Customer Reviews

An All Star Lineup Performing The Songs Of Pink Floyd

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Truth be told, I bought this solely because Tubes frontman Fee Waybill has a song on it. But the rest of the disc is surprisingly good and well-produced. Steve Lukather of Toto sings and plays guitar on a surprisingly decent version of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", and Toto bandmate Bobby Kimball handles "Have A Cigar" pretty well too. Even Chicago lead singer/bassist Jason Scheff gets in on the act, nailing "Run Like Hell".

The standout is "Comfortably Numb" as covered by Billy Sherwood, with backing vocals from Chris Squire of Yes and drums by Alan White, also of Yes.

Some great guitarists join the fray, including Dweezil Zappa, Bob and Bruce Kulick, Gary Hooey, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter", and Eliot Easton.

Add this to the recent spate of rockin' tribute albums like "Not The Same Old Song and Dance" (Aerosmith tribute) and "Little Guitars" (Van Halen tribute).

I doubt die-hard Floyd fans will totally reject this CD out of hand. It is a bit disconcerting at first to hear cover versions of timeless Floyd songs, but these eleven tracks grow on you very quickly.

Worth checking out!

This is one of the better Bob Kulick/Billy Sherwood produced tribute albums. Rather than remaking the originals note-by-note, there are some unique variations here, and the quality of musicians involved is better than on many of their albums. In particular, they let the individual traits of the musicians come through the songs, so one gets Tony Franklin's fretless bass really singing along with a strong dose of Sherwood/Chris Squire vocal harmonies. Steve Lukather also contributes a fine version of SOYCD wherein he handles both vocals and guitar. Not essential, but a nice effort nonetheless.

Not only do I own most of the Pink Floyd tribute CDs that have been released, I'm also the Executive Producer of "A Fair Forgery of Pink Floyd" the most recent 2 CD Pink Floyd compilation and the manager of Which One's Pink?, LA's Pink Floyd tribute band. Aside from Pink Floyd themselves, the All Star CD contains the best renditions of Pink Floyd songs that I've ever heard. Of particular note is a truly stunning version of Any Colour You Like featuring an incredible guitar performance by Robben Ford and very interesting keys from Mike Porcaro. Also, Breathe with Skunk Baxter and Robin McAuley is played with a very nice, almost Nawlins style, down home feeling. Yes, the track selection is very much "greatest hits" but the performances are hot. I believe this is an essential for Pink Floyd fans.

I think Pink Floyd has more tribute albums than any other modern rock band I can think of. All of them really are cast offs and throw aways. This one is really not as bad as most but decent to say the least. A very good line-up of musicians with great talent but the songs themselves are pretty much what you get off of the original from Pink themselves. Plus the song selection is really a best of Pink which gives this album 2 big strikes against it. Everything is from the most commerically sucessful albums; Dark Side, Wall, and Wish. Some tracks like Cigar, WttM,Young Lust, SoYCD, and Brick are either horrible remakes or standard covers which fall short, musically.
The stand out tracks are Us and Them and Money with nice sax solos by Scotty Page and Edgar Winter respectfully. Run like Hell has is a close remake but still Jason Schefff vox are good as well as the playing of Franklin, Dunbar, Kaye and Dweezil.
Any Colour is a nice tight effort as well. Comfortably Numb performed by the Yes men is the shining effort on the disc. It is quite funny to hear Squire singing a Floyd tune, but he and Sherwood do nice vox harmonies thru out and the song over all has more of a World Trade/Squire Experiment tone.
Overall, a decent disc, one of the better tribute of Floyd but not much adventure in original arrangements. Only for collectors or if you're a fan of some players.

Okay, it's tough to do a Floyd tribute album and do anything original without totally tarnishing the legend of the band. This is as worthy an attempt as one could expect. Why? Because these are excellent, classic rock musicians who lived the legacy while recording their own material. Exhibit A is the Tommy Shaw vocal on "Money" accompanied Tony Levin's (King Crimson)monster bass line. Add a rediculous sax solo from Edgar Winter and some excellent guitar work by Richie Koitzen (Poison) and you've got song one. "Run Like Hell" may be my favorite version of this Floyd classic that gets new life from Chicago (yes, Chicago) lead vocalist Jason Scheff. Scheff lays down a vocal track as a Roger Waters possessed fiend with a great left to right channel fade backed up by Tony Franklin's (The Firm) power bass riffs and Dweezil Zappa's psychedelic fills on guitar. Scheff nails this in a way no one else could. A++++. "Young Lust" comes to new life again using Tony Franklin's industrial strength bass and vocals from former Deep Purple alum, Glenn Hughes. Just a great re-do. "Welcome To The Machine" is a little less traditional with an almost industrial flair sung by Doug Pinnick (King's X. Fee Waybill's (Tubes) almost non-sensical take on "Another Brick" almost needs more sarcasm. Former Talas member Billy Sherwood works the guitar with a fluent distorted flavor. "Any Colour You Like" showcases many of the musicians here as a delicate and more modern version. "Have A Cigar" is great casting as former Toto vocalist Bobby Kimball belts out his version of "by the way, which one's pink?" Great guitar from Kiss alum Bruce Kulick. "Comfortably Numb", likely the most difficult re-make is treated to a role reversal vocal. The smooth side is done by Billy Sherwood, who is singing the Roger Waters parts, while the more squirrely Alan White(Yes)ends up being the David Gilmour foil. Sherwood's guitar smokes the solo, which is all that really matters. "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" finds Steve Lukather (Toto) and Marco Mendoza (Bass-Thin Lizzy) fighting for instrument time amongst one another while Lukather ends up doing a fine job on vocals. "Breathe" ends the collection with Jeff Baxter (Doobies, Steely Dan) playing a red hot steel/slide guitar country style, but the shift works perfectly. Robin McAulley from Grand Prix nails the vocal '80's style while Eric Singer (from Kiss) hits the skins like a Floyd cast member. Say what you want about remakes, tribute albums and alternate takes-this works on many levels. It's different enough to perk your ears, but it stays true enough to ponder and digest right next to the originals. Find it. Buy it and listen to musical greatness. These are highly skilled musicians who all rise to the occasion and deliver.

Just as stated, an ALL STAR LINEUP.
Seriously talented guitarists, doing excellent versions, of some great Floyd songs, with remarkable vocals.
I think not, just enjoy these guitarists interpretations.
Other reviewer needs new ears, or maybe just different musical tastes.
Great Hard Rock versions, with outstanding lead guitar interpretations.
Remember Snowy White anyone?

The only good track is "Any colour you like" and most of the other tracks are bad version of great songs. Confortably Numb is a total disaster.
If you listen to this cd, you'll have the impression that Pink Floyd was a rock and almost heavy metal band, no Sir, Pink Floyd is a prog band, with subtilities in their sound, which is totally absent it this CD.
There is a tribute band that I have seen in concert, The Australian Pink Floyd show, this band is far superior for the quality of their interpretation of Pink Floyd's music than every track on this CD.
Don't waiste you money on this.

These guys should have picked some different material to cover. It all sounds like a teen age garage band trying to cover pink floyd.

This isn't all stars. It's band members from star bands. Poor attempt to be PF. They try hard to add their own twist to great music but fail. Save your money.

This would be funny if it wasn't so sad. Basically a bunch of ex-metallers, burnt-out L.A. studio musicians, former bass players for David Lee Roth, and other detritus of the music industry gather together to make a quick buck knocking off their versions of the Pink Floyd's greatest hits.

I can't think of a single reason to buy this, unless you're a family member/girlfriend of one of the people on this CD. And even then I'd ask you to reconsider.