Fifty
years ago today, on March 1st, 1973, Pink Floyd released their 8th and
most iconic studio LP, The Dark Side of the Moon. It would become a
career defining album and enshrine the group as one of the most
significant rock bands of all time.
The album began life on
stage as the group worked out their ideas live, in front of their
audiences. The entirety of the album was even performed for an
assembled press on 17 February 1972 at the Rainbow Theater, more than a
year before its release, and was critically acclaimed. Structurally,
the album builds on ideas which had been evolving over the course of the
previous albums, but the major shift for this record was the restraint
in regards to extended jamming interludes, which had often dominated
their earlier works. As such, the album offers up a set of relatively
concise songs, with many clocking in under four minutes, and the longest
just shy of the eight minute mark. While the album employs many
experimental elements, like tape loops and analogue synthesizers -
including the EMS VCS 3 and a Synthi A (aided by engineer Alan Parsons),
the end results remain accessible and melodic. The experimentation
successfully augments the songs without becoming distracting.
The
title for the album is an allusion to lunacy, rather than astronomy, as
the basic theme that Roger Waters had proposed related to “things that
made people mad”, a concept heavily inspired by the band’s experiences
touring on the road plus their history with Syd Barrett and his mental
breakdown. However, during production the title was temporarily changed
to “Eclipse” because another band, Medicine Head, had released an album
with the same title. When that LP failed to garner any commercial or
critical notoriety, the band reverted the title back to its original
form. Lyrically, the group were intent on offering more explicit
content in these songs, rather than the vague suggestiveness of their
previous works. As the songs developed, they fell together into suites
which blend seamlessly together on each side. lyrical themes include
conflict, greed, the passage of time, death and insanity. 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”.
Various elements of musique
concrète are interwoven throughout the record, often functioning as
transitional interludes, like the voice recordings from interviews with
the band's road crew alongside philosophical quotations. Other
elements, like the cash register tape loop, form the underpinning rhythm
of the song. Yet these are carefully integrated into the compositions
so as to maintain the musical restraint which is a feature of the
album’s compositions. This conservative production approach both
highlights the album’s more surreal, psychedelic influences while
preventing them from becoming overt self-indulgences. In the end, it’s
a remarkable exercise in its meticulous balancing of elements.
The
actual recording of the album began on May 31st, 1972, and continued
until February 9th, 1973 at Abbey Road Studios. As previously
mentioned, Alan Parsons was assigned as engineer as he had previous
experience with the group, working as assistant tape operator on Atom
Heart Mother in 1970. This was the first album where the group used 16
track recording tech, which offered far more flexibility than 8 track,
but even at that, they still used so many tracks that 2nd generation
sub-mixes had to be created to accommodate the arrangements. For the
final mix, producer Chris Thomas was hired to provide "a fresh pair of
ears". There are somewhat conflicting reports of various band members
being at odds in terms of how the album should sound, though Thomas
reports he witnessed no such conflicts while he was present. His input
ultimately helped the band arrive at a balance of inputs, however, with
his objective input proving invaluable in arriving at the finished
product.
For the album cover, the Hipgnosis design house were
again tasked with the job of coming up with something special, which
they certainly managed in spades. Their past work with the band had
been somewhat controversial in some cases as designers Storm Thorgerson
and Aubrey Powell opted for some less than traditional approaches, often
eschewing basics like band names and titles on the front, which could
lead to confusion for the record label. Richard Wright had offered the
basic guidance that the band wanted something minimal yet impactful,
elegant and refined. Several ideas were put to the band, but they all
ended up agreeing on a concept inspired by a photograph they’d found of a
light beam being refracted in a triangular prism. The final artwork
was created by design assistant, George Hardie, who took that image and
refined it into a precisely rendered masterwork of simplicity. It’s
such a perfectly realized representation of both the album and the band
that it’s since gone on to be one of the most instantly recognizable
images in pop culture. For the gate-fold LP sleeve, the rainbow of
light continues through the inner fold and then reverses back through
the prism again on the back image, with heartbeat like wave forms
overlaid on the inner gate-fold. This ties the graphic in with the
heartbeat sound which opens and closes the album.
The album was
a massive success upon its release, both commercially and critically.
In fact, it has become something of a cultural touchstone in its half
century on the planet, inspiring a plethora of tributes and cover
versions, including two dub versions by the Easy Star All-Stars. Pink
Floyd have also issued elaborate collectors editions of the album,
vastly expanding it with alternate mixes, outtakes and live versions.
Its legacy has made it regularly referenced when it comes to lists of
greatest LPs of all time and it continues to inspire new generations.
It’s likely to continue to do so for generations to come.
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