In the world of legendary concerts and the unofficial records that are made from them, some shows keep popping up again and again. Most of the time, the reason for this is simple: the show sounds great, and people want to hear it. If a rogue label is really clever, they will take one of these in-demand shows, package it up in a good-looking jacket with an eye-catching colored vinyl design and sell it for a fair price. If it’s a show that is traditionally hard to find on vinyl, or has become very expensive in collector’s circles, that’s even better. Following this formula, OK Records has re-released Pink Floyd’s Oakland 1977 gig, and collectors have definitely taken notice.
Up until now, the version of this show to get (on vinyl, anyway) has been Deep Space Oakland: Dreaming of Sheep, by The Swingin’ Pig. This is one of those sets that somehow, I still don’t have. I kind of look for it every now and then in passing, and hope to eventually pick one up at the right price. I have heard from people who have both that the sound quality on this new OK version is actually superior, which is great news for collectors. In addition, the price for this new set (at the time of this writing) is less than half of what a used Swingin’ Pig version is going for. With that being said, the OK version we are discussing today still has some issues. Let’s talk about those first.
The big thing that has irritated collectors about this show for years has been the running order. On the Swingin’ Pig version, the tracks are totally jacked up. The encore pieces of “Us and Them” and “Careful With That Axe, Eugene” are, for some reason, found in the middle of the show instead of at the end where they belong. The decision to move the songs around was no doubt due to space limitations. To some extent, that of course can’t be helped since it’s just a reality of pressing something to the vinyl format where time per side is limited. Take also into consideration the fact that Pink Floyd has some really long songs, and one can understand that there will be difficult decisions to be made. On the other hand, it seems like they could have done a better job at keeping things a little more accurate, even within the limitations of the format.
With Live In Oakland 1977, OK Records has certainly improved things, but the result still isn’t perfect. They have moved the tracks around to get them a lot closer to the correct running order, but they still aren’t completely accurate. As you probably realize, putting all the tracks in the correct order would result in a ton of blank space on one of the LPs, and this is something that everyone wants to avoid. In my opinion, however, the running order we have here is great. Let’s take a look at all three track lists so you can see what I’m talking about. Although there was also a show at the same venue the next day on the 10th, all of these lists and pressings are for the show on the 9th.
Actual Set List – Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum – Oakland CA, USA – 9 May, 1977
1 Sheep
2 Pigs on the Wing, Pt. 1
3 Dogs
4 Pigs on the Wing, Pt. 2
5 Pigs (Three Different Ones)
6 Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V)
7 Welcome To The Machine
8 Have A Cigar
9 Wish You Were Here
10 Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts VI-IX)
ENCORE
11 Money
12 Us and Them
13 Careful With That Axe, Eugene
Deep Space Oakland: Dreaming of Sheep – The Swingin’ Pig
A1 Sheep (11:15)
A2 Pigs on the Wing (Part 1) (2:14)
A3 Dogs (Part 1) (11:27)
B1 Dogs (Part 2) (7:18)
B2 Pigs on the Wing (Part 2) (2:22)
B3 Pigs (The Different Ones) (17:29)
C1 Us & Them (7:34)
C2 Careful With That, Eugene (9:49)
D1 Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V) (14:30)
D2 Welcome To The Machine (7:16)
E1 Have A Cigar (7:17)
E2 Wish You Were Here (6:11)
E3 Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts VI-IX) (7:23)
F1 Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts VI-IX) (13:27)
F2 Money (10:29)
Live In Oakland 1977: OK Records
A1 Sheep (11:22)
A2 Pigs on the Wing (Part 1) (2:14)
A3 Dogs (Part 1) (11:32)
B1 Dogs (Part 2) (6:18)
B2 Pigs (The Different Ones) (17:17)
C1 Pigs on the Wing (Part 2) (2:23)
C2 Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V) (13:58)
C3 Welcome To The Machine (7:48)
D1 Have A Cigar (Parts I-V) (6:46)
D2 Wish You Were Here (6:12)
D3 Money (10:23)
E1 Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts VI-IX) (21:32)
F1 Us And Them (8:05)
F2 Careful With That Axe, Eugene (10:06)
As a general rule, you can only fit around 22 minutes of music per side on a pressed LP record. Taking that into consideration, I have added the times to the track listings so you can see (or guess) why the song order was changed. I should also mention that the cutting and moving around on the OK release which we are discussing today is expertly done, and you wouldn’t know the difference unless you are used to hearing another version or someone told you about it. I think until someone does another version where they don’t care about blank spaces, or they make the decision to split some songs in the middle (and that sounds like an awful idea), this version is great and is the best we are going to get.
