The Dark Side of the Moon
PINK FLOYD - THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON (1973)
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PINK FLOYD - DARK SIDE OF THE MOON (1973)
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1. SPEAK TO ME (Mason)
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2A. BREATHE (Waters, Gilmour, Wright)
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2B. ON THE RUN (Gilmor, Waters)
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3. TIME (Mason, Waters, Wright, Gilmour)
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4. THE GREAT GIG IN THE SKY (Wright)
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5. MONEY (Waters)
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6. US AND THEM (Waters, Wright)
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7. ANY COLOUR YOU LIKE (Gilmour, Mason, Wright)
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8A. BRAIN DAMAGE (Waters)
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8B. ECLIPSE (Waters)
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9-14 The Making Of The Dark Side Of The Moon (6 videos)
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15-20 Pulse Live at Earls court London on 10/20/1994 Dark Side Of The Moon (6 videos)
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21-23 DSOTM Pink Floyd clips and pictures with Dark Side Of The Moon
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24-30 Dark Side of the Rainbow ~ Wizard of Oz with Dark Side of the Moon (7 videos)
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31-40 Screen Film + Live "1974-11-16 Wembley 1974 pre FM" (5+5 videos)
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41-45 Dark Side Of The Moon ~ Album cover video tribute (5 videos)
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45-50 Pink Floyd Dark Side Of The Moon Video Album ~ KOYAANISQATSI and DARK SIDE OF THE MOON (5 videos)
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51-57: Dark Side of the Moon - by DogTrax benefit concert (7 videos)
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50-60 Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon (3 videos)
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61-66 Batman: The Dark Side of Gotham - Dark Side of the Moon synched up to match Batman (6 videos)
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67 The Twilight Zone ~ Time Enough at Last / Pink Floyd ~ Time (1 video)
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68 Pink Floyd ~ Brain Damage Eclipse (1 video)
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69-70 Pink Floyd - Echoes Film: Crystal Voyager, Filmed By: George Greenough, Year of Production: 1972, Music: Echoes by Pink Floyd. Footage from this film was used by Pink Floyd as a projected stage backdrop in the 1970s and for The Great Gig in the Sky in 1974-1975, 1988-1989, and 1994 (2 videos)
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71-79 Dream Theater - Dark Side Of The Moon [ Pink Floyd Cover ] (9 videos)
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80 Pink Floyd - Time (Music Video) Featuring Father Time - The Time Stealer (1 video)
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81-86 The Tatamimats ~ "The Dark Side of the Uke" The Knockout, S.F., November 18, 2006 (6 videos)
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87 The Dub Side Of The Moon ~ A project made in after effects... (1 video)
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88-93 The Tatamimats ~ "The Dark Side of the Uke" The Knockout, S.F., November 18, 2006 (altervative version) (6 videos)
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94 Time - Pink Floyd This is quite an old version of Time, from Pink Floyd. Live at P.U.L.S.E., and includes the "Breathe Reprise" (1 video)
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95 Pink Floyd - Breathe (w/ Reprise) - Live 8 Pink Floyd playing Breathe (with reprise) at Live 8 (1 video)
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96-127 Roger Waters - The Dark Side of the Moon World Tour (32 videos)
01. In the Flesh - Buenos Aires (The Wall)
02. Mother - Buenos Aires (The Wall)
03. Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun - LA (A Sacerful of Secrets)
04. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (II-V) - Buenos Aires (Wish You Were Here)
05. Have a Cigar - Santiago (Wish You Were Here)
06. Wish You Were Here - Buenos Aires (Wish You Were Here)
07. Southampton Dock - Brisbane (The Final Cut)
08. The Fletcher Memorial Home - Brisbane (The Final Cut)
09. Perfect Sense I & II - Rotterdam (Amused to Death, 1992)
10. Leaving Beirut (single)
11. Sheep - Buenos Aires (Animals)
12. Speak to me / Breathe - Buenos Aires
13. On the run - Santiago
14. Time / Breathe (reprise) - Buenos Aires
15. The Great Gig in the Sky - Buenos Aires
16. Money - Buenos Aires
17. Us and Them - Buenos Aires
18. Any Colour You Like - NY/Buenos Aires
19. Brain Damage - Buenos Aires
20. Eclipse - Buenos Aires
21. The Happiest Days of Our Lives - Buenos Aires (The Wall)
22. Another Brick In The Wall (part II) - Buenos Aires (The Wall)
23. Vera - Buenos Aires (The Wall)
24. Bring the Boys Back Home - Buenos Aires (The Wall)
25. Comfortably Numb - Buenos Aires (The Wall)
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The Dark Side of the Moon
Recorded June 1972 - January 1973 at Abbey Road Studios in London, England
Genre Progressive Rock, Art Rock, Musique Concrète
Length 42:59
Label Harvest, Capitol
Producer Pink Floyd
The Dark Side of the Moon (titled in the 1993 CD release as Dark Side of the Moon, and often abbreviated as DSotM) is a concept album by the British Progressive Rock band Pink Floyd, released in 1973. It is notable for its use of Musique Concrète and philosophical lyrics, something that would eventually become a trademark of Pink Floyd's music. The album was a landmark in rock music, as it featured radio-friendly songs such as "Money", "Time", "Us and Them", and "Brain Damage/Eclipse". Some music critics use the album as a point of reference in determining between "Classic" Blues Rock and the then-new genre of Electronic Music.
