Pink Floyd - 1969 -1971 - Omayyad - A Tribute to the First TMoQ Edition [FLAC]

Pink Floyd - Omayyad - A tribute to the First TMoQ Edition

Studio Sessions recorded in Roma, Italia, Nov-Dec 1969 (01 to 04)
Live at Civic Auditorium, Santa Monica, CA, USA, 1970-05-01 (05 - 06)

Set List (in brackets the position on the original first issue LP, side a, side b)
01 (02a). Fingal's Cave 1:52
02 (01b). Crumbling Land (restored extended version) 5:53
03 (01a). Oenone 6:25
04 (02b). Rain in the Country 6:52
05 (03b). The Embryo 12:44
06 (03a). Interstellar Overdrive 14:14
[02 (01b)] Crumbling Land (original extended version)

First, I must be clear. You can easily find in other releases else a complete Zabriskie Point sessions collection and the whole Santa Monica show.
This release is trying to upgrade and restore the content of the original LP version
of Omayyad only, primarily for those older collectors who have had it for many years.
A sort of emotional commemoration of a famous and time honored bootleg LP.

Omayyad was my second boot. Since that day in 1974 I've been searching for more information about the Roman Sessions and the movie Zabriskie Point.

The first edition was released on coloured vinyl in the first half of 1972 by Trade Mark of Quality in USA, the inventors of bootlegs.
Trivia note: around this same time the Best of Tour '72 LP was released in Europe.

Omayyad was the 40th in the TMoQ catalog and the first American bootleg about Pink Floyd. It had large success and was reissued and re-bootlegged many, many times due to the excellent (for the time) sound quality and the presence of unissued songs.
It was probably conceived like a smaller parallel version of Ummagumma, half studio and half live but the limitations of the length of LP sides couldn't support that.

Pink Floyd were in Roma for several days in November and several more in December 1969 where they recorded and produced a large variety of music for the unpleasable supervisor, director Michelangelo Antonioni and his new movie Zabriskie Point.
He knew of Pink Floyd since 1966 and really wanted the song Careful With That Axe, Eugene for his movie.

Only 3 songs were ultimately used for the film and we were introduced to them with the release of the sountrack in 1970 by MGM. 3 more songs, plus the longer Crumbling Land, surfaced in 1972 with Omayyad. 25 years later the extended sountrack by Rhino records gave us 4 more outtakes. The rest of the known outtakes came out a while later with the first half of the double CD bootleg named A Journey Through Time and Space.

I personally think the tape(s) to make Omayyad were stolen and not copied.
In fact none of them surfaced later in the Rhino release or in the AJTT&S boot.

The live performances of The Embryo and Interstellar Overdrive come from the show at the Civic Center Auditorium in Santa Monica, California the 1st of May 1970, just 4-5 months after the ZP Sessions and the day after the famous KQED sessions.
For years a lot of people thought these tracks were from Chicago 1971-10-27 but in reality the last Interstellar Overdrive was performed in Montreux 1970-11-21. Another error perpetuated by the Leopard boots.
At the time of Omayyad's release these songs were unissued as well. No one had on vinyl a live version of the 2 pieces.
Two unique masterpieces to be enjoyed throughout the 70's and onward through the future.

- Titles and Songs -
First of all, the correct name is OMAYYAD and NOT Omay Yad. Like the first dynasty of Arab caliphs whose capital was Damascus, like the big Mosque in the same city. I hope I am making this clear.
This error originally probably occurred on the hand written paper insert.
It had the two Y's a little bit separated.
The largely circulated version on LP and CD by the Leopard label was clearly named Omay Yad and the error was in that way officialized.

The four Zabriskie Point outtakes are ambiguously named.
The names possibly came from the bootleg makers but in my opinion there's a big chance that something real is behind those titles since tapes were quite possibly stolen.
Tapes usually have notes on their boxes!

1 - Fingal's Cave -
This name referred to Irish Mythology and a place in the Scottish isle of Staffa.
This energic song was probably written for the _Flying Scene_ of the movie.

2 - Crumbling Land -
This is the long studio version with all the traffic noises recorded by Mason in the streets of Roma. On the original paper insert it was misnamed Crumbeling Land.
Since the musical part is the same as the official one, a patch was made with the two. The result is a restored complete studio version.
It's considered a country song which, in my opinion, it is clearly not.
For the movie only 34 seconds were used, and those were from an early take, not from the final version. The text refers to Zabriskie Point (the place) and to M. Antonioni.