Now that the track listing debacle is out of the way, I can tell you a little bit about the Live In Oakland 1977 release. First of all, the records themselves are beautiful. As far as splatter designs go, this one has got to be my favorite out of everything in my collection. I have seen this “rainbow on clear” design before, and it seems that it’s used exclusively on bootleg records. The pictures came out alright, but you really have to see these in person to appreciate them. Due to the hand-made nature of producing splatter vinyl, each set is going to be different from the next one to some degree. I have seen ones that look even cooler than mine, and some that look not as great. This is a luck of the draw type situation, and how happy you are with what you get is going to depend strictly on preference.
The packaging itself for this release is a bit plain. This 3 LP set comes housed in a trifold sleeve with some basic information printed on the center panel. There are some live photos of the band, and the cover of Animals has been reproduced here as well. The quality of the cardstock and the printing is quite high. It’s not the absolute best I have seen, but it’s certainly on par with officially released records. My copy came in a resealable outer sleeve complete with a hype sticker indicating there are only 250 copies of this splatter version available worldwide. At this time, I’m not sure if they have made some solid color copies or what, but if they have, I haven’t seen them.
Aside from being beautiful, the LPs themselves are flat and have a nice weight to them. The included paper sleeves aren’t great, but they do the job. As usual, I replaced mine with MOFI sleeves after giving the discs a good cleaning. When I started spinning these, I was amazed at how quiet they are. I have to admit that I have always had bad luck sonically when it comes to clear vinyl, but the quality here really impressed me. Aside from a bit of noise on the runners, my copy was almost completely silent apart from a tiny bit of standard analog surface noise. As I went through the discs, each one was just as good as the last up until side F, where there was a tiny bit of noise at the beginning. Nothing major or distracting at all, though.
As far as the show goes, this is an audience recording, but it’s a damn good one. I won’t go into a song by song here since most of you have surely heard this concert before (and if not, what are you waiting for??). It’s famous for a reason, and I think almost all collectors will be impressed with the audio quality. I can only imagine the amount and size of the equipment someone had to drag into the venue to capture this. All without being ejected!
As great as the recording is, there are a few hiccups here and there. The only one that really sticks out to me as unfortunate is during “Wish You Were Here”. There are a couple quite loud, exploding fireworks at some really inopportune moments in the song. After hearing how crazy it got at some points on this tour, I can understand how Roger spent a good deal of the coming years yelling about “NO FIREWORKS!”. As distracting as they are on the tape, I can only imagine how loud and distracting they were in person. As always though, hearing this stuff as it is is a great way to be transported back in time and imagine how it really must have been to attend one of these legendary shows.
All and all, I believe that this is currently the definitive version of this particular show. I do still plan on picking up the Swingin’ Pig version if I can ever find one, but I think after hearing the OK version, the running order might bother me a little bit. So far, the prices for Deep Space Oakland have not seemed to come down, but I’m keeping an eye out. Given Swingin’ Pigs seemingly endless reprints of the Floyd Mandala box set, I’m really surprised there isn’t an endless supply of this show out there as well. With the improved running order from this latest competitive release though, I suppose it might not be a priority for them to repress it in its current state.
So, if this is a show that you want to add to your collection, you might want to locate a copy now. I would rate packaging and pressing on Live in Oakland 1977 to be a solid 9/10. The records look great, and the packaging captures the spirit of the release, even if it is a bit plain. Audio wise, as an audience recording, this one is an easy 10/10 for me. In my opinion, this is about as good as they get. Price wise, these seem to still be very affordable at the moment, but this set is nice enough that I can imagine a steep increase once the supply runs out. Even if they make a solid color repress version of it at some point, it’s not going to match the collectability of this splatter version, that I can guarantee. I hope that the little breakdown I’ve done here will help you make an informed decision.