Rating: 
Summary: Classic Floyd documentary
Review: I first got this DVD the month it came out and have not stopped watching it since. This DVD takes an in-depth look at the creation of Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon album. It features interviews with all four Pink Floyd members David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Roger Waters and Rick Wright. Also, Gilmour, Waters and Wright play snippets of songs on various instruments and Waters and Gilmour offer unplugged versions of Brain Damage and Breathe respectively as bonuses on the DVD plus the guitar parts that Gilmour came up with and extra interviews that didn't make it to the original show. Dave was quite funny while demonstrating the VCS3 riff to On The Run and explaining about the high pitch guitar notes on Money. Plus, there are insights from engineer Alan Parsons, mixer Chris Thomas, Rolling Stone critic David Fricke and legendary Floyd designer Storm Thorgerson among others whom offer deep in-sight into this classic contribution to rock and roll history. The crown jewel of the DVD is the live footage of Floyd in 1972 playing Dark Side live and is a treat for us hardcore Floyd fans. I already went through one copy and I am now on copy number two of this DVD, it is superb! All of the people whining that this is not a concert DVD, get over it! This DVD is highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Great DVD
Review: I got this DVD a month ago and haven't stopped watching it. This DVD takes an in-depth look at the creation of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon album. It features interviews with all four Floyds David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Roger Waters and Rick Wright. Also, Gilmour, Waters and Wright play snippets of songs on various instruments and Waters and Gilmour offered unplugged versions of Brain Damage and Breathe respectively as bonuses on the DVD plus the guitar parts that Gilmour came up with and extra interviews. Dave was quite funny while demonstrating the VCS3 riff to On The Run. Plus insight from engineer Alan Parsons, mixer Chris Thomas, Rolling Stone critic David Fricke and Storm Thorgerson among others whom offer deep in-sight into this classic contribution to rock and roll history. The crown jewel of the DVD is the live footage of Floyd in 1972 playing Dark Side live and is a treat for us hardcore Floyd fans. This DVD is highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A Pink Floyd Thriller Retrospective
Review: Having travelled all over the USA to see Pink Floyd when they have been stateside in concert during their fabulous touring years, I was wild to get this DVD, particularly since I saw them LIVE in concert with "Dark Side of the Moon" in the 70s during their amazing tour. It was the start of Pink Floyd becoming an unnparalled Icon. This DVD stimulates memories of many a blazing night watching PF wind everyone up and blow us all away. It was great to see the original artists (including Roger) perform in clips from old films of the DSOTM concert plus see him 30 years later along with the elegantly spoken and awesomely gifted guitarist Dave Gilmore, keyboard guru Richard and thunder drummer Nick bandmates discussing their roles in the music creative process that transformed heavy-metal rock and roll into futuristic, crank it up to the max, even heavier-metal rock and roll with a sound signature like no other band then or since. Weird, Wild, Wonderful. Any number of us PF maniacs can probably recall those outrageous tailgate parties that hammered us into a glorious haze before the concert. Afterwards, with ears ringing like gongs, we partied on and paraded around in Pink Floyd primo concert T- shirts with the tour dates listed on the back while listening to the latest PF release being blasted out of dozens of boom boxes as the night turned into dawn. Those are the kinds of vibes that this DVD stirs up and I can tell you I loved every single minute of it. A MUST have for your Pink Floyd ultimate collection. It's spankin'!
Rating: 
Summary: The Dark Side Dissected!!!
Review: Pink Floyd's masterpiece "The Dark Side Of The Moon" is one of rock music's all-time greatest albums. Thirty years after its initial release in 1973, the album is still embraced my music fans and continues to find an audience with each passing generation. Without a doubt, "The Dark Side Of The Moon" is simply a modern rock 'classical' piece, one that will probably continue to be listened to for centuries to come.
Recently released is the "Classic Albums" documentary DVD which gives an slightly in-depth look at this historic album. Included are interviews with all four Pink Floyd members sharing their thoughts and inspirations for certain tracks on the album. Also interviewed are recording engineer Alan Parsons, mixing supervisor Chris Thomas, album cover designer Storm Throrgeson and Rolling Stone Magazine editor David Fricke.
