Pink Floyd Live at Knebworth 1990 (2021)

From brutallyhonestrockalbumreviews.wordpress.com

There are a couple of things that really bugged me about Pink Floyd’s latest release, Live at Knebworth 1990.  Firstly, versions of all of these songs recorded around the same time were released on Delicate Sound of Thunder already except “The Great Gig in the Sky”, and even that was on the 2019 re-release of the album.  Given that Floyd were never ones for mixing things up from night to night, how different could the versions on Live at Knebworth 1990 be? (Spoiler alert – more than I expected, actually).  So I was already thinking this release was fairly superfluous.  But I’m also a little peeved that when the Later Years box set came out back in 2019, all of the CDs from the set were on the hi-res version except the Knebworth CD, which was obviously held back for this release.  The “let’s hold something back so we can charge people who want it additional moolah in the future” trick record companies are always pulling really sets me off.  Money grubbing parasites.  So I was already a little grumpy about it before I even heard this release.

Of course, the versions in Live at Knebworth 1990 aren’t exact clones of the versions of DSoT, but are they close enough to be worth parting with any hard-earned $$$ for?   To be honest, I expected Live at Knebworth to be wholly unnecessary if you have DSoT, especially if you have the 2019 re-release.I thought that you’d have to be a super-mega-hard-core-bordering-on-obsessive-compulsive Pink Floyd fan to really need this.  I thought it was mostly a release for those who really really, really feel like they need every second of music Pink Floyd ever released.  Was I right?  Well, let me spell out the differences between these versions and the ones on DSoT for you and you can make up your own mind.

For a couple of these songs, if there are any differences, I can’t hear them.  “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” sounds fantastic, obviously – I’ve always preferred David Gilmour’s vocals on the latter-day Floyd live albums to Roger Water’s studio original.  Those four mournful guitar notes near the beginning of the song  are played far more mournfully than was the case on the original version. Dave’s guitar playing is as reliably sharp and melodic as ever.  Don’t get me wrong, this is an outstanding version of this song.  And in a blind taste test, I’d never be able to tell this one from the one on DSoT (with one extremely unfortunate exception we will talk about in a minute).  Same with “Wish You Were Here”- it’s a suitably marvelous version to be sure – and completely indistinguishable from the one on DSoT.  Same goes for “Sorrow”, one of the better songs from the album they were touring at the time, A Momentary Lapse of Reason.  It’s a marked improvement over the studio version – the intro is far more resonant, and the outro is far more effective than the fade-out on the studio version.  It’s a simply smashing version – and for all I can tell is identical to the simply smashing version on DSoT.   So that’s almost half the album right there, people – if you already own these songs on Delicate Sound, you don’t need ‘em on Live at Knebworth 1990.

Some songs have differences that are definitely not an improvement.  I’ve noted before that with precious few exceptions saxophones ought to be banned from all rock music, and actually several Pink Floyd songs are among those precious few exceptions (“Us and Them” is the best example, but “Shine On” as well).   On Delicate Sound I thought Scott Page’s sax was even more annoying than saxophones usually are, and he played with a swagger as though he thought Pink Floyd were lucky to be on stage with him.  But then the sax player on Live at Knebworth, Candy Dulfer, was evidently determined to out-Scott-Page Scott Page, and upped the obnoxiousness quotient even more than her predecessor.  She plays along with the riff from the outset of “Money”, a most unwelcome addition to the arrangement, and then bloviates horrendiferously on the sax solo.  She does the same on “Shine On”, which is the only way you’d know the difference between the version on Delicate Sound and this one.  When a saxophonist makes me long for Scott Page, you know you’ve reached a seventh-circle-of-Hell level of saxophone awfulness.  I have no doubt she is a skilled musician – but certainly not a tasteful one.  It does not matter how skilled a musician is at producing notes when they lack the judgment to apply that skill judiciously, and Ms. Dulfer flings saxophone notes about helter skelter with no concern for whether they fit well with the song.  On the original version Dick Parry demonstrated quite compelling how a tasteful sax part could enhance “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” – Candy Dulfer instead engages in indiscriminate musical vandalism. In spite of the brilliance of the rest of the musicians, especially David Gilmour, I’m afraid I have to take a point off for musicianship. Nice going Candy.

Other differences are in fact major improvements from the DSoT versions of these songs. “The Great Gig in the Sky” does bring something special to the table, the return of Clare Torrey, whose vocal acrobatics on the studio version are most of what made the song so special in the first place.  Geez, it took three vocalists to do the song on latter-day Floyd live versions, and Roger Waters uses two, but in the original Ms. Torry did it all by her lonesome, and it was spine-tingling.  She acquits herself well on the version on Live at Knebworth 1990, and while it is not quite as jaw-dropping as the original owing to a few sections where she gets a tad repetitive, for my money she still sounds phenomenal.  Unfortunately, if you’ve ever watched the video she didn’t fare so well through the rest of the concert.  For some reason she opted to stay on stage and sing backup with the regular backup singers, who had choreographed dance moves during the songs, and while Clare Torry may have been a powerhouse hurricane-level vocalist, a dancer she was not.  There is a considerable amount of second hand embarrassment to be had watching her attempt to dance next to the smooth, graceful movements of the other singers.  <<Cringe>>.  But for her moment in the spotlight during “Great Gig”, she really shines.

But you know, for all of my grousing, there are actually a couple of songs that almost – almost – justify the purchase of this album even if you already have DSoT.  I’m not sure what got into David Gilmour, but about halfway through the set his playing developed an energy – nay, a ferocity even – quite usual for the generally cool and professional Gilmour.  If you can push past the abominationable saxophone solo – keep in mind God gave us fast forward buttons for a reason – you will hear the most fiery guitar solo on “Money” of all of the many versions I’ve ever heard.  Too bad it’s mired in a swamp of saxophone awfulness.  “Comfortably Numb” is a fairly standard version for most of the song, with a run of the mill mind-blowing solo after that first chorus – Gilmour has never failed to play it with his customary brilliance.  But when he cuts loose soloing after the last chorus, his playing is a marvel to behold. The finest guitar solo outro for “Comfortably Numb” I have ever heard, and I’ve never heard a bad version.

But Gilmour is at his boldest and most forceful on “Run Like Hell” – I went back and listened to the version on DSoT to be sure, and there is no question, Gimour’s energetic vocals and blazing guitar kick the song up another level.  The song fairly explodes out of your speakers at the finale, and I have to confess the DSoT version, great as it is, isn’t in the same league.  

So is Live at Knebworth superfluous for someone who has Delicate Sound of Thunder?  Well, truthfully, it is for a couple of songs.  “Wish You Were Here” and “Sorrow” differ not at all, and “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” differs only in the somehow-even-more-obnoxious-than-Scott-Page saxophone.  That same saxophone tragically mars a versions of “Money” that otherwise has an exceptionally powerful David Gilmour solo.  But if you respect Gilmour’s playing as much as I do, you really need to hear his guitar solos on “Money”, “Comfortably Numb”, and “Run Like Hell”, which also boasts a remarkably powerful Gilmour vocal.

Indeed , while I am surprised to say it, an unusually powerful performance by Gilmour makes this release worth your time in spite of the redundancies with Delicate Sound of Thunder.  And I must confess, after actually hearing Live at Knebworth 1990, I actually feel considerably less grumpy about it.