THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

As a younger prog rock fan (we exist!), I just listened to this album for the first time last June, and heard my first Pink Floyd song on a local radio station, and quite liked it. I had always liked longer songs, but only things like 7, 8 minutes. The first 'long' song i really got into, was 'Telegraph Road' I loved the elaborate arrangement and guitar work, and the grand scale of it. Which led me naturally to prog, and after hearing 'Money' for the first time, and seeing this album cover the entirety of my life, I decided to pop the record on, and was amazed by what I saw.

First, we have Speak To Me/Breathe. Speak to me introduces the album, and is a sound collage, more than anything. Breathe opens us up with some beautiful pedal steel guitar and David Gilmour at the peak of his powers. The opening lyrics, of course, being 'Breathe, Breathe in the air, don't be afraid to care." Which sets the mood and tone for the album. The next song is another sound collage (the songs transition right into one another, which makes for an AMAZING listening experience) named 'On the Run' plane noises, car noises, noises of travel. Travelling, moving from place to place. The next song we have is 'Time' which has the most beautiful lyrics every written in the most existential way, with one of Gilmour's most passionate guitar solos, if you listen to nothing else off this album, listen to this song. The side closes with 'The Great Gig in the Sky' the beauty of which can not be put in to words, other than the vocalist (Clare Torry) accepting death. Side 2 opens with the hit-single 'Money' with a catchy riff in 7/4. Great Sax and Guitar solo, talks about the love of money. 'Us and Them' is a wee bit too long, but it's great, a bit jazzy, some smooth sax. It's all about war, there's some about love, it's a very pretty song. This transitions into 'Any Colour You Like' it's an instrumental, structured loosely around 'Breathe' the song's title derives from a Henry Ford quote, saying 'The customer can have any color he wants, as long as it's black.' So the song tells the illusion of choice. This leads into the finale of The Dark Side of the Moon, 'Brain Damage' and 'Eclipse'. 'Brain Damage drops the most cathartic title drop in all of music history. 'And if your head explodes with dark forebodings too, I'll see you on the Dark Side of the Moon' A couple of the lyrics are inspired by former front man Syd Barrett, who had gone crazy due to drugs, and overuse of LSD. (Which is why they've got Shine On You Crazy Diamond, which is one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written, if you know the backstory) This transitions us into the final song on the album, an epic finale, 'Eclipse' listing off many things from the rest of the album, and closing with the line 'Everything under the sun is in tune, but the sun is eclipsed by the moon' Which asks the question, out of everything we do in life, do we make a difference? Do we really matter? Very existential. As the closing heartbeat fills your ears, you hear the final of many spoken words throughout the album. 'There is no dark side of the moon, as a matter of fact it's all dark' bum bum... bum bum... bum bum.... The Dark Side of the Moon has stood the test of time more than many albums that have come before it, if you want to hear someone wax on poetically about it, might I recommend Polyphonic's video series on it, song by song. Listen to the full album FIRST of course.