Engineer Alan Parsons as well as Floyd guitarist David Gilmour take us into the control room and dissect the pieces "Time", "Money", "Us and Them", "Breathe", "On the Run" and "The Great Gig in The Sky" from their original multitrack tapes. These parts of the documentary are the most revealing and appealling. Also included are acoustic solo performances from David Gilmour performing "Breathe", Roger Waters performing "Money" and "Brain Damage" and Richard Wright performing "Us and Them" and "the Great Gig In the Sky".
While this DVD does not show absolutely everything there is to know about "The Dark Side Of the Moon", it still is a fascinating look at this timeless classic. Some missing information docks this DVD from a five-star rating however, it certainly does not disappoint.
Rating:
Summary: A great look back at a masterpiece
Review: Being that Dark Side Of The Moon is my favorite album of all time, I was very excited to hear about the release of this DVD. I absolutely love it. This DVD tells the story of Dark Side of The Moon from it's creation, to it's aftermath with live performances, acoustic performances, early demos, music videos, rehearsal tapes, individual tracks from Alan Parsons mixing board(very cool), and in depth interviews with band members. My only complaint is that they did not even mention one of my favorite instrumental tracks from the album entitled "Any Colour You Like". Why it was forgotten in the DVD baffles me. The sound mix is not in 5.1, but it's one of the best stereo mixes i've ever heard. Hearing Roger Waters explain what the song "Time" is about then hearing David Gilmores' amazing guitar solo was worth the money alone. Thank you Pink Floyd for releasing this DVD and making an album that changed my life! Don't hesitate, buy it now!
Rating:
Summary: A higher power
Review: If I had to be isolated on a desert island with only one album it would be this one. Not a rock and roll album --a teaching. I would like to be listening to it in my last moments on earth.
Rating:
Summary: My Absolute Favorite Music DVD
Review: As a big Floyd fan, purchased this out of curiosity. DSotM was not my top PF album, but certainly a favorite. I watched this on a flight and was upset when we started to land because I had to close the laptop! When I got to my hotel, I couldn't do anything before watching the rest of the DVD. The interviews are great. There are discussions with each band member, the engineer and the mixer. Great background conversations and real insight into what Waters was thinking when writing a lot of these songs. If you enjoy Pink Floyd and want a little better understanding on the whys _and_ hows of the making of the album, get this DVD!
Rating:
Summary: A must have for Floyd fans (especially Dark Side fans)
Review: When I heard this was coming out on DVD, I knew I would be purchasing this. Dark Side of the Moon is one of my 3 favorite albums of all time. That being said, the DVD (for the most part) does not disappoint. It is essentially an hour-long documentary with some extra features adding another 20 minutes or so. It has all 4 original members talking about how the songs were recorded and written. It also includes the original engineers, a few journalists, and Strom Thurgeson who designed the unforgettable artwork on the album. What stood out to me was listening to Roger Waters talk about his thoughts on the songs and life in general. He had some very inspiring comments. Also, it was fun to see David Gilmour perform an acoustic version of Breathe and show off some other guitar parts. Waters even performs a little acoustic bit of Money and Brain Damage. These performances alone are worth having this DVD. As a long-time Floyd fan, my only gripe is that it wasn't longer. Pink Floyd interviews are pretty rare... I would have liked to hear even more, although there is plenty of great stuff on here. And if you haven't heard Dark Side of the Moon before, you need to do that immediately. Your life will never be the same!
Rating:
Summary: Astonishing
Review: If you are a true Floyd fan you cannot be without this. It is an amazing piece of work. Roger's interviews and Dave's studio guitar parts are worth the price alone. Buy it now.
