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The Dark Side of the Moon

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This article is about the album by Pink Floyd. For Dark side of the Moon (disambiguation), see The Dark Side of the Moon (disambiguation).
Untitled

The Dark Side of the Moon is a concept album by English progressive rock group Pink Floyd. Released in March 1973, the album built on the ideas Pink Floyd had explored in their live shows and previous recordings, but it lacks the extended instrumental excursions that characterised their work following the departure of founding member, principal composer and lyricist, Syd Barrett. The album's themes include conflict, greed, aging, and mental illness, the latter partly inspired by Barrett's deteriorating mental state.[10]

The album was developed as part of a forthcoming tour of live performances, and premièred several months before studio recording began. The new material was further refined during the tour, and was recorded in two sessions in 1972 and 1973 at Abbey Road Studios in London. Pink Floyd used some of the most advanced recording techniques of the time, including multitrack recording and tape loops. Analogue synthesizers were given prominence in several tracks, and a series of recorded interviews with staff and band personnel provided the source material for a range of philosophical quotations used throughout. Engineer Alan Parsons was directly responsible for some of the most notable sonic aspects of the album, including the non-lexical performance of Clare Torry.

The Dark Side of the Moon was an immediate success, topping the Billboard 200 for one week. It would subsequently remain on the charts for 741 weeks (fourteen years), the longest duration of any album in history. With an estimated 45 million units sold, it is Pink Floyd's most commercially successful album and one of the best-selling albums worldwide. It has twice been remastered and re-released, and has been covered by several other acts. It spawned two singles, "Money" and "Us and Them". In addition to its commercial success, The Dark Side of the Moon is arguably Pink Floyd's most popular album among fans and critics, and is frequently ranked as one of the greatest rock albums of all time.

Background

Following the release of Meddle, in December 1971 the band assembled for an upcoming tour of Britain, Japan, and the United States. Rehearsing in Broadhurst Gardens in London, there was the looming prospect of a new album although their priority at that time was the creation of new material.[11] In a band meeting at drummer Nick Mason's home in Camden, bassist Roger Waters proposed that a new album could form part of the tour. Waters' idea was for an album dealing with things that "make people mad", focusing on the pressures faced by the band during their arduous lifestyle and dealing with the apparent mental problems suffered by former band member Syd Barrett.[12][13] The band had explored a similar idea with 1969's The Man and the Journey. In a recent interview for Rolling Stone David Gilmour said "… I think we all thought—and Roger definitely thought—that a lot of the lyrics that we had been using were a little too indirect. There was definitely a feeling that the words were going to be very clear and specific."[14]

"Money (demo)"
Waters' early demo recording of "Money"
Problems playing this file? See media help.

Generally, all four members agreed that Waters' idea for an album unified by a single theme was a good idea.[14] Bassist and principal lyricist Roger Waters, guitarist David Gilmour, drummer Nick Mason and keyboardist Richard Wright participated in the writing and production of the new material—something of a rarity in later Pink Floyd albums. Waters created the early demo tracks at his Islington home, in a small recording studio he had built in his garden shed.[15] Parts of the new album were taken from previously unused material: the opening line of "Breathe" came from an earlier work by Waters and Ron Geesin written for the soundtrack of The Body;[16] the basic structure of "Us and Them" was taken from a piece originally written for the film Zabriskie Point.[10] The band rehearsed at a warehouse in London owned by The Rolling Stones, and then at the Rainbow Theatre. They also purchased extra equipment, including new speakers, a PA system, a 28-track mixing desk with four quadraphonic outputs, and a custom-built lighting rig. Nine tonnes of kit was transported in three lorries; this would be the first time the band had taken an entire album on tour, but it would allow them to refine and improve the new material,[17][18] which by then had been given the provisional title of The Dark Side of the Moon (an allusion to lunacy, rather than astronomy).[19] On discovering that that title had already been used by another band, Medicine Head, it was temporarily changed to Eclipse. Eclipse premièred at The Dome in Brighton, on 20 January 1972,[20] however Medicine Head's album was a commercial failure, and so the title changed back to the band's original preference.[21][22][nb 1]

A large cream-coloured and tiled building stands at the intersection of two roads. Dark grey clouds dominate an overcast sky. Two flags are flying from the fascia of the building, which is covered mostly by a large advertising hoarding.
The Rainbow Theatre in London

Dark Side of the Moon: A Piece for Assorted Lunatics, as it was now known, was performed in the presence of an assembled press (and bootleggers) on 17 February 1972—more than a year before its eventual release—at the Rainbow theatre, receiving critical acclaim.[23] Michael Wale of The Times described the piece as "… bringing tears to the eyes. It was so completely understanding and musically questioning."[24] and Derek Jewell of The Sunday Times wrote "The ambition of the Floyd's artistic intention is now vast."[21] Melody Maker was however less enthusiastic—"Musically, there were some great ideas, but the sound effects often left me wondering if I was in a bird-cage at London zoo."[25] The following tour was also widely acclaimed by the public. The new material was performed live, in the same order in which it would eventually be recorded, but obvious differences included the lack of synthesizers in tracks such as "On the Run", and Bible readings in place of Clare Torry's vocals on "The Great Gig in the Sky".[23]

