Pink Floyd
The Dark Side of the Moon

Realizing, from reading reviews on DeBaser, that anyone who dares to write something out of the ordinary about some works that many believe have made the history of music, as in this case, incurs in many malevolences slash curses from the hardline wall of the artist's fans in question. Well, I am therefore prepared for the copious criticisms, hopefully not the insults, that will arrive even if I expect, perhaps deluding myself, some indulgence from those who, while loving this band, consider the possibility that someone else might raise some perplexities. As for me, I will try to argue as much as possible what I will affirm so that at least you can grant me the mitigating factor of intellectual honesty. What I report below I wrote more or less the same time ago, if you find traces of it on the web, know that ... it's always me the guilty one.

I will not speak specifically about the various tracks present on the definitive LP, about which probably has been discussed ad nauseam and better reviewers than me have already provided on this, but rather about the original spirit on which the work was based, betrayed certainly not for too much love.It is with this spirit that I therefore set out to review a "supposed masterpiece" hypothesizing also the "dark side", that is to say that the Pink Floyd, precisely with this record, sold themselves to the market, and I add, with truly commendable perception and foresight.

I therefore belong to the decisive minority that considers "DSOTM", if not certainly bad, a somewhat dishonest record that undoubtedly marks the premature disappearance of the band called Pink Floyd, not at an innovative level, because of ideas, with ups and downs, this record like the subsequent ones is full until at least "The Wall", but rather disappearance understood as a betrayal of that psychedelic icon that the band itself had become for the majority of its supporters, up to then also including myself. It was not a painless transition; on the contrary, it was very painful but undoubtedly meditated on and, precisely for this reason, to be pursued with greater acrimony. Why do I say meditated? Because from the original draft, which was even a single piece and not a suite, to the final recording on record, a full two years had passed; two years of struggle in which the band first by trial and error, then more and more scientifically worked on a transformation "on the road" of the suite until they endorsed the final product based on the audience's reactions. In simple words Pink Floyd did years ahead what American cinema adopted as a basic rule thanks to test screenings which involve a sample of a heterogeneous audience where, according to reactions to the viewed scenes, the film is changed and very often some parts are shot again for the use and enjoyment of the end user. This move could even explain, or at least indicate, the real motivation behind the longevity of this record in the charts over the following decades.

Let's go in order: "The Dark Side Of The Moon" was born as a single piece from the mind of Roger Waters in 1971 and only after a long discussion with Nick Mason was the decision made to transform it into something much more substantial with the structure and dimensions of an LP. The first live performance was held in Brighton on January 20, 1972 with the provisional title "Eclipse", but a technical fault forced the band to abandon after just 20 minutes so it can chronologically be asserted that the first world date where the first draft of "the dark" was played in public was at the Rainbow Theatre in London on February 17 of the same year; this first version of DSOTM was certainly much more psychedelic and therefore much more anchored to the previous "pink" style. The world tour that followed was structured to detect audience perceptions, consequently modifying the structure of the tracks; for example "The Great Gig in the Sky" which originally was called by the band "The Mortality Sequence" was at the beginning an instrumental built on Richard Wright's electric piano, and in the early concerts, it was even presented together with overdubs of sacred readings recited by Malcolm Muggeridge. The idea absolutely did not please the crowd and was quickly set aside. Similarly, although with less evidence, all the other tracks were inevitably changed, concert after concert, increasingly intensifying the use of gimmicks and electronic effects that instead met with the paying public's favor.

The last Japanese concerts served to grease that powerful money machine that was being built; despite all this, the stubborn perseverance in search of "perfection" would not have been enough, by itself, to give the definitive dimension that the work had later. Here comes into play a fundamental character, today too often forgotten, but who then had enormous recognitions that almost elevated him to an honorary member of the band for special merits ; I am referring to that modest composer, but an absolute genius of special effects as well as brilliant sound engineer named Alan Parsons. Alan took the semi-definitive work back in hand and by turning it like a glove, obviously always under the band's supervision, he marked its physical boundaries, which for the time were absolutely....metaphysical. This can be deduced by listening to one of the last concerts of this exploratory tour, let's call it that, which took place in Sapporo on December 3, 1972, in other words about a month before the vinyl recording. There is a CD in this regard released at newsstands by Fabbri Editori which published the recording, obviously illegal, of that concert. The structure of DSOTM was already molded to the listener's desires, but not yet forged, enameled, and polished as it could later be appreciated on the official record. This rough diamond was thus cleaned and finely chiseled by Alan Parsons; one could object whether it was a rough diamond or simply zircon, but here we could go on discussing for hours and both theses would be equally valid and debatable.

Nevertheless, "the dark" is not an honest record, but a convenient record, a sort of dress rehearsal on how the music market would later develop up to today's scandals. Therefore, only for this single reason, I consider this album "dangerous", "falsely innovative" and surely a watershed between the genuine inspiration of an artist or a group and the bleak law of the market which was beginning to take its first steps.

The Genesis, with the departure of Peter Gabriel and especially with that of Steve Hackett, managed to do much worse only a few years later.