This is a perplexing product to get your head around. It really is. I like it, or at least I like parts of it, quite a lot. Other aspects of the set I could do without completely. Some of it’s just plain useless.
What am I talking about? The newly released Pink Floyd “Immersion” box set of Dark Side of the Moon, contains the following:
Also included in the slick, glossy box designed by Storm Thorgerson’s StormStudios: Two books, one of tour photographs and ephemera, one with lyrics; “cards” and other supposedly “collectible” ephemera such as an art print of the album cover as rendered either by, or in the style of (it doesn’t say), Roy Lichtenstein; some DSOTM marbles (wha?); some DSOTM drink coasters (trade ‘em with your friends!) and some other stuff that I don’t think there was a single Pink Floyd fan on planet Earth clamoring for.
The worst item that comes with the set—and it’s really and truly groan-worthy—is the DSOTM scarf. Tom Baker’s incarnation of Doctor Who would be ashamed to wear it… WHAT were they thinking? (Then again Pink Floyd did license their DSOTM trademark to Target for pajamas, didn’t they?).
The main problem with this box set is that it doesn’t know who it’s supposed to be for. Obviously it’s for the Pink Floyd super-fan and/or for someone who has a deep emotional connection to the music of Dark Side of the Moon, but my question is, why would this theoretical Pink Floyd super-fan, who presumably has not just one, but several different versions of DSOTM in their collection, already, need a Blu-ray, a DVD, a DVDA disc, and three CDs (plus all the pointless collectibles crap) when all of it would have fit on just the Blu-ray? If you’ve got the Blu-ray, then why would you want to own the regular CD version that is markedly inferior to the Blu-ray version?
Obviously this is probably the very, very last time that Pink Floyd’s albums are ever going to be released on any sort of disc, but had they split this set up along the lines of formats, instead of forcing the public to shell out over $100 for multiple formats/versions of the same material, in the end, I think EMI would have maxed out on sales, perhaps several times over. Most people would be happy with just the Blu-ray, a 2 DVD version or a 3 CD set or whatever, but WHO would want, or need all of them? No one, that’s who. EMI’s super ultra mega deluxe box sets like this one and the one for David Bowie’s Station to Station album try to be all things to all people and don’t really succeed in satisfying anyone, I’m afraid. (The biggest missed opportunity here, and one that fans would have actually cared about, is they didn’t reproduce the iconic posters that came with the original album! I’d have gladly traded the marbles, drink coasters and the hideous scarf for the poster of the green pyramids, but alas they didn’t even reproduce either poster in the booklets! Why not?)
Even if it is mostly marketing and accounting personnel who are running the major labels these days, I still can’t help but to think that if they’d have come out with separate versions in CD, DVD and Blu-ray editions, and catered to what the public who still buy discs actually want, they’ve have far sold more copies in the end. I’m guessing they’ll sell 20,000 copies of this set. Even if the sell all of them at $108 a pop, this approach seems shortsighted to me, when sales figures for the 2003 James Guthrie mixed 5.1 surround version of DSOTM on SACD—a nearly dead format now—sold north of 800,000 units.
Let me be clear, though: The music, as heard here, is superb. The extras are great, especially “The Hard Way” and the absolutely incredible 1972 live show that comprises disc two. Having said that, I’d have been happier with just a Blu-ray of everything, price point of $35, tops (I already own the 2003 5.1 surround version on SACD, and a regular stereo CD version for that matter).
At least they didn’t include vinyl. Find me the guy who wants both the record and the Blu-ray (I use the male gender here because what woman is stupid enough to care about such things?) and I will show you a music nerd who should have been strangled in the bloody crib!
Below, Pink Floyd, live at Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands (Radio Hilversum: September 17, 1969). This has been bootlegged for 40 years under various names like “The Massed Gadgets of Auximenies” or “The Man and The Journey”—this will be one of the best Pink Floyd shows you’ll ever hear or your money back!
Below, “Careful With That Axe, Eugene,” live in Brighton, 1972: