Dark Side of the Moon
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“There is no Dark Side of the Moon, really. Matter o' fact, it's all dark”
- ~ A learned Irish gentleman on astrophysical luminosity
The seventies. Many remember it as a time of experiment. In America, it was experimental drugs. In southeast Asia, experimental communism was all the rage. In jolly old England, it was experimental music. Bands with psychedelic names like "Led Zeppelin" and "Pink Floyd" were defining a generation with a new kind of music. But none of this mattered, because in 1973 astrologists made a startling lunar discovery; the Dark Side of the Moon.
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[edit] Discovery
It was just another Tuesday at the planetarium. It had been a busy day (three visitors in the last month alone!) and janitors Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Rick Wright were mopping up in the telescope room. Before the telescope operator left, he had warned the custodians not to "fuck with any of this shit; it's expensive". So far that night the crew had managed to keep the destruction at a minimum, but they were bored, and the telescope was awfully tempting. Before he could stop himself, Gilmour took a peek into the lens of the scope and was startled and amazed by what he saw; a large, white, hemispherical object floating in the sky. Realizing the magnitude of his discovery, he made everyone in the room swear a pact not to tell anyone about it. Unfortunately, Waters had already accidentally written and recorded several songs about it, so the gang decided that they may as well cash in on it. This album is the result.
[edit] The Songs
[edit] Speak To Me/Breathe
The album is kicked off with the sound of Gilmour's heartbeat (they wanted to use Waters , but he didn't have one). After twenty minutes of anticipation-building heartbeat, one hears the sound of a woman in the heat of passion which leads up to the beginning of the first song, instructing the listener in the finer acts of exercising the cardiac muscles.
[edit] On the Run
Arguably the best bit of the album, this song demonstrates what happens if one runs the same boring arpeggio through a synthesizer at 10X speed for half an hour. One pilot was so annoyed by the sound that he crashed his jet airliner into the pub where Pink Floyd was recording; the sound of the crash is barely audible under the ambient noise of said pub.
[edit] Time
This tune is Rick's claim to fame. Besides a blistering bongo solo, Mason also shows off his impressing collection of old-tyme alarm clocks in what was to become the loudest excuse for an intro in the history of classic rock.
[edit] The Great Gig in the Sky
Originally intended to be a primarily guitar-driven piece, The Great Gig in the Sky (or TGGITS as some of the more hardcore fans came to know it) has an interesting story behind it. While recording, a mentally ill woman ran into the room and started wailing. Before they had a chance to stop her, there was already eight minutes of disturbed screams. The band decided to just say "hell with it" and moved on to the next track.
[edit] Money
Wright secretly taped one of Waters' greed-driven rants and put it on the album. It was by this bit of evidence that modern historians learned about Waters' inability to speak in anything but 7/4 time.
[edit] Us & Them
After realizing that the album was still far too short, the band decided to record one more song to fill it up a little more. Hence, this was the last song recorded in making the album. David Gilmour said to a producer, "Yeah, we need to make another song. And when I say "we," I mean us and them" This statement was recorded, and an endless echo effect was put on the words "us" and "them." This was then drawn out to 20 minutes with the addition of solos on saxophone, kazoo, and gerbil.
[edit] Any Colour You Like
Named after Roger Waters' standard response when asked what color condom he wore, the song "Any Colour you Like" features a funky drum beat overlayed by the sounds of Rick Wright's pet guinea pig aimlessly wandering up and down a keyboard. Since it has no vocals, the song doesn't directly deal with the album's concept, though some fans argue that it symbolizes the lack of any free choices in human society. Others just say it's a completely meaningless jam session.
[edit] Brain Damage/Eclipse
This song is based on the insanity of the band's former leader (before Seamus took over as band leader), Syd Barrett. The song's lyrics are filled with subtle references to Barrett's insanity, such as "I'll see you on the dark side of the moon," and "Syd, you're a fuckin' lunatic!" The song then merges into "Eclipse," which is the shortest song on the record. It brings the album to a crashing climax, then David Gilmour's heart beat is recorded again, until it stops because he saw Roger Waters smile for the first time.
[edit] Album Cover
The cover of the Pink Floyd album is actually declassified blueprints of a secret government weapon developed by the Bush Administration that converted light into a powerful rainbow beam of death. However, the project was scrapped when the rainbow beam turned its victims gay instead of killing them. Some government officials considered this a fate worse than death, but they were executed anyway for their failure.