The Dark Side of the Moon explores the nature of the human experience. For example, "Time" deals with aging and the overwhelmingly fast approach of death. "Money" deals with materialism with tongue-in-cheek lyrics and wealth-related sound effects. "Us and Them" deals with conflict, ethnocentrism, and the belief that a person's self is "always in the right".
The Dark Side of the Moon is widely hailed by many critics and fans as Pink Floyd's magnum opus, and is generally considered their definitive album. In 2006 it was voted "My Favourite Album" by viewers and listeners to the Australian ABC. In 1990, Australian radio listeners voted it the best album to make love to, and in 2003, Rolling Stone heralded The Dark Side of the Moon as the 43rd greatest album of all time.
The Dark Side of the Moon has spent 741 weeks on the USA-based Billboard 200 album chart, the longest duration in history. It is also the fifth highest selling album globally of all time, selling more than forty million units.
Recording
Recorded by the band and engineer Alan Parsons at Abbey Road Studios between June 1972 and January 1973, the album sessions made use of the most advanced techniques available for recording instruments and sound effects in rock music at that time. Along with the conventional rock band instrumentation, Pink Floyd added prominent synthesisers to their sound as well as some unconventional noises: an assistant engineer running around the studio's echo chamber (during "On the Run"), myriad antique clocks chiming simultaneously (as the intro to "Time"), and a specially-treated bass drum made to sound like a human heartbeat. The heartbeat is most audible as the intro and the outro to the album, but it can also be heard underneath most of the album—the song "Time" and "On the Run" has the low thudding underneath the rest. Roger Waters wrote all of the lyrics in the album and created the early demo tracks in a small garden shed-turned-recording studio at his home. It was in there he also created the intro to "Money" by experimenting with dropping a range of monetary objects.
Another novelty found on The Dark Side of the Moon is the metronomic sequence of sound effects played during "Speak to Me" and "Money." This was achieved by labouriously splicing together recordings of ringing cash registers, clinking coins, tearing paper, and buzzing counting machines onto a two-track tape loop (later adapted to four tracks in order to create a unique "walk around the room" effect in quadrophonic presentations of the album). Due to the sonic experimentation on the album, many songs on The Dark Side of the Moon (particularly "On the Run") required every member of the band to operate the faders simultaneously in order to mix down the intricately assembled multitrack recording.
Pink Floyd also perfected the use of other studio techniques such as the doubletracking of vocals and guitars (allowing David Gilmour to harmonise flawlessly with himself), flanging effects, odd trickery with reverb and the panning of sounds between channels. To this day, audiophiles use The Dark Side of the Moon as a reference standard to test the fidelity of audio equipment despite the fact that it was originally mixed from third-generation tape with Dolby noise reduction.
All four members of Pink Floyd, which included guitarist David Gilmour, drummer Nick Mason, bassist and lyricist Roger Waters, and keyboardist Richard Wright, had some form of participation in the writing and production of the album, which is a rarity among later Pink Floyd albums. However, it is the first of five consecutive Pink Floyd albums with lyrics completely credited to Roger Waters.
