Released this month in 1973, ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ remains one of the most enduringly popular albums ever. Here’s our look at the legendary album:
Pink Floyd convened in Abbey Road studios in the summer of 1972 as a band reinvented. After replacing key member Syd Barrett with Dave Gilmour four years earlier, the band had re-grouped and moved away from the psychedelic leanings of the Barrett-led era and entered a period of their career which many would later look back on as one of the most creative and influential of all time.
Barrett-era Pink Floyd
During the Sixties, Pink Floyd had been at the forefront of the Psychedelic movement, and had released a clutch of classic singles including ‘See Emily Play‘ and ‘Arnold Layne‘. However, by the time the group’s second album ‘A Saucerful Of Secrets‘ had been released in June 1968, Barrett had left Pink Floyd, with the band citing his erratic behaviour and use of drugs as the reason for his departure.
As the band released ‘Atom Heart Mother‘ in 1970, their gradual change of direction was becoming apparent, but they struggled to gain any genuine critical acclaim during this period. It wasn’t until the release of ‘Meddle‘ in October 1971 that the band truly began to find their feet as they moved into what became known as Progressive Rock. With all the band contributing new ideas in the studio ‘Meddle‘ showed to the world that Pink Floyd had a future, and even though reviews remained mixed, the group was well on it’s way to the sound and mind-set which would see Pink Floyd become one of the biggest bands in the world. It was undoubtedly ‘Meddle‘ which pointed the way to ‘Dark Side Of The Moon‘.
The first seeds of ‘Dark Side Of The Moon‘ were sown when the group began tentative rehersals in a studio borrowed from the Rolling Stones in Bermondsey, London. As Roger Waters would later recall, the sessions were relaxed to say the least, but despite the laidback approach, the wheels for Pink Floyd’s next studio album had been set in motion. After the foundations had been laid, the band moved on for rehersals at the Rainbow Theatre, and they subsequently took their new work out on the road before taking it into the studio.
Abbey Road studios
As with the trend set on their previous LPs, when the group began work on their new material in Abbey Road it was very much a collaborative effort. All members contributed to the desire to explore new sounds and ways of recording. The pattern of experimentation mirrored the work done by The Beatles in the same studios during their ‘Sgt.Pepper‘ sessions five years previously. As with that record, there was a collective will to try new things, to push boundaries, and to make use of everything that became available to them in the studio. The band’s plan to have a central idea running through the record also echoed the efforts of The Beatles, or more accurately Paul McCartney, while recording ‘Sgt.Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band‘. But unlike The Beatles, Pink Floyd saw the idea through, and the unified themes running throughout the album, an idea first mooted by Roger Waters in the earliest meetings regarding the new LP, make it recognised as one of the first fully realised concept records.
Recording began on the 1st of June with ‘Us and Them‘, and it soon became clear that the band were willing to try virtually anything to achieve the sound they wanted. So it was that Roger Waters used recordings of him throwing coins into a food mixing bowl on ‘Money‘, while the band and engineers spent hours getting clocks to chime in sequence while recording ‘Time‘. Use of synthesisers and other early electronic equipment also dominated the sessions, and became a prominent part of the resultant album.
After a break, they returned to the studio in January 1973 for more recording sessions. During this final period, the band enlisted the help of four female singers, Doris Troy, Lesley Duncan, Liza Strike and Barry St.John, who recorded backing vocals on ‘Brain Damage‘, ‘Eclipse‘ and ‘Time‘. Alongside Clare Torry’s improvised take on ‘The Great Gig In The Sky‘, the singers added further layers to the LP and, together with the famous harmonising and double-tracking of Richard Wright’s and Dave Glimour’s vocals, helped to give the album it’s distinctive rich quality.
Dark Side Of The Moon’s iconic status was further enhanced by the choice of sleeve, which is now one of the most recognisable covers in history. Under strict instructions from the band to produce something ’smarter’ than their previous efforts, the group’s long-term art design team Hipgnosis were again picked to work on the packaging. One of the group’s members, Storm Thorgerson, is credited with the famous Prism design, after being inspired by a photograph that he had been shown during discussions regarding the artwork. In the end, Pink Floyd were presented with seven ideas for the album’s cover, and all were immediately unanimous in picking the Prism. With the songs, production and now brilliant sleeve design all finished, ‘Dark Side Of The Moon‘ was ready to hit the shelves.
The 'classic' Pink Floyd line-up: (l-r) Nick Mason, Dave Gilmour, Roger Waters, Richard Wright
With much stronger support from their record label, ‘Dark Side Of The Moon‘ was released initially in the US and later in the UK to a much more positive response from critics and became an immediate smash hit. It went Gold in the UK shortly after it’s release, and hit the top spot in the US just over a month later. As Capitol Records continued to push the album in the US, backed by radio-edits of ‘Us and Them‘ and ‘Time‘ as well as the single ‘Money‘, which perfectly displayed the quirkiness of the album, the units continued to pile up. Famously, the album went on to spend an incredible 741 weeks on the Billboard Top 200, and is now one of the best selling of all time, with total world-wide sales estimated at over 45 million.
As the accolades continued, the four members of Pink Floyd began to feel uneasy with the runaway sales of ‘Dark Side Of The Moon‘, a mood which would be addressed on the 1975 follow-up ‘Wish You Were Here‘, and they struggled to come to terms with their sudden world-wide fame and commercial status. Later, Richard Wright would recall his thoughts on the record’s achievements:
“…the only criterion we have about releasing music is whether we like it or not. It was not a deliberate attempt to make a commercial album. It just happened that way. We knew it had a lot more melody than previous Floyd albums, and there was a concept that ran all through it. The music was easier to absorb and having girls singing away added a commercial touch that none of our records had.”
Released at the height of Glam Rock, ‘Dark Side Of The Moon‘ brought so-called Prog Rock into the mainstream and ushered in an era of huge experimentation, and ultimately over-indulgence, from a succession of bands throughout the Seventies. When the Prog Rock era is looked back on today, it’s clear one of the triumphs of ‘Dark Side Of The Moon‘ is that it stays on the right side of the line, and is able to experiment and use heavy themes without slipping into the over-blown, self-gratifying state which would later dominate Prog, and keeps in touch with the basic requirements of quality and melody. These are ideals which were quickly lost on their peers, and which would lead to the explosion of Punk Rock just four years after ‘Dark Side Of The Moon‘, when young bands rebelling against the bloated state of Prog replaced 30 minute keyboard solos with 30 minute LPs.
With ‘Dark Side Of The Moon‘, Pink Floyd achieved that very rare feat - marrying innovation and creativity in the studio with phenomenol commercial success. It’s a combination which makes this album one of the great success stories in rock history.
(Dave Smith)
Copyright 2010 http://www.live4ever.uk.com/ Reprinted By Permission
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