Dark Side of the Moon 1973
Well, if anyone thought I was going to be wishy-washy about this LP because of over exposure or it's not hip to praise it, they can forget that.
Dark Side is a classic. Perhaps the perfect blend of psych and prog, every track is stunning. This is what the band had been working up to for years. Some might say the studio craft verges on sterility, that the icy perfection is akin to Steely Dan or something, but there's plenty of emotion here too, and the performances are stellar, the songs brilliant. The tone, the vibe is everything in music like this - there's a reason it's one of the biggest-selling albums of all-time. This was their cross-over in the U.S. In fact, I dunno how it was in England, but in the States, virtually every cut has become an FM staple over the past almost fifty years.
We talk about LPs of that year like
Selling England by the Pound or
Larks' Tongues in hushed tones, the epitome of progressive rock. Well, this has every right to be ranked right up there with the best of them - and it sold more than both of those records put together - massively more, in fact. Even the LP cover is iconic. I used to have the posters that came with it up on my wall too.
This review is gonna be a monster. There is endless amounts of stuff to discuss about
The Dark Side of the Moon, so sit down, get yourself a drink, throw the album on, and let's begin:
Wiki: "
The Dark Side of the Moon is the eighth studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 1 March 1973 by Harvest Records. Primarily developed during live performances, the band premiered an early version of the suite several months before recording began. The record was conceived as an album that focused on the pressures faced by the band during their arduous lifestyle, and dealing with the apparent mental health problems suffered by former band member Syd Barrett, who departed the group in 1968. New material was recorded in two sessions in 1972 and 1973 at Abbey Road Studios in London.
The record builds on ideas explored in Pink Floyd's earlier recordings and performances, while omitting the extended instrumentals that characterised their earlier work. The group employed multitrack recording, tape loops, and analogue synthesisers, including experimentation with the EMS VCS 3 and a Synthi A. Engineer Alan Parsons was responsible for many sonic aspects and the recruitment of singer Clare Torry, who appears on "The Great Gig in the Sky".
A concept album,
The Dark Side of the Moon explores themes such as conflict, greed, time, death and mental illness. Snippets from interviews with the band's road crew are featured alongside philosophical quotations. The sleeve, which depicts a prism spectrum, was designed by Storm Thorgerson in response to keyboardist Richard Wright's request for a "simple and bold" design, representing the band's lighting and the album's themes. The album was promoted with two singles: "Money" and "Us and Them".
The Dark Side of the Moon is among the most critically acclaimed records in history, often featured on professional listings of the greatest albums of all time. The record helped propel Pink Floyd to international fame, bringing wealth and plaudits to all four of its members. A blockbuster release of the album era, it also propelled record sales throughout the music industry during the 1970s. It has been certified 14× platinum in the United Kingdom, and topped the US Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart, where it has charted for 962 weeks in total. With estimated sales of over 45 million copies, it is Pink Floyd's most commercially successful album, and one of the best-selling albums worldwide. In 2012, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
BackgroundFollowing
Meddle in 1971, Pink Floyd assembled for a tour of Britain, Japan and the United States in December that year. 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 conceived an album that dealt with things that "make people mad", focusing on the pressures associated with the band's arduous lifestyle, and dealing with the apparent mental health problems suffered by former band member Syd Barrett. The band had explored a similar idea with the 1969 concert suite
The Man and The Journey.[ In an interview for
Rolling Stone, guitarist 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.
For the most part, all four members approved of Waters' concept for an album unified by a single theme. Waters, Gilmour, Mason and keyboardist Richard Wright participated in the writing and production of the new material, and Waters created the early demo tracks at his Islington home in a small studio built in his garden shed. Parts of the 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, and the basic structure of "Us and Them" was borrowed from an original composition, "The Violent Sequence" by Wright for
Zabriskie Point. The band rehearsed at a warehouse in London owned by the Rolling Stones, and then at the Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park, London. They also purchased extra equipment, which included new speakers, a PA system, a 28-track mixing desk with a four channel quadraphonic output, 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. The album had been given the provisional title of
Dark Side of the Moon (an allusion to lunacy, rather than astronomy). However, after discovering that title had already been used by another band, Medicine Head, it was temporarily changed to
Eclipse. The new material premiered at The Dome in Brighton, on 20 January 1972, and after the commercial failure of Medicine Head's album the title was changed back to the band's original preference.
Dark Side of the Moon: A Piece for Assorted Lunatics, as it was then known, was performed in the presence of an assembled press on 17 February 1972 – more than a year before its release – at the Rainbow Theatre, and was critically acclaimed. Michael Wale of The Times described the piece as "bringing tears to the eyes. It was so completely understanding and musically questioning." Derek Jewell of
The Sunday Times wrote "The ambition of the Floyd's artistic intention is now vast."
Melody Maker was 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." The following tour was praised by the public. The new material was performed in the same order in which it was eventually sequenced on the album release; differences included the lack of synthesisers in tracks such as "On the Run", and Clare Torry's vocals on "The Great Gig in the Sky" being replaced by readings from the Bible.
Pink Floyd's lengthy tour through Europe and North America gave them the opportunity to make continual improvements to the scale and quality of their performances. Work on the album was interrupted in late February when the band travelled to France and recorded music for French director Barbet Schroeder's film
La Vallée. They then performed in Japan and returned to France in March to complete work on the film. After a series of dates in North America, the band flew to London to begin recording, from 24 May to 25 June. More concerts in Europe and North America followed before the band returned on 9 January 1973 to complete the album.
ConceptThe Dark Side of the Moon built upon experiments Pink Floyd had attempted in their previous live shows and recordings, but it lacks the extended instrumental excursions which, according to critic David Fricke, had become characteristic of the band following founding member Syd Barrett's departure in 1968. Gilmour, Barrett's replacement, later referred to those instrumentals as "that psychedelic noodling stuff". He and Waters cited 1971's
Meddle as a turning point towards what would be realised on the album.
The Dark Side of the Moon's lyrical themes include conflict, greed, the passage of time, death and insanity, the latter inspired in part by Barrett's deteriorating mental state. The album contains musique concrète on several tracks.
Each side of the album is a continuous piece of music. The five tracks on each side reflect various stages of human life, beginning and ending with a heartbeat, exploring the nature of the human experience and, according to Waters, "empathy". "Speak to Me" and "Breathe" together highlight the mundane and futile elements of life that accompany the ever-present threat of madness, and the importance of living one's own life – "Don't be afraid to care". By shifting the scene to an airport, the synthesiser-driven instrumental "On the Run" evokes the stress and anxiety of modern travel, in particular Wright's fear of flying. "Time" examines the manner in which its passage can control one's life and offers a stark warning to those who remain focused on mundane pursuits; it is followed by a retreat into solitude and withdrawal in "Breathe (Reprise)". The first side of the album ends with Wright and vocalist Clare Torry's soulful metaphor for death, "The Great Gig in the Sky".
Opening with the sound of cash registers and loose change, the first track on side two, "Money", mocks greed and consumerism using tongue-in-cheek lyrics and cash-related sound effects. "Money" became their most commercially successful track, and has been covered by several artists in subsequent years. "Us and Them" addresses the isolation of the depressed with the symbolism of conflict and the use of simple dichotomies to describe personal relationships. "Any Colour You Like" tackles the illusion of choice one has in society. "Brain Damage" looks at 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 different tunes" reflects the mental breakdown of former bandmate Syd Barrett. The album ends with "Eclipse", which espouses the concepts of alterity and unity, while forcing the listener to recognise the common traits shared by humanity.
RecordingThe Dark Side of the Moon was recorded at Abbey Road Studios between May 1972 and January 1973. Pink Floyd were assigned staff engineer Alan Parsons, who had worked as assistant tape operator on their fifth album,
Atom Heart Mother (1970), and gained experience as a recording engineer on the Beatles'
Abbey Road and
Let It Be.
The Dark Side of the Moon sessions made use of advanced studio techniques; the studio was capable of 16-track mixes, which offered greater flexibility than the eight- or four-track mixes Pink Floyd had previously used, although they often used so many tracks that to make more space available second-generation copies were made.
The first track recorded was "Us and Them" on 1 June, followed six days later by "Money". Waters had created effects loops from recordings of various money-related objects, including coins thrown into a mixing bowl taken from his wife's pottery studio; these were rerecorded to take advantage of the band's decision to record a quadraphonic mix of the album. Parsons later expressed dissatisfaction with the result of this mix, attributed to a lack of time and the paucity of available multi-track tape recorders.
"Time" and "The Great Gig in the Sky" were recorded next, followed by a two-month break, during which the band spent time with their families and prepared for an upcoming tour across the United States. The recording sessions were frequently interrupted; Waters, a supporter of Arsenal F.C., would often break to see his team compete, and 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. In an interview in 2003, Gilmour said: "We would sometimes watch them but when we were on a roll, we would get on."
On returning from the US in January 1973, they recorded "Brain Damage", "Eclipse", "Any Colour You Like" and "On the Run", while fine-tuning the work from the previous sessions. A group of four 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. Once the recording sessions were complete, the band began a tour of Europe.
InstrumentationThe album features metronomic sound effects during "Speak to Me", and tape loops opening "Money". Mason created a rough version of "Speak to Me" at his home, before completing it in the studio. The track serves as an overture and contains cross-fades of elements from other pieces on the album. A piano chord, replayed backwards, serves to augment the build-up of effects, which are immediately followed by the opening of "Breathe". Mason received a rare solo composing credit for "Speak to Me".