On most CD pressings, a barely-audible orchestral version of The Beatles' "Ticket to Ride" is audible after "Eclipse", playing very faintly over the heartbeats that close the album. It is unknown why this was included, but it may have been the consequence of a mastering error. The bootleg recording A Tree Full of Secrets includes an amplified, re-processed version of this oddity, which allows it to be heard clearly. This is not found on the original vinyls.
Although The Dark Side of the Moon was the planned title of the album, upon the discovery that the band Medicine Head was to release an album of the same name in 1972, the year prior to The Dark Side of the Moon's release, the band changed the album's title to "Eclipse: A Piece for Assorted Lunatics". However, the Medicine Head album flopped, so Pink Floyd was able to revert to the original title without trouble.
Voices
The vocals for "The Great Gig in the Sky", which are intended to make the listener think of death, were done by Clare Torry. However, in 2004 she sued EMI and Pink Floyd for songwriting royalties, claiming that she co-wrote "The Great Gig in the Sky" with keyboardist Richard Wright. She was originally paid £30 for Sunday studio work. The High Court concluded that Torry was correct but the terms of the lawsuit have yet to be decided. On Pink Floyd's 2006 live DVD P*U*L*S*E, Torry is credited with the vocal composition for "The Great Gig in the Sky" segment.
Snippets of dialogue between and over the top of the songs are also featured on the recording. Roger Waters devised a method of interviewing people, whereby questions were printed on flashcards in sequential order and the subject's responses were recorded uninterrupted. The questions related to central themes of the album such as madness, violence, and death. Participants were commandeered from around Abbey Road, placed in the darkened studio in front of a microphone, and told to answer the questions in the order which they were presented. This provoked some surprising responses to subsequent questions. For example, the question "When was the last time you were violent?" was immediately followed by "Were you in the right"?
Recordings of road manager Roger "The Hat" Manifold were the only ones obtained through a conventional sit-down interview because the band members could not find him at the time and his responses (including "give 'em a quick, short, sharp shock..." and "live for today, gone tomorrow, that's me...") had to be taped later when the flashcards had been lost. Another roadie, Chris Adamson, was on tour with Pink Floyd at the time and recorded his explicit diatribe that opens the album ("I've been mad for fucking years, absolutely years, over the edge for yonks...").
Pink Floyd's executive road manager Peter Watts (father of actress Naomi Watts) contributed the repeated laughter during "Brain Damage" and "Speak to Me." The monologue about "geezers" who were "cruisin' for a bruisin'" and the often-misheard "I never said I was frightened of dying" (during the middle of "The Great Gig in the Sky") came from Peter's wife, Myfanwy Watts.
The responses "And I am not frightened of dying, any time will do I don't mind. Why should I be frightened of dying, there's no reason for it you've got to go some time" (during "The Great Gig in the Sky") and closing words "there is no dark side of the Moon really... as a matter of fact it's all dark" (over the "Eclipse" heartbeats) came from the Abbey Road Studios' Irish doorman at the time, Gerry Driscoll. Paul and Linda McCartney were also interviewed, but their answers were considered too cautious for inclusion. McCartney's bandmate Henry McCullough contributed the famous line "I don't know, I was really drunk at the time." (Apparently in answer to the question "Why does anyone do anything?", which immediately preceded it).
Alan Parsons engineered the album while on staff at Abbey Road. He once said in an interview that he swapped shifts with colleagues in order to work on the whole project.
LP packaging
The album was originally released in a gatefold LP sleeve bearing George Hardie's iconic refracting prism on the cover. Inside were two posters, one bearing pictures of the band in concert with the words PINK FLOYD broken up and scattered about, and the other being a slightly psychedelic image of the Great Pyramids of Giza taken on infrared film. Also included was a sheet of stickers of the pyramids. In 1991, the refracting prism album cover was #35 on Rolling Stone's 100 greatest album covers of all time list. In 2003, VH1 named Dark Side's cover the 4th Greatest Album Cover of All Time on their 50 Greatest Album Covers of All Time special.
