on the 1989 Album Nothingface. Many people only know VOIVOD because Jason Newsted (ex-Metallica bassist) plucked the four sides there. VOIVOD sounds very independent and is not even remotely comparable to any other heavy metal band. You'll hear them out of all the bands right away.
This is how the Pink Floyd cover ASTRONOMONY DOMINE becomes something very special. Its not hard, its not fast, they made the song beautiful.
I prefer the Syd Barrett version. The playing is more nuanced and complex, and there’s a bootleg live version floating around from the Syd era performed in Copenhagen that serves as a better comparison between the Syd and post-Syd eras, as they are both live performances.
The Syd era performance is far more energetic, and features guitar improv through the entire 9 minutes or however long it was.
The versions with Gilmour have him taking a step back during the middle section. Gilmour does play a heavy mean riff at the beginning and end, since the band upgraded their equipment to sound louder, so that’s really the only reason people like it better. It gives off a more proto-metal feel.
But in my mind, no one plays a Syd Barrett song better than the man himself. Gilmour is best at being himself.
Uma Guma is the album I have listened to likely more than any other.
It was a must on camping trips trips.
First heard this song A year late in 68. That was while hauling hay in rural AZ.
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn then had to be special ordered. Which back then was a lot harder than you might think.lol
I agree that Richard Wright was highly underrated.