It’s pretty amazing how these rogue record labels keep releasing all this stuff and how we keep buying it. Sometimes, it seems like the supply of material is endless. For a band that’s been one of the most popular in the world for over 60 years and has played more than 1300 concerts, I guess it’s not too hard to believe that there’s so much stuff out there. If it ever did run out, there’s always the route of remixes and de-mixes, which have already begun for the most popular material. Obviously, some releases are good ones, and worth the money for fans, and some are not. Boblingen 1972 Revisited by “Knothole Records” is certainly one of the good ones. I’ve been saving this one for a month or two, and unlike the Zeppelin I just talked about, this one was worth the wait.
“Knothole Records” is obviously not a real record label, even in as far as bootleg labels go. Whoever makes all these high-quality Floyd box sets changes the name with each release. If you haven’t gotten the reference yet, the Knothole in question refers to “Looking Through The Knotholes In Granny’s Wooden Leg”, which was, of course, one of the original titles for the legendary song “Echoes”. It’s got to be one of the best song titles in history, and I’m sad they changed it. I’m sure it probably had to do with wanting to be taken seriously or something. Some of the other names the song went by were “Nothing Parts 1-24”, “The Son Of Nothing”, “Return Of The Son Of Nothing”, “We Won The Double”, and “The March Of The Dam Busters”. Those are all pretty good, but I think “Granny” wins for originality.
The box is limited to only 300 copies worldwide and comes with a numbered hype sticker affixed to the front of the box itself. I prefer this type of gimmix box, because they fit very nicely in commonly available sleeves. They are also sturdy and have a quality feel to them, which makes me feel a little bit better about spending the usually high asking prices. Even before I opened it, I noticed that my copy felt quite heavy for a 3 LP set. Low and behold, when I opened it up, I discovered that I had 4 LPs instead of the promised three. This was obviously some kind of packaging error, since the extra disc was a second copy of LP 1. Major score.
I always look everything over before I clean or play it, just to make sure there are no major, obvious defects. Some people are surprised when I tell them I do this every single time, but I have found some crazy stuff on records in the past… especially on unofficial or bootleg pressings. Some of the defects I have found, ranging from pits to actual holes in the vinyl, can easily destroy a stylus. Thankfully this particular copy of Boblingen 1972 had no such issues, and everything looked great. The discs are nice and flat, and the labels look nice. If you’ve gotten one of this type of Floyd box set before, you’ll recognize the design as being standard. I put the LPs through my standard cleaning process before I gave them a spin.
I was happy to discover that this pressing is excellent from beginning to end. I had heard other people say it was pretty good, but I wasn’t expecting it to be this nice. I couldn’t detect any surface noise whatsoever, and the quality of the audio source is excellent. What we’ve got here is an early version of The Dark Side of the Moon, with some other pieces added onto the end of the show. The track listing notes some of the original song names, but not all of them. I’m not sure if the names were historically accurate for this particular date or not (as in some songs had their final titles and others did not), but that would be interesting to find out.
Live Recording – Sporthalle Böblingen, West Germany – 15th November, 1972
A1 Speak To Me
A2 Breathe
A3 On The Run (The Travel Sequence)
A4 Time
A5 Breathe (Reprise)
A6 The Great Gig In The Sky
B1 Money
B2 Us And Them
B3 Any Colour You Like
C1 Brain Damage (The Lunatic Song)
C2 Eclipse
C3 Careful With That Axe, Eugene
D1 Echoes (Looking Through The Knotholes In Granny’s Wooden Leg)
E1 One Of These Days
F1 Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
Right away, listeners will probably notice that this version of DSOTM feels a bit different. During “Breathe”, the drums are a bit more exciting than most of us will be used to hearing. “On The Run”, which is also listed under its original name “The Travel Sequence”, is without samples, and is much longer than the final version ended up being. It’s got a very interesting blues sequence, which I think really changes the overall feeling of the track. The clock samples are already in use for “Time”, but they sound a bit more raw than the finalized album version.
There are still samples played over “The Great Gig In The Sky”, but they are entirely different. All the audio of people answering the questions that would become famous later on had yet to be implemented, and instead we have what sounds like some scripture reading and a sermon of some kind. It’s during this track that we come across the only major flaw in the audio source, which sounds like tape damage. Thankfully, it goes by fairly quickly and is not a major detraction from the performance as far as I am concerned.
The rest of the tracks are very similar to the final versions that made their way to the actual album and future live performances. The one exception to this is “Us And Them”, which is totally devoid of any background singers. The Floyd must have had a pretty good idea of what they wanted in this section though, and David Gilmour took it all upon himself to cover the signing. It’s a very different feel, but I think it sounds great. After listening to the standard live versions and the album for so many years, it’s certainly a refreshing change.
The real highlight of this set, as far as I’m concerned, are the non DSOTM tracks. I have to admit that I sometimes get tired of hearing hundreds of versions of “Careful With That Axe, Eugene”, and I was expecting more of the same here. Surprising though, it turns out that this is my favorite track of the lot. The source for the second set of songs is different, and it absolutely sounds good enough to be official. Roger goes nuts with gibberish to the point where it sounds like he’s possibly inventing his own language in real time. I have no idea what these guys were on that day, but this performance is one for the ages, and far and away my favorite version of “Axe”.
Despite having a different name, “Echoes” is more or less the version most of us will be used to hearing. Considering that this was the track I was expecting to be the most different, that came as quite a surprise. Amazing performances of “Set The Controls” and “One Of These Days” more than made up for it though. While “Set The Controls” was a little longer but basically standard, a lot was added to “One Of These Days”, which has always been one of my favorite Floyd numbers. It’s extended (taking up one entire side of an LP on its own), has many added keyboard effects, and is probably the best live version I’ve ever heard, both performance and audio quality wise.
Overall, this box set is a hidden gem and an amazing value for both the material and quality of the packaging. I think that a lot of times, Floyd material is released so frequently that it’s easy to look past an unassuming looking box like this. The records are solid colors rather than some exciting marble or splatter design, and the picture on the front of the box is in a drab brown and looks quite plain. I can see why some collectors might pass this box up looking for something more exciting. If that sounds like you, I encourage you to give this one a second look. Even if you have enough performances of DSOTM to last you a lifetime of listening, I think the non-Dark Side songs alone are worth the price of admission on this one. Packaging and pressing is a 10/10, and the audio source is a 9/10. As of the time of this writing, it looks like there are still some of these out there, so grab one while you can!