Concept
The Dark Side of the Moon deals conceptually with the pressures of modern life that can drive normal human beings to insanity: materialism, the increased pace of life and travel, the encroachment of old age and death, and the inhumanities of society and armed conflict. These themes are not just delivered by words but are suggested with the sounds of the album. For example, the sound of an aeroplane crash in the track "On the Run" can represent a fear of flight (Wright suggested this could bring fear of death for some). "Time" discusses how quickly life can and will slip by those who are unaware of it and uses actual alarm bells to wake the listener at the beginning of the track. "The Great Gig in the Sky," which had a working title of "The Mortality Sequence," comments on the nature of death as a sad state of being, evidenced by the sounds of the screaming woman throughout this generally instrumental track. The lyrics and sound effects of "Money" flippantly endorse greed for ironic effect, and states that it is "the root of all evil today." "Us and Them" deals with interpersonal conflict, the insanity of warfare and xenophobia. The meaning of "Any Colour You Like" is not as clear as the other songs, but it is thought to represent the fear of taking risks when making choices—the song title came from an answer frequently given by a studio technician to questions put to him: "You can have it any colour you like," which was a reference to Henry Ford's (apocryphal) description of the Model T: "You can have it any color you like, as long as it's black." "Brain Damage" reaches out to the outsiders ("lunatics") who may be the only people that recognise society's faults. It is also about their former member Syd Barrett, who was forced to leave the band due to mental illness. Finally, "Eclipse" describes the true essence of a person through the impact they have left on others.
Precursors to the The Dark Side of the Moon concept can be found in many of Pink Floyd's earlier works. The band had previously performed a conceptual piece, The Man and the Journey, based on the everyday life of a man during their 1969 European tour. Roger Waters' lyrical obsession with insanity was in part precipitated by the departure of Syd Barrett (a founding member of Pink Floyd) following his mental collapse. Perhaps most important to the gestation of The Dark Side of the Moon is the song "Echoes" from "Meddle," which also deals with interpersonal relationships using progressive ambient music. However, the decision to tackle individual parts of life in an album-length concept work is said to have been conceived during a band meeting in Nick Mason's kitchen circa late 1971.
Reception
The Dark Side of the Moon is one of the best-selling albums of all time worldwide, and the 20th-best-selling album in the United States. Though it held the ?1 spot in America for only one week, it spent a total of 741 consecutive weeks, approximately fourteen years, on the list until April 23, 1988 only to be removed by a rule change. To this day, it occupies a prominent spot on Billboard's Pop Catalog Chart, reaching ?1 when the 2003 hybrid CD/SACD edition was released and sold 800,000 copies in the U.S. alone. On the week of May 5, 2006, The Dark Side of the Moon achieved a combined total of 1,500 weeks on the Billboard 200 and Pop Catalog charts.
Sales of the album worldwide total over forty million as of 2004, with an average of 8,000 copies sold per week and a total of 400,000 in the year of 2002 — making it the 200th best-selling album of that year nearly three decades after its initial release. It is estimated that one in every fourteen people in the U.S. under the age of fifty owns or owned a copy of this album. According to an August 2, 2006 Wall Street Journal article, although the album was released in 1973, it has sold 7.7 million copies since 1991 in the U.S. alone and continues to log 9,600 sales per week domestically.
The LP was released before platinum awards were introduced by the RIAA on January 1, 1976, and it initially only received a gold disc. However, after the introduction of the album on CD, The Dark Side of the Moon would eventually be certified platinum in 1990. On April 6, 1998, the RIAA certified the album at 15x platinum, denoting sales of fifteen million in the United States alone - making it their second biggest-selling album there. "Time", "Money" and "Us and Them" remain radio call-in request favourites, with "Money" having sold well as a single in its own right.
Some of the profits from The Dark Side of the Moon were invested in the making of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The members of Pink Floyd were reportedly huge Monty Python fans, to the point of interrupting recording sessions to watch the Flying Circus.
Reissues and remastering
In 1979 The Dark Side of the Moon was released as a remastered LP by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (MFSL). It has since been re-released several times on CD. MFSL remastered and re-released the album again in CD form, and the album was again re-released later as a remastered CD as part of the 1992 box set "Shine On." The 1992 remaster was then re-released by itself as a 20th Anniversary box set edition with postcards.