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, which were used to create a 7-beat effects loop (later adapted to four tracks to create a "walk around the room" effect in quadraphonic presentations of the album). At times the degree of sonic experimentation on the album required the engineers and band 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").
Along with the conventional rock band instrumentation, Pink Floyd added prominent synthesisers 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, such as an assistant engineer running around the studio's echo chamber (during "On the Run"), and a specially treated bass drum made to simulate a human heartbeat (during "Speak to Me", "On the Run", "Time" and "Eclipse"). This heartbeat is most prominent as the intro and the outro to the album, but it can also be heard sporadically on "Time" and "On the Run". "Time" features assorted clocks ticking, then chiming simultaneously at the start of the song, accompanied by a series of Rototoms. The recordings were initially created as a quadraphonic test by Parsons, who recorded each timepiece at an antique clock shop. Although these recordings had not been created specifically for the album, elements of this material were eventually used in the track.
VoicesSeveral tracks, including "Us and Them" and "Time", demonstrated Richard Wright's and David Gilmour's ability to harmonise their voices. In the 2003
Classic Albums documentary
The Making of The Dark Side of the Moon, Waters attributed this to the fact that their voices sounded extremely similar. To take advantage of this, Parsons used studio techniques such as the double tracking of vocals and guitars, which allowed Gilmour to harmonise with himself. The engineer also made prominent use of flanging and phase shifting effects on vocals and instruments, odd trickery with reverb, 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).
The album's credits include Clare Torry, a session singer and songwriter, and a regular at Abbey Road. She had worked on pop material and numerous cover albums, one of which convinced Parsons to invite her to the studio to sing on Wright's composition "The Great Gig in the Sky". She declined this invitation as she wanted to watch Chuck Berry perform at the Hammersmith Odeon, but arranged to come in on the following Sunday. The band explained the concept behind the album, but were unable to tell her exactly what she should do. Gilmour was in charge of the session, and in a few short takes on a Sunday night Torry improvised a wordless melody to accompany Wright's emotive piano solo. She 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. Her takes were then selectively edited to produce the version used on the track. For her contribution she was paid £30, her standard session fee, equivalent to about £400 in 2022. In 2004, she sued EMI and Pink Floyd for 50% of the songwriting royalties, arguing that her contribution to "The Great Gig in the Sky" was substantial enough to be considered co-authorship. The case was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum, with all post-2005 pressings crediting Wright and Torry jointly.
Snippets of voices between and over the music are another notable feature of the album. During recording sessions, 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 3, 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 such as "When was the last time you were violent?", followed immediately by "Were you in the right?", were answered in the order they were presented. Roger "The Hat" Manifold proved difficult to find, and was the only contributor recorded in a conventional sit-down interview, as by then the flashcards had been mislaid. Waters asked him about a violent encounter he had had with another motorist, and Manifold replied "... give 'em a quick, short, sharp shock ..." When asked about death he responded "live for today, gone tomorrow, that's me ..." Another roadie, Chris Adamson, who was on tour with Pink Floyd, recorded the snippet which opens the album: "I've been mad for fucking years – absolutely years". The band's road manager Peter Watts (father of actress Naomi Watts) contributed the repeated laughter during "Brain Damage" and "Speak to Me". His second wife, Patricia "Puddie" Watts (now Patricia Gleason), was responsible for the line about the "geezer" who was "cruisin' for a bruisin'" used in the segue between "Money" and "Us and Them", and the words "I never said I was frightened of dying" heard halfway through "The Great Gig in the Sky".
Several responses "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 sometime" and closing words "there is no dark side in the moon, really. As a matter of fact it's all dark" came from the studios' Irish doorman, Gerry O'Driscoll. Paul and Linda McCartney were also interviewed, but their answers were judged to be "trying too hard to be funny", and were not included on the album. The McCartneys' Wings bandmate Henry McCullough contributed the line "I don't know, I was really drunk at the time".
CompletionFollowing the completion of the dialogue sessions, producer Chris Thomas was hired to provide "a fresh pair of ears". Thomas's background was in music, rather than engineering. He had worked with Beatles producer George Martin, and was an acquaintance of Pink Floyd's manager, Steve O'Rourke. All four members of the band were engaged in a disagreement over the style of the mix, with Waters and Mason preferring a "dry" and "clean" mix that made more use of the non-musical elements, and Gilmour and Wright preferring a subtler and more "echoey" mix. 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." Although the truth remains unclear, Thomas's 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). Interviewed in 2006, when asked if he felt his goals had been accomplished in the studio, 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.PackagingThe album was originally released in a gatefold LP sleeve designed by Hipgnosis and George Hardie. 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 Thorgerson 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". The design was inspired by a photograph of a prism with a colour beam projected through it that Thorgerson had found in a photography book, as well as by album cover inventor Alex Steinweiss' illustration for the New York Philharmonic's 1942 performance of Ludwig van Beethoven's
Emperor Concerto.
The artwork was created by their associate, 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 final design depicts a glass prism dispersing light into colour. The design represents three elements: the band's stage lighting, the album lyrics, and Wright's request for a "simple and bold" design. The spectrum of light continues through to the gatefold – an idea that Waters came up with. Added shortly afterwards, the gatefold design also includes a visual representation of the heartbeat sound used throughout the album, and the back of the album cover contains Thorgerson's suggestion of another prism recombining the spectrum of light, facilitating interesting layouts of the sleeve in record shops. The light band emanating from the prism on the album cover has six colours, missing indigo compared to the traditional division of the spectrum into red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Inside the sleeve were two posters and two pyramid-themed stickers. One poster bore pictures of the band in concert, overlaid with scattered letters to form PINK FLOYD, and the other an infrared photograph of the Great Pyramids of Giza, created by Powell and Thorgerson.
The band were so confident of the quality of Waters' lyrics that, for the first time, they printed them on the album's sleeve.
ReleaseAs the quadraphonic mix of the album was not then complete, the band (with the exception of Wright) boycotted the press reception held at the London Planetarium on 27 February. The guests were, instead, presented with a quartet of life-sized cardboard cut-outs of the band, and the stereo mix of the album was played over a poor-quality public address system. 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 praised 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." 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". In his 1973 review for
Rolling Stone magazine, Loyd Grossman declared
Dark Side "a fine album with a textural and conceptual richness that not only invites, but demands involvement". In
Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau found its lyrical ideas clichéd and its music pretentious, but called it a "kitsch masterpiece" that can be charming with highlights such as taped speech fragments, Parry's saxophone, and studio effects which enhance Gilmour's guitar solos.
The Dark Side of the Moon was released first in the US on 1 March 1973, and then in the UK on 16 March. It became an instant chart success in Britain and throughout Western Europe; by the following month, it had gained a gold certification in the US. 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 City on 17 March before an audience of 6,000. The album reached the
Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart's number one spot on 28 April 1973, and was so successful that the band returned two months later for another tour.
LabelMuch of the album's early American success is 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 1971 studio album
Meddle. Meanwhile, disenchanted with Capitol, the band and manager O'Rourke had been quietly negotiating a new contract with CBS president Clive Davis, on Columbia Records.
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 began a huge promotional advertising campaign, which included radio-friendly truncated versions of "Us and Them" and "Time". In some countries – notably the UK – Pink Floyd had not released a single since 1968's "Point Me at the Sky", and unusually "Money" was released as a single on 7 May, with "Any Colour You Like" on the B-side. It reached number 13 on the
Billboard Hot 100 in July 1973. 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. On 4 February 1974, a double A-side single was released with "Time" on one side, and "Us and Them" on the opposite side. 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).
SalesThe Dark Side of the Moon became one of the best-selling albums of all time and is in the top 25 of a list of best-selling albums in the United States. Although it held the number one spot in the US for only a week, the album remained in the
Billboard 200 albums chart for 736 nonconsecutive weeks (from 17 March 1973 to 16 July 1988).
The Dark Side of the Moon made its final appearance in the
Billboard 200 albums during its initial run on the week ending 8 October 1988, in its 741st charted week. The album re-appeared on the
Billboard charts with the introduction of the
Top Pop Catalog Albums chart in the issue dated 25 May 1991, and was still a perennial feature ten years later. It reached number one on the
Pop Catalog chart when the 2003 hybrid CD/SACD edition was released and sold 800,000 copies in the US.On the week of 5 May 2006
The Dark Side of the Moon achieved a combined total of 1,716 weeks on the
Billboard 200 and
Pop Catalog charts. Upon a change in chart methodology in 2009 allowing catalogue titles to be included in the
Billboard 200,
The Dark Side of the Moon returned to the chart at number 189 on 12 December of that year for its 742nd charting week. It has continued to sporadically appear on the
Billboard 200 since then, with the total at 962 weeks on the chart as of February 2022. "On a slow week" between 8,000 and 9,000 copies are sold. As of April 2013, the album had sold 9,502,000 copies in the US since 1991 when Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales for
Billboard. One in every fourteen people in the US under the age of 50 is estimated to own, or to have owned, a copy.
In terms of US sales certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA),
The Dark Side of the Moon was released before the introduction of platinum awards in 1976. It therefore held only a gold certification by the RIAA until 16 February 1990, when it was certified 11× platinum. On 4 June 1998, the RIAA certified the album 15× platinum, denoting sales of fifteen million in the United States – making it their biggest-selling work there (
The Wall is 23× platinum, but as a double album this signifies sales of 11.5 million). "Money" has sold well as a single, and as with "Time", remains a radio favourite; in the US, for the year ending 20 April 2005, "Time" was played on 13,723 occasions, and "Money" on 13,731 occasions.
