Pink Floyd's legendary The Dark Side of the Moon was without a doubt the first of its kind. With psychedelic sounds, intense patterns of crescendos and decrescendos, and a feeling of being high without having to be "on" anything, this album is perhaps the greatest album of all time. Not only does the album feature many songs which can stand alone as great singles, but the overall flow of the album itself is unprecedented. While most albums feature songs with space in between, The Dark Side of the Moon seamlessly flows from one song to the next to convey not just an album, but a story.
The eighth studio album by Pink Floyd was released on March 1, 1973 by Harvest Records. The Dark Side of the Moon, at its core, is a concept album featuring themes like conflict, greed, time, death, and mental illness. The group uses recording techniques such as multi-track recording, tape loops, and analogue synthesizers. The Dark Side of the Moon received critical acclaim upon its release and has been dubbed as one of the greatest albums of all time - and rightfully so.
"Speak To Me" - Beginning with the gradual fade-in of a synthesized heartbeat, The Dark Side of the Moon's 90-second long opening instrumental collage perfectly sets the tone for the psychedelic masterwork that follows. "Speak To Me" includes a mesmerizing, richly-layered mix of looped sound effects, maniacal laughter, and snatches of speech which further elucidate the purpose of this album: an exploratory, mind-warping journey through the deepest thoughts of life itself.
"Breathe (In The Air)" - A track so gentle, light and leisurely-paced that's the equivalent of floating through air on a helium-filled pillow. The melodic bass line and subtle percussion underpin a luscious bed of echo-laden guitar, electric piano, double-tracked harmonies and a lap steel. A one-minute reprise of the song, featuring its original third verse, is located at the end of track four "Time".
"On The Run" - This instrumental - longer than the first - contains a pulsing synth sound which incorporates snatches of tape loops, distorted sound effects, and a metronomic drum beat with a succession of space-age squelches, blips and beeps. Darker in tone than the album opener, "On The Run" reaches its apex in what sounds like an aircraft crashing before running seamlessly into...
"Time" - If you ever created a song called "Time", you'd better have an abundance of clock noises and workings right? Thankfully, Pink Floyd doesn't disappoint with the opening salvo of this standout cut exploding into life with a deafening jolt of alarm clocks and chimes. From here, the mood gets progressively somber until the point where the drums herald the song's official beginning. A true collaboration between all four band members, "Time" alternates between bluesy guitar hysterics and its lighter, soulful bridge sections with aplomb.
"The Great Gig In The Sky" - Built around a chord progression written by Richard Wright, Clare Torry was brought in to improvise over the top of the track and it's her emotional, orgasmic wailing that lends the songs its lasting power and dynamism. Having been paid the standard studio rate of approximately $45 for her contribution, Torry sued Pink Floyd and its label EMI in 2004 for a share of the song writing royalties. An undisclosed settlement was reached the following year with Torry's name thereafter listed alongisde Wright's as the track's vocal composer. A somber conclusion to an otherwise masterful performance.
"Money" - One of the most famous, most instantly recognizable songs by Pink Floyd, "Money" was the only "Dark Side" track to enter the Billboard Hot 100, charting at No. 13 in 1973. A rhythmic mesh of cash register sound effects and Waters' marching blues bass line - in unorthodox 7/8 time at the song's beginning, later changing to a standard 4/4 - forms the bedrock for what later becomes an epic, swampy rock wigout, complete with a justly celebrated guitar solo from Gilmour. "Money it's a crime. Share it fairly but don't take my slice of pie," sings Gilmour. Regardless of your stance on economic policies, that's not for this website.
"Us And Them" - The longest song on the album (and one of its best), the 7-minute-plus "Us And Them" was originally written by Wright as an instrumental sequence for a 1970 feature film, but was rejected because of its 'depressing' tone. The mournful lyrics touch on themes of warfare and civil rights, and the third verse concerns its author passing a "down and out" tramp in the street and doing nothing as "I've got other things on my 'Us And Them' mind."
"Any Colour You Like" - The record's third and final instrumental sequence begins with a pastoral synthesizer score and subtle percussion before segueing into Gilmour's scratchy, harmonizing guitar solo. By the song's end, it's a full-on, fret board pummeling psychedelic funk jam.
"Brain Damage" - Inspired by the mental breakdown of Floyd founding member Syd Barrett, Waters began working on a version of what was to become "Brain Damage" when the band was recording 1971's "Meddle" album. Originally entitled "Lunatic", the song begins with a cascading guitar arpeggio before the introduction of its famous first line: "The lunatic is on the grass," which referred to Waters' childhood memory of a 'fenced off' public square in Cambridge, England, between the River Cam and Kings College Chapel. The lyric: "And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes" is believed to reference Barrett's tendency to play the wrong song mid-set near the end of his time in the group. Waters would later claim that the song's soaring chorus, in which he exclaims "I'll see you on the dark side of the moon," was about "defending the notion of being different."
"Eclipse" - "Eclipse" begins with a dramatic drum fill before Waters delivers an impassioned rundown of "all that you give... deal, buy, steal, create, destroy, eat, meet, slight, fight... is in tune. But the sun is eclipsed by the moon." Echoing the album's beginning, the final sounds that you hear are the synthesized heartbeat from "Speak To Me" and Abbey Road doorman Jerry Driscoll intoning, "There is no dark side of the moon really. As a matter of fact it's all dark." What does it all mean? Arguably everything and nothing, and therein lies the true genius at the heart of The Dark Side of the Moon.
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