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List Price: $49.98 | | Label: Sony
Salesrank: 6003
Released: April 18, 2000 |
| Our Price: $16.50 |
| Used Price: $8.45 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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Editorial Review:
Commemorating the 20th anniversary of the release of the original studio album The Wall, Columbia Records is releasing Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live, a sonic document of Pink Floyd’s legendary live performances of the group’s groundbreaking tour de force.
Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live will be available as a deluxe, limited-edition double-CD set, packaged in a 64-page hard-cover casebound book with full-color souvenir artwork from the show. The album will also be available in a double-jewelcase edition as well as a double-cassette.
Recorded live on a 48-track mobile studio during the original Earl’s Court, London, performances (1980-1981), the particular tracks on Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live were handpicked by Pink Floyd producer James Guthrie, who has created a hi-resolution mix for the CD set from the original multi-track concert recordings. In addition to a pristine composite live performance of The Wall in its entirety, Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live includes never-before released bonus music.
Released in December 1979, Pink Floyd’s The Wall is one of the defining masterpieces of rock culture. Conceived and written by Roger Waters; produced by Dave Gilmour, Bob Ezrin, and Roger Waters, the album’s ferocity of intelligence and austere depth of musical complexity confounded conventional market wisdom to reach the #1 spot on countless charts around the world while spawning the multi-platinum single and youth anthem “Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2).”
Over the next two years, The Wall was performed live by Pink Floyd in Los Angeles, New York, Dortmund, and London. Staging of The Wall was spectacular: room sets appeared within “The Wall,” which was built live onstage; giant puppets were dangled from “The Wall” while crazed animations, created by Gerald Scarfe, were projected onto it. During the show’s breathtaking finale, “The Wall” crashed to the ground revealing the band playing in the ruins.
Description of Is There Anybody Out There? / The Wall Live Pink Floyd 1980-81 (Deluxe Limited Edition):
Exactly what was Pink Floyd's The Wall? Rock opera? Concept album? Performance art? Mere entertainment? While the truth may lie in a combination of all of the above, during the band's tour of 1980-81, The Wall was a bona fide spectacle. More than anything, Is There Anybody Out There? captures the volume, the bombast, and the grandeur of these famed performances with remarkable accuracy. Meticulously recorded, these concerts are astonishingly faithful to the band's studio versions and flow out of the speakers with practiced authority and absolutely fantastic sound. That said, there are few new revelations to be gained from hearing The Wall live that can't be gleaned from the studio version. Some moments do have an additional spark, however. "Run Like Hell" is launched with blistering intensity, and the first notes of "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 1" will surely raise a shiver. The release also includes two tracks ("What Shall We Do Now," "The Last Few Bricks") left off the original release due to space constraints. Essential for Floyd fanatics as well as those wishing to hear just how terrific a live concert can sound. --S. Duda
Is There Anybody Out There? / The Wall Live Pink Floyd 1980-81 (Deluxe Limited Edition) Reviews:
INCREDIBLE! 
2009-12-19 - If you had a copy of the original this is a must have. "Mother" alone is worth the price of the cd.
A++++
2009-08-18 - A++++ A must as a live version. Hope to see it in DVD some day.
Great live album
2009-05-25 - This is an excellent live version of The Wall. Some songs are played faithfully to the studio version, but others are much more vibrant and alive than in the studio.
Way better than the original
2009-03-02 - Just as this review's title says, this is WAY better than the original. As a long time fan of Pink Floyd, I eagerly awaited the original release of "The Wall" in 1979, knowing it had been in progress since 1978, with the seeds being planted as far back as 1977. But when it came out, I was strangely disappointed; I just didn't like it that much. Sure, it has its moments, but there was missing something. I was aware of the problems between Roger Waters and the rest of the band, particularly with Rick Wright, and if one is more than a casual listener, it becomes apparent that this is Waters' trip. David Gilmour said the demos were "excruciating" to listen to, but the ideas were there, and they overflowed into "The Pros And Cons Of Hitchiking," as well as "The Final Cut," which I feel is actually a better record than "The Wall."
The movie, a friend told me, as he saw it before I did, said it was "a piece of crap," but I know some Floyd product can be labored enjoyment, even to a die-hard fan as myself. So I watched the movie in the theater, and later someone gave it to me on VHS, as a gift, but I kind of agreed with Ralph, I didn't like it all that much, save for the animated sequences, which I feel are among the best I have ever seen. But it is a bleak, disjointed, sprawling, two-hour music video, which is an indictment of all the people who ruined the main character's life. Bob Geldof did a fine acting job as Floyd Pinkerton, the person who took on the name "Pink Floyd," or "Pinky," as his friends called him in the script, but I just don't like the movie very much. It is well made, but I just can't get into it.
Many years later, when the live shows from 1980 and 1981 were culled into this disc, I gave it a shot, as I had some money to throw away, and was pleasantly surprised to listen to this recording. I have never really rated Roger Waters as a vocalist, but he sounds pretty good here. The band is tight, despite having four auxiliary musicians and four backup vocalists to pad the sound out, and the ambience I feel is missing from the original recording is here in these live versions of this material. The presentation is somewhat sterile, as a show of this magnitude has very little wiggle-room, but given what the musicians and road crew had to work with, everyone involved did a remarkable job, well worth the wait, even though it would have been nice not to have waited so long. But releasing "The Wall" twice in quick succession might not have been a very good idea, people would've said they were only cashing in on a popular record. This was wise, waiting to put this out, as it all is in perspective now; Waters took the wheel and pushed the band foreward, while Gilmour tried to keep it on course. Wright and Nick Mason seemed to be lesser elements, but all the input from four men made Pink Floyd what it was, albeit in varying degrees.
Despite all the infighting, this was a band which did something truly special in modern music, and this release only further cements my opinion.
Remember, it was 1979!!!!!
2009-01-09 - I always love reading 1 star reviews. They have NO idea how hard it was in 1979 to recreate what was done in the studio. Using tape loops were incredibly difficult as well as the multitrack instruments. The Floyd delivered the goods on this tour!!!!! As for MLOR, Pulse, the Division Bell, and Delicate Sound of Thunder... They are good in their own right but the songs you really want to here were mostly written by Roger.