The band's 1972-1973 Dark Side of the Moon Tour through Europe and North America gave them the opportunity to make continual improvements to the scale and quality of the performances.[26] Studio sessions were squeezed between tour dates; rehearsals began in England on 20 January, but in late February the band travelled to France and recorded music for La Vallée, a French film by director Barbet Schroeder.[27][nb 2] They then performed in Japan and returned to France in March to complete work on La Vallée. Dates in North America followed before the band flew to London to begin recording the album, from 24 May–25 June. After more concerts in Europe and North America, and the recording in October of Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii, the band again returned on 9 January 1973 to complete work on the album.[28][29][30]

Concept

The Dark Side of the Moon builds upon previous experiments Pink Floyd had attempted in their live shows and recordings, but without the extended instrumental excursions which, according to critic David Fricke, had become characteristic of the band after founding member Syd Barrett left in 1968. Guitarist David Gilmour, Barrett's replacement, would later refer to these instrumentals as "that psychedelic noodling stuff".[10] Gilmour and Waters cite 1971's Meddle as a turning point toward what would be realized on the album.[10]

Lyrical themes include conflict, greed, aging, death, and mental illness (or "insanity"), the latter inspired in part by Barrett's deteriorating mental state; he had been the band's principal composer and lyricist.[10] The album is notable for its use of musique concrète and conceptual, philosophical lyrics, as found in much of the band's other work.

Beginning and ending with a fading heartbeat, there are five tracks on each side, each one linked to reflect the various stages of human life. The album explores the nature of the human experience and according to Waters, "empathy".[10] "Speak to Me" and "Breathe" together 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—"Don't be afraid to care".[31] "On the Run", a synthesizer-driven instrumental, evokes the stress and anxiety of modern travel, in particular Wright's fear of flying, by shifting the scene to an airport.[32] "Time" looks at the manner in which the passage of time can control one's life, followed by a retreat into solitude and withdrawal in "Breathe (Reprise)". The first side of the album ends with "The Great Gig in the Sky"—a soulful metaphor for death. Opening with the sound of cash registers and loose change, the first track on side two, "Money", mocks greed and consumerism, with tongue-in-cheek lyrics and wealth-related sound effects. "Money" has been the most commercially successful track from the album, with several cover versions produced by other bands.[33] "Us and Them" addresses ethnocentrism and conflict and the use of simple dichotomies to describe personal relationships. "Brain Damage" looks at a mental illness resulting from the elevation of fame and success above the needs of the self. In particular the line "And if the band you're in starts playing a diff'rent tune" reflects the mental breakdown of former band-mate Syd Barrett. The album ends with "Eclipse", which espouses the concepts of alterity ("otherness") and unity, while forcing the listener to recognize the common traits shared by humanity.[34][35]

Recording

A flight of stone steps leads from an asphalt car park up to the main entrance of a white two-story building. The ground floor has two sash windows, the first floor has three shorter sash windows. Two more windows are visible at basement level. The decorative stonework around the doors and windows is painted grey.
Abbey Road Studios main entrance

The album was recorded at Abbey Road Studios, in two sessions, between May 1972 and January 1973. The band were assigned staff engineer Alan Parsons, who had previously worked as assistant tape operator on Atom Heart Mother, and who had also gained experience as a recording engineer on The Beatles' Abbey Road and Let it Be.[36][37] The recording sessions made use of the most advanced studio techniques of the time. The studio was capable of sixteen track mixes which offered a greater degree of flexibility, although the band would often use so many tracks that to make more space available second generation copies were made.[38]

Beginning on 1 June, the first track to be recorded was "Us and Them", followed six days later by "Money". Waters had created effects loops from recordings of various money-related objects, including coins thrown into a food-mixing bowl taken from his wife's pottery studio. These loops were later re-recorded to take advantage of the band's decision to record a quadraphonic mix of the album (Parsons has since expressed dissatisfaction with the result of this mix, attributed to a lack of time and the paucity of available multi-track tape recorders).[37] "Time" and "The Great Gig in the Sky" were the next pieces to be recorded, followed by a two-month break during which the band spent time with their families and prepared for an upcoming tour of the US.[39] Their recording sessions suffered regular interruptions; Roger Waters, a supporter of Arsenal F.C., would often break from recording to see his team compete. The band would occasionally stop work to watch Monty Python's Flying Circus on the television, leaving Parsons to work on material recorded up to that point.[38] David Gilmour has since disputed this claim; in an interview in 2003 he said: "We would sometimes watch them but when we were on a roll, we would get on."[40][41]

