Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii

(1972) ****1/2



I wasn’t about to let Stonerthon weekend go by without watching at least one highly enjoyable stoner film and couldn’t think of anything cooler, trippier or stoner than this stunning film capturing Floyd at the height of their power. Originally released in 1972 (between the Meddle and Dark Side of the Moon masterpieces), Pompeii is a live performance held at the amphitheatre in Italy without an audience. Interviews with the band members (who all appear to be thoroughly out of their gourds) are spliced between songs. Particularly interesting is the discussion of embracing technology and preventing it from controlling them. The director’s cut also includes studio footage of the making of Dark Side as well as some outer space shots (far out, man) and some dated computer generated images.

What else really needs to be said? Slow pans over the Pompeii ruins provide the perfect backdrop to the music and this version of Echoes is thoroughly mind-blowing with or without any herbal assistance. The only reason I couldn’t give it the ***** stamp is because of the bad vibes resulting from the inclusion of Careful With That Axe Eugene; a song from Ummugumma that plays out like a horrific crime scene.