Could "The Dark Side of The Moon" Be The Greatest Album Ever?

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There have been many rock artists over the years that have solidified themselves as being important stars - be that the Beatles' energetic, experimental sounds, the heavy metal style of Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, or Black Sabbath, or the folky and progressive blend of Jethro Tull.

But of all the most popular bands, NONE have come even CLOSE to achieving worldwide fame and success than Pink Floyd. The band's sound combining electronics, tape loops, sound effects, and generally complex rhythms. After rather slow start to their career, the band literally broke out with their 1973 record The Dark Side of The Moon. It was this record that established them as highly prolific musicians.

Pink Floyd first performed the album live during their 1972 world tour with the working title of Dark Side of the Moon: A Piece for Lunatics. Despite the band's numerous spacial references (think Astronomy, Two Suns in Sunset, Set the Controls for the Heart of The Sun, and did I mention Point me At the Sky) the album relates to lunacy. According to Roger Waters, the album was made to reflect the feelings many people have that makes them mad. Therefore, it's a recurring theme that makes the album a concept album. The album features many philosphical spoken word quotes. The band posed various questions to workers at Abby Road at the time. In The Great Gig in The Sky, a solo piece by vocalist Claire Torry, the question was, "Are you afraid of dying?" to which Gerry O'Driscoll, Abbey Road doorman answered "I'm not afraid of dying. Any day will do. Why should I be afraid of dying? There's no reason for it."

Some of the other questions included "What's your favorite color?" "When was the last time you were violent?" and "Were you in the right?" All these can be heard at various stages throughout the album the latter during Money.

Speaking of Money, in my opinion the song is cleverly placed in the center being that "money is the center of all life." The song was written by Roger Waters on his acoustic guitar inside his small garden shed studio. The opening of Time features sounds of various clocks chiming and ticking, which engineer Alan Parsons recorded at an antique clock shop. The song being about the "flow of time and how it impacts our life."

What's also recouring on the album is the chord sequence. First heard during Breathe, which segues from Speak to Me, a sort of "overture" featuring a heartbeat that "bookends" the album. The chord progression, heard on songs Breathe, Breathe(Reprise), partly on The Great Gig in The Sky, and heavily on Any Colour You Like, utilizes the following chord progression:
Am-A7-D-Am-A7-D-F-Em-D-G flat-A-flat-Am.

The sun and moon are used as astronomical metaphors throughout the album. In Time, for instance, the second verse uses the sun in its first two lines to describe the passage of time.

Well you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking.
Racing around to come up behind you again.

As we know, "the sun never sets." This then means that days go by too quickly for people, especially the youth, and many do thing such as chasing dreams instead of taking time to enjoy life.

The final song, Eclipse, apart from recycling a few opening lines from the album, utilizes the moon as a metaphor:

Everything under the sun is in tune.
But the sun is eclipsed by the moon

 This basically can mean that the sun - representing happiness, is hidden by things such as sadness and fear. Brain Damage also includes an allusionary line to Syd Barrett ...and if the band you're in starts playing different tunes, I'll see you on the Dark Side of the Moon.

DSOTM sold 45 million copies worldwide and was one of the most important points of Pink Floyd's career. The album features an extensive usage of synthesizers such as the VC5 on On The Run, as well as the Synthai on Time in addition to Richard Wright's then popular Farfisa organ.

The success of the album became the building blocks to future Pink Floyd projects. In 1974 the band started a "Household Objects" project using sounds from common household items after the sounds of clocks and cash registers from DSOTM. While the project was scrapped, bits can be heard such as on Shine on You Crazy Diamond off their 1975 follow-up Wish You Were Here. Bookending also became common. Like the thumbing bass drum heartbeat, WYWH featured Shine On being split in half to open the first side and close the second side of the album. The same happened on their 1977 record Animals with Pigs on The Wing.

There's really no undereastimating the success and value of this album to our pop culture. It still gets SOME attention on classic rock stations. If you haven't heard the album in its entirety, why not do it? While you're at it, remember...

..."There is no dark side in the moon really. Matter fact it's all dark!"

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