So big & lush sounding.

You can also hear his work on Dark Side of the Moon, not to mention his own records and those of countless other artists (Al Stewart's Year of the Cat is one good example).

Just 5 minutes ago I was playing Year Of The Cat on 12 string.
I'm still trying to figure out what I should do to replace that massive solo section. I have a few ideas but nothing I'm nuts about yet.

They must have been really pushing the limits of 24-track tape on that one. (It was recorded in '75-'76 or so; it's possible that it may have even been recorded on 16-track). There was probably tons of track "bouncing" (submixing), similar to what Rush had to do on Permanent Waves, where they ran out of tape tracks (they were using 2" 24-track).

I only had a 4 track cassette (double speed) Tascam. Had to be clever & judicious about bouncing before the signal turned to mush.
At least they were probably running 30ips machines.

...and mastering, because you've got generation loss problems each time you move analog audio from one reel of tape to another. And remember that the "master tapes" used for record pressings (or CD glass masters) are typically at least one generation removed from the actual masters. I'm so glad most of the world moved to digital for mixing and mastering, even when analog tape is still used for tracking. After that first analog stage, all the other generations are digital clones. I'll never forget my first mixing session onto DAT tape back in 1991; I could not believe the clarity. I was an instant convert.

Yes, I remember those 4-track machines! Bouncing was a requirement if your compositions were even slightly ambitious. Still, there were some cool records that were made from those. Springsteen's Nebraska was made directly from a 4-track tape. And you might be surprised how many parts were dubbed onto multitrack tape ( "flown in" ) from 4-track demos. That feedback guitar part you hear in "Welcome To the Boomtown" (David + David) came off a 4-track. They couldn't recreate the magic in the expensive studio where they were recording (Capitol).