Obscured By Clouds/Dark Side conceptual connection?

That's a really interesting observation, but I do believe that they are seperate. Or maybe they were ment to be sequential. Perhaps OBC was that shedding of the civilized self, then regaining sanity, DSOTM. Feel free to expand or disovle that idea.

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to let me in from the cold, turn my lead into gold
'cause there's chill wind blowing in my soul and I think I'm growing old

Actually, I completely agree with you.

Obscured By Clouds = Speak To Me
Burning Bridges = Breathe
Childhood's End = Time
Mudmen = Breathe (Reprise)
The Gold it's in the... = Money
Stay = Us and Them
When You're In = Any Colour You Like
Free Four = Brain Damage
Absolutely Curtains = Eclipse

The only tracks that don't have counterparts are Great Gig, On the Run & Wots... Uh the Deal.

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what do you teach your children about me?
what do you teach your little children about me?
pimp, thug, bling drug lord of the undergrounded kings
how can you be so sure i won't call down the rain?
what do you teach your little children about me?
you point your gun, wait, hide and run. i see it plain

I see what you're saying but DSOTM was to me more like the *loss* of sanity.

Maybe it was 'realizing' the pressures of real life that caused 'loss of sanity'. Just a thought.

So do you think that the layout for OBC had an influence on that of DSOTM? i.e. the concept following different things that can change a person's mind?
Another point I thought I'd mention, and this is as always just opinion, was a comparison to the other soundtrack album More. The OBC *album* had more of a story and concept to it than More, which I saw as more of a collection of songs for the movie, whether in order or not. And Floyd has admitted that they made a bit of a concept album out of the thing, so the concept may not be as full blown as something like The Wall but it's certainly stronger than the loose concept of More. "We would have done anything in terms of films" said the band of their early days so maybe it didn't have the oppurtunity to develop into a concept album because they were jumping at the chance and had just gone through a big change with the loss of Syd, and More was kind of rushed timewise...but OBC kind of was too...

The fact that they were so rushed to record it is an argument against the idea of a planned, thought-out concept per se. But the running order of OBC does seem to reflect the plot of the film to a certain extent. And some of the themes and ideas were tackled again when Roger went to write all the lyrics to DSOTM. So in a sense OBC was kind of a "dry run", a rehearsal for what would eventually become the finished product of Dark Side.

__________________
what do you teach your children about me?
what do you teach your little children about me?
pimp, thug, bling drug lord of the undergrounded kings
how can you be so sure i won't call down the rain?
what do you teach your little children about me?
you point your gun, wait, hide and run. i see it plain

Something else I forgot, in the early stage performances and development of the DSOTM piece (then called "eclipse") they combined the track Obscured by Clouds and When You're In as an intro to the live sets. So the whole idea of using something dark like the OBC title track as the first song *definitely* suggests that the layout for the Obscured By Clouds album had a strong influence on the blueprint for DSOTM. I think it's AMAZING how an album under such hurried conditions could still be a conceptual piece, like Gilmour said it was.
Then again, another thought occurred that I'd been completely blind to; THE MAN AND THE JOURNEY suite! That whole thing was a conceptual live set that told a story, which must have had the band interested in concept pieces.

Like 'Wot's, Uh... the Deal' (about growing old) and 'Free Four' (about the same thing) which would both fit on Dark Side pretty well. One could also stretch the theme of 'The Gold it's in the...' and fit in into 'On the Run', about not being able to settle down, for various reasons.

And I always saw 'Mudmen' is a kind of counterpart to 'Great Gig', except without the vocals (which were added in the studio anyway). Both are ethereal instrumentals with build-up parts.

Possibly, but I think it's just some kind of coincidence. I really doubt that the band had planned all of this out -- I think it just happened.

Actually, I've never really seen or felt any kind of connection between the two albums, it's never even entered my mind.

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i think your all crazy... i see no connection here

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"Ashes and diamonds, foe and friend, we were all equal in the end"
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April 5, 2006 was amazing

Me too. I think it just happened that way. I know the band didn't go into recording OBC saying "Okay, we'll make give this a concept and then follow that same pattern for our next album." I just think the conceptual *layout* of OBC wound up having an influence on the blueprint of DSOTM, i.e. the music following a concept of losing your state of mind through a series of different events or elements. Which leads me to Steechy's comment, I may have been too abstract earlier and didn't elaborate well enough. If you don't get what I'm saying or at least still think I'm crazy, I'll give up on you:

Okay, check this out: Pink Floyd, as quoted from an interview, turned the OBC soundtrack album into a concept thing that had a story to it based on the film, which was: ordinary person goes through series of events that changes their state of mind/persona. AND, Floyd put the things in a sort of SEQUENCE or order to articulate that.
Alright...
DSOTM was about how the pressures of society can lead to MADNESS, and again, Floyd put them in an order that showed those things leading up to insanity on 'Brain Damage.'
So...
Both albums wound up with a concept about how certain elements/events/surroundings can change a person's persona to where there's "no going back" (or to where the sun is eclipsed by the moon). AND, both albums showed each of these things things *leading up* to a loss of a civilized persona or loss of sanity.
Therefore...
I think that by the time the planning for DSOTM came about, Floyd said "Okay we're making this concept album about madness...yes, Roger it was your idea, we know...anyway, we're making this album about madness. So, how should we express it? Maybe we should do what we did with OBC, but instead of describing a dangerous adventure leading to a change in mind, let's put work, travel, time, death, money, and violence ALL LEADING UP TO insanity."

Sorry if your thought is still
"Okay, you must be on crack
Alright...
I don't know where you pulled this theory out of
So...
You are still crazy."

yup

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"I like to think that oysters transcend national barriers"
"Ashes and diamonds, foe and friend, we were all equal in the end"
"...So much behind us...still far to go...still far to go..."
April 5, 2006 was amazing

Either way -- planned or not -- we have two exceptional albums here. They work well as a team, and Dark Side sounds even better when played right after Obscured.

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Someone desrves a pat on the back.

Ah, bite me. (j/k)
Anyway my opinion is still that OBC's layout influenced that of DSOTM, and if not, DSOTM might have been just a collection of songs about things that lead to madness, rather than an elaborate sequence of things leading up to insanity.