Pink Floyd mandolin covers, and general musings

[mandopete]

I'm not a fan of doing rock covers in bluegrass style. Sometimes they work out (like Fox on the Run or when NGR did L. Russell's Prince of Peace), but other times they sound hokey.

Jim - I tend to agree with you on this point. One of things you've managed to capture in all of the cover work you've posted is that original flavor of tunes you've arranged (hence this thread being in the "rock" section).

In my mind this is no easy task on the mandolin and why I have always been so impressed with your work. From time to time I think about doing similar things in a band setting, but we lean so much towards bluegrass we run into the problem you describe above.

[Jim MacDaniel]

Off on a slight tangent (bound to happen), Easy Star All-Stars has a new album out now called "Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band." dubl0 has the whole album up on youtube but no groovy videos. Yet.

So far this isn't grooving for me like the Dub Side.

I haven't heard it yet, but brother said the same thing -- but I think they did a good job covering this track:

It catches the original feel of Ringo's original version, and while not as soulful as Joe Cocker's cover, it is definitely more intelligible than the latter.

[fishdawg40]

I wasn't saying either of these bands was any good, just sayin', here 'tis.

That's a great young bluegrass band out of Michigan. They won the Telluride band competition a couple years back. Gonna see them next week.

Jim I see what your saying about the "straight" bluegrass rhythm and they way Floyd did it was the way, but man those words are too cool. Could be one of my favorite Floyd songs.

[mandotopia]

Younder Mountian String band does a great version of Good Bye Blue Sky on Mountian Tracks Vol. 2 It is at the end of the CD but not listed on the jacket.

[m@ roe]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZykncZ-zlA

Rumpke Mountain Boys doing Pigs (three different ones). If you've not heard of these guys and like pink floyd or dead bluegrass covers you've gotta check em out!

[jsphrdvs]

I can't remember how I came across this, but Luther Wright and the Wrongs made an album called "Rebuild the Wall", which they recreate each song from The Wall in a country/bluegrass style. I haven't played it in a long time, but I recall it was entertaining. Some may like, some not, but I wanted to put it out there.

http://www.lutherwright.com/thewall.php

[bagpipe]

Wow, that is fantastic. Someone needs to show the banjo player how to tone it down a little though: it's not cool to drown out the singer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZykncZ-zlA

Rumpke Mountain Boys doing Pigs (three different ones). If you've not heard of these guys and like pink floyd or dead bluegrass covers you've gotta check em out!

[jasona]

And, Fearless is a great one for mandolin.

That would sound incredible on a bouzouki

[JimRichter]

That would sound incredible on a bouzouki

That's what is at the beginning of my Fearless video, though technically on octave mandolin (though with octave courses on the bottom)

[JimRichter]

Another Floyd cover

[JimRichter]

One more

[Ben Milne]

Poor Man's Whisky are renowned doing Pink floyd stuff... (Their 2009 album is named Dark side of the moonshine)

I had heard of them during the first part of the year and was devistated when I found out 2 days after easter that they had actually been out and played at the ECBR festival in Byron Bay I would have usually been there working but had taken some other work prior to easter and decided not to try to get a hold of some tix.
Oh wells.

[Darren Bailey]

I messed around with some Pink Floyd inspired music:

[Santiago]

I've seen many concerts to be sure, but probably the best concert I ever saw was Pink Floyd live at Giants Stadium in New Jersey. I once wrote an article about how they produced their live show at Madison Square Garden, and their management invited my wife and I -- and four friends -- to see the stadium version of the tour so I could see them blow up the giant pig. As an encore, they did the entire Dark Side of the Moon album. When I was in high school I would put the headphones on with that album on my turntable (like a CD player, but analog) and I would fall asleep to the album. Every note of that album was pretty well etched into my brain. The performance was so spot-on to the studio recording that I was/am still amazed.

[journeybear]

I saw them in Milwaukee on the "Wish You Were Here" tour (1975?). If I recall correctly (bet against it) they did that entire album and then all of "Dark Side." I can't say whether they did it all just like the records, but I would hope not. When I go to a concert I want something that I can't get at home with the stereo up and the lava light going. I saw The Cars open for The Beach Boys in 1980 and they sounded just like their record. It seemed pointless to me. I'm all for having a vision of your band's sound and songs and wanting to realize that, but if you end up recreating the album in concert rather than making it special, unique, and (hopefully) transcendant, it seems inert. I'm not saying that's what you experienced, but there is a danger of being overly controlled that works to defeat the purpose of live performance. I don't want to hear sloppy playing or mindless jamming either, but something more towards exploration. That's one thing I liked about the pink Floyd movie when David Gilmour has all his gear set up in some Roman ruins and creates some otherworldly sounds. That's what I liked about them at their best - that sense of experimentation and discovery.

