Customer Reviews

Collection of Great Dance Songs

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I can see how the Pink Floyd "greatest hits" album, "A Collection Of Great Dance Songs," originally released in 1981, may seem these days to be very obsolete, certainly in comparison to the 2-CD retrospective, "Echoes." A casual Floyd fan has no real need to buy "Dance Songs," BUT, for the diehard Pink Floyd fan who absolutely has to have it all, this CD is still worth getting. For starters, there's the re-recording of "Money" (which was reportedly done for legal reasons). Okay, so it doesn't sound all that different from the original version on "Dark Side Of The Moon", but it's still very rockin', and David Gilmour's re-done vocal and guitar solos still hit the spot. Also on "Dance Songs" is an edited version of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part One)" (pared down to 10 minutes 40 seconds), with the lead vocals coming in a couple of minutes earlier, which is interesting. And you also get the single version of "Another Brick In The Wall Part 2," with the nine-second intro not featured on the "Wall" album itself. Toss in "One Of These Days," "Sheep," and "Wish You Were Here" for extra measure, plus a classic album cover by Storm Thorgerson, and you've got yourself a pretty cool Pink Floyd disc. I've always enjoyed this Floyd collection, however scant it may appear to be, and I'm happy to have it. Casual fans should buy the more-expansive "Echoes" instead, but if you're a Pink Floyd completist like myself, then I do recommend picking up "A Collection Of Great Dance Songs."

This 1981 compilation album is a treat for collectors; it was released to hold off hungry fans waiting for a new Pink Floyd album while the band was on tour performing the infamous stage shows for their blockbuster "The Wall." And the wait would be prolonged further as self-appointed leader Roger Waters began turning "The Wall" into a feature film project. This six-track collection did indeed sell, but needless to say it didn't satisfy the Floyd fanbase. But now in 2004, collectors will enjoy this album as a forgotten curios.
1971's "Relics" was mainly an oppurtunity to package singles and some unreleased material into an album, so it doesn't qualify as a "best of" album. Then again, neither does this. Pink Floyd's trademark cynicism even carries into their compilation albums--Floyd were definitely not a dance band, which was part of the joke. The sarcastically (carelessly?) titled "A Collection of Great Dance Songs" is down to the bare essentials, packing only six of the group's most well known songs due to time constraints of vinyl at the time. The version of 'Money' however is a re-recording due to business reasons, in which guitarist David Gilmour plays all instruments, including drums, except saxophone, played by the loyal Dick Parry. This version is slightly more rough and raw than the original polished version from "Dark Side of the Moon," making it a must-have item for die hard collectors. This album also features a special seamless sequence of 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' into 'Wish You Were Here,' twenty years before the 2001 "Echoes" compilation could tinker with them. The version of the smash hit 'Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)' is the version most popularly used on radio at the time, without unnecessarily including the intro 'The Happiest Days of Our Lives,' which was the case with "Echoes." The album cover, featuring dancers tied down to a lonely field, is probably Storm Thorgeson's best artwork for Pink Floyd.
The whole attitude of "A Collection of Great Dance Songs" is much more honest than that of "Echoes." One can compare the titles and see that; one is cynical, one is nostalgic. Both were empty gestures, but this album was released at the right time due to the band's circumstances..."Echoes" however, is what many see as the closing chapter of Pink Floyd's career, which would be an acrimonious disappointment to end one of the most innovative bands of all time with an uninspired best-of set. And though "Dance Songs" was not exactly an inspired release, it is a great collector's piece, and still did not attempt to summarize the "best of" Pink Floyd in one album.

The idea of breaking up concept albums, or any Pink Floyd album at all to give out a sparse, six song mix is confusing and at first you are angered at the idea, but put it in and the mix works somehow, and reminds you that no matter what order you listen to their songs, these (...)are worth every penny.

Notable only for a weak remake of Money, and a version of Shine On that blends parts 1-4 (up through the lyrics) with the 3rd verse from part 7 and fades out with part 5, minus the sax solo.

For Floyd completists only. Everyone else, get the albums these tracks came from: Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, and The Wall.

First of all, most people reviewing this cd do not seem to realize how important it is. It's not really a greatest hits package. If it were it would fail as an album. But this cd contains some interesting versions of these songs not found anywhere else. The "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" is a special re-edited version. It is much shorter than the 30 minute origional, but it still contains all the parts with lyrics. This version of "Money" was re-recorded for this album, since they couldn't get the rights to use the origional from Harvest Records. And you won't find the single version of "Another Brick in the Wall part 2" anywhere else. This cd should be purchased after Dark Side, Wish You were Here, Animals, and The Wall, but it is still a great record.

