"A Breath of Fresh Air" and "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn"

Many years ago, before the easy availability of bootleg recording, while I was educating myself about the early music of the Pink Floyd, I came across reference to a song called "Embryo". It hadn't made it on to record, but had been part of their live repertoire, although dropped before I first saw them in 1973. Then I discovered that "Embryo" had appeared on a Harvest Records sampler called "Picnic: A breath of fresh air", and I spent a lot of time searching for "Picnic" in the record shops of London. Eventually, I bought a copy, and discovered, not only "Embryo" but a whole host of other goodies by people like Michael Chapman, Quatermass, Kevin Ayers, Pete Brown, Forrest, Roy Harper, ....".

Subsequently, I heard lots of stories that Pink Floyd were not happy about this release of Embryo, and had had the album pulled, although the track did turn up on the US compilation "Works". But now, thirty something years since the release of "Picnic", Harvest have just released Breath of Fresh Air, a triple CD which includes "Embryo" and "Careful With That Axe Eugene".

My copy was waiting for me when I got back from Grenoble on Friday. As was may boxed set, 3CD, 40th Anniversary Edition of The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Stereo and mono mixes, and a third disc with various interesting items such as the singles from 1967 (Arnold Layne, See Emily Play, Apples and Oranges). Oh, in case you are interested, here is the original video for "Arnold Layne".

All I'm waiting for now is a CD release of "Point Me at the Sky".