Rating:
Summary: Lots of little diamonds in the rough
Review: In order to get the most out of this DVD, you'll have to watch and listen closely -- some of the most interesting parts are not obvious. But if you deeply enjoy the album, then you are probably good at picking out such important nuances. For example, the "bonus" material (tucked away in a separate menu) includes interviews and recordings that are sometimes more captivating than the main documentary. These include very personal interviews with Roger Waters on growing up, love, insanity, death, and human kindness, as well as equally personal solo acoustic renditions of "Brain Damage" by Waters ("the lunatic song" as he calls it) and "Breathe", performed by David Gilmour. Gilmour, along with Rick Wright, provides fascinating musical insight throughout the documentary. Snippets of the performances and interviews are included in the documentary itself, but to get the whole picture, you've really got to watch the bonus scenes. Another reviewer mentioned that while it is fascinating to see some of the behind the scenes work that went into making "Dark Side", this may ruin the mystique. This wasn't the case for me. Perhaps if you've imagined some themes for the album that turn out to be catastrophically different from what Roger was thinking, I could see how you might be disappointed. But as the interviews evince, the album is about the trials and tribulations of being human. I don't see how your version of the meaning could diverge very far from this, in the cosmic sense. Rather, I think any theme you might associate personally with a song is inevitably close to the intended one. Waters himself seems to oscillate back and forth between various meanings and implications. As far as the meaning of the album goes, this is what I was hoping to learn more about through this documentary. While it did provide very interesting information through interviews, there was no external commentary. That is, the documentary is a primary source of information, not a secondary one. There is no narrator to formulate hypotheses, point out themes and draw conclusions. This is left to the observer, which really is probably a good thing, following the Floyd's lead. It's just that, if you've listened to (and thought about) "Dark Side" many many times like a lot of us have, and have maybe read one or two interviews with Roger Waters, you won't find much new insight here as far as the "meaning" goes. I do have to admit, though, that hearing and seeing the band members (especially Waters) explain their thought processes and interactions in making the album certainly added a new dimension to the story. The most poignant moment came when Dave Gilmour was showing how he 'accidentally' came up with that speedy, rolling synth vamp for "On the Run", and admitted that "sometimes things just fit together perfectly by accident... and this album was one of those times" (not a direct quote, but close). This is the sense you get from the documentary, that for whatever reason things just fell into place perfectly. For example, the original version of "Us and Them" was written years earlier by Richard Wright as a score for a violent mob scene in the movie "Zabriskie Point". The lyrics by Waters fit naturally with the music, and the music fits gracefully with the rest of the album. One of the earlier reviewers mentioned that this DVD will evoke memories of tailgate parties that "hammered us into a glorious haze before the concert", and called the documentary "spankin'". I don't get this vibe at all. The concert footage is brief, and usually doesn't include the actual audio (just the album dubbed over). So even though it will inevitably bring back some fantastic memories, don't expect to hear yourself shouting "smoke dope!" in the background. (Of course this same reviewer classified Floyd as "heavy-" and "heavier-metal rock", so form your own opinion...) Another reviewer had nothing but glowing praise for this DVD. While I think it's great, and would buy it again in a heartbeat, it has its flaws. For one, it seems very formulaic in its presentation: start at the beginning of the album and go through each song with interviews and video footage on top (fade when necessary). This isn't surprising since it is just one in a series of "Classic Albums" DVDs. (In fact, the intro to the DVD isn't even specific to Pink Floyd -- it's a mishmash of rock n' roll sounds and pictures of floating guitars.) Lastly, as I mentioned before, there are no astounding revelations in the interviews or commentary about the meaning behind the album. You are still basically left to form your own opinions on what the lyrics 'really mean' and what this all has to do with insanity, human suffering, and monetary gain. Anyone who has read an interview with Roger Waters will already be acquainted with his view on these themes. This is a good documentary that I recommend to all Pink Floyd fans. While it has some shining moments, you have to look carefully for them and some might be disappointed by the matter-of-fact presentation by the band members. If you can retain your wonder and imagination, you'll be rewarded with a new appreciation for the thoughtfulness and childlike spontaneity that synergized to make the "Dark Side of the Moon" the greatest album ever created.
| 
