Pink Floyd has quietly dropped twelve early live albums featuring performances from 1970-1972.
The live albums cover the period of the band before their 1973 breakout, Dark Side of the Moon. Each of the albums feature similar covers and cover live sets and early performances of almost every song on Dark Side of the Moon. The recordings haven’t been remastered or touched up, which Rolling Stone suggests may have been done to avoid the recordings hitting public domain.
“All of the recordings are copyrighted to Pink Floyd Music Ltd., suggesting these are official releases from the band. Their release may be timed to extend the rights of the recordings,” Rolling Stone reports.
That’s because European copyright law was recently extended, but only on works recorded in 1963 and after. Pink Floyd has to use these live albums or lose the copyright to them.
Everything before that has a ‘use it or lose it’ policy, which says if you aren’t using the recordings in fifty years, you can’t extend your copyright beyond that. Pink Floyd previously released the EP 1965: Their First Recordings back in 2015 because of how European copyright law works.
Pink Floyd Live Albums – Now Streaming
- They Came in Peace, Live, Leeds University 1970
- Washington University 1971
- Live at Grosser Saal, Musikhalle, Hamburg, West Germany 25 Feb 1971
- Mauerspechte Berlin Sportpalast, Live 5 June 1971
- Live, Lyon 12 June 1971, Tokyo 16 March 1972
- Live in Rome Palaeur 20 June 1971
- Amsterdamse Bos Free Concert 26 June 1971 (Live)
- Live in Montreux 18 & 19 Sept 1971
- KB Hallen, Copenhagen, Live 23 Sept 1971
- KB Hallen, Copenhagen, Vol II, Live 23 Sept 1971
- Over Bradford Pigs on the Groove Bradford University, Live 10 Oct 1971
- Embryo, San Diego, Live 17 Oct 1971
- The Screaming Abdabs Quebec City, Live 10 Nov 1971
Rolling Stone also notes that among the recordings are the band’s performance at the Amphitheatre of Pompeii in October 1971. The band played for no one to record music for a concert film released in 1972. The live album features songs from the film, including “Echoes,” “A Saucerful of Secrets,” and “One of These Days.”