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David Gilmour: "Yes, hello? Hi, Roger. Listen, I just couldn't think of anything, not a riff, not a melody."
Roger Waters: "As usual, you can't expect anything from you, just lengthy solos. I'm also a bit short on ideas. With obscured by clouds we've really messed everything up, you know?"
D. G.: Don't tell me, it's awful!
R. W.: Yeah, but with this, we're risking hitting rock bottom. Help me, please.
D. G.: And Nick? Come on, Nick will get us out of trouble.
R. W.: Yeah, him. He hasn't touched the drums for 3 months. After Obscured, he's become demoralized.
D. G.: Ok, then Rick. He's always so filling for an album, with his keyboard interludes. Then I'll throw in some solos here and there. Some songs with random sounds and effects. And there you go. Come on, we can do it! Come on!
R. W.: I've got an idea. We need to go for a concept album.
D. G.: Meaning?
R. W.: Something that revolves around a single topic. I've got an idea. Madness. There. That way we'll seem more cultured. Come on! We can do it. I'll ask the others and then I'll tell you what comes out!" Two months later...
D. G.: "Hi, so? The record company is breathing down our necks, they want a commercial, sellable, yet pseudo-refined product."
R. W.: "Okay, we can do it. So: intro full of sound effects, so we can immediately raise the runtime. Then on with 'Breathe in the air,' that usual lived-in riff that everyone does, and we'll repeat it around the album when we don't know what to do.
D. G.: Okay, what was it? E minor and A major?
R. W.: Obviously!
D. G.: Solos?
R. W.: Wait a minute! Let's not mess it up like we always do. Remember how boring it was on 'Atom heart mother'? That solo of yours after the choir that had already made us yawn? I've seen people never wake up again. Let's not repeat the usual mistakes. Let's make new ones.
D. G.: Okay, then?
R. W.: Another track of effects.
D. G.: Again? Then it's me who's the pain...
R. W.: Come on. Rick has recorded some cool stuff.
D. G.: Let's hope.
R. W.: It's called On the run. Then the usual song about time, relativity, and all that jazz. Look, you're singing, okay?
D. G.: Let me have the lyrics.
R. W.: I want you all mushy with the voice.
D. G.: As usual. Solo?
R. W.: No.
D. G.: Come on. Either you give me the solo, or I won't play for the whole song.
R. W.: You know, I've never heard you do a riff...
D. G.: Okay, okay, I promise I'll do something on this one, I don't know, some funky phrasing. Rather, just my voice? You know alone it gets boring.
R. W.: Ok, don't worry, I've got some backups prepared all over the album. And then we repeat 'Breathe,' since it's a concept and we can repeat the pieces whenever we want.
D. G.: You're a genius.
R. W.: I know. Then there's the masterpiece. A piano piece that Rick has come up with yet again. We'll call it 'The Great Gig in the Sky.' With a soul voice solo!!!!
D. G.: Yeah, and who's doing that? Not me for sure, neither you because your voice is more annoying than a mosquito's buzz.
R. W.: I've called an unknown who's better than all of us put together at singing. Then we'll get rid of her with some change.
D. G.: Okay, but all these slow and thick songs...
R. W.: Actually, there's a break. A blues with a riff in 7/4. The one I taught you two weeks ago.
D. G.: Come on. These riffs... Okay, but it felt all the same. Solo?
R. W.: Solo!! This time even sax!
D. G.: Sax? But wait, couldn't you have Richard do something? He never does any solos...
R. W.: Yeah, but do you remember that time on Saint Tropez? Oh my God, he can't even play two simple notes if you tell him to improvise. He's only good in the background.
D. G.: Ok. Let's go with the sax...
R. W.: Then Us and them. A hauntingly slow one. We'll stretch it for 6 or 7 minutes.
D. G.: How? There are only two damn arpeggios!
R. W.: Just stretch it, between effects, dialogues, soulful chorus, and then sax solo.
D. G.: Again.
R. W.: The sax pulls it off! Everyone falls for it.
D. G.: No guitar?
R. W.: Do arpeggios for once.
D. G.: Alright...
R. W.: Then again the 'Breathe' theme.
D. G.: Enough!!
R. W.: It's a concept. You can do whatever the hell you want. Anyway, it's camouflaged with keyboard effects and the usual delay cranked up with reverb.
D. G.: Solo?
R. W.: Okay, fine.
D. G.: Hooray. And listen, that only arpeggio that came to my mind?
R. W.: Placed on the penultimate track, 'Brain Damage.' Even here we stretch it out, otherwise, we don't even reach 40 minutes.
D. G.: Okay, that's enough, isn't it?
R. W.: Ah no. In a concept, there has to be the big finale, complete with revealing lyrics, gospel choirs, organ blasting, and then we put the sound we started with, so it seems all intentional and meaningful. Okay?
D. G.: Bravo, we did it again this time.
R. W.: Of course. Did you have doubts?
D. G.: Well, a few.
R. W.: Okay, see you tomorrow at the studio.
D. G.: Bye.
R. W.: Bye Bye.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Speak to Me (01:08)
''{spoken} I've been mad for fucking years, absolutely years, been over the edge for yonks, been working me buns off for bands...
I've always been mad, I know I've been mad, like the
most of us...very hard to explain why you're mad, even if you're not mad...
{the rest of this song is an instrumental}''
02 Breathe (02:48)
Breathe, breathe in the air.
Don't be afraid to care.
Leave but don't leave me.
Look around and choose your own ground.