In 2017
The Dark Side of the Moon was the seventh-best-selling album of all time in the UK and the highest selling album never to reach number one.
In 2013 industry sources suggested that worldwide sales of
The Dark Side of the Moon totalled about 45 million.
"The combination of words and music hit a peak," explained Gilmour. "All the music before had not had any great lyrical point to it. And this one was clear and concise. The cover was also right. I think it's become like a benevolent noose hanging behind us. Throughout our entire career, people have said we would never top the
Dark Side record and tour. But
The Wall earned more in dollar terms."As one of the blockbuster LPs of the album era (1960s–2000s),
The Dark Side of the Moon also led to an increase in record sales overall into the late 1970s."
Pink FloydDavid Gilmour – vocals, guitars, Synthi AKS
Nick Mason – drums, percussion, tape effects
Richard Wright – organ (Hammond and Farfisa), piano, electric piano (Wurlitzer, Rhodes), EMS VCS 3, Synthi AKS, vocals
Roger Waters – bass guitar, vocals, VCS 3, tape effects
Additional musiciansDick Parry – saxophone on "Us and Them" and "Money"
Clare Torry – vocals on "The Great Gig in the Sky"
Doris Troy – backing vocals
Lesley Duncan – backing vocals
Liza Strike – backing vocals
Barry St. John – backing vocals
Side one1. "Speak to Me" (Nick Mason) instrumental 1:05
That opening heart beat sound signals you're about to go on a stereophonic journey unlike anything you've ever heard. The "Money" sounds, Clare Torrey's vocals, the spoken word parts, etc. It's almost like a preview of the upcoming album. Perhaps the most throw-away cut on the LP, but that hardly matters.
"Nick Mason receives a rare solo writing credit for the track, though recollections differ as to the reasons for this. Mason states that he created the track himself, whereas Richard Wright and Roger Waters stated the credit was a "gift" to Mason to give him some publishing income (subsequently regretted by the latter, following his acrimonious departure from the band). A live version is included on
Pulse.
CompositionThe song itself is a sound collage, which features no lyrics (although it contains parts of the conversation tapes that Pink Floyd recorded, as well a short snippet of Clare Torry's vocal performance on "The Great Gig in the Sky"), and consists of a series of sound effects. It leads into the first performance piece on the album, "Breathe". As a result, they are usually played together on the radio, and most later re-releases merge the two songs.
Sound effectsNoticeable sound and instrument effects include:
Heartbeat; this can also be heard at the end of "Eclipse"
Clock ticking, also heard in "Time"
Manic laughter of Peter Watts, also heard in "Brain Damage"
Cash register, also heard in "Money"
Helicopter noise, also heard in "On the Run"
Clare Torry's scream, also heard in "The Great Gig in the Sky"
Backwards piano chord, which leads into "Breathe"
Spoken partsI've been mad for fucking years, absolutely years. I've been over the edge for yonks, been working with bands so long. I think 'Crikey'.
I've always been mad, I know I've been mad, like the most of us have. Very hard to explain why you're mad, even if you're not mad." - Wikipedia
2. "Breathe" (In the Air) (Richard Wright, David Gilmour) 2:49
And here we have that lazy psych delivered by the band in that hazy manner which Gilmour sings so beautifully. The lyrics are quite good on this LP. Their sound is fully-developed here, and the way the tracks segue into each other compliments the concept album aspect of the experience. The first of many radio staples on the record - at least here in the States.
Wiki - "The authorship and composition of this song is credited to David Gilmour and Richard Wright for the music and Roger Waters for the lyrics.
Dark Side, admitted the latter, "is a little adolescent and naïve in its preoccupations, but I'm not belittling it. It's like a rather wonderful, naïve painting. 'Breathe in the air / Don't be afraid to care' – that's the opening couplet. Well, yeah, I can cop that, but it's kind of simplistic stuff."
The song is slow-paced and rich in texture, and features Gilmour playing the electric guitar with a Uni-Vibe and lap steel guitar with a volume pedal and several overdubs. On the original album, it is a separate track from "Speak to Me", the sound collage that opens the first side. Since this track segues into "Breathe" via a sustained backwards piano chord, the two are conjoined on most CD versions of the album. A one-minute reprise features at the end of the song "Time", without the slide guitar and using Farfisa organ and Wurlitzer electronic piano in place of Hammond organ and Rhodes piano.
The chords for much of the song alternate between E minor(add9) and A major, with a turnaround appearing before the verses and then functioning as a chorus, consisting of C major seventh, B minor seventh, F major seventh, D7(♯9) and D7(♭9).
Along with the other Pink Floyd tracks, "Time" and "The Great Gig in the Sky", "Breathe" is seen as Gilmour "carving out a more distinctive style" with the introduction of blues-based chords and solos. "Breathe" has also been seen to "embrace ecology".
This song was one of several to be considered for the band's "best of" album,
Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd.
Alternative and live versionsThe
Pulse CD and DVD features a live version of the song with a run time of 2:33.
The song was played at the Live 8 concert and features on the DVD. For that performance, "Breathe" and "Breathe (Reprise)" were combined to form one song. Although Pink Floyd themselves had never done this before, the London Philharmonic Orchestra had previously covered the song in this manner on their 1995 album
Us and Them: Symphonic Pink Floyd.
The solo Roger Waters DVD and CD,
In the Flesh – Live, features a version of the song sung by Doyle Bramhall and Jon Carin.
Waters originally recorded a song called "Breathe" for
Music from The Body, a soundtrack album which he recorded with Ron Geesin. Although the two are largely different in lyrics, chords and subject matter, this version can be seen as an early version of the song. Although the song is still available through CD and digital releases of this soundtrack album, it often appears on Pink Floyd bootlegs, most notably on
A Tree Full of Secrets.Live versions with Richard Wright appear on the Gilmour solo
Remember That Night DVD and
Live in Gdańsk CD. The
Live in Gdańsk version is titled "Breathe (In the Air)" rather than just "Breathe".
"Breathe (Reprise)" appears (along with "Time") on Gilmour's 2017 live video and album
Live at Pompeii."
3. "On the Run" (Waters, Gilmour) instrumental 3:45
Basically a link to the next track, but more than that because they really stretch out here with the sound effects. Synths were all the rage in the early-to-mid '70s and they're utilized on this track like no other instrument. Roger and Dave going to town in the studio.
"It is an instrumental piece performed on an EMS synthesizer (Synthi AKS). It deals with the pressures of travel, which, according to Richard Wright, would often bring fear of death.
CompositionThis piece was created by entering an 8-note sequence into a Synthi AKS synthesiser made by the British synthesiser manufacturer EMS and speeding it up, with an added white noise generator creating the hi-hat sound. The band then added backwards guitar parts, created by dragging a microphone stand down the fretboard, reversing the tape, and panning left to right. There are also other Synthi and VCS 3 synthesizer parts, made to sound like a vehicle passing, giving a Doppler effect. The 8 note sequence is played at a tempo of 165 BPM, while both filter frequency and resonance are modulated. Near the end, the only guitar part is heard: a chord over the explosion of the presumed aircraft, which gradually fades, segueing into the chiming clocks introduction of the following track "Time".
When
The Dark Side of the Moon was performed in 1972 (before the album was released), it went under the title "The Travel Sequence" and was, instead of a complex electronic instrumental, a more simple guitar jam, without the use of synthesizers and other electronic instruments. A short clip of this is played on the DVD Classic Albums:
Pink Floyd – The Making of The Dark Side of the Moon and can also be heard on all performances of Pink Floyd playing the album live in that year.
'
We had originally go an "On the Run," a different thing, which is on a live one if you've heard one of those bootlegs, you might have heard a different version of it than is on Dark Side of the Moon.
We had a sort of guitar passage, but it wasn't very good. We'd just got this new synthesizer, a briefcase model EMS-1 [Synthi AKS], and in the lid there was a little sequencer thing. I was playing with the sequencer device attachment, and came up with this sound, which is the basic sound of it. Roger sort of heard it, came over and started playing with it, too. Then he actually put in the notes that we made...it was his sequence, that "de-di-doo-de-di-dil"- -whatever it was. He made that little sequence up, but I had got the actual original sound and I actually was the one doing the controlling on the take that we used. Then we chucked all sorts of things over the top of it afterwards.'
— David Gilmour
Voices27 seconds into the piece, the sound of a female voice on a loudspeaker can be heard; apparently an airport public address system. The announcer says, "Have your baggage and passport ready and then follow the green line to customs and immigration. BA 215 to Rome, Cairo and Lagos." Engineer Alan Parsons later reused this sample on the "Sea Lions in the Departure Lounge" bonus track of the 2007 Deluxe Edition of
Tales of Mystery and Imagination by the Alan Parsons Project.
At 1:54, Roger "The Hat" Manifold, Pink Floyd road manager says: "Live for today, gone tomorrow. That's me", then laughs.
ReceptionIn a contemporary review for
The Dark Side of the Moon, Loyd Grossman of
Rolling Stone described "On the Run" as a "standout with footsteps racing from side to side successfully eluding any number of odd malevolent rumbles and explosions only to be killed off by the clock's ticking that leads into "Time."
