It’s either feast or famine in music history. Tough choice today, music lovers. On the one hand we’ve got Roger; and on the other hand we’ve got – Roger, and David, Richard and Nick. When I broke the news to Roger Harry Daltrey, C.B.E. that we would not be featuring his 72nd birthday (3/1/1944) he reacted as you might expect. First, the bantam battler took a swing at me – the formula he often used to keep The Who lads in line, until they fired him to get him to chillax. Then, he unleashed a couple signature screams – right out of “We Won’t Get Fooled Again” and “I’ve Had Enough”. But, ultimately, he was like . . .
So, I left Roger Daltrey, safely ensconced in his English country manor, watching his beloved Arsenal F.C. ("Goon-ers!"), and traveled to Roger Waters’ English country manor, where I found him watching his beloved Arsenal and chanting “Boring, Boring Arsenal” to himself. Game over, I asked Waters “So, what about that Dark Side of the Moon thing, eh?” He gave me chapter and verse.
The album explores the concept of things that stress and bother people in everyday life, including money, time, conflict, mortality, and mental illness. Both sides are continuous from track to track, and begin and end with heartbeat effects. Spoken phrases are scattered throughout the record, heard over and between the songs.
Now let's get to the interesting bits.
DSotM was a year in the making. Pink Floyd developed and performed the new material starting in January, 1972 at the Brighton Dome. They began recording at Abbey Road Studios (above) in May, 1972, and didn’t finish until January, 1973.
Before starting to record DSotM, Pink Floyd played the album for the public and press at The Rainbow Theatre in London during a 4-night gig in February, 1972, billed as Dark Side of the Moon: A Piece for Assorted Lunatics. The tour continued between recording sessions in Europe, Japan and N. America. This process allowed the group to hone and perfect the songs before final recording.
DSotM was Pink Floyd’s title for the album early on, but they had to change it to Eclipse when it was discovered that the group Medicine Head had just released a recording called DSotM. When that album flopped, Pink Floyd was able to re-claim the title.
DSotM was released in the US and Canada on March 1, 1973, and in the UK on March 16. It reached #1 on the Billboard album chart on April 28, 1973, a position it held for only one week. Re-masters and re-issues of the album were also #1s in 1994 and 2003. The album remained on the album chart for 741 weeks, from 1973 to 1988.
DSotM is still selling. It is approaching 10 million units in the US and 50 million worldwide, making it the 3rd highest selling album of all time, behind Michael Jackson’s Thriller and AC/DC’s Back in Black. It is estimated that 1 in 14 people in the US under the age of 60 own or have owned a copy of the album.
Peter Watts, Pink Floyd’s road manager and father of actress Naomi Watts contributed the mad laughter during “Speak to Me” and “Brain Damage”.
Dick Parry played the saxophone on “Us and Them” and “Money”. The album’s recording engineer was Alan Parsons, who had worked for the Beatles, and went on to perform and produce in the Alan Parsons Project.
Clare Torry, a session singer, songwriter and Abbey Road regular, was invited by Parsons to sing the non-lexical vocal on Richard Wright’s “The Great Gig in the Sky”. She improvised the part in a few short takes that the group loved, and for which they paid her about $500 in today’s dollars. She later sued for co-songwriter credit and royalties. The court agreed with her and the case then settled for an undisclosed amount. Pressings after 2005 reflect songwriting credit to Wright and Torry. I don’t know if she has an English country manor.
Here’s the complete, unbroken 2011 re-mastered version of the 1973 studio album.
0:00 Speak to Me 19:15 Money
1:10 Breathe 25:45 Us and Them
4:05 On the Run 33:30 Any Colour You Like
7:45 Time 36:55 Brain Damage
14:35 The Great Gig in the Sky 40:45 Eclipse