Hmmm ... I guess this falls into the second category - general musings.

[Ed Goist]

Pink Floyd - The Animals Tour
25th June 1977
Municipal Stadium
Cleveland,Ohio
(I was given these tickets as a high school graduation present from my uncle Danny - Not a bad gift, eh?)

Setlist:
Sheep
Pigs On The Wing Part 1
Dogs
Pigs On The Wing Part 2
Pigs (Three Different Ones)
Shine On You Crazy Diamond Parts 1-5
Welcome To The Machine
Have A Cigar
Wish You Were Here
Shine On You Crazy Diamond Parts 6-9
Us And Them
Money

This is one of the top three concerts I have seen in my life. (The other two being Rory Gallagher & Muddy Waters, and both of those were in a small, hometown venue).

[Jim MacDaniel]

Pink Floyd - The Animals Tour
25th June 1977
Municipal Stadium
Cleveland,Ohio...
This is one of the top three concerts I have seen in my life. (The other two being Rory Gallagher & Muddy Waters, and both of those were in a small, hometown venue).

I saw them on that same tour a few days earlier (or later, I forget which) in Cincinatti -- a very memorable experience, both visually and musically -- and is also among my top favorite concerts. (Others include Zep in Cinci that same year, ZZ Top in Lakeland Florida in 1979, all three days of the first US Festival, Peter Gabriel's Us tour at the Oakland Coliseum, Jimmy Buffet's first show at the Bay Area's Shoreline Ampitheater back in the late 90's, Soul Coughing's last show in San Francisco, and more recently, Jack Johnson and G.Love at Berkeley's Greek Theatre.)

[TonyEarth]

here's my thoughts: as with hendrix, i'm way too young to have seen them live, but i think they're pretty cool. there are some things which are a little weird for me, it takes some getting used to, but in general they are good. i have one or two albums

[journeybear]

The US Festival (or whatever video they made of it) was shown on VH1 Classics early in the year. I'd never heard of it before. As a lot of these things go, it was hit or miss, and they only ever show just one or two songs per band. But it makes it more fun to know someone I know was there.

[Jim MacDaniel]

Here is the line-up for the first US Festival in 1982. My favorite day by far was Day 1, the inaccurately labelled "New Wave Day", with Gang of Four as the only downer; but Day 3 was also a blast, kicking off with "Breakfast with The Dead", and didn't let up until Fleetwood Mac's final encore.

Friday, September 3
Gang of Four
The Ramones
The English Beat
Oingo Boingo
The B-52's
Talking Heads
The Police

Saturday, September 4
The Joe Sharino Band
Dave Edmunds
Eddie Money
Santana
The Cars
The Kinks
Pat Benatar
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

Sunday, September 5
The Grateful Dead
Jerry Jeff Walker
Jimmy Buffett
Jackson Browne
Fleetwood Mac

[jasona]

That's what is at the beginning of my Fearless video, though technically on octave mandolin (though with octave courses on the bottom)

I was right, it does sound fantastic! Thanks for that Jim!

[LukeSwanson]

I saw the Roger Waters Wall Tour last night in Chicago. It was my first concert, and it was mind-numbingly awesome. I noticed that they played Outside The Wall with a mandolin in it. It was the strangest thing I have ever seen, and I would like to know how one would go about making that song mandolin friendly.

[Ed Goist]

I'm listening to 'Pulse' tonight, and as always, I find Pink Floyd's music the music that most directly speaks to me emotionally, intellectually, and artistically. It just seems to 'nourish' me more than any other music.
As I sat here contentedly listening to this great music, I composed this "mando-inspired" Haiku, and thought it most appropriately posted to this thread.

Big Mon, Jethro, Dawg?
Who is your inspiration?
Me? David Gilmour.

[jose malvarez]

any tab?

[Ed Goist]

Hi Jose;
Jim Richter's tabs for Good Bye Blue Sky & Wish You Were Here can be found here.
Once you get to the site, click on the 'Tablature' folder, and then the song name.
(As you'll see, Jim has tabs to several other great songs in the folder too!)