A COLLECTION OF GREAT DANCE SONGS

A Collection Of Great Dance Songs is another of those compilations that people scratch their heads at. The story is that Pink Floyd owed Columbia Records an album and nothing immediate was in the works, so David Gilmour came up with this compilation. What makes it a bit of a collectors' item is that Gilmour had to re-record Money because Columbia didn't have rights to the Dark Side version (though curiously, they apparently did have access to One Of These Days). So Gilmour played all the instruments except sax, which was played by his old chum Dick Perry, who played on the Dark Side version. Gilmour also edited together verses of Shine On You Crazy Diamond to include all the vocal parts. The album title comes from a comment by Nick Mason that, in the early days, some US record company idiots thought Pink Floyd was a dance band (probably the same idiots who asked, "Which one's Pink?") The cover art, by Hipgnosis, reflects the absurdity of this idea by depicting dancers staked to the ground. The more recent Echoes is obviously a better collection of Pink Floyd songs, but A Collection Of Great Dance Songs is a good upbeat CD for listening to while driving. To really appreciate the tunes you have to hear them in their original concept album contexts. Still, the music is good, so I'll give this album three stars.