Live performancesDuring the first official performance of
Dark Side of the Moon, at the Rainbow Theatre on 17 February 1972, a version of this song was played with guitar, keyboard and drums instead of the synthesizer track that appeared on the album. Subsequent performances matched the album version and, at the end of the song, a model aeroplane would fly from one end of the arena to the other, appearing to crash in a brilliant explosion. The same effect was used in the
A Momentary Lapse of Reason tour, but with a flying bed rather than an aeroplane.
The Division Bell tour would reuse the aeroplane, only this time with the back of it in flames for additional effects.
A live version of the song can be heard on the
Delicate Sound of Thunder concert video, although it did not appear on the album release, however, it appears on the 2019 reissue and remixed version of the album. Another live version appears on the CD, vinyl, and DVD releases of
Pulse.
Roger Waters and his solo band performed this song live from 2006 to 2008 during his tour,
The Dark Side of the Moon Live.
The song was used by longtime public address announcers Tommy Edwards and Ray Clay of the Chicago Bulls organization during the Michael Jordan era as the theme for the visiting team at Bulls home games. This also marked the first use of songs of any kind in the live setting in the NBA". - Wiki
4. "Time" (Waters, Gilmour, Wright, Mason) 6:53
The chimes at the beginning used to shock the teenage me into awareness when they came bursting out of the speakers. The first real CLASSIC cut on the LP, this is a group composition from a time when they still wrote things like this - before Roger all but took over as de facto songwriter for the band. The drums, the pacing, the smooth guitars, the cool-as-fuck vocals and memorable words. It couldn't be any better really. Pretend you haven't heard it a thousand times before and marvel at the sheer perfection of this track. A beyond perfect minimalist guitar solo from Dave is icing on the prog cake.
Wikipedia: "It is included as the fourth track on their eighth album
The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) and was released as a single in the United States. Bassist Roger Waters wrote the lyrics, and the music is credited to all four band members. Keyboardist Richard Wright shares lead vocals (his last until "Wearing the Inside Out" on
The Division Bell) alongside guitarist David Gilmour.
The lyrics deal with the passage of time. Waters got the idea when he realised he was no longer preparing for anything in life, but was right in the middle of it. He has described this realisation taking place at ages 28 and 29 in various interviews. It is noted for its long introductory passage of clocks chiming and alarms ringing. The sounds were recorded in an antique store made as a quadrophonic test by engineer Alan Parsons, not specifically for the album.
The album track also includes a reprise of the song "Breathe". It is the only song on album to credit all four principal members for songwriting, and last to do so in the band's discography.
Composition"Time" is in the key of F♯ minor. Each clock at the beginning of the song was recorded separately in an antiques store. These clock sounds are followed by a two-minute passage dominated by Nick Mason's drum solo, with rototoms and backgrounded by a tick-tock sound created by Roger Waters picking two muted strings on his bass. With David Gilmour singing lead on the verses and with Richard Wright singing lead on the bridges and with female singers and Gilmour providing backup vocals, the song's lyrics deal with Roger Waters' realization that life was not about preparing yourself for what happens next, but about grabbing control of your own destiny.
He [Alan Parsons] had just recently before we did that album gone out with a whole set of equipment and had recorded all these clocks in a clock shop. And we were doing the song Time, and he said "Listen, I just did all these things, I did all these clocks," and so we wheeled out his tape and listened to it and said "Great! Stick it on!" And that, actually, is Alan Parsons' idea.— David Gilmour
The drums used on the Time track are roto-toms. I think we did some experiments with some other drums called boo-bans, which are very small, tuned drums, but the roto-toms actually gave the best effect.— Nick Mason
According to an interview by Phil Taylor in 1994, David Gilmour had been using a Lexicon PCM-70 to store the circular delay sounds heard in "Time", which could duplicate the kind of echo he used to get from his old Binson echo unit.
The verse chords cycle through F♯ minor, A major, E major, and F♯ minor again. During this section, Gilmour's guitar and Wright's keyboards are panned to the extreme right and left of the stereo spectrum, respectively. Gilmour sings lead during this section.
The bridge section, with Wright singing lead, has a notably "thicker" texture, with the female backing vocalists singing multi-tracked "oohs" and "aahs" throughout, and Gilmour singing harmony with Wright in the second half. The chords of this section are D major seventh to A major ninth, which is repeated. The D major seventh, with the notes of D, F♯, A, and C♯, can be heard as an F♯ minor chord with a D in the bass, fitting the song's overall key. The second half progresses from D major seventh to C♯ minor, then B minor to E major.
The first bridge leads to a guitar solo by Gilmour, which plays over the verse and bridge progressions. The solo is followed by another verse sung by Gilmour. When the bridge is repeated, it does not conclude on E major as before. Instead, the B minor leads to an F major chord, while Waters's bass stays on B, resulting in an unusual dissonance as a transition to the key of E minor for "Breathe (Reprise)".
Pink Floyd performed the song live from 1972 to 1975, and after the departure of Waters, from 1987 to 1994. Waters began performing the song in his solo concerts, singing the verses himself, beginning in 1999 with
In the Flesh and again with
The Dark Side of the Moon Live from 2006 to 2008 (occasionally featuring guest appearances from Nick Mason) and the
Us + Them Tour from 2017 to 2018. Gilmour has performed the song live on every one of his solo tours since Pink Floyd's
Pulse tour, with the late Richard Wright sharing vocals until his death.
ReceptionIn a contemporary review for
The Dark Side of the Moon, Loyd Grossman of
Rolling Stone gave "Time" a positive review, describing the track as "a fine country-tinged rocker with a powerful guitar solo by David Gilmour".
FilmDuring live performances, the band back-projected a specially-commissioned, animated film by Ian Emes. The film was subsequently included as an extra on the
Pulse DVD"
5. "The Great Gig in the Sky" (Wright, Clare Torry) 4:43
We always were in awe of Clare Torry's voice on this cut. What might come off as filler the first few times you hear it, is in fact, one of the highlights of the album. It's been done many times live with many different singers, but no one can touch this performance.
Wiki:"The song began life as a Richard Wright chord progression, known variously as "The Mortality Sequence" or "The Religion Song". During the first half of 1972 it was performed live as a simple organ instrumental, accompanied by spoken-word samples from the Bible and snippets of speeches by Malcolm Muggeridge, a British writer known for his conservative religious views. By September 1972, the lead instrument had been switched to a piano, with an arrangement very similar to the final form but without vocals and a slightly different chord sequence in the middle. Various sound effects were tried over the track, including recordings of NASA astronauts communicating on space missions, but none were satisfactory. Finally, a couple of weeks before the album was due to be finished, the band thought of having a female singer "wail" over the music.
Clare Torry's vocalsAs the band began casting around for a singer, album engineer Alan Parsons suggested Clare Torry, a 25-year-old songwriter and session vocalist. Parsons had previously worked with Torry, and had liked her voice on a T
op of The Pops covers album. An accountant from Abbey Road Studios contacted Torry and tried to arrange a session for the same evening, but she had other commitments, including tickets to see Chuck Berry that evening, so a session was scheduled for Sunday evening between 7 and 10pm.
The band played the instrumental track for Torry and asked her to improvise a vocal. At first, Torry struggled to divine what the band wanted, but then she was inspired to pretend that she herself was an instrument. She performed two complete takes, the second one more emotional than the first. David Gilmour asked for a third take, but halfway through Torry stopped, feeling she was getting repetitive and had already done the best she could. The final album track was assembled from all three takes. The members of the band were deeply impressed by Torry's performance, yet she left the studio with a standard £30 flat fee under the impression that her vocals would never make the final cut given the general lack of response from the band. She only became aware they were used when she saw the album at a local record store, spotted her name in the credits and purchased it. A 2005 out-of-court undisclosed settlement in Torry's favour included giving her vocal composition credit.
Quotes from those involvedGreat Gig in the Sky? It was just me playing in the studio, playing some chords, and probably Dave or Roger saying "Hmm… that sounds nice. Maybe we could use that for this part of the album." And then, me going away and trying to develop it. So then I wrote the music for that, and then there was a middle bit, with Clare Torry singing, that fantastic voice. We wanted something for that bit, and she came in and sang on it.— Richard Wright
It was something that Rick had already written. It's a great chord sequence. "The Great Gig in the Sky" and the piano part on "Us and Them," in my view, are the best things that Rick did – they're both really beautiful. And Alan [Parsons] suggested Clare Torry. I've no idea whose idea it was to have someone wailing on it. Clare came into the studio one day, and we said, "There's no lyrics. It's about dying – have a bit of a sing on that, girl." I think she only did one take. And we all said, "Wow, that's done. Here's your sixty quid."— Roger Waters
She [Torry] had done a covers album; I can remember that she did a version of "Light My Fire." I just thought she had a great voice. When the situation came up, they started head-scratching, saying, "Who are we going to get to sing on this?" I said, "I've got an idea – I know this girl." She came, and in a couple of hours it was all done. She had to be told not to sing any words: when she first started, she was doing "Oh yeah baby" and all that kind of stuff, so she had to be restrained on that. But there was no real direction – she just had to feel it.— Alan Parsons
Clare Torry didn't really look the part. She was Alan Parsons' idea. We wanted to put a girl on there, screaming orgasmically. Alan had worked with her previously, so we gave her a try. And she was fantastic. We had to encourage her a little bit. We gave her some dynamic hints: "Maybe you'd like to do this piece quietly, and this piece louder." She did maybe half a dozen takes, and then afterwards we compiled the final performance out of all the bits. It wasn't done in one single take.
