The summer after I graduated high school, I took a trip to Italy.

I absolutely loved it.  There’s nothing more wonderful than being 18 and irresponsible in one of the most beautiful and romantic countries in Europe.  I also loved it because everywhere I looked in Italy, I saw the remains of history.  When I was in Rome, I visited the Colosseum.  When I was in Southern Italy, I visited Comune di Melissa, the village where some of my ancestors once lived.  When I visited Florence, I became so overwhelmed by the beauty of it all that I nearly fainted.

And then there was Pompeii.  I spent a day visiting the ruins of Pompeii and it was an amazing experience.  The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD may have been horrific for the Romans but it’s also gave history nerds like me a chance to step right into the past.  Beyond just the thrill of seeing how the world once was, I have two main memories of Pompeii:

First, there was the visit to Pompeii’s brothel.  An Australian tourist lay down on one of the stone slabs so that his family could take pictures of him.

Secondly, there was the fact that I wore a really pretty red dress for my visit but I failed to take into account that 1) the area around Pompeii is very hilly and 2) it was a very windy day.  So, I can say that I’ve not only visited but I’ve flashed Pompeii as well.

My love for Italy and my memories of Pompeii are the two main reasons why I watched the 1972’s Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii.  It certainly wasn’t due to any great love for Pink Floyd, a band for which I have mixed feelings.  On the one hand, I can’t deny their talent and I do like quite a few of their songs, if they do all tend to be a bit on the portentous side.  On the other hand …. Roger Waters!  Bleh, Roger Waters.  Waters was one of the founders of Pink Floyd and, for a while, the band’s de facto leader.  He’s also a rabid anti-Semite and a defender of Vladimir Putin’s.  That said, I’ve discovered that I can justify listening to Pink Floyd by remembering that the rest of the band hates Roger Waters as well and that Waters himself eventually left Pink Floyd.  Waters’s bandmate, David Gilmour, has flat-out called Roger Waters an anti-Semite.  Of course, as I watched Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii, I realized that I wasn’t sure which one was Waters and which one was Gilmour.

I should note that there are multiple versions of this documentary.  The version that I watched was the original, which has a 64-minute running time and features the band performing at the ancient Roman amphitheater in Pompeii.  This version was released in 1972.  In 1974, it was re-released with additional footage of the band working on Dark Side of the Moon.  This version also featured interviews with the members of the band.  Presumably, if I had watched the ’74 version, I would know who was Waters and who was Gilmour.

But I watched the 1972 version, where the emphasis is on the band performing their music while shots of Pompeii flash on the screen.  Other than the film crew, there is no audience watching the band perform.  (I guess that one could claim that this documentary was an early music video.)  There’s no interviews with the band and the members are so focused on their music that none of them really get much chance to show off much personality.  The 1972 version, without any interviews, is a “These guys sure can play!” documentary.  For the most part, it’s an entertaining film to watch.  Pink Floyd’s music, which can be both silly and thrilling at the same time, has just the right otherworldly feel for Pompeii.  Though they were oddly anonymous in the way that many big bands from the 70s were, the members of the band were definitely talented and their music sounded like something one would hear minutes before getting swallowed up in a flood of molten lava.

In the end, the important thing is that Pink Floyd sounded good.  And, as always, Pompeii was beautiful.