A portable L-shaped brown wooden case with a silver metal fascia filled with buttons and controls is positioned on a wooden work surface. The controls for the device are mostly rotary, and denoted with lettering and numbering. The lower part of the box contains a small matrix of holes and a joystick. Other pieces of electrical equipment are visible behind the device.
The EMS VCS 3 (Putney) Synthesizer

Returning from the US in January 1973, they recorded "Brain Damage", "Eclipse", "Any Colour You Like" and "On the Run", simultaneously fine-tuning the work they had already done in the previous sessions. A foursome of female vocalists was assembled to sing on "Brain Damage", "Eclipse" and "Time", and saxophonist Dick Parry was booked to play on "Us and Them" and "Money". With director Adrian Maben the band also filmed studio footage for Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii.[42] Once the recording sessions were complete, the band began a tour of Europe.[43]

Instrumentation

The album is particularly notable for the metronomic sound effects during "Speak to Me", and the tape loops that open "Money". For several years Nick Mason had become increasingly responsible for the band's sound effects, and he received a rare solo composing credit for "Speak to Me".[44] The track serves as an introduction, with cross-fades of elements from other pieces on the album. Mason created a rough version at his home, before completing it in the studio. A piano chord, replayed backwards, serves to augment the build-up of effects, which are immediately followed by the opening of "Breathe".[45] The sound effects on "Money" were created by splicing together Waters' recordings of clinking coins, tearing paper, a ringing cash register and a clicking adding machine to create a 7-beat effects loop (later adapted to four tracks in order to create a "walk around the room" effect in quadraphonic presentations of the album).[46] At times the sonic experimentation on the album required the engineers and all band members to operate the mixing console's faders simultaneously to mix down the intricately assembled multitrack recordings of several of the songs (particularly "On the Run").[10]

"The Great Gig in the Sky"
"The Great Gig in the Sky" features Richard Wright's piano composition accompanied by improvised vocal work from Clare Torry. This selection is taken from about two minutes forty seconds onward.
"Money"
"Money" makes use of tape loops and a 7/4 time signature. Although similar to the original demo track recorded by Waters, it is considerably more rock orientated. This is an excerpt from the start of the track.

Along with the conventional rock band instrumentation, Pink Floyd added prominent synthesizers to their sound. For example, the band experimented with an EMS VCS 3 on "Brain Damage" and "Any Colour You Like", and a Synthi A on "Time" and "On the Run". They also devised and recorded unconventional sounds: an assistant engineer running around the studio's echo chamber (during "On the Run"),[47] and a specially-treated bass drum made to simulate a human heartbeat (during "Speak to Me", "On the Run", "Time", and "Eclipse"). This sound is most prominent as the intro and the outro to the album, but it can also be heard sporadically on other tracks—the songs "Time" and "On the Run" have the low thudding.[10] The assorted clocks ticking then chiming simultaneously (during "Time") were initially created as a quadraphonic test by Parsons.[44] Parsons recorded each timepiece at an antique clock shop, and although the material had not been created specifically for the album, elements of it were eventually used in the track, accompanied by a series of Rototoms.[48]

Voices

Several tracks, including "Us and Them" and "Time", are notable for demonstrating Richard Wright and David Gilmour's ability to harmonise their voices. In The Making of The Dark Side of the Moon, a 2003 DVD documentary on the production of the album, Roger Waters attributes this to the fact that along with their talent, their voices both sound extremely similar. To take advantage of this, Parsons perfected the use of other studio techniques such as the doubletracking of vocals and guitars, and other vocal multitracking which allowed Gilmour to harmonise with himself. He also made prominent use of flanging and phase shifting effects on vocals and instruments, odd trickery with reverb,[10] and the panning of sounds between channels (most notable in the quadraphonic mix of "On the Run", when the sound of the Hammond B3 organ played through a Leslie speaker rapidly swirls around the listener).[49]

The album's credits include Clare Torry. Torry was a cover singer who had worked on pop material, and after hearing her perform, Parsons invited her to the studio to sing on "The Great Gig in the Sky". In a few short takes on a Sunday night she improvised a wordless melody to accompany Richard Wright's emotive piano solo. Torry was initially embarrassed by her exuberance in the recording booth, and wanted to apologise to the band—only to find them delighted with her performance.[50] Her takes were then selectively edited, to produce the version used on the track.[14] For her contribution she was paid £30, equivalent to about £500 as of 2024.[51][52] In 2004, Torry sued EMI and Pink Floyd for song writing royalties, claiming that she co-wrote "The Great Gig in the Sky" with keyboardist Richard Wright. The High Court concluded that Torry was correct but the terms of the settlement were not disclosed.[53][54] All post-2005 pressings including "The Great Gig in the Sky" credit both Wright and Torry for the song.[55]

