November 24, 2009

• Music of My Life (Dark Side of the Moon)

  This summer and fall, I reviewed every episode of Freaks and Geeks.  I have been thinking of other things to review but I can't find a series that offers complete numbers of episodes.  The series I wanted to review were Deadwood or Rome.  I decided that one of my other sources of inspiration came from music.  I had noticed that one other Xangan had posted their favorite albums.  Now it's time for me to give you some of my favorite albums.

  

  In March of 1973, the English rock band Pink Floyd released Dark Side of the Moon.  The album would soon enter the pantheon of the greatest rock albums of all time and would be subject to a great number of rumors.

  Roger Waters, bass player and lyricist, proposed the idea for the album at drummer Nick Mason's house.  Waters wanted the band to experiment with the album while touring Britain, Japan and the U.S.   He also suggested that album would have one central theme, things that bring about madness.  This would be very easy for the band since they had just witnessed their former lead singer, Syd Barrett, go mad and become institutionalized due to his excessive use of mind altering drugs. 

  Roger Waters, Nick Mason, guitarist and primary vocalist David Gilmour, and keyboardist Richard Wright all participated in the writing and production of this album, which in later years of the band would become very rare. This album would contain only two songs that Roger Waters had no part in the creation, Great Gig in the Sky and Any Colour You Like.  These would be the last two songs which Waters had no creative part in the life of the band.  Some of the pieces for the album already existed in songs and lines that were used for film soundtracks.  They compiled all these pieces to make one of the most well known albums in rock history.

  One year before the eventual release the members of Pink Floyd played the concept album for a live audience of members of the press.  The band knew they had a hit so they took it with them on the road.  It was well received.  They continued to tinker and change elements of the music before they headed to the studio.  Pink Floyd also made a film in 1972 called Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii.  The film was Pink Floyd performing 6 songs at an ancient Roman amphitheater in Pompeii with no live audience. They also included studio footage of the band creating Dark Side of the Moon.  After the film, the band went to the studio to make this album.

  The work was done at Abbey Road Studios, the studio where The Beatles recorded the majority of their albums and singles from 1962 to 1970.  The music engineer was Alan Parsons who gained fame engineering The Beatles' albums Abbey Road and Let it Be. They worked on the album in various pieces from May of 1972 to January of 1973.  There are various rumors of the recording sessions.  Some have claimed that one day after the band recorded some tracks, they left Alan Parsons to work his magic so they could watch Monty Python's Flying Circus.  Then it became movie viewing sessions and soon while watching these movies they would play along.  People claim this is the reason for the synchronicity with The Wizard of Oz which I covered in my post entitled Dark Side of the Rainbow.

  Dark Side of the Moon is a continuous piece of music.  Each of the songs represents a different stage of life, with the album beginning with a heartbeat and ending with a heartbeat.  The lyrics for this album are so incredible and the band knew this so it was the first album in which the album liner contained the lyrics.

  Tracks:
  #1  Speak to Me/ Breathe Roger Waters has said that this song "stress the mundane and futile elements of life along with the ever-present threat of madness and the importance of living one's own life"
  #2  On the Run  This song stresses the madness that is associated with modern day travel.  Richard Wright was afraid of flying so if you listen to the sound effects and the synthesizers it will take you to an airport.
  #3  Time/Breathe Reprise  This song examines how time can control a person's life especially when stuck in the mundane aspects and then how one can slip into withdrawal
  #4  The Great Gig in the Sky This song is a metaphor for death
  #5  Money  This song is probably the most well known.  It is a mockery of greed and consumerism. 
  #6  Us and Them  This song deals with ethnocentrism and personal relationships
  #7  Any Colour You Like This song is paired with Great Gig in the Sky and is metaphoric for death and it also stresses how people are led to believe that they have choices in life when really they don't.  The funny thing about this song with Wizard of Oz is that this song is playing when the horse that changes colors is seen in the Emerald City.
  #8  Brain Damage  This song looks at the mental illnesses one can receive because of elevated fame and lacking to take care of yourself.  The song basically is a biography of former band member Syd Barrett.  I have a concert video from 1995 called Pulse.  When they played this song, the video screen behind the band showed various world leaders.  I always get a good laugh watching that.
  #9  Eclipse  This song forces you to look at the common traits you share with your fellow man

  Not counting albums that contain various artists, soundtracks, or compilations, Dark Side of the Moon is one of the best selling albums of all time.  It remained in the Billboard Top 200 for a record 741 consectutive weeks.  DSOTM has also been certified 15x Platinum in 1998 but it continued to sell.  In 2003 a delux and enhanced edition was released and in the first week that sold 800,000 copies in the U.S. alone.  One rumor surrounding the popularity of this album was that the East German government needed money so they persuaded the record company to make a factory somewhere in East Germany that produced nothing but this album.

  Dark Side of the Moon has left a vast legacy to the music world.  Modern musicians have been inspired, cover versions have been made, and urban legends have surrounded the album.  It did make the members of Pink Floyd insanely rich.  One could say that without Dark Side of the Moon, Monty Python may have never became that popular since Pink Floyd funded the production of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  Also many rock albums get compared to Dark Side of the Moon especially British rock bands in particularly Radiohead.  Their album OK Computer is constantly compared to DSOTM. 

  I think David Gilmour sums it up best: ""It hit a chord, obviously. It still doesn't sound dated, it still sounds good when I listen to it. But I can't really say why it should achieve that longevity over some of the other great records which have been out. We always knew that it would sell more than we had sold of anything before, because it was better than anything we had done before-more complete and more focused. A better cover. Every detail was well attended to."

  
  Nick Mason, David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Richard Wright

  

  Nick Mason, David Gilmour, Richard Wright, Roger Waters

  • 1:33 AM
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