Love, Poetry and Revolution - DSOTM 50th Anniversary Special

Last night I sat (well, lay in the sweet spot between the speakers if I am going to be precise) listened to the Pink Floyd album 'Dark Side Of The Moon' from beginning to end. I have recently bought the 50th Anniversary remaster and wanted to hear what it sounded like. 

I haven't listened to it all the way through for a very long time but as it started I became drawn in and wanted to listen to it all.  This post is about what it means to me, after all these years. 

Let's get one thing out of the way from the off. My feelings about the album have changed over the years, partly because it became so ubiquitous with too much airplay (familiarity breeds contempt etc) even going through a period of denial during the punk era.  So extreme was my denial of my love for the album, that I sold an original vinyl copy from 1973 (who knew vinyl would become popular and cool again!!) along with a load of other albums as they didn't fit with my revisionist views of music that punk engendered. I disassociate myself from that version of me, though not from the best music of the punk era.

I'm not going to do a full history of the album (there are much better sources) however it is worth stating that this album marked a watershed in Pink Floyd's career. The sales of the album made all the band members into millionaires.  It also sowed the seeds of the rift between Roger Waters and the rest of the band, especially Dave Gilmour and Rick Wright. The rift that led to a massive court case about the ownership of the band's name and the band continuing without Roger Waters.

At the time it was released, if memory serves, the album theme was thought to be madness. Listening to it again, I think that's at best, a very simplistic idea.

Before getting into the album, I would say that it is an album that demands to be listened to from end to end. An observation from listening to it all is that every track is enhance by those before an after, even though there are obvious standout tracks that radio airplay tends to focus upon. I know it's a 'concept' album of sorts, but not in the same way that say, some of Rick Wakeman's albums were.

The album opens and closes with a heartbeat, which runs throughout and I think this is a clue to the album's theme.

'Speak To Me' opens the album, gradually fading in over the heartbeat, with the voices and laughter that litter the album, building to a segue into one of my favourite tracks, 'Breathe (In The Air)'. The lyrics to 'Breathe' contain some of the most resonant lines:

"Long you live and high you fly

And smiles you'll give and tears you'll cry

And all you touch and all you see

Is all your life will ever be."

Before I go any further, I would point out that I don't think the lyrics are a profound treatise on the meaning of life. I don't think Roger Waters, who wrote all the lyrics as far as I am aware, is an intellectual genius. My perspective is that, like the best lines in poetry, there are lines which spark deeper thinking and reflect on life's experiences.

We, and in fact the album too, will return to 'Breathe'.

'On The Run', which follows is a pure instrumental apart from the voices, and shows Gilmour and Wright (at least) experimenting with the VCS3 synthesizer, which was at the forefront of music technology at the time.  'On The Run' is suitably musically unsettling, a feeling enhanced by the snatches of maniacal laughter.

The clocks ticking and alarms ringing denote the start of 'Time', undoubtedly one the best songs on the album.  It has a portentous opening building up to the point at which the drums kick in and Dave Gilmour sings the opening lines, "Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day/You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way."  (The opening alarm clocks are one of the few things that date the album, as today they'd be some horrendous trilling digital 'tune'.)

At this point I should say that Dave Gilmour's vocals carry an emotional weight and phrasing that emphasises the best lyrics. At their best the lyrics carry an emotional punch that works well the music.  'Breathe' and 'Time' are all the better for his singing.

The lines from 'Time' that have the most meaning to me are these:

"You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today.

And then one day you find ten years have got behind you.

No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun."

"Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way

The time is gone, the song is over,

Thought I'd something more to say."

The last line is the cue for the next track 'Breathe (Reprise)'.  Oddly, on recent remasters this track is no longer separately identified from 'Time', though I'm sure it was on the original release.

I'm happy to return to 'Breathe' as the lyrics carry such an emotional weight.

The best lines from this reprise are these....

"Home, home again.

I like to be here when I can.

When I come home cold and tired

It's good to warm my bones beside the fire."

The words themselves are less powerful, but it is the way Dave Gilmour sings them. The closing words lead us onto another theme, death, which is the subject of the wordless, 'The Great Gig In The Sky', sung by Clare Torry. Apparently she just sang from the heart and made up what she sang based on Rick Wright's music.  What she sang was so powerful and emotional that she gets a credit on the album for the vocal composition on this track.

'The Great Gig In The Sky' is clearly about death and opens with a thoughtful piano refrain before rising to emotional crescendos with Clare's vocal.

In ye olden days, the album side two opener would be 'Money', which begins with sound of coins and cash registers, another sound which dates the album.  Credit cards and mobile phones don't make much of a sound!

Musically and vocally this is another highlight.  Lyrically I don't think it's as sharp as the preceding tracks, with much of the comment, such as there is, being trite, to these ears at least. I still love it - some great guitar lines from Mr G.

Lyrically, this is the best verse:

"Money, it's a crime.

Share it fairly but don't take a slice of my pie.

Money, so they say

Is the root of all evil today.

But if you ask for a raise it's no surprise that they're

giving none away."

Perhaps the spoken words away have the best punch.

'Money', fades out to the more spoken words, and segues into, 'Us and Them'.  A quieter meditation on the theme of war and conflict. I think it's still Dave Gilmour singing, though maybe it's Rick Wright. Maybe both.  The lyrics are fair and they evoke the futility of conflict well, but nothing really screams out to me. The song is keyboard led, which means it's another composition that Rick Wright has a hand in.  It works really well after the heaviness of 'Money'.

Next up is another band instrumental in which the VCS3 takes a lead role.  'Any Colour You Like' is one of the few tracks which Roger Waters doesn't have a credit for.  I like it a lot.

The final two tracks, are probably the ones which gave the album the reputation of being about madness.  They are 'Brain Damage' and 'Eclipse'.

Roger Waters takes the vocal lead for these songs and 'Brain Damage' begins with an evocative chiming guitar sound.  People often suggest this album is partly inspired by Syd Barrett, the original Floyd songwriter.

One verse seems to refer to Syd, 

"And if the cloud bursts, thunder in your ear

You shout and no one seems to hear.
And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes

I'll see you on the dark side of the moon."

The penultimate line referring to the song Syd wrote called 'Have You Got it Yet?'  (the title of the new Syd Barrett film too).  At the time he knew he didn't want to stay in the band, maybe even was falling out with them and so he tried to teach them a song which he kept changing every time they tried to play along with him.

'Eclipse' is a sort of summing up of the album themes, and is not especially lyrically complex, but does finish with a line that's perhaps meant to be meaningful and give pause to reflect.  

The album heart beat fades out.

What do I think overall?  It's a great, cohesive album musically.  There are some great lyrics, but also some fairly meaningless ones.

Is it a philosophy for life? Nope.  One message that is clear and that I do endorse though, is live for today.  Don't wait for things to happen.

The overall subject is life, I think.  Madness or more correctly, mental health, is a also a theme but not an overarching one, just an aspect of life.

Two things did occur to me.  Neither love nor sex appear as themes, and also the lyrics are focused on the individual, either directly or in relation to 'others'. It doesn't make friendship to friends or lovers.  If it has a weakness, it's the lack of these themes. Nevertheless, it remains a great album, worthy of repeat listens fifty years later. Mostly it has aged well and the new remaster gives it a modern sheen without completely ruining it.

The question is, having said the album should be listened to as a whole, can I justify picking just one track? You bet I can!

Pink Floyd /  'Breathe (In The Air)'  / 'Dark Side Of The Moon'

[[Lousy video that's visually an advert. Shame.]]