A middle-aged woman stands on a path amidst green vegetation, under bright sunlight. She wears a black T-shirt with a white logo, and holds a small piece of black card which carries the same logo. She has blue jeans, and white shoes. Her hair is cut short. She is looking slightly upward, over the head of the photographer.
Clare Torry in 2003

Snippets of voices between and over the music are a feature of the album. During recording sessions, Roger Waters recruited both the staff and the temporary occupants of the studio to answer a series of questions printed on flashcards. The interviewees were placed in front of a microphone in a darkened studio three,[56] and shown such questions as "What's your favourite colour?" and "What's your favourite food?", before moving on to themes more central to the album (such as madness, violence, and death). Questions were answered in the order they were presented, provoking surprising responses. The question "When was the last time you were violent?" was immediately followed by "Were you in the right?"[10] The recording of road manager Roger "The Hat" Manifold was the only one obtained through a conventional sit-down interview as initially the band could not find him, and by then the flashcards had been mislaid. When asked about a violent encounter he'd had with another motorist, Manifold's replied "… give 'em a quick, short, sharp shock …", and when asked about death he responded "live for today, gone tomorrow, that's me …"[57] 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".[58] Pink Floyd's road manager Peter Watts (father of actress Naomi Watts)[59] contributed the repeated laughter during "Brain Damage" and "Speak to Me". The monologue about "geezers" who were "cruisin' for a bruisin'" was delivered by Peter's second wife, Puddie (short for Patricia) Watts.[60] 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 studios' Irish doorman, Gerry O'Driscoll. Paul and Linda McCartney were also interviewed, but their answers were not included on the album.[61] McCartney's band mate Henry McCullough contributed the famous line "I don't know, I was really drunk at the time" (during the segue between "Money" and "Us and Them").[62]

Completion

Following the completion of the dialogue sessions, producer Chris Thomas was hired to provide 'a fresh pair of ears'. Thomas' background was musical rather than engineering. He had worked with Beatles manager George Martin, and was acquainted with Pink Floyd's manager Steve O'Rourke.[63] All four members of the band were engaged in a disagreement over the style of the mix. Waters and Mason preferred a "dry" and "clean" mix, making more use of the non-musical elements, but Gilmour and Wright preferred a subtler and more "echoey" mix.[64] Thomas later claimed there were no such disagreements, stating "There was no difference in opinion between them, I don't remember Roger once saying that he wanted less echo. In fact, there were never any hints that they were later going to fall out. It was a very creative atmosphere. A lot of fun."[65] Although the truth remains unclear, Thomas' intervention resulted in a welcome compromise between Waters and Gilmour, leaving both entirely satisfied with the end product. Thomas was responsible for significant changes to the album, including the perfect timing of the echo used on "Us and Them". He was also present for the recording of "The Great Gig in the Sky" (although Parsons was responsible for hiring Torry).[66] Interviewed in 2006, when asked if he felt his goals had been accomplished in the studio, Roger Waters said:

When the record was finished I took a reel-to-reel copy home with me and I remember playing it for my wife then, and I remember her bursting into tears when it was finished. And I thought, "This has obviously struck a chord somewhere", and I was kinda pleased by that. You know when you've done something, certainly if you create a piece of music, you then hear it with fresh ears when you play it for somebody else. And at that point I thought to myself, "Wow, this is a pretty complete piece of work", and I had every confidence that people would respond to it.

— Roger Waters, [67]

It felt like the whole band were working together. It was a creative time. We were all very open.

— Richard Wright, [68]

Packaging

The album was originally released in a gatefold LP sleeve designed by Hipgnosis and George Hardie, and bore Hardie's iconic refracting prism on the cover. Hipgnosis had designed several of the band's previous albums, with controversial results; EMI had reacted with confusion when faced with the cover designs for Atom Heart Mother and Obscured by Clouds, as they had expected to see traditional designs which included lettering and words. Designers Storm Thorgeson and Aubrey Powell were able to ignore such criticism as they were employed by the band. For The Dark Side of the Moon Richard Wright instructed them to come up with something "smarter, neater—more classy."[69] The prism design was inspired by a photograph that Thorgeson had seen in a brainstorming session with Powell. The artwork was created by Hipgnosis employee George Hardie. Hipgnosis offered the band a choice of seven designs, but all four members agreed that the prism was by far the best. The prism design represents three elements; the band's stage lighting, the album lyrics, and Richard Wright's request for a "simple and bold" design.[10] The spectrum of light continues through to the gatefold before being recombined on the back—an idea that Roger Waters came up with.[70] Added shortly afterwards, the gatefold design also includes a visual representation of the heartbeat used throughout the album, and the back of the album cover contains Thorgeson's suggestion of another prism recombining the spectrum of light, facilitating interesting layouts of the sleeve in record shops.[71] The light band emanating from the prism on the album cover is actually missing one color, Indigo. A normal prism would display a band of Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet.

