what are our thoughts on Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" (March 1973)?

[GDK]

I give it an 85. It’s got a good beat and you can dance to it.

 

[Multicore]

Right here, right now. Few people died, despite your apocalyptic visions of what music can do.

True enough. We can be thankful for that. Bad art is, well, ... usually not that dangerous.

 

[Philbo King]

I really like the original quad mix from youtube. One of the few bands I never tire of.

 

[ryanosaur]

Bad is, well, ... usually not that dangerous.

Are you... Sure?

 

[Andretti60]

This was my first PF albums, a friend of mine gave me a cassette tape he recorded from a very cheap stereo system and I listened to it through my portable monophonic tape deck, a Phillips known in Europe as K7. I didn’t have many cassette at that time, thus I listening to it countless times, as soon as I got a decent system I bought the LP and I was astonished by the stereo sound effects, so I started slowly to buy all the PF albums. Unfortunately they were printed by Italian record companies, very cheaply, the quality of the press was awful. Eventually my favorite album became Meddle.

In the 80s I started buying the CDs, but I never found a good recording, and at that time my interests for the the PF was minimal, I was more attracted by contemporary classic music (and Frank Zappa, I never became tired of him). I don’t even remember last time I listened to DSOTM in its entirety, even though I occasionally listen to single songs and to bootlegs of concerts where the PF played the whole album, even before it was released.

 

[Chrispy]

One of my favorite albums, starting at release, have several versions in the library (standard LPs (2?), mofi LP, redbook cd, 5.1 SACD). Very well recorded and a pleasure to listen to even multiple times. The look on my grandparent's faces as I had my headphones on back in 73 and started singing along "don't give me that do-goody-good bullshit" (their problem was the word bullshit, they actually agreed with the content in that line in their views, lol).

 

[Newman]

Well made and well recorded album. Makes me wonder how King Crimson would have sounded if they had the same producer.

…before they went to the studio, it's much better. It's got that pre-Dark Side feel: genuinely transcendental collective-ecstatic psychedelic music. But then they went into a studio and spent a hundred years overproducing this plastic soul-less hyper-romantic studio fantasia we've all more-or-less had to endure since. …

My, that shows a remarkable range of opinion on the producer’s contribution!

 

[SKBubba]

My main memory is that every hifi shop (remember those?), every turntable, every amp, and every speaker demo featured "Money."

 

[Chrispy]

My main memory is that every hifi shop (remember those?), every turntable, every amp, and every speaker demo featured "Money."

lol definitely easy to have that to demo....

 

[concorde1]

As with almost all Pink Floyd, it's work that couldn't really be improved: perfection.

When I listen to the first few songs I think about how when we are born we are limited to the senses we have, and the further away we move from being young, the more we struggle to use our imaginations (as a trend anyway). Maybe before we learn to talk, write or draw there are things that we would want to record of the experience of our first year or so of life. Like "why can I only see and hear and smell?" etc. And for those who realise that their imagination is being affected in time, that could be a contributor to becoming crazy, which fits the theme of the album.

Then the album becomes less abstract, and is probably indisputably about passing of time itself; mourning and death; money and greed; war. I do not know what "Any Colour You Like" is about, but it sounds so cool. Maybe about not having decisions in life that you wish you had.

"Brain Damage" is like the culmination of the other songs, where the subject has become unwell because of the inevitable features of modern life.

Personally I think "Eclipse" is about how nothing really matters, and then it returns to the heartbeat that was at the start, which to me signifies death of the subject.

Born . . . Lose mind . . . Die

I suppose it in how great it sounds it's deceiving; it's really quite sad.

 

[Emulator II]

 

[bunnyfuzz]

It could reflect us being born into this earth and being deceived/manipulated/taught to "understand" it within an evil/untrue framework. The wonderful sonic presentation with lyrics that poetically convey how untruths deceive/entice/move you to perceive creation. Pressure to enter THIS system. Fear of being behind. Time scarcity. Fear of death. Love of money. Lack of love for others. Love of self. Any Colour You Like - not black or white (good or evil); YOU decide what’s good or evil, in any shade of the rainbow you choose. Brain Damage is the final result of all the calculated brainwashing. Finally, your world becomes a manifestation of all the untruths you were taught to believe were true.

Luke 8:18
"Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away."

DSOTM reflects the reality of "living your life" in the Absence of The Truth.

The Matrix

 

[Newman]

Could it be about God’s children being born into his earth and being deceived/manipulated into seeing it within Satan’s framework? The beautiful music as God’s creation.

Fat chance, given Roger Waters’ radical atheism and stated view that religions are all nonsense.

This is a simple example of how listeners can interpret lyrics in a manner diametrically opposed to anything the writer may have wished to communicate.

 

[AudiOhm]

I have the 30th anniversary SACD/CD, will give it a listen tonight.

Ohms

 

[mhardy6647]

It's about Syd Barrett, innit?
I mean, yeah, and so's Wish You Were Here... but Syd's demise was kind of a big thing.

 

[AudiOhm]

Just finished a listen, as good as I remember...

Ohms

 

[Robin L]

I've always been annoyed by rich rockers kvetching about other monied people and always will. I find most of Pink Floyd's music and social antics repellant.

 

[mhardy6647]

I've always been annoyed by rich rockers kvetching about other monied people and always will. I find most of Pink Floyd's music and social antics repellant.

I don't think they were particularly rich when they recorded Dark Side of the Moon. Later, sure... but not in 1973.

 

[Descartes]

I have the 30th anniversary SACD/CD, will give it a listen tonight.

Ohms

I bought my first vinyl when it came out back 50 years ago and loved it! I then bought the 30th anniversary SACD a few years ago and went down memory lane!

 

[Newman]

I've always been annoyed by rich rockers kvetching about other monied people and always will. I find most of Pink Floyd's music and social antics repellant.

Give us some examples please.