Picnic – A Breath of Fresh Air è un album discografico sampler pubblicato dall'etichetta Harvest Records originariamente nel 1970 e noto per comprendere un brano dei Pink Floyd precedentemente inedito, Embryo.
La EMI Records lanciò l'etichetta Harvest nel 1969 da dedicare al genere progressive rock e, come molte altre case discografiche del periodo, produsse album a basso prezzo dei propri artisti. Il catalogo di artisti era sufficientemente vario da riempire un album doppio venduto a circa £1,50. Il risultato fu una eclettica miscela di traditional folk, hard rock, psychedelia e altro.
L'inclusione del brano Embryo senza l'approvazione dei Pink Floyd, che consideravano il brano ancora incompleto, causò il ritiro dell'album.[1] Alcune edizioni non riportano il brano nella copertina interna.
Nel 2007 venne pubblicato un album dal titolo simile, A Breath of Fresh Air – A Harvest Records Anthology 1969–1974[2] che presenta solo tre brani in comune con il precedente: Embryo, Round and Round dei Panama Limited, e Black Sheep of the Family dei Quatermass.
Disco 1
Lato A
- Deep Purple – Into the Fire
- Barclay James Harvest – Mother Dear
- Pink Floyd – Embryo
- The Battered Ornaments – Twisted Track
- Shirley & Dolly Collins – Glenlogie
Lato B
- The Pretty Things – The Good Mr. Square
- Roy Harper – Song Of The Ages
- Bakerloo – This Worried Feeling
- Kevin Ayer – Eleanor's Cake Which Ate Her
- The Greatest Show On Earth – Again and Again
Disco 2
Lato C
- Third Ear Band – Water
- Syd Barrett – Terrapin
- Forest – A Glade Somewhere
- Pete Brown and Piblokto! – Golden Country Kingdom
- Panama Limited – Round and Round
Lato D
- Quatermass – Black Sheep Of The Family
- Michael Chapman – Postcards Of Scarborough
- Tea & Symphony – Maybe My Mind (With Egg)
- Edgar Broughton Band – Old Gopher
- "Evil" – Edgar Broughton Band
- "Listen Learn Read On" – Deep Purple (from The Book of Taliesyn 1968)
- "Druid One" – Third Ear Band
- "Station Song" – Pete Brown and His Battered Ornaments
- "Rainmaker" – Michael Chapman
- "Singing A Song In The Morning" – Kevin Ayers
- "A Forsaking: Our Captain Cried" – Shirley and Dolly Collins
- "Careful with That Axe, Eugene" – Pink Floyd (single b-side)
- "Armchair Theatre" – Tea and Symphony
- "Big Bear Ffolly" – Bakerloo
- "Round And Round" – Panama Ltd. Jug Band
- "Octopus" – Syd Barrett (from The Madcap Laughs 1970)
- "Painter" – Deep Purple
- "Country Morning" – Pete Brown & Piblokto!
- "Francesca" – Roy Harper
- "Bad Penny" – Forest
- "Backwood" – Chris Spedding
- "Real Cool World" – Greatest Show On Earth
- "Breathe" – Roger Waters and Ron Geesin (from Music from The Body 1970)
- "Taking Some Time On " – Barclay James Harvest
- "There's No Vibrations But Wait" – Edgar Broughton Band
- "Soulful Lady" – Michael Chapman
- "Entropy" – Quatermass
- "Black Sheep Of The Family" – Quatermass
- "Grass" – The Pretty Things
- "Salisbury Plain" – Shirley & Dolly Collins
- "Embryo" – Pink Floyd
- "Shouldn't Have Took More Than You Gave" – Dave Mason
- "Speed King" – Deep Purple
- "Magic Woman Touch" – Greatest Show On Earth
- "Aeroplane Head Woman" – Pete Brown & Piblokto!
- "Baby Lemonade" – Syd Barrett
- "Don't You Grieve" – Roy Harper
- "October 26" – The Pretty Things
- "Song from the Bottom of a Well" – Kevin Ayers
- "First Leaf of Autumn" – Michael Chapman
- "Call Me a Liar" – Edgar Broughton Band
- "She Said" – Barclay James Harvest
- "South Africa" – Roy Harper
- "Evening Over Rooftops" – Edgar Broughton Band
- "Do Ya" – The Move
- "When the City Sleeps" – Bombadil
- "Lady Rachel" – Kevin Ayers (from Joy of a Toy 1969)
- "10538 Overture" – Electric Light Orchestra
- "The City (Part Three)" – Mark-Almond
- "Spaceship" – Spontaneous Combustion
- "Macbeth" – Third Ear Band
- "Fresh Air" – Jan Akkerman
- "Twelve Hours Of Sunset" – Roy Harper
- "Wells Fargo" – Babe Ruth
- "Showdown" – Electric Light Orchestra
- "Jet Silver and the Dolls of Venus" – Be-Bop Deluxe
La copertina e le fotografie sono accreditate alla Hipgnosis.
- ^ Andy Mabbett, Pink Floyd - The Music and the Mystery, London, Omnibus, 2010, ISBN 978-1-84938-370-7.
- ^ Catalogue No. SHTW801