Inside the sleeve were two posters, one bearing pictures of the band in concert with the words PINK FLOYD broken up and scattered about, and the other an image of the Great Pyramids of Giza taken on infrared film by Powell and Thorgeson.[71] Also included was a sheet of stickers of the pyramids. In 2003 VH1 named the album's cover as their 4th-greatest album cover of all time,[72] and in 2009 listeners of the UK radio station Planet Rock voted it the greatest album cover of all time.[73]

Founding member Syd Barrett had left the band in 1968, and the burden of lyrical composition had since then fallen mostly on Waters' shoulders.[17] He is therefore credited as the author of the album's lyrics, making The Dark Side of the Moon the first of five consecutive Pink Floyd albums with lyrics credited only to him.[74][nb 3] The band were so confident of the quality of the writing that, for the first time, they felt able to print them on the album's sleeve.[17] When in 2003 he was asked if his input on the album was "organising [the] ideas and frameworks" and David Gilmour's was "the music", Waters replied:

That's crap. There's no question that Dave needs a vehicle to bring out the best of his guitar playing. And he is a great guitar player. But the idea which he's tried to propagate over the years that he's somehow more musical than I am is absolute fucking nonsense. It's an absurd notion but people seem quite happy to believe it.

— Roger Waters, [13][nb 4] 

Release

A monochrome image of members of the band. The photograph is taken from a distance, and is bisected horizontally by the forward edge of the stage. Each band member and his equipment is illuminated from above by bright spotlights, also visible. A long-haired man holds a guitar and sings into a microphone on the left of the image. Central, another man is seated behind a large drumkit. Two men on the right of the image hold a saxophone or a bass guitar and appear to be looking in each other's general direction. In the foreground, silhouetted, are the heads of the audience.
A live performance The Dark Side of the Moon at Earls Court, shortly after its release in 1973. (l-r) Dave Gilmour, Nick Mason, Dick Parry, Roger Waters

With the exception of Wright, the band boycotted the press reception at the London Planetarium on 27 February,[75] as the quadraphonic mix was not yet complete. The guests were presented with a quartet of life-sized cardboard cutouts of the band, and the stereo mix of the album was presented through a poor-quality public address system.[76][77] Generally however, the press were enthusiastic; Melody Maker's Roy Hollingworth described side one as: "… so utterly confused with itself it was difficult to follow", but went on to praise side two, writing "The songs, the sounds, the rhythms were solid and sound, Saxophone hit the air, the band rocked and rolled, and then gushed and tripped away into the night."[78] Steve Peacock of Sounds wrote "I don't care if you've never heard a note of the Pink Floyd's music in your life, I'd unreservedly recommend everyone to The Dark Side of the Moon …"[76] In his 1973 album review for Rolling Stone magazine, Lloyd Grossman wrote: "a fine album with a textural and conceptual richness that not only invites, but demands involvement".[8]

The Dark Side of the Moon was released first in the US on 10 March 1973, and then in the UK on 23/24 March. It became an instant chart success in Britain and throughout Western Europe;[76] by the following month, it had gained a gold disc in the UK and US.[79] Throughout March 1973 the band played the album as part of their US tour, including a midnight performance at Radio City Music Hall in New York on 17 March. Highlights included an aircraft launched from the back of the hall at the end of "On the Run", crashing into the stage in a cloud of orange smoke. The performance was watched by an audience of 6,000 people. The album reached the Billboard album chart #1 spot on 28 April 1973,[nb 5][80] and was so successful that the band returned two months later for another tour.[81]

Label

Much of the album's early stateside success has been attributed to the efforts of Pink Floyd's US record company, Capitol Records. Newly-appointed chairman Bhaskar Menon set about trying to reverse the relatively poor sales of the band's previous studio album, Meddle. Meanwhile, disenchanted with Capitol the band and manager O'Rourke had been quietly negotiating a new contract with Columbia Records, with CBS president Clive Davis. The Dark Side of the Moon was the last album that Pink Floyd were obliged to release before formally signing a new contract. Menon's enthusiasm for the new album was such that he was responsible for a huge promotional advertising campaign, which included radio-friendly truncated versions of "Us and Them" and "Time".[82] Unusually, "Money" was released as a single on 7 May,[75] with "Any Colour You Like" on the B-side (in some countries—notably the UK—Pink Floyd had not released a single since 1968's "Point Me at the Sky"). It reached #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 in July 1973.[nb 6][83] A two-sided white label promotional version of the single, with mono and stereo mixes, was sent to radio stations. The mono side had the word "bullshit" removed from the song, leaving "bull" in its place, however the stereo side retained the uncensored version. This was subsequently withdrawn; the replacement was sent to radio stations with a note advising disc jockeys to dispose of the first uncensored copy.[84] "Time" was released on 4 February 1974, with "Us and Them" on the B-side.[nb 7][55] Menon's efforts to secure a contract renewal with Pink Floyd were in vain however; at the beginning of 1974, the band signed for Columbia with a reported advance fee of $1M (in Britain and Europe they continued to be represented by Harvest Records).[85]