— David Gilmour
I went in, put the headphones on, and started going 'Ooh-aah, baby, baby – yeah, yeah, yeah.' They said, 'No, no – we don't want that. If we wanted that we'd have got Doris Troy.' They said, 'Try some longer notes', so I started doing that a bit. And all this time, I was getting more familiar with the backing track. […] That was when I thought, 'Maybe I should just pretend I'm an instrument.' So I said, 'Start the track again.' One of my most enduring memories is that there was a lovely can [i.e headphone] balance. Alan Parsons got a lovely sound on my voice: echoey, but not too echoey. When I closed my eyes – which I always did – it was just all-enveloping; a lovely vocal sound, which for a singer, is always inspirational.— Clare Torry
Chris Thomas, who was brought in to assist Alan Parsons in mixing the album, mentions that they were actually in mixdown at the time. On the DVD
Classic Albums: Pink Floyd – The Making of The Dark Side of the Moon, various members mention that they had this song and were not sure what to do with it. Wright further mentions that when Torry finished, she was apologetic about her performance even though those present were amazed at her improvisation.
LawsuitIn 2004, Torry sued Pink Floyd and EMI for songwriting royalties, on the basis that her contribution to "Great Gig in the Sky" constituted co-authorship with Richard Wright. Originally, she had been paid the standard Sunday flat studio rate of £30 (equivalent to £400 in 2020). In 2005, prior to a hearing in the High Court, an out-of-court settlement was reached. Although the terms of the settlement were not disclosed, on all pressings after 2005 the composition is co-credited to both Richard Wright and Clare Torry.
Spoken partsOn
Classic Albums: Pink Floyd – The Making of The Dark Side of the Moon, it is pointed out that during the recording of the album, in which death and life had been a consistent theme, the members of the band went around asking questions and recording responses from people working inside Abbey Road at the time. Among the questions, they were asked "Are you afraid of dying?". The responses of doorman Gerry O'Driscoll and the wife of their road manager Peter Watts were used, as well as other spoken parts throughout the album ("I've always been mad", "That geezer was cruisin' for a bruisin").
(At 0:39)
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 sometime.
— Gerry O'Driscoll, Abbey Road Studios janitorial "browncoat" (At 3:33, faintly)
I never said I was frightened of dying.— Patricia 'Puddie' Watts, wife of road manager Peter Watts
ReceptionIn a contemporary review for
The Dark Side of the Moon, Lloyd Grossman of
Rolling Stone described "The Great Gig in the Sky" as a track [Pink Floyd] could have "shortened or dispensed with". However, in a readers poll from the same magazine, the track was selected as the second greatest vocal performance of all time behind "Bohemian Rhapsody".
Live performancesAn early incarnation of the song, titled "The Mortality Sequence" and lacking the vocals later contributed by Clare Torry, was performed by Pink Floyd throughout 1972. In its final version, "The Great Gig in the Sky" was performed live from 1973 to 1975, and from 1987 to 1994.
During the band's 1974–1975 tour, David Gilmour played both pedal steel guitar and the Hammond organ, allowing Richard Wright to concentrate solely on piano (his keyboards were arranged where he couldn't play both). Gilmour's pedal steel for "Great Gig" was located accordingly beside Wright's Hammond. Vocal duties were handled by Venetta Fields and Carlena Williams, both former members of the Blackberries. The 16 November 1974 performance can be found in the
Experience 2-CD and
Immersion box set editions of
The Dark Side of the Moon.
Starting in 1987, additional touring keyboardist Jon Carin took over the Hammond parts. Up to three singers performed the vocals, each taking different parts of the song. On the
Delicate Sound of Thunder video, with footage from June and August 1988, the vocals are shared by Rachel Fury, Durga McBroom and Margret Taylor. Clare Torry returned for the Knebworth 1990 concert, released in 2021 live album
Live at Knebworth 1990.
The 1994 live album
P•U•L•S•E features a version sung by Sam Brown, Durga McBroom and Claudia Fontaine. When the Floyd's manager, Steve O'Rourke, died in 2003, Gilmour, Wright, and Mason played "Fat Old Sun" and "The Great Gig in the Sky" at O'Rourke's funeral. According to Durga McBroom, Richard Wright liked her version the best. As per his wishes, she sang the song at Wright's funeral.
Roger WatersTorry joined Roger Waters to perform the song live during three dates of
K.A.O.S. On the Road in 1987. In the 1999 leg of Waters'
In the Flesh tour, only the piano intro was played between "Breathe (reprise)" and "Money."
In the 2006–08
The Dark Side of the Moon Live tour,
The Dark Side of the Moon was played in its entirety and the song was performed by Carol Kenyon. "The Great Gig in the Sky" made a return in
Us + Them Tour (2017–18), performed by Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig and documented in the concert film and live album
Roger Waters: Us + Them (2019).
David GilmourThe song was occasionally performed in the final legs of
Rattle That Lock Tour, most notably in the Amphitheatre of Pompeii on 7 and 8 July 2016, with Lucita Jules, Louise Clare Marshall and Bryan Chambers sharing the vocals. The Pompeii performance is part of Gilmour's
Live at Pompeii live album and film.
CommercialA short clip of the song was used in a 1974 TV advertisement for Dole bananas. A re-recorded version was used as the backing music in a UK television advertisement for the analgesic Nurofen in 1990. The band was not involved in this version, but Clare Torry again did the vocal with Rick Wright on keyboards, Neil Conti on drums and Lati Kronlund on bass.
'Rick wrote that music. He remade it for them. It's down to the writer. If my name had been on that track too it wouldn't have happened. I wouldn't do it. But that's Rick's business. I didn't approve of it, but I have no control over it.'— David Gilmour
Use in filmsThe Clare Torry section was used in
Good Morning, Night, an Italian movie about the 1978 Aldo Moro kidnapping and assassination.
In the film
School of Rock, Dewey (Jack Black) assigns the Clare Torry section to Tomika (Maryam Hassan) as homework, but it is only mentioned and not heard.
The Clare Torry section was prominently used in the trailer for the 2018 movie
Roma, written and directed by Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón.
Cover versionsOn the
Easy Star All-Stars' Dub Side of the Moon album, there are two different dub music versions of the track, "The Great Gig in the Sky" (Track 4) and "Great Dub in the Sky" (Track 11).
The London Philharmonic Orchestra performs an instrumental version, arranged by Jaz Coleman and conducted by Peter Scholes, on the 1995 album
Us and Them: Symphonic Pink Floyd.Phish does a live cover on track 6 of disc 3 of
Live Phish Vol. 7.
Seattle local band The Squirrels did a full-length parody "tribute" of
The Dark Side of the Moon in 1999 titled
The Not-So-Bright Side of the Moon. Their version of "Great Gig" has vocalist Baby Cheevers singing after guitarist Joey Kline says "Sorry, the girl didn't show up!"
On the 2009 Flaming Lips remake of
Dark Side, Peaches performs Clare Torry's vocals and Henry Rollins recreates the interview samples.
The progressive metal band Dream Theater performs this song in their "Official Bootlegs: Covers" series, with Theresa Thomason taking over vocal duties.
The Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps, from Canton, Ohio, played an arrangement of the song with multiple trumpets performing the vocal part for their Drum Corps International world championship winning 2016 show "Down Side Up."
The Australian Pink Floyd Show performed the song with Ola Bieńkowska doing a near-exact replica of the vocal."
Side two6. "Money" (Waters) 6:22
Quite possibly the best track to be found here. The sound effects, the bass line, the catchy vocal melody offering simple, yet effective lyrics - all combine to create their first classic 45 in America. The most identifiable song from their biggest album. I wouldn't change a thing. A sax solo to die for too.
"Released as a single, it became the band's first hit in the United States, reaching number 10 in
Cash Box magazine and number 13 on the
Billboard Hot 100. "Money" is noted for its unusual 7/4–4/4 time signature, and the tape loop of money-related sound effects (such as a ringing cash register and a jingle of coins) that is heard periodically throughout the song, including on its own at the beginning.
Composition"Money" has been described as a progressive rock, blues rock,and hard rock song. Although Roger Waters and David Gilmour have made recent comments stating that the song had been composed primarily in 7/8 time,Rick Wright stated in a 2000 US radio interview that "Money" was composed in 7/4, as stated by Gilmour in an interview with
Guitar World magazine in 1993.
The song changes to 4/4 time for an extended guitar solo. The first of three choruses which comprise the solo was recorded using real-time double tracking. Gilmour played the chorus nearly identically in two passes recorded to two different tracks of a multi-track tape machine. The second chorus is a single guitar. The doubled effect for the third chorus was created using automatic (or "artificial") double-tracking (ADT).
One of Gilmour's ideas for the solo section was that, for the second chorus of the solo, all reverb and echo effects would be completely off (referred to as "dry"), creating the sense of just four musicians playing in a small room. For this "dry" chorus, all musicians played softly and subtly, with Gilmour's solo, now one single guitar, playing very sparsely. Then, for the third chorus, the dynamics would suddenly rise, with heavy use of reverb and echo (a "wet" sound), additional rhythm-guitar parts in the background, and the drums becoming heavy and almost chaotic.
The form and chord progression are based on the standard twelve-bar blues in the key of B minor, with the vocal melody and nearly all of Gilmour's soloing based on the pentatonic and blues scales. Two twelve-bar verses are followed by a twenty-bar instrumental section that features a blues-style tenor saxophone solo (played by Dick Parry) along with keyboard, bass and drums and a further two-bar intro in 4/4 leading to the guitar solo, which is structured like a twelve-bar blues, but doubled to a twenty-four-bar length.
