Published on Jul 26, 2005
Did anyone ever wonder why Pink Floyd never released a “proper”
live album in their career, not including the one disc of
Ummagumma?
Maybe it’s because David Gilmour and company knew that their
music translated well onto the concert stage, but something
essential was lost between actually seeing the band perform and
hearing the “souvenir” disc from the show. This has to be the case,
because
Delicate Sound Of Thunder, the first full-length live
release from Pink Floyd (which documented the “reunion” tour in
1987), is about as interesting as watching paint dry.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Pink Floyd, critical as I may be of
some of their work. But this disc is flat-out, one hundred percent
boring as hell. The musical precision is there, to be sure, but if
you don’t have the heart and emotion behind the playing, then
technical ability and precision isn’t worth a thing.
Possibly part of the problem is that the band expanded from a
four-piece (substituting Guy Pratt on bass for the departed Roger
Waters) to an almost uncontrollable assortment of musicians. Quite
possibly Gilmour is trying to overcompensate for Waters’s absence
with the same cornucopia of sounds that he twisted out of the
studio for
A Momentary Lapse Of Reason, masking the fact that the band
was barely treading water.
Or maybe it’s just the realization that the new material just
didn’t have the same lasting power or panache as the classic Floyd
numbers. The band really doesn’t seem to come alive until the
second disc, when “One Of These Days” kicks in — by which time the
listener has invested over 45 minutes of time and been nearly bored
to tears. (Criminally missing is the one real good song off of
Momentary Lapse — “One Slip.” I know they played it on this
tour — it was documented on the home video from this time, as well
as on bootlegs of this tour.)
Whatever the reason, there is one undeniable fact: even with the
magic of home video, nothing will replace the true spectacle and
magic of seeing Pink Floyd in the flesh. (This coming from someone
who has never seen Pink Floyd in concert, but who has heard enough
stories.) Like so many other bands, Pink Floyd quickly discovers
that it’s damned near impossible to recapture the magic of the live
performance on plastic disc, and
Delicate Sound Of Thunder ends up being a throwaway release
from a regrettably throwaway time in Pink Floyd’s career.