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Date of Release Mar 24, 1973
Time 42:58 minutes
A Review of Dark Side Of The Moon (Rolling Stone)
One of Britain's most successful and long lived avante-garde rock bands,
Pink Floyd emerged relatively unsullied from the mire of mid-Sixties British
psychedelic music as early experimenters with outer space concepts. Although
that phase of the band's development was of short duration, Pink Floyd have
from that time been the pop scene's preeminent techno-rockers: four
musicians with a command of electronic instruments who wield an arsenal of
sound effects with authority and finesse. While Pink Floyd's albums were
hardly hot tickets in the shops, they began to attract an enormous following
through their US tours. They have more recently developed a musical style
capable of sustaining their dazzling and potentially overwhelming sonic
wizzardry. The Dark Side of the Moon is Pink Floyd's ninth album and is a
single extended piece rather than a collection of songs. It seems to deal
primarily with the fleetingness and depravity of human life, hardly the
commonplace subject matter of rock.
"Time" ("The time is gone the song is over"), "Money" ("Share it fairly but don't take a slice of my pie"), and "Us And Them" ("Forward he cried from the rear") might be viewed as keys to understanding the meaning (if indeed there is any definite meaning) of The
Dark Side of the Moon. Even though this is a concept album, a number of the
cuts can stand on their own. "Time" is a fine country-tinged rocker with a
powerful guitar solo by David Gilmour and "Money" is broadly and satirically
played with appropriately raunchy sax playing by Dick Parry, who also
contributes a wonderfully-sated, breathy solo to "Us And Them". The
non-vocal "On The Run" is a standout with footsteps racing from side to side
successfully eluding any number of odd malevolent rumbles and explosions
only to be killed off by the clock's ticking that leads into "Time".
Throughout the album the band lays down a solid framework which they
embellish with synthesizers, sound effects and spoken voice tapes. The sound
is lush and multi-layered while remaining clear and well-structured. There
are a few weak spots. David Gilmour's vocals are sometimes weak and
lackluster and "The Great Gig in the Sky" (which closes the first side)
probably could have been shortened or dispensed with, but these are really
minor quibbles.
The Dark Side of the Moon is a fine album with a textural and conceptual
richness that not only invites, but demands involvement. There is a certain
grandeur here that exceeds mere musical melodramatics and is rarely
attempted in rock. The Dark Side of the Moon has flash -- the true flash
that comes from the excellence of a superbperformance.
Loyd Grossman, Rolling Stone, 5-24-73.
By condensing the sonic explorations of Meddle to actual songs and adding a lush, immaculate production to their trippiest instrumental sections, Pink Floyd inadvertently designed their commercial breakthrough with Dark Side of the Moon. The primary revelation of Dark Side of the Moon is what a little focus does for the band. Roger Waters wrote a series of songs about mundane, everyday details which aren't that impressive by themselves, but when given the sonic backdrop of Floyd's slow, atmospheric soundscapes and carefully placed sound effects, they achieve an emotional resonance. But what gives the album true power is the subtly textured music, which evolves from ponderous, neo-psychedelic art-rock to jazz fusion and blues-rock before turning back to psychedelia. It's dense with detail, but leisurely paced, creating its own dark, haunting world. Pink Floyd may have better albums than Dark Side of the Moon, but no other record defines them quite as well as this one.
| ALBUM RELEASES |
| 1973 |
CD Atlantic CDP7460012 |
| 1973 |
CD Atlantic UDCD517 |
| 1973 |
CD Mobile Fidelity 517 |
| 1973 |
CD Capitol C2-81479 |
| 1973 |
LP Harvest 11163 |
| 1991 |
CS Capitol 4XAS-11163 |
| 1991 |
LP Capitol C1-46001 |
| 1991 |
CD Mobile Fidelity UDCD-517 |
| 1978 |
LP Capitol SEAX-11902 |
| 1982 |
LP Mobile Fidelity MFHR-1-017 |
| 1995 |
CD EMI 7213 8 29750 2 |
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| PERSONNEL |
| Roger Waters |
Guitar (Bass), Guitar (Electric), Keyboards, Vocals |
| Lesley Duncan |
Vocals (bckgr) |
| Nick Mason |
Percussion, Drums |
| Doris Troy |
Vocals (bckgr) |
| Richard Wright |
Keyboards, Vocals |
| Pink Floyd |
Producer |
| David Gilmour |
Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals |
| Dick Parry |
Saxophone |
| Barry St. John |
Vocals (bckgr) |
| Liza Strike |
Vocals (bckgr) |
| Claire Torry |
Vocals |
| Peter James |
assistant engineer |
| Alan Parsons |
Engineer |
| Hipgnosis |
design, photography |
| David Sinclair |
Liner Notes |
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