3 - Oenone -
The name refers to Greek Mythology, the same as Sisyphus recorded few weeks before. She was a nymph married to Paris of Troy. He left Oenone for Helen of Sparta.
Oenone was an isle as well, connected to the Sisyphus story (!).
Some called this song Oneone refering that to Ant - oni-oni.
This error was diffused mostly by some websites.
This song was surely written for the _Love Scene_.
Pink Floyd tried 4 different of musical styles to please Antonioni for that scene, including a blues.
On my opinion this take is almost certainly a final version, the most equilibrated of the same kind surfaced later.
The right one for the _Love Scene_ from the Pink Floyd point of view.
Great psychedelic performance by Rick and Dave.

4 - Rain in the Country -
This songs almost certainly has roots in _Baby Blue Shuffle in D Major_.
The second approach to _Love Scene_ Pink Floyd tried for Antonioni.
Another complete final version with Dave in great shape. On my opinion the best and the most appropriate for the _Love Scene_ for the Antonioni point of view.

5 - The Embryo -
In 1974 this was a completaly new song for me, same as the ZP outtakes.
It surprised me to hear the _seagulls_ or _whales_ sounds of Echoes in another piece.

6 - Interstellar Overdrive -
For 30 years it has been my definitive live version of the song. It's the final evolution
of the Barrett masterpiece with a stunning intro before the famous riff.
It was one of the last times it was performed as part of the live show.
A few more times and it was dropped.

- Artwork -
I made the artwork of this newest release attempting to reproduce the first TMoQ LP as well as possible. Since is a modern reproduction, all the writing on the paper insert are not by hand as it was on Omayyad and on most of the bootlegs at that time.
The proportions of the sticker, the writing and the paper insert used for the back are not the same of the LP due to the dimensions of the CD case.
On the paper insert the writing _Side 1 and Side 2_ were obviously omitted. Inside the booklet you can see pictures of the original parts of the first TMoQ release.
The four colours under the Trade Mark Of Quality Farm Pig were those commonly used for stickers. I couldn't use the same label of the first edition being only a big 1 and 2.
So I made a compromise writing titles on a later edition label with the farm pig you can see on the booklet.

You can find two _backs_ and two CD labels.
I want you to feel free to have it with my version or with the original set list.
As you can see you have the audio original Omayyad Crumbling Land file out of the set list as well. Use it if you want really Omayyad as it was on LP.
Note that the original set list was forced by length of the songs and the capability of the LP to support them.
The original set list is the only one possible on LP with those six songs.
Today on CD the order of the songs would probably be _restored_ as mine.
For this edition I followed the scenes of the movie and placed the songs from Santa Monica afterward with The Embryo before Interstellar Overdrive as it was performed in the show.

- Sources -
The audio of the Zabriskie Point outtakes comes from an unknown edition LP.
MOB did the remaster work after he got the ripped audio from an old torrent.
He manually cleaned and remastered the four tracks with speed correction, levels, balance and EQ adjustements and unwanted noise cleaning.

I thought it would be worth it to restore Crumbling Land with the official one since the musical part and the real end are the same.
That work was made by }{eywood who speed corrected and crossfaded the official version with the extended ending from the MOB version, also EQing them to match as closely as possible.

The two live songs come from a 1st generation reel better than other sources heard before about this show. It was torrented recently on Yeeshkul by gbc.
I just edited the two songs as they were on the first Omayyad.

Dedicated to Richard Wright

Hope you enjoy.

Thanks to:
- MOB for the big work on the LP sourced audio.
- }{eywood for the help on Crumbling Land.
- Vito L. for the help in making the back artwork.
- Steve J. from Plymouth,UK and his worderful - http://www.cyber-heritage.co.uk/
- The Pink Floyd Vinyl Bootleg Guide - http://backtrax-records.co.uk/floydboots/
- Dub & Ken for the Omayyad release and for inventing bootlegs and TMoQ.
- Yeeshkul and the Pink Floyd Hubs.

Conceived, produced and released by WRomanus - Roma 21 Settembre 2008