1977 January 26/27: A Pair Of Frankfurters

updated May 2005

 

 

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setlist for both the dates: Sheep /Pigs On The Wing Part 1 / Dogs / Pigs On The Wing Part 2 / Pigs (Three Different Ones) / Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V) / Welcome To The Machine / Have A Cigar / Wish You Were Here / Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts VI-IX) / Money

 

1977 January 26

no recording is in circulation for the first gig in Frankfurt. Rumors about a possible recording of this date are around for years but I never heard of any actual/real info about that, hopefully something will finally surface someday!

 

1977 January 27

2 recorders are in general circulation  for this gig, both pretty famous ones, although both had the "sad" destiny to be confused with other dates during the years. First came recorder 1, out on the LP "Welcome To The Machine" and on old fantapes (many sourced from the LP itself) often labeled wrongly as Frankfurt 1977 January 26. I don't know for how long I have searched for that January 26 recording myself just to find that it was really just the mislabeled recorder 1 of January 27. This doesn't mean there isn't any January 26 recording, but surely it isn't in general circulation. Recorder 2 was on the contrary always labeled right till someone decided to release a RoIO CD giving it the name of "California Pigs" and giving it the date of May 7 - Anaheim Stadium, Anaheim, California. I can't even manage to imagine why that, if to mislabel a recording confusing it with one of the same period and venue can be understandable, to confuse a recording of the EU tour with one of the USA Californian dates sounds crazy also considering the fact Waters clearly greets the audience in german at the end of Pigs.

The 2 recorders are very different in contents, but both excellent in sound quality... as often unfortunately happens one of them isn't complete.

recorder 1: incomplete, missing: almost the whole Sheep (it has just the very last part), the first half of SOYCD I-V and the whole Money; SOYCD VI-IX is also cut at the very end. This is available on the RoIO LP "Welcome To The Machine" and the various CDs sourced from it, like the homonymous R&D version or this nice LP-transfer by Pinkrudy; many fantapes also circulated in the old days, many sourced from the LP itself, others supposed to be not from the LP but having the same contents and, of course, all the digital transfers sourced from them like this untitled version circulated years ago (from the LP??) or this 2nd Generation Tape supposedly genuine analog copy of the copy of the master tapes. Again, mind that some tapes may be labeled as 77-01-26.

The LP version is still the best to me, although the low gen's supposed not from vinyl have their good points too.

recorder 2: complete recorder, this circulated a lot as well, proves are the numerous fantapes you can find in old collections, I found myself a 3rd Gen sounding just cool, cool sounding are the many fan-released CDs as well, with obvious titles like "A Pair Of Frankfurters"; "Two Frankfurters" etc... not really obvious the above cited "California Pigs" fanrelease. All these great sounding versions were destined to be put aside though, when that gem of version from the Master Reels surfaced in the circuit, so a nice recording and such a great gig!

to distinguish the 2 recorders, if it isn't enough to know one is way incomplete (and consequently impossible to confuse with the other one) just keep in mind these 2 details:

1. recorde 2 was prolly recorded somewhere in the stands, far from the big crowd under the stage clapping and yelling, the clappings on HAC are barely audible on rec.2 and way noticeable on rec.1.

2. on recorder 1, at beginning of POTW par 2 there's a guy clearly saying something in the back (few words) soon before Waters starts singing, after WYWH, when the SOYCD 6-9 soundscape starts, the taper hits the recorder making a deaf-noise sounding similar to 5 little bubbles bursting.

 

a recorder 3 for this gig should exist having prolly "survived" just the last part of the gig though ...

 

 

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