YGBC - FOLLOWING THE PATH - RoIO THEMATIC - no one knows the where's or whys - 1977 Februuary 17/18/19: the precious ‘substitutes’

1977 February 17/18/19: the precious ‘substitutes’

updated December 2012

Pictures by Rob Verhorst / see the full res. on musicpictures.com (you'd need to register)

Few tapers are known for these Rotterdam dates, actually If you thought your Rotterdam 77 shows were irremediably to include in the G range, luckily other recorders then arose.
After the nice discover of the second recorder of the first date there’s now a noteworthy ‘substitute’to be taken into consideration for the second date too, even is it is missing part of SOYCD (6-9) and it was lately discovered that the first recorder is 100% complete (not missing some tracks of the second set as it was believed for long). Less noteworthy is the second recorder of the 3rd date since it sounds pretty similar to the first recorder and is not complete (as far as I can state at now, the version I got isn't complete but I'm not sure if the original recording is)

Here below are notes for some of the versions I checked of the few recorders of these gigs...

77-2-17:

setlist: 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

[2 recorders: both recorders are complete]
recorder 1 is the one of the “Rotterdam 1977”(6CDR-set); the DFA’s “Big Pink: Tour 1977”; other versions are circulating without specific titles.
recorder 2 is the one of the “Crazy Diamond” LP (incomplete); “Schaap En Zwijn” (also around entitled as just “Rotterdam 77”)

77-2-18:

[3 recorders are known, 2 are in general circulation: all 3 not 100% complete]
recorder 1 is the one of the “Rotterdam 1977”(6CDR-set) – this was believed for long to be totally missing Have A Cigar and Wish You Where Here (+ Money was cut) but it's actually complete > see Bleating and Babbling or this version from 3rdGen; there's a little part of Dog missing only as it seems.
recorder 2 complete, but missing half of SOYCD (6-9) for evident problems with the recorder - a 1stGen. of this recorder is in general circulation – this version from 2ndGen is also very nice

recorder 3: this has Money cut

the recorders of this second date are very easy to identify for the reasons explained above, here are a couple of 'random' points to check to distinguish the 2 recs in general circulation of this first date:

SHEEP: on recorder 1 the taper talks before the song starts and whistles as soon as the song begins, on recorder 2 the song starts missing some seconds of the beginning.
PIGS: on recorder 1 the taper screams a loud "yahooooo" when the song finishes and another loud "yahoooo" when Waters says "we'll be back in 20 minutes"

77-2-19:

2 recorders are in circulation, what I call recorder 2 is usually patched with recorder 1 as it seems to be incomplete. I've been told the 2 recordings were taken by 2 friends who made copies mixing their 2 recordings.

recorder 1 is the common “Rotterdam 1977” (6CDR-set) version – this is quite complete with Sheep and SOYCD 1-5 fading in at the very beginning only. this recorder is also usually used to patch the missing second set of recorder 2, see the versions below.
recorder 2 is around on fantapes, this recording seems incomplete at now (see above). Do exist different sources for this recorder, with about the same contents, it's usually used to cover the 1st set and then patched with recorder 1 for the secont set although some sources have also SOYCD I-V and a piece of WTTM from this recorder 2 and the patch from recorder 1 then covers the rest. We can be sure that this recorder took untill the beginning of WTTM, no other pieces surfaced, a list of the different sources follows below:

Source 1: Some versions like this unknown gen. cass, from a USA friend's casette, includes the whole 1st set + SOYCD 1-5, then recorder 1 is attached as filler covering from WTTM till SOYCD 6-9, missing Money. Pigs is missing the verse with the number and SOYCD 1-5 is missing the very beginning, fading in. Another tape like this unknown gen. cass transferred by Neonknight have also a piece of Welcome To The Machine following SOYCD from this recorder 2, then Welcome To The Machine starts again from recorder 1.

Source 2: Some other tapes like this one from another EU collector's fantape have about the same contents: missing the verse with the number on Pigs and having the patch/filler from recorder 1, but here we have recorder 1 filling the whole second set, SOYCD 1-5 included .What's interesting is that these other "source" tapes have something missing in the other source: the beginning of SOYCD 1-5 at the end of Pigs, always from recorder 2. Then the recording stops as soon as Gilmour starts playing the guitar. The recordings goes on then on the other side of the tape from SOYCD 1-5 again, from the beginning again and definitely from recorder 1.

Source 3: Nice copy from Dutch tapes, this has set 1 from rec.2 and set 2 from rec.1 but also has a filler from rec.1 for the missing part of Pigs (not patched, it's like a bonus at the end of the tape, it's the 2nd half of the song with the number. This is the nicest sounding copy for both the recorders I found.

here are some 'random' points to check to distinguish the recorders of the third date:

SHEEP:

fades in on both recorders but on recorder 2 it starts earlier since the first bass tune; on recorder 2 there is also a little gap, as the taper hits a recorder button before Waters sings "Only dimly aware..." (but it's probably because of the copy).

DOGS:

on recorder 1 you can hear a guy making a short whistle (very near to the taper) as soon as the song is over

POTW part2:

on recorder 2 guys near to the taper chat right before and during the beginning of the song; from this song recorder 2 starts sounding a bit better, the taper stopped the recorder between Dogs and POTW p2 to adjust something maybe (?); also someone near to the taper talks till Waters sings the very first words of the song; on recorder 1 there's more soundscape at the beginning and you can hear the taper (or somebody near to him) "simulating" the dogs' howling.

PIGS:

on recorder 2 guys chat at the beginning very near to the taper, a lady (or a guy with a silly voice) laughs at the pigs' cries, this Pigs is missing the number cause there's a cut right on the 3rd verse, the 3rd verse is totally missing, the song restarts at the end (9minute:1+2 verse>cut>1minute:very end); right before the cut someone near to the taper says something, then when the song is finishing someone says something again and then yells "woo-whoho" / no Waters' greeting; on recorder 1 a guy whistle at the end and there's the Waters' greeting.

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