1973 - The Dark Side of the Moon

The Dark Side of the Moon
Pink Floyd, 1973



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Release date: March 10th, 1973

Recorded at: EMI Studios, Abbey Road, London (June 1972-January 1973)

The future began here. Recorded at Abbey Road on the new 16-track desk, seamlessly constructed and employing a thematic 'concept' to link the songs, The Dark Side of the Moon was the album which swiftly projected the Floyd from cult band to cornerstones of rock culture. A Quadrophonic mix by Alan Parsons, authorised by EMI and launched at the London Planetarium, caused a rumpus, with the band refusing to attend. This aside, the album was a huge success, and is still their biggest in commercial terms, with 35m copies sold worldwide.

It seems rather appropriate that "Dark Side" was EMI's first rock CD release. If there was a prime candidate for the new digital medium, then this was it. Inevitably, the release of "Dark Side" on CD helped give the album a new lease of life. Its success was 80 great--legend has it that there was an EMI factory which did nothing but churn out "Dark Side" CDs--that it enabled the album's U.S. chart run to top 730 weeks.

It is the fourth best seller rock album of all time - just behind "Thriller", "Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack" and Fleetwood Mac's "Rumors". It stayed on Billboard's top 200 album chart until April 23, 1988, and after that they changed the format so that once an album dropped off, it could not return. It stayed there for 723 weeks, the longest of any album, ever.

Nick Mason: "Dark Side started as a sequence called Eclipse. Most of it was developed in rehearsals for live shows, and we played it live at the Rainbow in London and opened shows with it in America in 1972. The concept grew out of group discussions about the pressures of real life, like travel or money, but then Roger broadened it into a meditation on the causes of insanity. The linking of all the sounds and the voices was very well done, I think, and we introduced an early synthesizer, the VCS3, right at the end. The recording was lengthly but not fraught, not agonised over at all. We were working really well as a band, But it wasn't only the music that made it such a success. EMI/Capitol had cleaned up their act in America. They put money behind promoting us for the first time. And that changed everything."

David Gilmour: "The big difference for me with this album was the fact that we'd played it live before we recorded it. You could't do that now of course, you'd be bootlegged out of existence. But when we went into the studio we all knew the material. The playing was very good. It had a natural feel. And it was a bloody good package. The music, the concept, the cover, all came together. For me it was the first time we'd had great lyrics. The others were satisfactory, or perfunctory or just plain bad. On Dark Side, Roger decided he didn't want anyone else writing lyrics."

As a side note, it is rumoured that initial U.K CDs were mastered not from the original tapes, but from second-generation copies. The story among Floyd buffs is that Dave Gilmour discovered this and ordered a shame-faced EMI to rectify this situation straight away.

The Dark Side of the Moon album cover was designed by Hipgnosis and George Hardie.

Tracks:

• Speak To Me (Mason)
  
  [01:10] Instrumental.
• Breathe (Waters, Gilmour, Wright)
  
  [02:47] Vocals by Gilmour.
• On The Run (Gilmor, Waters)
  
  [03:51] Instrumental.
• Time (Mason, Waters, Wright, Gilmour)
  
  [05:54] Vocals by Gilmour and Wright.
• Breathe Reprise (Waters, Gilmour, Wright)
  
  [01:11] Vocals by Gilmour.
• The Great Gig in the Sky (Wright)
  
  [04:47] Vocals by Clare Torry.
• Money (Waters)
  
  [06:23] Vocals by Gilmour.
• Us And Them (Waters, Wright)
  
  [07:48] Vocals by Wright and Gilmour.
• Any Colour You Like (Gilmour, Mason, Wright)
  
  [03:25] Instrumental.
• Brain Damage (Waters)
  
  [03:50] Vocals by Waters.
• Eclipse (Waters)
  
  [02:06] Vocals by Waters with Gilmour at the end.

Total Playing Time: 42'52

Musicians Featured:

• David Gilmour: Vocals, Guitars, VCS3
• Nick Mason: Drums, Tape Effects
• Roger Waters: Bass Guitar, Vocals, VCS3
• Rick Wright: Keyboards, Vocals, VCS3, Tape Effects
• Dick Parry: Saxophone on "Us And Them" and "Money"
• Clare Torry: Vocals on "The Great Gig in the Sky"
• Backing Vocals: Doris Troy, Lesley Duncan, Liza Strike and Barry St.John

The Dark Side of the Moon catalog numbers:

• Original album:
  • Original LP: Harvest SHVL 804
  • LP: EMI 8 29752 2
  • Quadraphonic: Harvest Q4 SHVL 804
  • Picture disc - pyramid: Harvest SHVLP 804
  • Picture disc - prism (USA): Capitol SEAX 11902
  • CD: EMI CDP 7 460012
• 20th Anniversary Edition:
  • Digitally Remastered - September, 1992: CD EMI 0777 7 81479 2 3
  • Minidisc: EMI 8 29752 8
• 30th Anniversary Edition:
  • SACD March 2003
  • Vynil March 2003

Other Information:

• Original album
  • Engineer: Alan Parsons
  • Assistant: Peter James
  • Mixing Supervised by Chris Thomas
• 20th Anniversary Edition
  • Remastering supervised by James Guthrie
  • Digitally remastered by Doug Sax, The Mastering Lab, LA
  • Sleeve and photogram design by Storm Thorgerson & Stylorouge
  • Prism photography by Tony May & Storm Thorgerson
  • Live photographs by Jill Furmanovsky & Hipgnosis
  • Pyramid photographs by Hipgnosis
  • Photogrammer and speaker photographs by Chris Craske
  • 3D-prism created at Tapestry
  • The remastered version was first released as limited CD-box with booklet and postcards. The same master was used for the 'normal' reissue CD and minidisc.

The Dark Side of the Moon 30th Anniversary Album Cover:

• Discuss The Dark Side of the Moon (forums)
• The Dark Side of the Moon Lyrics
• The Dark Side of the Rainbow (from Pink Floyd Synchronicities)
• The Dark Side of the Yellow Submarine (from Pink Floyd Synchronicities)
• The Dark Side of the Moon Official Website
• Reviews & Ordering Information (from Amazon.com)
• A Complete Analysis of DSOTM (by APFFN member IHeartWaters).