The lyrics are briefly referenced in the film
Pink Floyd – The Wall, when the protagonist, Pink, is caught writing poems in class by his teacher. The teacher snatches the poem book from him and reads it in a very sarcastic, demeaning manner, practically encouraging Pink's classmates to laugh. The poem is a verse of lyrics to "Money".
"Money interested me enormously," Waters remarked on the twentieth anniversary of
Dark Side. "I remember thinking, 'Well, this is it and I have to decide whether I'm really a socialist or not.' I'm still keen on a general welfare society, but I became a capitalist. You have to accept it. I remember coveting a Bentley like crazy. The only way to get something like that was through rock or the football pools. I very much wanted all that material stuff."
RecordingThe demo tracks for the song, including some of the sound effects, were recorded in a makeshift recording studio Roger Waters had in his garden shed. As recorded by the band, the song has a "bluesy, transatlantic feel", unlike Waters' original demo version, which he later described as "prissy and very English". As heard on
Classic Albums: Pink Floyd – The Making of The Dark Side of the Moon, the demo is in the key of G-sharp minor, as opposed to the B minor of the final version.
The instrumental jam was a collaborative effort, with Gilmour overseeing the time change as well as his own guitar and vocal work, and Richard Wright and Nick Mason improvising their own parts. Dick Parry contributed the tenor saxophone solo that precedes the guitar solo. Gilmour's input is also discernible in the final mix, which features contrasting "wet" sections, with thick reverb and delay effects, and "dry" sections. In particular, during the second chorus of the guitar solo, all the reverb and delay effects are suddenly pulled out, creating a much smaller and more intimate virtual space. To produce the distinctive piercing high notes that distinguish the final chorus of his solo, Gilmour played a customized Lewis guitar with twenty-four frets, allowing a full four-octave range.
One of the most distinctive elements of "Money" is the rhythmic sequence of sound effects that begins the track and is heard throughout the first several bars. This was created by splicing together recordings Waters had made of clinking coins, a ringing cash register, tearing paper, a clicking counting machine and other items to construct a seven-beat effects loop. The original loop was used for early live performances, but had to be re-recorded onto multi track tape for the album. It was later adapted to four tracks in order to create a "walk around the room" effect in the quadraphonic mix of
The Dark Side of the Moon.
In the documentary
Classic Albums: Pink Floyd – The Making of The Dark Side of the Moon, engineer Alan Parsons described the recording of the band's initial backing track for the song: they used the sound-effect tape loop as a sort of metronome, but Parsons gradually faded out the loop before the vocals started. As the song progressed, the band gradually sped up, yet later, between the second verse and the saxophone solo, Parsons briefly raised up the volume of the effects loop, and just by coincidence, it turned out to fit the beat. After this point, the loop is not heard again.
Re-recordingThe song was re-recorded for the 1981 Pink Floyd album,
A Collection of Great Dance Songs, because Capitol Records refused to license the track to Columbia Records in the United States.
With the help of co-producer James Guthrie, David Gilmour re-recorded the song, providing the vocals and playing all the instruments except saxophone, where Parry reprised his role on the original recording. This re-recorded version lasts 15 seconds longer than the original album edition.
Four different quadraphonic versions of the song were also released on
Quadrafile, a demonstration record released in 1976. These represent the only Pink Floyd material released in QS, CD-4 and UD-4 quadraphonic formats.
Atom Heart Mother,
The Dark Side of the Moon and
Wish You Were Here were released in the more successful SQ format.
LiveFrom 1972 to 1975, "Money" was a regular feature of the band's
Dark Side of the Moon set, and it was routinely performed as an encore during the band's 1977 tour. These later performances would typically last as long as twelve minutes. From 1987 to 1990, the band performed the song during tours supporting
A Momentary Lapse of Reason, their first album without Waters, who had left the band in December 1985. In 1994 the band performed the song during tours supporting
The Division Bell, their second album without Waters. An extended version of the song, again lasting up to twelve minutes, was regularly performed during Gilmour's 1984 US tour in support of his solo album
About Face.
Waters has also regularly included it on his solo tours. For his tour supporting T
he Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking, he sang the lead vocals himself. For his
Radio K.A.O.S. tour, guest vocalist and keyboardist Paul Carrack sung the lead. For the American part of his
In the Flesh tour, it was sung by Doyle Bramhall II, while for the European part it was sung by Chester Kamen. For
The Dark Side of the Moon Live, it was sung by Dave Kilminster. "Money" was also performed by Waters at
Live Earth's Concert at Giants Stadium on 7 July 2007.
"Money" was performed during Pink Floyd's reunion show, for which Waters rejoined the band (after more than two decades), at the Live 8 concert in London in 2005, along with "Breathe" (including the reprise that follows "Time"), "Wish You Were Here" and "Comfortably Numb". Unusually for a live Pink Floyd performance, at Live 8 the band kept the song's solo to three choruses, as it is on the album.
Gilmour played the song regularly during his
Rattle That Lock Tour in 2015 and 2016.
ReceptionPink Floyd's album
The Dark Side of the Moon was released 1 March 1973.[17] "Money" is the only song from
The Dark Side of the Moon to make its appearance on the
Billboard Top 100 list of 1973, where it was ranked 92. In 2008,
Guitar World magazine listed David Gilmour's solo on "Money" as No. 62 among readers' votes for "The Greatest 100 Guitar Solos." The song was also ranked No. 69 on the list of "The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time" of
Rolling Stone. This song avoids more typical Pink Floyd themes such as paranoia, insanity, the meaning of life, and the passage of time, instead, the lyrics criticize crass materialism.
VideoThe music video for "Money" features scenes of various ways of making and spending money, and includes brief close-ups of a coin spinning, coins flowing in a mint, gold ingots in a bank, and a record copy of
The Dark Side of the Moon on a turntable. In addition, the video also includes shots of the album making its way down a conveyor belt in a factory/distribution plant as well as shots of gramophone records and audio equipment being destroyed by explosives during the song's bridge." - Wiki
7. "Us and Them" (Wright) 7:49
The one-two punch of "Money" into "Us and Them" might be the high point of an LP comprised of nothing but. Wright's finest hour (do I really believe that? Could be...) with another Dick Parry sax part and superb backing vocals. I'm in heaven. It could go on forever and I wouldn't care.
Wiki: The music was written by Richard Wright with lyrics by Roger Waters. It is sung by David Gilmour, with harmonies by Wright. The song is 7 minutes and 49 seconds, the longest on the album.
"Us and Them" was released as the second single from
The Dark Side of the Moon in the United States, peaking at No. 72 on the
Cash Box Top 100 Singles chart in March 1974. The single peaked at No. 85 in the Canadian chart.
Composition"Us and Them" is rather quiet in tone and dynamics, with prominent jazz influence, although the choruses are louder than the verses. It has two saxophone solos in it, one at the beginning and another towards the end of the song. Richard Wright introduces the song with harmonies on his Hammond organ, and put a piano chordal backing and short piano solo afterwards on the arrangement. The tune was originally written on the piano by Wright for the film
Zabriskie Point in 1969 and was titled "The Violent Sequence". In its original demo form it was instrumental, featuring only piano and bass. Director Michelangelo Antonioni rejected it on the grounds that it was too unlike material such as "Careful with That Axe, Eugene", which was the style of music he wanted to use. As Roger Waters recalls it in impersonation, Antonioni's response was: "It's beautiful, but is a too sad, you know? It makes me think of church".The song was then shelved until the making of
The Dark Side of the Moon.
The lyrics of the song were written by Waters. They describe the senseless nature of war and the ignorance of modern-day humans who have been taken over by consumerism and materialism. In an interview, Waters shared the significance of each verse:
The first verse is about going to war, how on the front line we don’t get much chance to communicate with one another, because someone else has decided that we shouldn’t. The second verse is about civil liberties, racism and colour prejudice. The last verse is about passing a tramp in the street and not helping.The verses have a unique, jazz-influenced chord progression: Dsus2, D6add9 (or Esus2/D), D minor major 7, and G/D. The tonic of D, alternating with the dominant, A, is sustained on bass guitar as a pedal point throughout the verses. The D6 with an added 9th is not unlike an Esus2 with a D in the bass, but because the bass line also provides the fifth, it is more accurately described as a kind of D chord. The D minor chord with a major seventh is a rarity in 1970s rock music. There is also a secondary sequence, louder, with thick vocal harmonies, with a progression of B minor, A major, G major seventh suspended second, commonly written as "Gmaj7sus2" (enharmonic to the slash chord D/G), and C major. This progression is played twice between each verse, and is not unlike a chorus, except that the lyrics are different with each repeat.
In the middle, there is a break during which roadie Roger "The Hat" Manifold speaks.
It was also re-released on the 2001 best of album,
Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd, where it is the seventh track of the second disc. The ending of the song was edited in this version, with the vocals from the last measure treated with heavy delay, and the music track muted entirely, to avoid the seamless transition to "Any Colour You Like" that occurs on
The Dark Side of the Moon.Spoken partsThe following dialogue by the band's roadie, Roger "The Hat" Manifold, one of his two spoken segments on the album, is heard before the second saxophone solo (5:04):
Well I mean, they're not gonna kill ya, so like, if you give 'em a quick sh ... short, sharp shock, they don't do it again. Dig it? I mean 'e got off light, 'cause I coulda given 'im a thrashin' but I only hit 'im once. It's only the difference between right and wrong innit? I mean good manners don't cost nothin' do they, eh?ReceptionCash Box called it a "hypnotizing ballad" that is "as pretty as it is commercial."