Sales

The Dark Side of the Moon became one of the best selling albums of all time,[86] (not counting compilations and various artists soundtracks), and is in the top 25 of a list of best selling albums in the United States.[55][87] Although it held the #1 spot in the USA for only a week, it remained in the Billboard 200 for 741 weeks.[88] The album re-appeared on the Billboard charts with the introduction of the Top Pop Catalog Albums chart in May 1991, and it has been a perennial feature since then.[89] In the UK it is the sixth best-selling album of all time.[90]

… I think that when it was finished, everyone thought it was the best thing we'd ever done to date, and everyone was very pleased with it, but there's no way that anyone felt it was five times as good as Meddle, or eight times as good as Atom Heart Mother, or the sort of figures that it has in fact sold. It was something of a phenomena, and was not only about being a good album but also about being in the right place at the right time.

— Nick Mason, [77]

In the USA the LP was released before the introduction of platinum awards on 1 January 1976. It therefore held only a gold disc until 16 February 1990 when it was certified 11x platinum. On 4 June 1998 the RIAA certified the album 15x platinum,[55] denoting sales of fifteen million in the United States alone—making it their biggest-selling work there (The Wall is 23x platinum, but as a double album this signifies sales of 11.5 million).[91] "Time" and "Money" remain radio favourites; in the US, for the year ending 20 April 2005, "Time" was played on 13,723 occasions and "Money" on 13,731 occasions.[nb 8] "Money" has sold well as a single in its own right. Industry sources suggest that worldwide sales of the album total about 45 million.[92] Between 8,000–9,000 copies are sold each week,[86] and a total of 400,000 were sold in 2002, making it the 200th best-selling album of that year—nearly three decades after its initial release. According to a 2 August 2006 Wall Street Journal article, although the album was released in 1973, it has sold 7.7 million copies since 1991 in the USA alone and continues to log 9,600 sales per week domestically.[93] To this day, it occupies a prominent spot on Billboard's Pop Catalogue Chart. It reached #1 when the 2003 hybrid CD/SACD edition was released and sold 800,000 copies in the USA alone.[55] On the week of 5 May 2006 The Dark Side of the Moon achieved a combined total of 1,500 weeks on the Billboard 200 and Pop Catalogue charts.[67] It is estimated that one in every fourteen people in the USA under the age of fifty owns or has owned a copy.[55]

In 2006 it was voted "My Favourite Album" by viewers and listeners to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation,[94] and in 2003 Rolling Stone listed The Dark Side of the Moon 43rd on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.[95] It is also #2 on the Definitive 200 Albums of All Time, a list made by the National Association of Recording Merchandisers "in celebration of the art form of the record album".[96]

Reissues and remastering

A Compact Disc case rests open, on the platter of a hifi turntable, angled slightly by the spindle. The turntable is wooden, and the platter has a black felt top with a silver metal edge. The tonearm is visible to the right, with a silver cartridge. The CD case is angled away from the photographer, and to the right inside part of the case a black compact disc is held by a small plastic clip. The back part of the CD sleeve is held on the left part of the case. Writing is visible on the fascia of the CD.
The Mobile Fidelity CD Ultradisc release of the album

In 1979 The Dark Side of the Moon was released as a remastered LP by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab,[97] and in April 1988 on their "Ultradisc" gold CD format.[98] The album was released by EMI on the new compact disc format in 1984. In 1992, the album was re-released as a remastered CD in the box set Shine On.[55] This version was re-released as a 20th-anniversary box set edition with postcards in 1993. Cover design was by Storm Thorgerson, designer of the original 1973 cover.[99] Some have suggested that on later CD pressings a faintly audible orchestral version of The Beatles's "Ticket to Ride" can be heard after "Eclipse", over the heartbeats that close the album. This may have been the consequence of a remastering error.[55] This is not audible on the original vinyl.

The original quadraphonic mix,[nb 9] though commissioned by EMI, was not endorsed by the band.[37] It languished in obscurity for about 30 years until a DVD-Audio bootleg surfaced. The disc purports to be derived from the original studio masters, mixed by an anonymous individual who claimed to be a "professional sound engineer".[100] To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the album's release, an updated surround version was released in 2003. Some surprise was expressed when the band elected not to use the older quadraphonic mix from Parsons (mixed shortly after the original release), and instead chose to have their current engineer James Guthrie create a new 5.1 channel surround sound mix on the SACD format.[37][101] Guthrie has worked with the band since co-producing and engineering their 1979 release, The Wall, and had previously worked on surround versions of The Wall for DVD-video, and Waters's In the Flesh for SACD. Speaking in 2003, Alan Parsons expressed some disappointment with Guthrie's SACD mix:

I'm generally rather disappointed. It's not very discrete. There is some discrete information in there. But I found myself, about two-thirds of the way through, kind of forgetting that this was surround. James was possibly a little too true to the original mix. He could have taken some risks, as I did on the quad. One of the parameters I always work with when I'm mixing for surround is: Keep the Interest. If there's nothing going on, then stick something in the back.