Long you live and high you fly
And smiles you'll give and tears you'll cry
And all you touch and all you see
Is all your life will ever be.
Run, rabbit run.
Dig that hole, forget the sun,
And when at last the work is done
Don't sit down it's time to dig another one.
For long you live and high you fly
But only if you ride the tide
And balanced on the biggest wave
You race towards an early grave.
03 On the Run (03:50)
''{spoken} [female announcer, announcing flight departures at an airport, including 'Rome', 'Cairo', 'Naples']
Live for today, gone tomorrow, that's me (laughter)!
{the rest of this song is an instrumental}''
04 Time (06:49)
Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way.
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way.
Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain.
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today.
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you.
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.
And you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again.
The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older,
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death.
Every year is getting shorter never seem to find the time.
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over,
Thought I'd something more to say.
Home, home again.
I like to be here when I can.
When I come home cold and tired
It's good to warm my bones beside the fire.
Far away across the field
The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
To hear the softly spoken magic spells.
05 The Great Gig in the Sky (04:44)
''{spoken} And I am not frightened of dying, any time will do, I don't mind. Why should I be frightened of dying? There's no reason for it, you've gotta go sometime.
I never said I was frightened of dying.
{the rest of this song is an instrumental}''
06 Money (06:22)
Money, get away.
Get a good job with more pay and you're okay.
Money, it's a gas.
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash.
New car, caviar, four star daydream,
Think I'll buy me a football team.
Money, get back.
I'm all right Jack keep your hands off of my stack.
Money, it's a hit.
But Don't give me that do goody good bullshit.
I'm in the high-fidelity first class traveling set
And I think I need a Lear jet.
Money, it's a crime.
Share it fairly but don't take a slice of my pie.
Money, so they say
Is the root of all evil today.
But if you ask for a raise it's no surprise that they're giving none away.
''{spoken} HuHuh! I was in the right!
Yes, absolutely in the right!
I certainly was in the right!
You was definitely in the right. That geezer was cruising for a bruising!
Yeah!
Why does anyone do anything?
I don't know, I was really drunk at the time!
I was just telling him, he couldn't get into number 2. He was asking why he wasn't coming up on freely, after I was yelling and screaming and telling him why he wasn't coming up on freely.
It came as a heavy blow, but we sorted the matter out.''
07 Us and Them (07:49)
Us, and them
and after all we're only ordinary men.
me, and you.
God only knows it's not what we would choose to do.
Forward he cried from the rear
and the front rank died.
and the general sat and the lines on the map
moved from side to side.
Black and blue
and who knows which is which and who is who.
up and down.
And in the end it's only round and round, and round.
Haven't you heard it's a battle of words
the poster bearer cried.
Listen son, said the man with the gun
there's room for you inside.
''{spoken} I mean, they're gunna kill ya, so like, if you give 'em a quick short, sharp, shock, they won't do it again. Dig it? I mean he got off light, 'cos I would've given him a thrashing - I only hit him once! It was only a difference of right and wrong, innit?...I mean good manners
don't cost nothing do they, eh?''
Down and out
It can't be helped but there's a lot of it about.
With, without.
And who'll deny it's what the fighting's all about?
Out of the way, it's a busy day
I've got things on my mind.
For the want of the price of tea and a slice
The old man died.
09 Brain Damage (03:46)
The lunatic is on the grass
The lunatic is on the grass.
Remembering games and daisy chains and laughs
Got to keep the loonies on the path
The lunatic is in the hall
The lunatics are in my hall
The paper holds their folded faces to the floor
And every day the paper boy brings more
And if the dam breaks open many years too soon
And if there is no room upon the hill
And if your head explodes with dark forebodings too
I'll see you on the dark side of the moon
The lunatic is in my head
The lunatic is in my head
You raise the blade, you make the change
You re-arrange me 'til I'm sane
You lock the door
And throw away the key
There's someone in my head but it's not me
And if the cloud bursts, thunder in your ear
You shout but no one seems to hear
And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes
I'll see you on the dark side of the moon
I cannot think of anything to say except, ha, ha, ha, I think it's marvelous!
Ha, ha, ha!
10 Eclipse (02:11)
All that you touch
And all that you see
All that you taste
All you feel.
And all that you love
And all that you hate
All you distrust
All you save.
And all that you give
And all that you deal
And all that you buy,
Beg, borrow or steal.
And all you create
And all you destroy
And all that you do
And all that you say.
And all that you eat
And everyone you meet
And all that you slight
And everyone you fight.
And all that is now
And all that is gone
And all that's to come
And everything under the sun is in tune
But the sun is eclipsed by the moon.
''{spoken} There is no dark side of the moon really. Matter of fact it's all dark.''
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Other reviews
By claudio12
THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON is one of the top 5 most important albums in rock history.
An album that, more than an album, is undoubtedly a work of art in rock.
By AngeloLecce87
Madness, suffocation, excitement, fear, relaxation, adrenaline, and pleasure blend almost imperceptibly in this thing called an "album".
I gave this album 0 because 5 is too little.
By UcCaBaRuCcA
It would be a crime to listen to the album in pieces.
The texture of the music is rich in detail, and at the same time light, smooth, and it creates an environment, an atmosphere around you.
By Pepperism
I take my mind to distant places. And I feel the madness, finally.
Don’t tell me anymore that I am sane, the dark side of the moon changes everyone.
By AR (Anonima Recensori)
An album is great when it belongs to Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd, or the Doors.
Amidst soft and unsettling tones, the journey unfolds of The Dark Side Of The Moon, which still ranks among the best-selling albums, 33 years later.
