Echoes (Live at Pompeii) (1972)
genius.com
genius.com
You can listen & watch it on https://youtu.be/JQ2pTamaqQ4?is=T8TaqnsHRx0rqGyZ for instance.
I'll admit to previously having been a Pink Floyd sceptic, knowing them only from their mid-70s pomp which made me think they were a bit trite and overblown.
But, after experiencing it being screened on a loop in a chill-out room a couple of decades ago, this performance of Echoes changed my mind. I'm still not much of a fan of their post-Meddle work, but before that they were properly mind-blowing.
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The echo of a distant tide
By chance two separate causes meet
And no one calls us to the void
Proud within the day you fall
Disclaimer - I remember the first US tour where they played this. It was not the first time I had seen them, and it was way before Dark Side of the Moon caught peoples' attention.
Pink Floyd was still unheard of by most DJs everywhere.
Echoes was on a vinyl album called Meddle that got very little airplay, along with their others. For about 5 years people kept telling me that nobody was ever going to listen to Pink Floyd or want to have them on the radio. Nobody believed me when I told them that cassettes were going to replace 8-tracks either :\
Years later after their hit records had flown off the charts and their concerts were packed, by the time of the Pompeii-featured movie, it was pretty much a final act of documentation about how they used to sound before they got popular.
In the 1970's Quadraphonic touring feature film this video is from, the live Pompeii footage was juxtaposed with the studio footage from behind the scenes while they were crafting the Dark Side, which was in a typical way that would resemble what record companies were getting from other bands. Each musician often individually with headphones seriously and carefully perfecting the tracks that would be layered into the final product. In a relatively sterile and uninspiring environment by comparison to Pompeii. The contrast was quite intentional. Even without a crowd whatsoever they were having much more fun playing live and making this kind of recording, just like they used to do when their concerts were not crowded at all.
A newly restored version of Pink Floyd's Live at Pompeii, titled Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXII, was released in 2025.
There's a bunch of studio sessions for Dark Side of the Moon in it.
My favorite song in the movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDoK1Hbk0SI
In college we watched this all the time late night after coming back from the bars or a party. It's an amazing concert film. I always preferred this live version of Saucer Full Of Secrets.
When I was a teen I used to have to manually sync it up with a DVD and CD player. Fortunately some hero now has now posted it on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn7MmS3vazU
If you have the opportunity to see it on a big screen or IMAX, it's an incredibly moving experience.
I'm describing a band playing a concert to an empty ampitheatre which has been silent for two millennia after its inhabitants perished together in an instant.