Alternative and live versionsThe original demo from the
Zabriskie Point sessions was released on
The Dark Side of the Moon Immersion Box Set in 2011.
The instrumental "Violent Sequence" was performed on a handful of occasions in early 1970. These performances were much the same as the
Zabriskie Point demo, with some added percussion from Nick Mason. On at least two occasions, the song was paired with another piece from the
Zabriskie sessions, "Heart Beat, Pig Meat".
In early 1972 performances, a short audio clip of a man groaning in torturous pain would be played at the beginning of the song, immediately highlighting the song's theme of violence. The song did not include any saxophone and the lead vocals were performed by Waters and Wright, with David Gilmour providing backing vocals.
It was occasionally featured as an encore during the band's 1977
In the Flesh tour (this was performed at most shows on the band's 1977 US tours during the encore). It was often used to intentionally calm the often rowdy stadium audiences.
P·U·L·S·E and the second disc and video of
Delicate Sound of Thunder feature this track. Both versions are shorter than the original studio recording, and the latter features a slightly altered saxophone solo.
The Delicate Sound of Thunder recording ends on a major key before being interrupted by the sound effects from "Money", effectively reversing the original sequence. This same order of events was also used on 1994 nights that didn't include the entire
Dark Side of the Moon in sequence.
On
Echoes, the song has a different ending: instead of segueing into what would be the next track on
The Dark Side of the Moon ("Any Colour You Like"), engineer and Floyd collaborator James Guthrie gave the song a cold ending, before adding a backwards piano note that would lead into the collection's next track, "Learning to Fly".
Waters included the song in his 2006–08
The Dark Side of the Moon Live tour, with Jon Carin replacing Gilmour on lead vocals, and Waters replacing Wright on harmony vocals.
Waters performed the song during his set during the live TV Benefit concert "12-12-12: The Concert for Sandy Relief" (2012). This version ends with a full stop but while Pink Floyd sans Waters closed it on a D major, Waters instead opted for a B minor chord.
Gilmour played the song on his
Rattle That Lock Tour 2015–16, with an ending similar to that of the 1988–1989 tour.
Waters performed the song during his 2017-2018 concert tour, released as the concert film
Us + Them (2019). The ending (cold ending with decaying vocal echo) is closer to the version of the
Echoes compilation."
8. "Any Colour You Like" (Gilmour, Mason, Wright) instrumental 3:26
Almost sounding like a continuation of "Us and Them," this is synth soloing, mainly. No contribution from Roger either. They didn't need him. PF knew how to utilize synths and economical guitar like no other band.
"
CompositionThe piece itself has no lyrics and consists of a synthesised tune which segues into a guitar solo (some scat vocals are added later; these were more prominent in live versions but are still audible in the studio recording). It is approximately three minutes, 25 seconds in length. The song used advanced effects for the time both in the keyboard and the guitar. The VCS 3 synthesizer was fed through a long tape loop to create the rising and falling keyboard solo. David Gilmour used two guitars with the Uni-Vibe guitar effect to create the harmonizing guitar solo for the rest of the song. "Any Colour You Like" is also known (and is even listed on the
Dark Side guitar tablature book) as "Breathe (Second Reprise)" because the song shares the same beat (albeit somewhat funkier and uptempo) as the album's second song "Breathe". It has also nearly the same chord sequence just transposed a whole step lower from E minor to D minor. In the original liner notes, songwriting credits contain a typo with Nick Mason's last name listed as Marson.
While the song is instrumental, it has been speculated that the song ties to
The Dark Side of the Moon concept by considering the lack of choice one has in human society, while being deluded into thinking one does. It is also speculated that the song is about the fear of making choices. The origin of the title is unclear. One possible origin comes from an answer frequently given by a studio technician to questions put to him, "You can have it any colour you like," which was a reference to Henry Ford's apocryphal description of the Model T, "You can have it any color you like, as long as it's black." (Ford said something very like this in his autobiography.)
Waters may have settled this question, in an interview with the musicologist and author Phil Rose, for Rose's collection of analytical essays, Which One's Pink?:
"In Cambridge where I lived, people would come from London in a van -- a truck -- open the back and stand on the tailboard of the truck, and the truck's full of stuff that they're trying to sell. And they have a very quick and slick patter, and they're selling things like crockery, china, sets of knives and forks. All kinds of different things, and they sell it very cheap with a patter. They tell you what it is, and they say 'It's ten plates, lady, and it's this, that, and the other, and eight cups and saucers, and for the lot I'm asking NOT ten pounds, NOT five pounds, NOT three pounds... fifty bob to you!', and they get rid of this stuff like this. If they had sets of china, and they were all the same colour, they would say, 'You can 'ave 'em, ten bob to you, love. Any colour you like, they're all blue.' And that was just part of that patter. So, metaphorically, 'Any Colour You Like' is interesting, in that sense, because it denotes offering a choice where there is none. And it's also interesting that in the phrase, 'Any colour you like, they're all blue', I don't know why, but in my mind it's always 'they're all blue', which, if you think about it, relates very much to the light and dark, sun and moon, good and evil. You make your choice but it's always blue."Live versionsOn earlier Pink Floyd bootlegged versions of the song, there was no keyboard solo, and the song was a long jam piece called "Scat Section" or "Scat". Gilmour frequently sang along with his guitar solo and the band's female backing singers sometimes came up on stage and sang as well.
In 1975, it was often extended, sometimes up to nearly fifteen minutes. Gilmour and the backing singers often sang along with it.
In 1994, it was considerably modified, to be more keyboard-heavy, though not extended, as in all earlier performances. This version is included on
Pulse.
Waters performed it in his 2006–08
The Dark Side of the Moon Live tour." - Wikipedia
9. "Brain Damage" (Waters) 3:46
"The lunatic is on the grass." Indeed, the album is coming to a close and the madness theme is in full effect. Side two is sequenced even better than side one. It's difficult to stop listening once you've begun because all of the tracks are perfect continuations of the previous ones. I must say listening to it right now, the lyrics to this record are better than anything they'd written before. Roger's best singing too.
Wiki: "It was sung on record by Roger Waters (with harmonies by David Gilmour), who would continue to sing it on his solo tours. Gilmour sang the lead vocal when Pink Floyd performed it live on their 1994 tour (as can be heard on
Pulse). The band originally called this track "Lunatic" during live performances and recording sessions.
CompositionWhen the band reconvened after the American leg of the
Meddle tour, Roger Waters brought with him a prototype version of "Brain Damage" along with other songs such as "Money". He had been playing the song during the recording of the
Meddle album in 1971, when it was called "The Dark Side of the Moon". Eventually this title would be used for the album itself. The song seemed to be partially inspired by their former band member Syd Barrett who had endured a mental breakdown. After road testing, the new suite entitled "A Piece for Assorted Lunatics", the song was recorded in October along with "Any Colour You Like". The piece represents Waters' association with acoustic-tinged ballads, and along with "If" and "Grantchester Meadows", "Brain Damage" uses a simple melody and delivery. David Gilmour actively encouraged Waters to sing the song, even though at this time he wasn't particularly confident about his vocal abilities.
The song is somewhat slow, with a guitar arpeggio pattern similar to the Beatles' "Dear Prudence". It is in the key of D major and features a recurring lyrical pattern and chorus.
ThemesRoger Waters has stated that the insanity-themed lyrics are based on former Floyd frontman Syd Barrett's mental instability, with the line "I'll see you on the dark side of the moon" indicating that he felt related to him in terms of mental idiosyncrasies. The line "And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes..." references Barrett's behaviour near the end of his tenure with the band; because of his mental problems, there were more than a few occasions where Barrett would play a different song than the rest of the band in the middle of a concert. The song has a rather famous opening line, "The lunatic is on the grass...", whereby Waters is referring to areas of turf which display signs saying "Please keep off the grass" with the exaggerated implication that disobeying such signs might indicate insanity. The lyrics' tongue-in-cheek nature is further emphasised by Waters' assertion in the 2003 documentary
Classic Albums: Pink Floyd – The Making of The Dark Side of the Moon that not letting people on such beautiful grass was the real insanity. Waters said that the particular patch of grass he had in mind when writing the song was to the rear of King's College, Cambridge.
The German literary scholar and media theorist Friedrich Kittler attaches great relevance to the song, referring to its lyrics as well as to its technological arrangement. For him, the three verses stage the (sound) technological evolution from mono to stereo, culminating in total, "maddening" surround sound.
In a 2008 paper in Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges Fusar-Poli and Madini suggest that the song includes avant-garde techniques and philosophical lyrics can be approached and analysed from a psychological perspective. The line "Got to keep the loonies on the path" references the attempt to maintain order and establish sanity. The detached description of a lobotomy is demonstrated in the lines "You raise the blade, you make the change. You re-arrange me 'till I'm sane". The line "I'll see you on the dark side of the moon", which became a famous metaphor of human irrationality, expresses that madness that is always present but invisible, waiting to be exposed. In Sigmund Freud's terms it would be the unconscious.
