Pink Floyd fanatics: prepare yourselves for the 27-disc Early Years: 1965-1972 box set

If you're the type of Pink Floyd freak who loves the stuff they did before hitting it big with The Dark Side of the Moon in '73, then start saving your pennies.

Today the band announced that, on November 11, it will release a 27-disc box set called The Early Years 1965-1972.

According to the press release sent out this morning by Sony Music Canada, the package will include "TV recordings, BBC Sessions, unreleased tracks, outtakes and demos over an incredible 12 hours, 33 mins of audio (made up of 130 tracks) and over 15 hours of video. Over 20 unreleased songs including 7 hours of previously unreleased live audio, plus more than 5 hours of rare concert footage are included, along with meticulously produced 7” singles in replica sleeves, collectable memorabilia, feature films and new sound mixes."

That's a lotta Floyd, my friends.

You can order the box set now at Amazon, but it'll cost you just over 378 British pounds, which works out to about $655 Canadian.

Hey, who said the best things in life are free?

Product Overview:

1965-1967 CAMBRIDGE ST/ATION

Covering Syd Barrett’s time with the band, from the pre-EMI demos, through the non-album hit singles and related tracks, the first volume also features previously unreleased tracks like Vegetable Man and In The Beechwoods (newly mixed), plus BBC session recordings. Pink Floyd have also acquired the tapes of an unreleased 1967 concert in Stockholm. The DVD/Blu-ray includes historic TV performances plus some of Pink Floyd’s own film material.

1968 GERMIN/ATION              

This volume explores the time immediately after Syd Barrett’s departure, when Pink Floyd were still writing singles and at the same time developing their own unique, more instrumentally-based style. There are non-album single releases, plus a recently discovered session at Capitol Records studios in Los Angeles, BBC sessions and other tracks. DVD/Blu-ray includes the recently restored promo clip of Point Me At The Sky, some international TV performances and a selection of song material from other television shows.

1969 DRAMATIS/ATION

In 1969 Pink Floyd unveiled their 2-part conceptual live production of ‘The Man’ and ‘The Journey’, covering a 24-hour period of dreaming, waking and other activities. Never released in that form, however some of the songs were used on the ‘More’ soundtrack and the ‘Ummagumma’ album. This volume refers back to ‘The Man’ and ‘The Journey’ tour with live performances in Amsterdam and for the BBC in London, but also includes the bonus tracks from the ‘More’ soundtrack that were used in the film but not on record, plus non-album tracks like the early version of Embryo from the Harvest sampler ‘Picnic’. Video material includes 20 minutes of ‘The Man’/‘The Journey’ rehearsal at the Royal Festival Hall, directed by Anthony Stern, including Afternoon (Biding My Time), The Beginning (Green Is The Colour), Cymbaline, Beset By Creatures Of The Deep and The End Of The Beginning (the last part of A Saucerful Of Secrets), plus other live performance footage from that year.

1970 DEVI/ATION                                                                

At the end of 1969 and in the early part of 1970, Pink Floyd recorded and mixed their contribution to Michelangelo Antonioni’s alternative view of US society, ‘Zabriskie Point’. 3 songs were released on the soundtrack album, and a further 4 in the expanded CD edition in 1997. Never released on one Pink Floyd disc, this volume compiles remixed and updated versions of the ‘Zabriskie Point’ audio material. In the same year, Pink Floyd scored their first UK Number One album with ‘Atom Heart Mother’, a collaboration with Ron Geesin, and the audio includes the first performance for the BBC, featuring an orchestra and choir, as well as, on DVD, the original Quad mix. Video material includes a full hour of Pink Floyd performing live at San Francisco cable TV station KQED plus extracts from historic performances of ‘Atom Heart Mother’, and material from French TV coverage of the St. Tropez festival in Southern France.

1971 REVERBER/ATION                                                                     

In 1971 Pink Floyd recorded the ‘Meddle’ album, containing the LP side-long ‘Echoes’, regarded by many as laying the groundwork for ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’, and, as such, is an important part of the Pink Floyd canon. This package includes part of the original demos, when the project gestated from ‘Nothing’ to ‘Return Of The Son Of Nothing’, as well as a contemporary BBC session recording. Audio-visual material includes the original unreleased Quad mix of ‘Echoes’ but also material of live band performances in 1971, including songs performed with Roland Petit and his Marseille ballet company.

1972 OBFUSC/ATION                                                                  

In 1972 Pink Floyd travelled to Hérouville, north of Paris, to record at Strawberry Studios there, based in the town’s Chateau. In a remarkable two weeks, they wrote and recorded one of their most cohesive albums, ‘Obscured By Clouds’, the soundtrack to Barbet Schroeder’s ‘La Vallée’. 1972 saw the release of ‘Pink Floyd Live At Pompeii’, a film of the band performing without an audience in the historic Roman amphitheatre of Pompeii, directed by Adrian Maben. The video material includes the performances from the ‘Live At Pompeii’ film, edited to new 5.1 audio mixes, plus material from contemporary French TV as well as performances from Brighton Dome in June 1972 and further performances with the Roland Petit ballet company.

BONUS CONTINU/ATION (Exclusive to ‘The Early Years 1965-1972’ box set)

A bonus CD/DVD/Blu-ray disc package includes a CD of early BBC radio sessions, the audio tracks from the film ‘The Committee’, Pink Floyd’s live soundtrack to the 1969 NASA moon landings, and more. Audio-visual material includes 3 feature films: ‘The Committee’, ‘More’ and ‘La Vallée’ (Obscured By Clouds), plus more live footage and festival performances by the band.