There is no "gone Dark Side Of The Moon," really...

The Dark Side Of The Moon (EMI, 1973)
PINK FLOYD

I believe 40 years is a reasonable long period of time to judge a record; to check how good it behaved throughout the decades, if it has influenced other works -although I believe that's not so important, it's always about how much it influenced you -, and maybe to be aware of some melody that we may have been humming along all this time.

Records like Dark Side Of The Moon are for some collectors like for normal people is to have food in the table or to own a car. You have to have it or else your life is worthless. With three decades on its shoulders and so many cultural changes that have been happening since 1973, the collective subconscious has forgotten how astonishing and groundbreaking this production is.

Noble successor of concept such Albums as Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Tommy, this record was manufactured using the same mold other PF albums were made, such as Meddle and Atom Heart Mother. However, the Floyd picked a vast subject: life and death. The life and the artistic suicide death of Pink Floyd's founder: the great Syd Barrett, of whom nobody knew if he was breathing or pulling daisies 6 feet under until his death in 2006. 

Darky owes much from its success to the conditions it was recorded. London's Abbey Road was the studio, Alan Parsons the main engineer (who later complained, on the liner notes of his Tales of Mystery And Imagination, of not making too much money with the Floyd), and the four members of the band were the actual producers. They risked everything and they got what they deserved: the permanency of the album on Billboard's Top 200 albums from 1973 until 1987 (I bought the peruvian cassette for the first time one year later).

Still today, it's one of the best selling compact discs in Amazon.com. It's a record each new generation has to discover, and it is for that reason that the album will never leave, just like the music of the Beatles or Mozart's.

In nine songs, Roger Waters pens the story of a man (you or I) obsessing with time advancing slowly toward his death. "Breathe" and "Time" are written almost in the same moderate beat. Between them, "On The Run", an intricate game of synthesizers, heartbeats and airport sounds where airplanes take off and suddenly they smash. Richard Wright, the keyboard player, executes an instrumental called "Great Gig In the Sky", based on the ancient Egyptians' idea of the chariot that takes the dead to Paradise. Did I say ancient Egyptians? See the pyramids in the inner sleeve of the CD. See the pyramidal prism that decomposes the white light. Beautiful.

For the B side, Waters composes "Money", the best song written about the vile metal ever. There are references to Elton John buying a team of Soccer and to Led Zeppelin buying an jet plane for themselves (Steve Miller Band's "Jet Airliner" probably wanted to follow that thought). "Money is the root of all evil today". Nothing else truer than that statement. "Us And Them" is about the struggle of classes that helped creating part of Barret's madness. "Any Colour You Like" is considered another reprise of "Breathe," two half notes down and the idea of a quiet album about a screaming subject turns into reality in our ears. The album ends with "Brain Damage" and "Eclipse", two fascinating games of words about love and relationships that made Roger Waters' wife cry when she listened to them for the first time. You might too.

Alan Parsons, chief engineer at Abbey Road Studios during the Darky sessions, talked in an interview about how hard recording this album was. Pink Floyd wanted strange sounds to sound familiar to the listener. A cash registrer and a bag of currencies pulsing in 7/4 tempo, recorded on a tape that looped around the control room. Another room full with wall clocks hitting the hour, a beating heart that begins and finishes the symphony of life. It took them one year to finish the album, and when Pink Floyd Road left Abbey Studios, their brains couldn't function anymore. It was just like the Beatles did in Sgt. Pepper. The album drained all their creativity and they just needed a vacation. Their following record would come out later two years, another tribute to Syd called Wish You Were Here. For some, their real masterpiece.

Ah, yes, pure entertainment. Darky will always be available in Amazon.com.

More Floyd:
Ummagumma (Harvest, 1969): The most spacey record of the sixties. Out of this system.
Wish You Were Here (Columbia, 1975): A homage to guitar-vocalist-songwriter-leader of 1966 and 1967's Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett. Gilmour and Waters ask him to come back and join the band. But two guitars can't sound in the same amp, or can they?
Animals (Columbia, 1977): They got to be crazy. The ultimate conceptual album, the beginning of the end.
A Collection of Great Dance Songs (Columbia, 1981): In one record, the six most popular Pink Floyd songs. Adorable.
The Wall (Columbia, 1979): the kick in the ass, from Pink Floyd to all the Punk generation. With lots of love.
Echoes (Capitol, 2001): Essential Pink Floyd, sequenced by Gilmour and Waters. Like previous albums, a tribute to the eternal Syd Barrett.