<p>Recently, an old concert film of the English band Pink Floyd had a limited release in theatres. It was a remastered version of the 1972 film, Pink Floyd at Pompeii MCMXXII.</p>.<p>What a blast from the past! For those of us in college or entering adulthood in the late 1960s or 1970s, Pink Floyd provided the seminal soundtrack of our lives.</p>.<p>Music means a people. The beauty of any art form, however, is the way it travels, transcending countries and cultures from where they originate. This was so true of the music of Pink Floyd, which resonated with us living our lives across the world.</p>.Our next album is the last of our career: Pink Floyd.<p>On screen, one saw the four band members of Floyd, all so young and, as we know now, on the cusp of greatness. At that point in time, a promising future lay ahead of them. Well, it was the same for us, too. And if the world then seemed a better place, maybe it was the music that fostered this powerful illusion.</p>.<p>At the end of the film, Floyd is working on what will become one of the best-selling albums ever, The Dark Side of the Moon. The songs in that album were decidedly cynical in tone. In their later album, The Wall, everything turned even bleaker. That was an anguished rant about so much that was wrong, ranging from overbearing mothers and controlling schools to a system that straitjacketed us, making us cogs in a wheel. The implosion of the band and their subsequent breakup took place some years later.</p>.<p>Now, here’s the thing. Maybe that is just how life panned out for quite a few of us. The early promise disappeared; the dreams were snuffed out in the daily grind. We were part of a system but never really felt we belonged. Perhaps our lives imploded too in ways big and small. Floyd’s lyrics in the song Time seemed prescient – And then one day you find ten years have got behind you / No one told you when to run; you missed the starting gun. And as we grew older, the city we were living in too seemed to shift shape and change. We felt like strangers in it, alienated.</p>.<p>Then one day, it all comes full circle. We are sitting in a darkened theatre watching Floyd on screen. As the music washes over us, there is nostalgia. And for that brief time, in the company of strangers of all ages who are enjoying the music with the same intensity as us, we feel a sense of kinship. A sense of belonging. The city does not feel so alien anymore. The music of Pink Floyd lulls us into thinking so. The echo of a distant time comes willowing across the sand...</p>
<p>Recently, an old concert film of the English band Pink Floyd had a limited release in theatres. It was a remastered version of the 1972 film, Pink Floyd at Pompeii MCMXXII.</p>.<p>What a blast from the past! For those of us in college or entering adulthood in the late 1960s or 1970s, Pink Floyd provided the seminal soundtrack of our lives.</p>.<p>Music means a people. The beauty of any art form, however, is the way it travels, transcending countries and cultures from where they originate. This was so true of the music of Pink Floyd, which resonated with us living our lives across the world.</p>.Our next album is the last of our career: Pink Floyd.<p>On screen, one saw the four band members of Floyd, all so young and, as we know now, on the cusp of greatness. At that point in time, a promising future lay ahead of them. Well, it was the same for us, too. And if the world then seemed a better place, maybe it was the music that fostered this powerful illusion.</p>.<p>At the end of the film, Floyd is working on what will become one of the best-selling albums ever, The Dark Side of the Moon. The songs in that album were decidedly cynical in tone. In their later album, The Wall, everything turned even bleaker. That was an anguished rant about so much that was wrong, ranging from overbearing mothers and controlling schools to a system that straitjacketed us, making us cogs in a wheel. The implosion of the band and their subsequent breakup took place some years later.</p>.<p>Now, here’s the thing. Maybe that is just how life panned out for quite a few of us. The early promise disappeared; the dreams were snuffed out in the daily grind. We were part of a system but never really felt we belonged. Perhaps our lives imploded too in ways big and small. Floyd’s lyrics in the song Time seemed prescient – And then one day you find ten years have got behind you / No one told you when to run; you missed the starting gun. And as we grew older, the city we were living in too seemed to shift shape and change. We felt like strangers in it, alienated.</p>.<p>Then one day, it all comes full circle. We are sitting in a darkened theatre watching Floyd on screen. As the music washes over us, there is nostalgia. And for that brief time, in the company of strangers of all ages who are enjoying the music with the same intensity as us, we feel a sense of kinship. A sense of belonging. The city does not feel so alien anymore. The music of Pink Floyd lulls us into thinking so. The echo of a distant time comes willowing across the sand...</p>