VersionsSome releases of
Dark Side of the Moon, for example TC-SHVL. 804 (cassette, New Zealand release) and Q4SHVL 804 (quad LP, UK release) have a different mix of "Brain Damage". During the closing instrumental, beginning at about 3:02, after the second chorus and leading into the final track, "Eclipse", only Peter Watts' "lunatic laughing" is heard, repeatedly, unlike other versions which have the speech sample "I can't think of anything to say", then Peter Watts' laugh and another sample "I think it's marvelous (ha ha ha)". - Wiki
10. "Eclipse" (Waters) 2:12
The grand finale. "All that you touch..." etc. Gives the proceedings a proper send off. Their most filler-free album, folks.
Wikipedia: "Eclipse" is the tenth and final track from British progressive rock band Pink Floyd's 1973 album,
The Dark Side of the Moon. It was written and sung by Roger Waters, with harmonies by David Gilmour and Rick Wright. After Waters left the band, Gilmour sang the lead when performing live.
On the album, the song transitions, without noticeable break, from the previous song, "Brain Damage", and the two are often played together as a single track on the radio (some DJs call the combined track "The Dark Side of the Moon"). The end of the track consists of a fading heartbeat, identical to the opening of the first track on the album, "Speak to Me".
CompositionThis song serves as the album's end and features a loud, repetitive melody that builds up, then ends with a very quiet outro. When the main instrumentation ends at 1:30, the sound of a heartbeat from the first track, "Speak to Me", appears, which appears again in 9/8, and gradually fades to silence.
Harmonically, the song consists of a repeating 4-bar chord progression: D, D/C, B♭maj7, and A7sus4 resolving to A7. The bass line is a descending tetrachord.
David Gilmour recorded two tracks of rhythm guitar, playing arpeggios, one in open position, and one much higher, around the tenth fret. The lower-pitched guitar part includes the open G and E strings during the B♭maj7, resulting in an added sixth and a dissonant augmented fourth. The quartet of female backing singers vary their parts, rising in volume, and echoing some of Roger Waters' lyrics, as the piece builds in intensity. On the last repetition of the chord progression, the B♭maj7 leads directly to a climax on D major, resulting in a "brightening" effect (known as the Picardy third), as the aforementioned implication of D minor in the B♭maj7 chord shifts to the major.
Waters wrote the lyrics on the road for the "Brain Damage" / "Eclipse" closing sequence as he felt the whole piece was "unfinished". The final words sung on the song and, indeed the album
The Dark Side of the Moon, directs the listener, "and everything under the sun is in tune, but the sun is eclipsed by the moon." Waters explained the meaning of these words as well as the entire song by asserting:
I don't see it as a riddle. The album uses the sun and the moon as symbols; the light and the dark; the good and the bad; the life force as opposed to the death force. I think it's a very simple statement saying that all the good things life can offer are there for us to grasp, but that the influence of some dark force in our natures prevents us from seizing them. The song addresses the listener and says that if you, the listener, are affected by that force, and if that force is a worry to you, well I feel exactly the same too. The line 'I'll see you on the dark side of the moon' is me speaking to the listener, saying, 'I know you have these bad feelings and impulses because I do too, and one of the ways I can make direct contact with you is to share with you the fact that I feel bad sometimes.The doorman of Abbey Road Studios, Gerry O'Driscoll, is heard speaking at 1:37, answering the question: "What is 'the dark side of the moon'?" with: "There is no dark side in the moon, really. Matter of fact, it's all dark. The only thing that makes it look light is the sun."
A section of orchestral version of the Beatles song "Ticket to Ride" which was covered by Hollyridge Strings can be heard faintly at the very end of the recording. That was unintended: the music was playing in the background at Abbey Road when Gerry O'Driscoll was being recorded. This is not included on the 1983 Japanese Black Triangle CD issue of the album; the sound technicians copied one of the heartbeat samples, removed the orchestral "Ticket to Ride", repeatedly pasted the sample in and faded out the new outro.
UsageOn 10 March 2004, the song was used to wake the Mars probe Opportunity. It was chosen in recognition of the transit of the Martian moon Phobos. This is not the first time Pink Floyd has been played in outer space; Russian cosmonauts took and played an advance copy of
Delicate Sound of Thunder aboard Soyuz TM-7, making it the first album played in space.
At the opening ceremonies of the 2012 London Olympics, the song was played following the lighting of the torch and accompanied by a huge fireworks display and a photo montage of (mainly) English Olympians.
A remixed version by film composer Hans Zimmer was featured in the first trailer for
Dune, released on September 9, 2020.
This song was considered, but ultimately rejected, for inclusion on
Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd."
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LegacyThe success of the album brought 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. Some of the profits were invested in the production of
Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Engineer Alan Parsons received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Engineered Recording, Non-Classical for
The Dark Side of the Moon, and he went on to have a successful career as a recording artist with the Alan Parsons Project. Although Waters and Gilmour have on occasion downplayed his contribution to the success of the album, Mason has praised his role. In 2003, Parsons reflected: "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."
Part of the legacy of
The Dark Side of the Moon is its influence on modern music and on the musicians who have performed cover versions of its songs; moreover, the record gave rise to the "Dark Side of the Rainbow" theory, according to which the album matches up perfectly with the 1939 film
The Wizard of Oz when they are played simultaneously. The album's release is often seen as a pivotal point in the history of rock music, and comparisons are sometimes made with Radiohead's 1997 album
OK Computer, including a premise explored by Ben Schleifer in '
Speak to Me': The Legacy of Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon (2006) that the two albums share a theme that "the creative individual loses the ability to function in the [modern] world".
In a 2018 book about classic rock, Steven Hyden recalls concluding, in his teens, that
The Dark Side of the Moon and
Led Zeppelin IV were the two greatest albums of the genre, vision quests "encompass[ing] the twin poles of teenage desire". They had similarities, in that both album's cover and internal artwork eschew pictures of the bands in favor of "inscrutable iconography without any tangible meaning (which always seemed to give the music packaged inside more meaning)". But whereas Led Zeppelin had looked outward, toward "conquering the world" and was known at the time for its outrageous sexual antics while on tour, Pink Floyd looked inward, toward "overcoming your own hang-ups" and seemed so sedate and boring that, Hyden commented, the scene in
Live at Pompeii where they take a lunch break at the studio might well have been the most interesting part of recording
The Dark Side of the Moon.In 2013,
The Dark Side of the Moon was selected for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
RankingsThe Dark Side of the Moon frequently appears on professional rankings of the greatest albums. In 1987,
Rolling Stone ranked the record 35th in its list of the "Top 100 Albums of the Last 20 Years". In 2003, the album was ranked number 43 on the magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", maintaining the ranking in a 2012 revision of the list, but dropping to number 55 in a 2020 revision of the list (the band's highest-charting album on the list). Both
Rolling Stone and
Q have listed
The Dark Side of the Moon as the best progressive rock album.
In 2006, it was voted "My Favourite Album" by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's audience.
NME readers voted the album eighth in their 2006 "Best Album of All Time" online poll, and in 2009,
Planet Rock listeners voted the album the "greatest of all time". The album is also number two on the "Definitive 200" list of albums, made by the National Association of Recording Merchandisers "in celebration of the art form of the record album". It ranked 29th in
The Observer's 2006 list of "The 50 Albums That Changed Music", and 37th in
The Guardian's 1997 list of the "100 Best Albums Ever", as voted for by a panel of artists and music critics. In 2014, readers of
Rhythm voted it the seventh most influential progressive drumming album. It was voted number 9 in Colin Larkin's
All Time Top 1000 Albums 3rd Edition (2000).
Based on such rankings, the aggregate website
Acclaimed Music lists
The Dark Side of the Moon as the 21st most acclaimed album in history, the seventh most acclaimed of the 1970s, and number one of albums from 1973. The album's cover has also been lauded by critics and listeners alike, with
VH1 proclaiming it the fourth greatest in history.
Covers, tributes and samplesReturn to the Dark Side of the Moon: A Tribute to Pink Floyd, released in 2006, is a cover album of
The Dark Side of the Moon featuring artists such as Adrian Belew, Tommy Shaw, Dweezil Zappa, and Rick Wakeman. In 2000, The Squirrels released
The Not So Bright Side of the Moon, which features a cover of the entire album. The New York dub collective Easy Star All-Stars released
Dub Side of the Moon in 2003 and
Dubber Side of the Moon in 2010. 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. The bluegrass band Poor Man's Whiskey frequently play the album in bluegrass style, calling the suite "Dark Side of the Moonshine." A string quartet version of the album was released in 2003. In 2009, The Flaming Lips released a track-by-track remake of the album in collaboration with Stardeath and White Dwarfs, and featuring Henry Rollins and Peaches as guest musicians.
Several notable acts have covered the album live in its entirety, and a range of performers have used samples from T
he Dark Side of the Moon in their own material. Jam-rock band Phish performed a semi-improvised version of the entire album as part their show on 2 November 1998 in West Valley City, Utah. Progressive metal band Dream Theater have twice covered the album in their live shows, and in May 2011 Mary Fahl released
From the Dark Side of the Moon, a song-by-song "re-imagining" of the album. Milli Vanilli used the tape loops from Pink Floyd's "Money" to open their track "Money", followed by Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch on
Music for the People.Dark Side of the RainbowDark Side of the Rainbow and Dark Side of Oz are two names commonly used in reference to rumours (circulated on the Internet since at least 1994) that
The Dark Side of the Moon was written as a soundtrack for 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 at the lyric "no one told you when to run" during "Time", and Dorothy balancing on a tightrope fence during the line "balanced on the biggest wave" in "Breathe". David Gilmour and Nick Mason have both denied a connection between the two works, and Roger Waters has described the rumours as "amusing".Alan Parsons said the film was never mentioned during production of the album."