A Collection of Great Dance Songs is fair-good if you ask me. It has a pretty nice mix of songs. Every song is altered in one way or the other on ACOGDS, so it is a pretty good collectors album for people who have most Pink Floyd albums, as opposed to other compilation albums that are boring because the songs are the same exact version as they were on their original album. And, of course, the Floyd booklets are always cool to collect. There are a whole lot of Floyd compilations, but I'd have to say this is one of the best. However, ACOGDS is not exactly made for Floyd first-timers or beginners. I have almost every Pink Floyd album, so I needed this.

"One of These Days" (formerly "One of These Days I am Going to Cut You Into Little Pieces") is a good classic spooky song, which is always a good song to be on an album. "Money" is great. As you probably already know, ACOGDS's version of "Money" is done by David Gilmour, except for the cool saxophone playing (Does Gilmour do the drums, too?). "Sheep" is a definite awesome song with some great guitar. I recommend you get the album Animals, which has "Sheep" and a lot more great music. "Shine on You Crazy Diamond (Parts 1 and 2)" is the only song on ACOGDS that might actually be a dance song, if any of them. It isn't as good as the original, which sucks. "Wish You Were Here" needs no explaining. "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" is better played with "Happiest Days of our Lives" and Part 1. But it is still fine the way it is, and Part 2 is all you really need if you just want "Another Brick in the Wall".

One good thing about ACOGDS is that you can take each song and use and treat it like a demo to each of the albums the songs originated from. That way you can decide which of the albums you want. This is good for Floyd beginners. But anyways, all of the albums are great, so you can't lose.

In a nutshell, a great collector's album.

This album contains many classic songs, all from the most popular albums; "Dark Side of The Moon", "The Wall", "Meddle", "Wish You Where Here", and "Animals". While all of these songs are excellent, they are out of context. All of these albums flow seamlessly together, and fit perfectly. They do a good job of fitting the songs together on "Dance Songs", they don't have the feel of the original album.
I give these albums 4 stars because it is a compilation album, and takes the songs out of context. Even so, the songs themselves make it a great album.

Pink Floyd is an album oriented band. These songs are great songs, but their whole albums are better than any individual song. This version of money isn't as good as the one on Dark Side of the Moon and they took Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Which was split into two songs on Wish You Were Here) and condensed it into one. Just buy their normal albums. If you want to truly experience Pink Floyd, spend a some more cash - you will not regret it. As I said Pink Floyd album is better than a Pink Floyd song and there are so many other amazing songs by the Floyd. This collection really doesn't do Pink Floyd justice.

"Best Of" and "Greatest Hits" collections have only one real purpose: to make an artist's popular songs available in one place for the sake of listeners who don't want to mess with all the original albums. Perhaps Pink Floyd is too much of an "album" band to rate a "Greatest Hits" compilation. Yet I can say I like a lot of their individual songs while not liking many of their entire albums (though I'm probably the exception).

Anyway, we all know that DANCE SONGS was a contractual-obligation kind of release (and we all *should* know that its title was meant as a joke). But, as a one-LP Pink Floyd "Best Of," I think it could have been done right; and it almost was. "One Of These Days," "Sheep," "Wish You Were Here," "Money," and "Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)" are all good representatives of their respective albums from the band's most successful period. And there is something to be said for the idea of having each of these tracks available as stand-alones (i.e., not segued to or from by other tracks as on the original albums). But "Wish" is *not* a stand-alone here ("Shine On You Crazy Diamond" segues into it), and "Money" had to be re-recorded for legal reasons. (It's not a bad re-recording, in spite of the obvious drum machines, but no one would mistake it for the original, and the fact that it *had* to be re-recorded for such reasons is just lame.) And while "Shine On You" (which took up way too much of its home album) probably needed an edited version, its 10 minutes on this record would have been better used for, say, "Free Four" and "Comfortably Numb."

When it comes down to it, none of the Pink Floyd LP compilations were really done right. "Relics" should have featured more non-LP tracks instead of rehashing songs from other albums, and "Works" was a bizarre mix-tape with no real reason to exist.

An interesting compilation of tracks here. Bought this on vinyl when it was first released on LP. I probably sold more Hi-Fi from the remixed "Money" on "Dance Songs"(track 2), than ANY other demo I had. It is a COMPLETELY different song from the original release of '73. This cut alone makes this disc worth it's weight in gold. Phenomenal !