— Alan Parsons, [37]

Speaking of the surround sound mix for "On the Run", Parsons said: "After hearing his mix for a while, I think I'm hearing stereo with a bit of surround." He praised the mix for other songs, particularly for "The Great Gig in the Sky"—"I tip my hat to James for sorting out the correct bits of Clare's vocals. And he has improved on the stereo mix, which is a bit wishy-washy. The stereo is heavy on the Hammond organ, and Clare's a little too far down. In my quad mix, the Hammond is barely there, which shows you I really wasn't being faithful to the stereo mix. The quad sounds pretty good, but James still has the edge. His mix is definitely cleaner, and he's brought Clare out a bit more."[102] This 30th-anniversary edition won four Surround Music Awards in 2003,[103] and has since sold more than 800,000 copies.[104] The cover design was created by a team of designers which again included Storm Thorgerson. The image is a photograph of a custom-made stained glass window, built to match the exact dimensions and proportions of the original. Transparent glass was used in place of the opaque colours of the original, held in place by strips of lead. The idea is derived from the "sense of purity in the sound quality, being 5.1 surround sound …" The image was created out of a desire to be "the same but different, such that the design was clearly DSoM, still the recognisable prism design, but was different and hence new …"[99]

The Dark Side of the Moon was also re-released in 2003 on 180-gram virgin vinyl (mastered by Kevin Gray at AcousTech Mastering) and included slightly different versions of the original posters and stickers that came with the original vinyl release, along with a new 30th anniversary poster.[105] In 2007 the album was included in Oh, by the Way, a box set celebrating the fortieth-anniversary of Pink Floyd,[106] and a DRM-free version was released on iTunes.[104]

Legacy

The success of the album brought previously unknown wealth to all four members of the band; Richard Wright and Roger Waters bought large country houses, and Nick Mason became a collector of upmarket cars.[107] Some of the profits were invested in the production of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The members of Pink Floyd were reportedly fans of Monty Python, to the point of interrupting recording sessions to watch Monty Python's Flying Circus.[108] Engineer Alan Parsons would go on to have a successful career of his own, although Roger Waters and David Gilmour have on occasion downplayed his contribution to the success of the album. Nick Mason however has praised his role.[109] Parsons received a Grammy Award for 'best engineered album' in 1973,[110] and reflecting on its success, in a recent interview for Rolling Stone he said "I think they all felt that I managed to hang the rest of my career on Dark Side of the Moon, which has an element of truth to it. But I still wake up occasionally, frustrated about the fact that they made untold millions and a lot of the people involved in the record didn't."[41]

The enduring legacy of The Dark Side of the Moon is however in its influence on modern music, the musicians who have performed cover versions of its songs, and even in modern urban myths. It is often seen as a symbolic point in the history of rock music, and a common comparison is one made between Pink Floyd and Radiohead, specifically their 1997 album OK Computer. Although Robert Christgau commented that the album lacked "soul", calling it "arid" and "ridiculous" and comparing it unfavourably to Pink Floyd,[111] the two albums do however share a common theme: the loss of a creative individual's ability to function in the modern world.[112] Mungolian Jetset's Knut Sævik has mentioned drawing inspiration from the album, in their recent work We Gave it All Away … Now We Are Taking It Back.[113] On 8 February 1995 the opening sequence of "Time" was played as a wakeup call for the crew of space mission STS-63.[114]

A range of performers have used samples of The Dark Side of the Moon in their own material. Milli Vanilli used the tape loops from Pink Floyd's "Money" to open their eponymously named track "Money", followed by Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch on Music for the People.[115] The album has been covered by several acts, both live and recorded. Progressive metal band Dream Theater have several times covered the album in their live shows.[116] On 2 November 1998 the band Phish covered the album in its entirety, as part of the second set of their live show in West Valley City, Utah.[117]

Covers

One of the more notable covers of The Dark Side of the Moon is Return to the Dark Side of the Moon: A Tribute to Pink Floyd. Released in 2006, the album is a progressive rock tribute featuring artists such as Adrian Belew, Tommy Shaw, Dweezil Zappa, and Rick Wakeman.[118] In 2000 The Squirrels released The Not So Bright Side of the Moon, which features a cover of the entire album.[119] The New York dub collective Easy Star All Stars in 2003 released Dub Side of the Moon.[120] From the Dark Side of the Moon is a song-by-song "re-imagining" of the album by former October Project vocalist Mary Fahl, but because of the V2 Records label's reorganisation, the recording has not been officially released. The group Voices on The Dark Side released the album Dark Side Of The Moon A Cappella, a complete a cappella version of the album.[121] Jazz musicians Sam Yahel, Mike Moreno, Ari Hoenig and Seamus Blake released Jazz Side Of The Moon in 2008,[122] and the bluegrass band Poor Man's Whiskey frequently play the album in bluegrass style, calling the suite Dark Side of the Moonshine[123]. A string quartet version of the album was released in 2004.[124]

