Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd

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Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd

Compilation album by Pink Floyd
Released	November 5, 2001
Recorded	1967 - 1994 (compilation)
Genre	Progressive rock Psychedelic rock Art rock Space rock
Length	151:11
Label	EMI (UK), Capitol (U.S.)
Producer(s)	see individual albums
All Music Guide link Antimusic link Rolling Stone link
Pink Floyd chronology
Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980-81 (2000)	Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd (2001)
Alternative cover

Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd is a compilation album by Pink Floyd. Released on November 5, 2001 in the UK and November 6 in the U.S. It debuted on The Billboard 200 album chart on November 24, 2001, at number 2 with sales of 214,650 copies, (it was kept from #1 in the US by Britney Spears' Britney but they did help her dethrone Michael Jackson's Invincible as Invincible fell to #3). It remained on the chart for 26 weeks. The album was certified Gold, Platinum and Double Platinum on December 6, 2001 in the U.S. by the RIAA. It was certified Triple Platinum (three million copies sold) in the U.S. by the RIAA on January 8, 2002.

This is the first album released on CD that includes "When the Tigers Broke Free", which appeared in the film version of The Wall. (The song later appeared on the 2004 re-release of The Final Cut.)

The compilation spans the career of Pink Floyd from their first single "Arnold Layne" in 1967, through to "High Hopes", the final track from their 1994 studio album The Division Bell. Each of the twenty-six tracks non-chronologically segues from one to the next with no break in the music (apart from a disc switch after thirteen tracks), courtesy of longtime producer-engineer James Guthrie. This was done to help recreate the concept-album feel of the band's mid-period work. All twenty-six tracks were newly remastered specifically for this compilation.

The album is, at times, criticised by hardcore Pink Floyd fans for its lack of material from Music From the Film More, Ummagumma, Atom Heart Mother and Obscured by Clouds, as well as for its shortened versions of "Echoes", "Marooned", "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" "Sheep," and "High Hopes". It can be argued, however, that the compilation is geared more towards casual and new fans of the band, rather than hardcore fans who already own all of Pink Floyd's albums.

The album's artwork is a collage of dozens of well-known Pink Floyd images, including screenshots from music videos, LP artwork and single artwork. On the front cover alone there is, among other things, the diver, businessman and blowing veil from Wish You Were Here, the rower and lake from The Rower (a film shown during the 1994 tours), a porcelain pig and cow from Animals and Atom Heart Mother, the Division Bell heads in miniature, the crossed hammers from The Wall, a plane in reference to "Learning To Fly" and a picture of the ear underwater from Meddle.

Echoes was re-packaged and re-released in October 2006 with a special biodegradable wrap that "can be discarded".

[edit] Track listing

[edit] Disc one

"Astronomy Domine" – 4:10 (from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, 1967)
"See Emily Play" – 2:47 (non-album single; appears on Relics, 1967)
"The Happiest Days of Our Lives" – 1:38 (from The Wall, 1979)
"Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" – 4:01 (from The Wall, 1979)
"Echoes" – 16:30 (abridged) (from Meddle, 1971)
"Hey You" – 4:39 (from The Wall, 1979)
"Marooned" – 2:02 (abridged) (from The Division Bell, 1994)
"The Great Gig in the Sky" – 4:39 (from Dark Side of the Moon, 1973)
"Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" – 5:20 (from A Saucerful of Secrets, 1968)
"Money" – 6:29 (from Dark Side of the Moon, 1973)
"Keep Talking" – 5:57 (from The Division Bell, 1994)
"Sheep" – 9:46 (early fade-out) (from Animals, 1977)
"Sorrow" – 8:45 (from A Momentary Lapse of Reason, 1987)

[edit] Disc two

"Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 1-7)" – 17:32 (abridged) (from Wish You Were Here, 1975)
"Time" (w/ "Breathe (Reprise)") – 6:48 (from Dark Side of the Moon, 1973)
"The Fletcher Memorial Home" – 4:07 (from The Final Cut, 1983)
"Comfortably Numb" – 6:53 (Lengthened to include part of "Bring the Boys Back Home" - from The Wall, 1979)
"When the Tigers Broke Free" – 3:42 (from the film version of The Wall, also appears on 2004 remaster of The Final Cut, 1983)
"One of These Days" – 5:14 (from Meddle, 1971)
"Us and Them" – 7:51 (from Dark Side of the Moon, 1973)
"Learning to Fly" – 4:50 (from A Momentary Lapse of Reason, 1987)
"Arnold Layne" – 2:52 (non-album single, 1967; appears on Relics, 1971)
"Wish You Were Here" – 5:20 (from Wish You Were Here, 1975)
"Jugband Blues" – 2:56 (from A Saucerful of Secrets, 1968)
"High Hopes" – 6:59 (abridged) (from The Division Bell, 1994)
"Bike" – 3:24 (from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, 1967)

[edit] Trivia

According to James Guthrie, the following songs were considered for inclusion:^[1]

Brain Damage (Waters; from The Dark Side of the Moon)
Eclipse (Waters; from The Dark Side of the Moon)
Interstellar Overdrive (Barrett, Waters, Wright, Mason; from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn)
Careful with That Axe, Eugene (Waters, Wright, Gilmour, Mason; B-side to "Point Me at the Sky", appears on Relics and The Early Singles)
Fearless (Waters; from Meddle)
Breathe (Waters, Gilmour, Wright; from The Dark Side of the Moon)
Paranoid Eyes (Waters; from The Final Cut)
Mother (Waters; from The Wall)
Your Possible Pasts (Waters; from The Final Cut)
Fat Old Sun (Gilmour; from Atom Heart Mother)
San Tropez (Waters; from Meddle)
Atom Heart Mother (abridged) (Waters, Wright, Gilmour, Mason, Geesin; from Atom Heart Mother)
If (Waters; from Atom Heart Mother)
Grantchester Meadows (Waters; from Ummagumma)
Scarecrow (Barrett, from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn)
Chapter 24 (Barrett; from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn)
Dogs (Waters, Gilmour; from Animals)
Nobody Home (Waters; from The Wall)
Young Lust (Waters, Gilmour; from The Wall)
The Gunner's Dream (Waters; from The Final Cut)

[edit] Charts

Album

Year	Chart	Position
2001	The Billboard 200	2
2001	Billboard's Top Internet Albums	1

[edit] Credits

Syd Barrett- Guitar and Vocals on Astronomy Domine, See Emily Play, Arnold Layne, Jugband Blues and Bike.
Roger Waters - Bass Guitar, Guitar on Sheep, Tape effects and Vocals
David Gilmour - Guitars, Fretless Bass on Hey You, Bass guitar on Sheep and High Hopes, additional keyboards, drum programming on Sorrow and Vocals
Richard Wright - Keyboards, Organ, Piano, Synthesizers, Clavinet, and Vocals
Nick Mason - Drums, Percussion, Tape effects and Vocalisations on "One of These Days".