Pink Floyd - Live at Pompeii (1972)

Dan:

There are dozens of versions of Pink Floyd's concert in the Pompeii amphitheater in 1971. It was originally released as a VHS movie and there are many unofficial versions. The version I have is audio only and came from Steve's box set of The Early Years, remixed in 2016. I'm impressed with the sound of the reissue. The cover art I chose for this post is one of many created for bootlegs, so don't go looking for it in the box set. 

Basically, the songs here are from the band's early 1970s concert repertoire, some of which also appear on Ummagumma. The Early Years set includes a few additional tracks from Pompeii plus scads of other great Floyd material.

But we're just writing about the Pompeii concert here. I've seen the film and it's interesting because the band plays to an empty al fresco amphitheater. The music is therefore not like a live show but rather an outdoor studio setting. (Maybe they got the idea from the rooftop concert by the Beatles in 1969?). Regardless, the performance is wonderful to hear, even without the visual ambience. It captures the classic version of the band well before Dark Side of the Moon was on the radar screen.

Steve:

I watched the VHS version of Live at Pompeii many times, both by myself and with friends, especially in my college years. That era of Pink Floyd was definitely among my favorite things to listen to (it still kinda is), and the movie sounds excellent and gives great camera angles showing the band in action. The most exciting part for me was "A Saucerful of Secrets", whose chaotic middle section featured the whole band going nuts: Richard Wright delivering clusters of discordant sounds by playing the piano with his forearms, Nick Mason rolling around on the drum kit in a gradually accelerating 6/4 pattern, David Gilmour making every sound he can conjure from his effects pedals, and Roger Waters beating the hell out of his gong.  

In 2019, I got to see Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets, a touring band focused on the pre-DSotM Floyd material, and it was incredible to see this material performed in the flesh. Mason himself made an announcement prior to playing "A Saucerful of Secrets", revealing that this tour had helped him finally realize his abandoned wish to crash that gong himself - Roger always called dibs, and you know how Roger is.

The other obvious highlight of the movie/album is "Echoes", a track that has remained a lifelong favorite since my youth. Along with "Tarkus" and "Close to the Edge", "Echoes" is one of a handful of long-form prog tracks I would recommend to anyone curious about the genre. The movie version, like other live versions I've heard, ramps up the intensity of the studio version, making it superior in the performance sense if not in audio quality.

My main beef with the Live at Pompeii franchise is that the version on the DVD release, and all subsequent issues, presents the Director's Cut, which shows less of the band and more shots of Pompeii itself and other artsy scenes. Also, the original VHS contained some footage of the band in the studio recording Dark Side of the Moon in between the concert selections. While those latter shots were admittedly pretty slow and unexciting (Pink Floyd were mellow and softspoken to a fault in real life), I really miss them in the Director's Cut. Still, this is nitpicking from a fanatic, so take it with a grain of salt. Pink Floyd's Live at Pompeii is a must for any Pink Floyd fan, either in its audio-only or its movie version.