Album of the Week: Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
If I had to select one album as my favorite album of all time, I will undoubtly go for Pink Floyds's 1973 masteropiece. Probably all that you can say about this album has been said already.
It holds many records like being the third best-selling studio record of all time, with 40 million copies sold, just behind Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and AC/DC's "Back in Black". Even though it was just one week at US chart number one position, it managed to stay on the chart for 14 years.
The album is Pink FLoyd's 6th album, and its musical concept was presented on a the last track of their previous album, Meddle's "Echoes", a 23 and a half minute long epic ride, which was rumored to have been made in syncrhonization to the final part of Stanley Kubrick's "2001, a Space Odyssey". It is also supposed to have been plagiarized by Andrew Llloyd Webber to create the musical "The Phantom of the Opera".
Dark Side of the Moon is considered to be the ideal concept album, even though its concept is not clear or even nameable. It basically talks about life, and been a human, with the main composer ROger Waters claiming "Speak to me / Breathe" is aboutt been born, "Time" about concern on the fastness of time, "The Great Gig in the Sky" about death and religion, "Money" on consumerism, "Us and Them" on war, "Brain Damage" on insanity and the closer "Eclipse" dealing with freewil and causality.
It is interesting to know, that the album's name was almost changed, when a band called MEdicine Head, was supposed to realize an album by the same name, Pink Floyd's album would have been called "Eclipse: A Piece for Assorted Lunatics". Medicine Head's album flopped so "The Dark Side of the Moon" was retaken.
Been the album so important and influential it has been source for numerous covers, gags and myths about it. Next, I will list some of them.
Cover Versions
Although cover versions have been realised live by bands like Phish or Dream Theather, the most notable cover version comes from the Jamaican band, "The Easy Stars All-Stars". The album is called "Dub Side of the Moon" and is basically a Reggae version of the album, the tracklisting is kept the same, though there are some minor changes on the songs and 4 extra songs at the end.
If you feel curious about this album, be free to download it from this blog: Radio Attack 1003.
Myths
One of the most popular myths on Dark Side of the Moon is that on the 4th song, "The Great Gig in the Sky", at 3:32, you are suppose to hear the line "if you hear this whisper, than you are dying. THis is commonly held as a myth, as the real voice says "I never said I was frightened of dying". Dopeheads like to thing it is the first way, so you may have a bad time convincing them otherwise.
Another popular myth is that if you play Dark Side of the Moon at the same time you play 1939's film "The Wizard of Oz", you are going to experience some synchronization between the sound and images. This effect is often called "The Dark Side of the Rainbow". Band member have descrited this to be on purpose and be just a mere coincidence. Producer of the album, Alan Parson says:
"It was an American radio guy who pointed it out to me. It's such a non-starter, a complete load of eyewash. I tried it for the first time about two years ago. One of my fiancee's kids had a copy of the video, and I thought I had see what it was all about. I was very disappointed. The only thing I noticed was that the line "balanced on the biggest wave" came up when Dorothy was kind of tightrope walking along a fence. One of the things any audio professional will tell you is that the scope for the drift between the video and the record is enormous; it could be anything up to twenty seconds by the time the record's finished. And anyway, if you play any record with the sound turned down on the TV, you will find things that work."
Additionally, if you turn the volume real loud during the closer track, "eclipse", you will hear a Beatles instrumental at the background.
I will now post some images on some similar album covers with this album. All them are spoofs or parodies.
Finally, if you by any chance happen to not now what "The Dark Side of the Moon" is all aabout, you might want to check this blog out in order to download it: Luminoso y Desertico.
"And after all we're only ordinary men"
It holds many records like being the third best-selling studio record of all time, with 40 million copies sold, just behind Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and AC/DC's "Back in Black". Even though it was just one week at US chart number one position, it managed to stay on the chart for 14 years.
The album is Pink FLoyd's 6th album, and its musical concept was presented on a the last track of their previous album, Meddle's "Echoes", a 23 and a half minute long epic ride, which was rumored to have been made in syncrhonization to the final part of Stanley Kubrick's "2001, a Space Odyssey". It is also supposed to have been plagiarized by Andrew Llloyd Webber to create the musical "The Phantom of the Opera".
Dark Side of the Moon is considered to be the ideal concept album, even though its concept is not clear or even nameable. It basically talks about life, and been a human, with the main composer ROger Waters claiming "Speak to me / Breathe" is aboutt been born, "Time" about concern on the fastness of time, "The Great Gig in the Sky" about death and religion, "Money" on consumerism, "Us and Them" on war, "Brain Damage" on insanity and the closer "Eclipse" dealing with freewil and causality.
It is interesting to know, that the album's name was almost changed, when a band called MEdicine Head, was supposed to realize an album by the same name, Pink Floyd's album would have been called "Eclipse: A Piece for Assorted Lunatics". Medicine Head's album flopped so "The Dark Side of the Moon" was retaken.
Been the album so important and influential it has been source for numerous covers, gags and myths about it. Next, I will list some of them.
Cover Versions
Although cover versions have been realised live by bands like Phish or Dream Theather, the most notable cover version comes from the Jamaican band, "The Easy Stars All-Stars". The album is called "Dub Side of the Moon" and is basically a Reggae version of the album, the tracklisting is kept the same, though there are some minor changes on the songs and 4 extra songs at the end.
If you feel curious about this album, be free to download it from this blog: Radio Attack 1003.
Myths
One of the most popular myths on Dark Side of the Moon is that on the 4th song, "The Great Gig in the Sky", at 3:32, you are suppose to hear the line "if you hear this whisper, than you are dying. THis is commonly held as a myth, as the real voice says "I never said I was frightened of dying". Dopeheads like to thing it is the first way, so you may have a bad time convincing them otherwise.
Another popular myth is that if you play Dark Side of the Moon at the same time you play 1939's film "The Wizard of Oz", you are going to experience some synchronization between the sound and images. This effect is often called "The Dark Side of the Rainbow". Band member have descrited this to be on purpose and be just a mere coincidence. Producer of the album, Alan Parson says:
"It was an American radio guy who pointed it out to me. It's such a non-starter, a complete load of eyewash. I tried it for the first time about two years ago. One of my fiancee's kids had a copy of the video, and I thought I had see what it was all about. I was very disappointed. The only thing I noticed was that the line "balanced on the biggest wave" came up when Dorothy was kind of tightrope walking along a fence. One of the things any audio professional will tell you is that the scope for the drift between the video and the record is enormous; it could be anything up to twenty seconds by the time the record's finished. And anyway, if you play any record with the sound turned down on the TV, you will find things that work."
Additionally, if you turn the volume real loud during the closer track, "eclipse", you will hear a Beatles instrumental at the background.
I will now post some images on some similar album covers with this album. All them are spoofs or parodies.
Finally, if you by any chance happen to not now what "The Dark Side of the Moon" is all aabout, you might want to check this blog out in order to download it: Luminoso y Desertico.
"And after all we're only ordinary men"
Comentarios