Dark Side of the Moon is considered by most to be a masterpiece for many reasons. The album was produced at a time when rock albums were beginning to be taken seriously as works of art. The Beatle’s ‘Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band’ in 1966 with its artistic and technological innovations later paved the way for conceptual works such as Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of the Moon.
Roger Waters, Nick Mason, and Rick Wright, met at Regent Street Polytechnic in London , (now the University of Westminster ) while studying to be architects. They also studied art, graphics, and technology. Nick Mason’s father was a documentary director, and he picked up on his father’s interest in the technology of sound. Mason became increasingly interested in the use and musical possibilities of electronics, and was responsible for a lot of the tape effects that were eventually to appear on the album. However, in many ways, the band also seemed to be struggling with their technologically around the time Dark Side was produced. They had earned a certain reputation for their seeming dependency on th e a mount of equipment they used on stage, and were accused of not only being surrounded by it – but also of hiding behind it. Floyd certainly seemed to be at odds with the ‘back to earth’ movement that comprised the basic guitar, bass, guitar, drums, vocals line ups that were still prevalent during that period.
In many ways, Pink Floyd defied both their media and music technology critics by demonstrating that great artists can work with just about anything. Dave Gilmour mused that what comes out of the speakers is still an expression of the music in their minds, and as Roger Water’s stated ‘the only thing that is important is whether it moves you or not’. Invariably, Pink Floyd used the then state-of-the-art equipment at Abbey Road studios to its full potential.
The subject of stress raised its head in early discussions and ideas about the album’s theme. This evolved into the idea of the difficulties of modern life that the band recognised: deadlines, travel, the love of money, fear of dying, and problems of mental illness. These themes are realised in the lyrics in the presentation of physical, mental, and moral decay being pushed along by the underlying theme that is time. To strengthen the lyrics to audio concepts, the band recorded a number of people in conversation answering questions about madness, violence, and mortality. These are the now famous voice snippets heard throughout the album.
Dark Side of the Moon was Pink Floyd’s first album to be planned in advance of the actual recording. Discussions continued throughout rehearsals, and during the recording process. This allowed Roger to identify any lyrical and/or musical gaps, and to devise clever ways of filling them. The fact that the band had been performing the actual music for Dark Side live for nearly six months, before recording started, helped the band tremendously. The concept, the technology, and the innovation had everything set in its place to materialise as quite possibly the perfect production format for the time.
The album opens with Speak To Me with its overture of tape effects put together by Nick Mason. A heartbeat is overdubbed with a mosaic-like sound collage of what is to come and these audio entrepreneurial sound effects build very effectively as they explode into the excellently produced and technically rendered Breathe with it’s mood of resignation and the fact that we’re already racing ‘towards an early grave’. The stereo separation of voice and instruments coupled with some of the finest compression ever placed on vinyl is truly outstanding.
Next, we are On The Run. The EMS VCS3 dominates this track. It is used to give the feeling of being chased – being chased perhaps by time? But we’ve got to keep going.. we can’t stop.. we’re exhausted. Don’t stop. We want to drop. Keep going. Keep going. It’s all catching up. It’s all closing in until the inevitable breakdown that concludes the sequence!
Then, Time gets us. This track opens with a Quad demonstration tape recorded in an antique clock shop by engineer Alan Parsons. A ponderous bass line booms away under tight guitar licks. The guitar solo soars leaving all cares and worries behind. Back down to Earth, and time has passed. No stopping it. The lyrics remind us that we are ‘one step closer to death’ yet again.
Breathe is reprised. This was supposed to be an experiment in using the same melody for two different songs. The lyrics touch on another common Floyd theme: how we are kept ‘comfortably numb’ which would become an anthem from the much later Wall album.
The Great Gig in the Sky features the most soulful performance on the album. It is a wordless vocal track written by Rick Wright. Clare Troy cries, wails, and moans about physical decay. We experience the pain, then the peacefulness before the end - the ghost released from the machine. This performance is a real bearing of the soul, and Troy was embarrassed by letting herself go so much. But the people in the control room were ecstatic!
We are indeed lured by Money. Dance to the cash registers! The track opens with another (this time rhythmic) sound collage put together by Nick Mason and Roger Waters. A soulful sax solo from Dick Parry is followed by a blistering guitar solo from Dave Gilmour. The song encapsulates human inspiration among the moral decay.
Us and Them takes us back to the mood created in Breathe. Dick Parry’s saxophone is both thoughtful and sensual. It strolls through the track, looking around at what life is offering, kicking its feet, despondent. We experience more moral decay as the general cries ‘forward’ from the rear, while the front rank embraces its death.
Any Colour You Like features a heavily treated funk guitar surrounded by multi-tracked synthesisers calling each other, echoing, flowing, and dancing off into the distance. The synths are contrasted with the uptight guitar licks fighting against each other.
Brain Damage features Roger Waters on vocals. The victim is locked away in his own mind, then locked away from the world. This is about mental decay from which there is no escape. A scalpel won’t cut away the voices in his head. The outcome is inevitable – again.
Eclipse in a powerful finale and perhaps one of the most powerful rock finales ever produced. The track is an affirmation of life until ‘the sun is eclipsed by the moon’. We end with the same heartbeat we started with. This was the essence of ‘concept’ albums that were not necessarily meant to be heralded as such by the composers.. it just sort of unfolds that way.
The two artists who added the final touches to the album were engineers Alan Parsons and Chris Thomas. Parsons recorded the sounds on the album (possibly very much the fifth member of the band?), and Chris Thomas put the magic in the mix. It is a testament to both Parsons and Thomas that they delivered a quality of sound that is still a sonic marvel over thirty years later. Ultimately.. time hasn’t beaten this album and irrespective of what has been composed, produced, and released since, Dark Side of the Moon is still welded high up into almost every album chart ever produced since the day it was first released.
