This year marks fifty years since the release of one of music's most influential and iconic albums; Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. Mark Fannon revisits the album and the impression that it has left over time.
I’m often embarrassed when I remember my first reaction to hearing Dark Side of the Moon sometime during December 2020 – it was one of surprise and confusion, perhaps even disappointment. How come an album that I’d heard so much praise about over the years, something supposedly tailored to my taste, bring so little gratification for me?
I’m not sure what I was truly expecting really - I knew Pink Floyd's music mainly through Another Brick in the Wall (Pt. 2), a staple of the alternative rock radio stations I was brought up with and knew very little beyond that. For a while I just assumed it wasn’t an album for me, though I didn’t give up completely. Every now and again I’d revisit it, making sure to read the lyrics and understand the meaning behind each song. Slowly but surely, I grew to appreciate it more and more and within no time I was hooked and have been ever since.
From the opening heartbeat in Speak to Me to the triumph of Eclipse, Pink Floyd truly take the listener on a journey through what was going on in their heads back in 1973. The honest lyrics of Breathe (In The Air) start the album off with an overview of life – and a reminder that our time on earth is limited – before On The Run puts us into the paranoid mind of an artist terrified of flying.
Time and The Great Gig In The Sky once again remind us of mortality, the latter featuring Claire Torry singing in what is one of the best vocal performances ever recorded. Money follows and injects some energy into the experience, making you almost not notice the great social commentary carried in David Gilmour’s vocals. The remaining four tracks – Us And Them, Any Colour You Like, Brain Damage and Eclipse – flow almost seamlessly. The latter two perfectly conclude the listener’s journey, summing up the experiences of life before once again returning to the heartbeat heard during the opening track; a brilliant metaphor to bring the album to a finish.
So, what makes Dark Side of the Moon remain so relevant fifty years on? It’s a tricky question, especially considering that many can’t remember a time without it. One factor that can’t be forgotten is its iconography – known by many who aren’t even familiar with the music of Pink Floyd. It would be foolish to suggest that DSOTM was carried by the art alone, but it has certainly helped over the years. If anything, the fact that knowing about the album cover often precedes people’s exposure to the music likely helps the album remain popular – it invites universal curiosity and a desire to find out what it’s all about.
"The instrumentation is crystal clear, and the spacey, harmonised vocals are impossible not to appreciate."
Unlike other efforts in the 70s progressive rock scene, DSOTM’s production barely shows any age, which is crazy to consider given the technological limits that the era imposed on them. Comparing it to more “abrasively” produced albums such as King Crimson’s Larks Tongues in Aspic and Yes’ Close to the Edge, Dark Side has a unique warmth and smoothness that is irresistible. The instrumentation is crystal clear, and the spacey, harmonised vocals are impossible not to appreciate. It’s a truly collaborative effort between all 4 members of the band that would never be matched during following albums. Whether it’s Roger Waters’ lyrics, Richard Wright’s haunting piano in The Great Gig in the Sky, Nick Mason’s drum solo during Time or David Gilmour’s incredible guitar solo on Money, each member has their own time to shine.
Another factor is subject matter – greed, war, death and mental health remain to be incredibly relatable topics in 2023 (perhaps more so than in 1973) and the all-encompassing nature of how they are discussed stays very insightful without coming across as overly pretentious. The way that Waters discusses the class and power divide in Us and Them has equal parts beauty and sadness associated with it – especially the latter because it still seems to perfectly describe the state of the world now.
So, in hindsight, it was perhaps right that I didn’t appreciate this album straight away. It forced me down an immediate subtext rabbit hole that left me even more satisfied by the time I truly had fallen in love with it. The album was meant to make me think about the issues it discussed, and (with time) it did – and continues to do so. I’m not sure where the world will be at in another fifty years, but I truly hope that this will album remain to be as revered as it is now – though I’m in no doubt that it will. Perhaps by then I will have forgiven my sixteen-year-old self for considering it a little too “out there” for their taste…….
Mark Fannon
Edited by: Izzy Morris
Cover and in-article image courtesy of pinkfloyd.com. Video courtesy of Pink Floyd on YouTube.
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