The Dark Side of the Moon was re-released as a 30th anniversary hybrid Super Audio CD with a 5.1 channel DSD surround sound version remixed from the original 16-track studio tapes. Some surprise was expressed when longtime producer James Guthrie was called in to mix the new surround mix rather than the original LP engineer, Alan Parsons who had already produced a definitive Quadraphonic mix shortly after the original album was released. This 30th anniversary edition won four Surround Music Awards in 2003. The Dark Side of the Moon was also re-released in 2003 on 180-gram virgin vinyl and included reprints of the original posters and stickers that came with the original vinyl release, along with a new 30th anniversary poster.
Dark Side of the Rainbow
When the album is played simultaneously with the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, numerous images from the film appear to synchronise with the music and lyrics. All band members (save one) have firmly stated that the phenomenon is a coincidence. This effect has often been called Dark Side of the Rainbow.
Track listing
1. SPEAK TO ME (Mason)
2. BREATHE (Waters, Gilmour, Wright)
3. ON THE RUN (Gilmor, Waters)
4. TIME (Mason, Waters, Wright, Gilmour)
5. THE GREAT GIG IN THE SKY (Wright)
6. MONEY (Waters)
7. US AND THEM (Waters, Wright)
8. ANY COLOUR YOU LIKE (Gilmour, Mason, Wright)
9. BRAIN DAMAGE (Waters)
10. ECLIPSE (Waters)
Credits
David Gilmour -- vocals, guitar, VCS 3 synthesiser
Roger Waters -- bass guitar, vocals, VCS 3 synthesiser, tape effects
Richard Wright -- keyboards, vocals, VCS 3 synthesiser
Nick Mason -- percussion, tape effects
Pink Floyd -- producers
Additional personnel
Lesley Duncan -- background vocals
Doris Troy -- background vocals
Barry St. John -- background vocals
Liza Strike -- background vocals
Clare Torry -- vocals (on "The Great Gig in the Sky")
Dick Parry -- saxophone
Alan Parsons -- engineer
Peter James -- assistant engineer
Chris Thomas -- mixing consultant
James Guthrie -- remastering supervisor on 20th anniversary ed., remastering on 30 anniversary ed., 5.1 mixing on 30th anniversary ed.
Doug Sax -- remastering on 20th and 30th anniversary ed.
Hipgnosis -- design, photography
Storm Thorgerson -- 20th and 30th anniversary ed. designs
George Hardie -- illustrations, sleeve art
Jill Furmanosky -- photography
David Sinclair -- liner notes in CD re-release
Drew Vogel -- art and photography in CD re-release
Singles
In some countries, notably the UK, Pink Floyd did not release any singles between 1968's "Point Me at the Sky" and 1979's "Another Brick in the Wall (Part Two)". However, the following were released in the U.S. and many other countries:
"Money"/"Any Colour You Like" -- Harvest/Capitol 3609; released June, 1973
"Time"/"Us and Them" -- Harvest/Capitol 45373; released February 4, 1974
The latter is sometimes considered a double A-side.
Charts
Albums
1973 Billboard's Pop Albums (North America) 1 Initial album release
1973 UK album chart 2
2003 Billboard's Pop Catalog (North America) 1 30th Anniversary Hybrid SACD Edition
Singles
1973 Billboard Pop Singles (North America) "Money" 13
1974 Billboard Pop Singles (North America) "Time" 101
1974 Billboard Pop Singles (North America) "Us and Them" 101
References
The "Dark Side of the Moon": The Making of the "Pink Floyd" Masterpiece, John Harris, Fourth Estate, (2005) ISBN 0-00-719024-7 (United Kingdom); Da Capo Press, (2005) ISBN 0-306-81342-4 (United States); Jorge Zahar Press, (2006) ISBN 8571109605 (Brazil)
"The Complete Guide to the Music of Pink Floyd", Andy Mabbett, Omnibus Press, (1995) ISBN 0-7119-4301-X
External links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Side_Of_The_Moon
http://www.pinkfloyd.co.uk/dsotm/content/setup.html
http://www.flowerbedmusic.com/articles/dsotm.htm
http://utopia.knoware.nl/users/ptr/pfloyd/interview/dark1.html
http://www.coverville.com/archives/2006/03/coverville_190.html
http://www.darksidevoices.com/
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For more informations visit:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Side_Of_The_Moon
www.pinkfloyd.co.uk/dsotm/content/setup.html
