ONE OF THE BEST ALBUMS IN THE BLOG PEOPLE!!!MAYBE THE BEST OF THE WORLD
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 and engineered by
Alan Parsons. 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 musicThe 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 Broadcasting Corporation. 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 only time there is a gap of silence on the whole album is between The Great Gig in the Sky and Money, where there is a side change on the LP; this pause was filled in with a barely audible transition by
Alan Parsons for one CD release.
The Recordings: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.
Another novelty of the recording is the metronomic sequence of sound effects played during "Speak to Me" and "Money". This was achieved by laboriously 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). The sonic experimentation on the album required every member of the band to operate the faders simultaneously in order to mix down the intricately assembled
multitrack recordings of several of the songs (particularly "On the Run").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.
It is the first of five consecutive Pink Floyd albums with lyrics completely credited to Roger Waters.
Voices:Clare Torry sang on "
The Great Gig in the Sky". 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 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?
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.
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.
PersonnelDavid 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 –
producersAdditional 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 edition, remastering on 30 anniversary editions, 5.1 mixing on 30th anniversary edition
Doug Sax – remastering on 20th and 30th anniversary editions
Hipgnosis – design, photography
Storm Thorgerson – 20th and 30th anniversary edition 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
Songs:
"
Speak to Me/
Breathe" - 3:59
"
On the Run" - 3:35
"
Time" - 7:04
"
The Great Gig in the Sky" - 4:48
"
Money" - 6:24
"
Us and Them" - 7:49
"
Any Colour You Like" - 3:26
"
Brain Damage" - 3:50
"
Eclipse" - 2:04
Link:
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After the departure of vocalist Ozzy Osbourne in 1979, Black Sabbath's line-up slowly lost stability in late 1983 and never quite recovered.
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