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 \u201cuse or lose\u201d (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).<\/p>\n
The practice began to gain steam around 10 years ago, as early recordings by Bob Dylan, Motown Records, the Beatles<\/a>, the Rolling Stones<\/a> and others reached the half-century mark, but because the material wasn\u2019t 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 \u201ccopyright dumps.<\/a>\u201d)<\/p>\n Despite their vicious, decades-long internal squabbles<\/a>, Pink Floyd<\/a> 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 \u2014 thus officially releasing them \u2014\u00a0before taking them down. The group officially released nearly all of their \u201860s-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 \u201870s and afterward, the \u201ccopyright dump\u201d tactic became necessary. So late in 2021 they released a dozen concerts from 1970 through early 1972<\/a>, and last year they dropped 18 concerts from \u201972 <\/a>that showed the fascinating evolution of \u201cDark Side of the Moon\u201d as they essentially workshopped the album in concert before recording it.<\/p>\n 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\u2019re buried nearly at the bottom of the \u201ccompilations\u201d section of their catalog (basically the last place anyone would stumble upon them), with awkward title formats like \u201cLive at the Rainbow Theatre, London, UK (early show) \u2013 4 November 1973.\u201d<\/p>\n 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 \u201cDark Side\u201d was released) to November 4, featuring \u201cDark Side\u201d in with around 75 minutes of of earlier material \u2014 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\u2019s Earl\u2019s Court) to actually pretty good (Vienna and Hollywood, Fla., although the latter show is marred in places by audience members shouting about \u201cfuckin\u2019 ass people\u201d who wouldn\u2019t sit down; however, in a sociological sense, the comments from stoned 1973 Florida Pink Floyd fans are arguably just as fascinating as the music).<\/p>\n 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 \u201cDark Side\u201d section), it\u2019s basically the same set for the entire year, although \u201cChildhood\u2019s End\u201d is only played on the first few shows before being replaced by \u201cSet the Controls for the Heart of the Sun.\u201d While we only needle-dropped most of the recordings, it seems the Vienna concert \u2014 aka \u201cLive at Vienna Stadthalle, Austria \u2013 13 October 1973\u201d \u2014 is the strongest in terms of both sound quality and performance, although the tape slurs in a couple of places during \u201cEchoes.\u201d<\/p>\n