Dark Side of the Rainbow

The Dark Side of the Rainbow, or The Dark Side of Oz, is the title of a rumour circulated on the Internet since at least 1994—that the Dark Side of the Moon was written as a soundtrack to the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. Observers playing the film and the album simultaneously have reported apparent synchronicities, such as Dorothy beginning to jog as the band sings "no one told you when to run".[125] David Gilmour and Nick Mason have both denied a connection between the two works, and Roger Waters has described the rumours as "amusing".[126] Alan Parsons has stated that the film was not mentioned during production of the album.[127]

Track listing

All lyrics are written by Roger Waters

Side one
No.TitleMusicLead vocalsLength
1."Speak to Me"MasonInstrumental1:30
2."Breathe"Waters, Gilmour, WrightGilmour2:43
3."On the Run"Gilmour, WatersInstrumental3:30
4."Time" (containing "Breathe (Reprise)")Mason, Waters, Wright, GilmourGilmour and Wright6:53
5."The Great Gig in the Sky"Wright, Clare Torry[nb 10]Clare Torry4:15
Side two
No.TitleMusicLead vocalsLength
1."Money"WatersGilmour6:30
2."Us and Them"Waters, WrightGilmour and Wright7:34
3."Any Colour You Like"Gilmour, Mason, WrightInstrumental3:24
4."Brain Damage"WatersWaters3:50
5."Eclipse"WatersWaters1:45

Personnel

Sales chart performance

Year Chart Position Comment Source
1973 UK Albums Chart 2 [55][129]
1973 US Billboard 200 1 [55]
1973 Swedish album chart 16 [130]
1973 Norwegian album chart 2 [131]
1980 Norwegian album chart 9 Re-entry [131]
1993 UK Albums Chart 4 Reissue [129]
1993 US Billboard Top Pop Catalog Albums 1 Reissue
1993 Australian ARIA Albums Chart 11 Reissue [132]
1994 UK Albums Chart 38 Reissue [129]
2003 UK album chart 17 30th Anniversary hybrid SACD edition [129]
2003 US Billboard Top Pop Catalog Albums 1 30th Anniversary hybrid SACD edition
2003 Norwegian album chart 7 30th Anniversary hybrid SACD edition [131]

Selected album sales

Country Certification Sales Last certification date Comment Source(s)
Australia 11× Platinum 770,000+ [133]
Austria 2× Platinum 60,000+ 15 May 2003 [134]
Canada 2× Diamond 2,000,000+ March 2003 [135]
Germany 2× Platinum 400,000+ 1993 [136]
Poland Platinum 20,000+ 2003 [137]
United Kingdom 9× Platinum 3,956,177 as of 14 June 2009 15 April 2005 Sixth best-selling album in UK [138][139]
United States RIAA 15× Platinum 15,000,000+ 6 April 1998 11x Platinum in 1990 [140]
United States Soundscan 8,360,000+ Since 1991-February 2007 [141]

Notes

  1. ^ "At one time, it was called Eclipse because Medicine Head did an album called Dark Side of the Moon. But, that didn't sell well, so what the hell. I was against Eclipse and we felt a bit annoyed because we had already thought of the title before Medicine Head came out. Not annoyed at them but because we wanted to use the title."—David Gilmour[22]
  2. ^ This material was later released under the title Obscured by Clouds.[23]
  3. ^ The sleeve notes for Wish You Were Here, Animals, and The Wall credit Roger Waters as sole lyricist. The Final Cut is considered to be a de facto Waters album.
  4. ^ Gilmour's comments on this matter may be found on page 7 of John Harris' book.
  5. ^ Povey (2007) claims the album reached #1 on 28 March. Harris (2006) gives the date 28 April and includes a list of chart positions in that month, and so this is the source used for this date.
  6. ^ Harvest / Capitol 3609
  7. ^ Harvest / Capitol 45373
  8. ^ According to Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems[86]
  9. ^ Harvest Q4SHVL-804
  10. ^ All post-2005 pressings including "The Great Gig in the Sky" credit both Wright and Torry for the song, as per her successful court challenge.[128]

References

Footnotes
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Bibliography

Further reading

  • Mabbett, Andy (1995), The Complete Guide to the Music of Pink Floyd, Omnibus Pr, ISBN 071194301X
  • Randall, Mac (2000), Exit Music: The Radiohead Story, Delta, ISBN 0385333935

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Dark_Side_of_the_Moon&oldid=313610697"