You Should Be Celebrating: Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon

"Ground control to Major Tom..." Wait, no. Wrong thing.

No matter how magical classic albums throughout popular music history may seem, none were made overnight.

Concept albums align even more to this trend. Not only does the band have to make a cohesive set of quality songs, but it also has to arrange them in a way that displays a unified theme or story. That task can take months or even years to complete. The most successful, and likely the greatest, concept album ever made is Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon,” which is celebrating its 40th anniversary March 1.

Perhaps the nearly universal appeal of “Dark Side” has something to do with its universal themes of conflict, greed, the passage of time, violence, madness, death and mental illness. The album is able to touch on all of humanity’s problems and fears without getting bogged down in details or overstepping its boundaries. The way each track on the album rolls into the next, without the typical two-second pause between songs, contributes to its compelling nature. Every track begs to be played in its correct order, and when this order is disrupted, the result is confusion. Yet there are many more reasons besides novel organization for why “Dark Side” is legendary. The surprising thing is how Pink Floyd got there.

It’s very possible that “Dark Side” or a similar album that might have been a landmark for progressive rock would never have been made by Pink Floyd if the band had been able to maintain its original lineup. The band formed in 1965 with main creative force Syd Barrett on vocals and guitar, Roger Waters on bass, Nick Mason on drums and Richard Wright on keyboards. However, after releasing the classic psychedelic rock album “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn” in August 1967, Barrett suffered a nervous breakdown, and his mental health steadily deteriorated to the point where Pink Floyd had to cancel several tour dates. Guitarist David Gilmour was added in December to cover for Barrett during performances, but Barrett agreed to leave the band a few months later when it became clear that the arrangement was not working.

For the next five years, Pink Floyd was a band in transition. Waters, Gilmour and Wright were suddenly required to fill the huge songwriting void that Barrett had left. Despite this setback, they released six more albums (two of which were soundtracks) that are all critically respected today. They also found themselves delving into highly experimental, then progressive, rock. By 1972 the band had left the sound of “Piper” completely behind with its previous album “Meddle.” One could argue that now was the right time to become very philosophical, not just about Barrett’s deterioration but the arduous journey that had been Pink Floyd. That is exactly what the band resolved to do, performing a version of “Dark Side” (with the subtitle “A Piece for Assorted Lunatics”) live as early as February of that year. It took extensive touring through 1972 and two separate sessions at Abbey Road Studios to get the meticulously crafted album we have today.

A big portion of the greatness of “Dark Side” is the instrumentation, which is splattered with overtures, reprises, augmented chords, time signature changes, soaring solos, and chord changes that are still beautiful even after they are familiar. The whole album possesses a certain gravity and echoing depth, musically as well as lyrically, and though it is generally classified as progressive rock, it borrows elements from the standard 12-bar blues and jazz. Two highlights are Clare Torry’s unhinged belting in “Great Gig in the Sky,” which greatly accentuates the song’s theme of the fear of death, and Wright’s omnipresent synths in “Any Colour You Like,” which are astoundingly fresh 40 years later.

Though great musicality is apparent, Pink Floyd’s experimental history also shows itself, adding unconventional sounds to relatively straightforward rock. The audio samples interspersed throughout the album are recordings of friends and associates who were asked a series of questions, ranging from the everyday “What is your favorite color?” to the more abstract and philosophical “When was the last time you were violent?” followed immediately by “Were you in the right?” Other sounds, such as the cash registers in “Money,” the ringing clocks in “Time” and the kick-drum heartbeat that starts and ends the album provided some of its most iconic moments.

All of these elements add to the emotion of the record and make it downright cathartic and thought provoking. The barely heard line in “Eclipse” — “There is no dark side in the moon, really. … As a matter of fact, it’s all dark” — raises the most questions. All dark or not, Pink Floyd’s musical conception of humanity is a tremendous achievement.

John Guest and Nora Goldberg's article was originally published in Drexel University's independent newspaper The Triangle on March 1st, 2013

Elliott's Eccentricities- Several Small Species... by Pink Floyd

Back in 1958 Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. had an idea. One could record a song with sped-up lyrics to make a novelty record that sounds like a group of small animals were singing it. And thus, the immensely successful chipmunks were born, and I hate him more than anything for it. I don’t mind the music that much; sure it’s terrible, but like most music made for money’s sake I just ignore it. Being a child of the 90’s I loved watching reruns of the cartoon. But my god, that man ruined everything beautiful in this world by creating the characters that would one day be in this awful awful movie (yes, I hate that movie that much).

Eleven years after that unfortunate album came out, musical genius/notorious troll Roger Waters also started messing around with a mic and a tape. While Ross used this interesting technique to create a nightmarish consumer behemoth, Waters created a relatively obscure song that is an anomaly even by Pink Floyd’s standards. By altering the speed of the tape, Waters was able to imitate rodents, birds, frogs and who knows what else; not a single instrument was used.

On the eccentricity scale ranging from 1 to 10
1- I think Insanity Wolf is funny.
10- I think Insanity Wolf gives great advice.
SSSoFAGTiaCaGwaP-9/10  

Several Species completely befuddles me; no matter how many times I listen to it, I still don’t get it. So many different sounds happen at once that I just can’t catch them all. I wonder what each sound is supposed to be (especially that “aaahhh weee aaaahhhh whoooo” in the middle section) and how the hell did Waters make that sound? What is the drunken pict (Scotsman) saying? (I think he is saying “and the wind cries Mary at the end”). And the most important question that comes to mind is what was Waters thinking? Because no one in their right mind would think this was an awesome jam to listen to (I am not in my right mind).

Yet despite all that confusion, there is no denying the genius in what Waters did. I can’t help but feel awe-struck and inspired when I listen to this song. It is completely unbelievable that every sound in this song is made by a human. The song is a testament to the power and unlimited potential of human creativity. Several Species is a proof of concept; recording techniques and sampling alone can be used to make music. This concept has really come into its own in the music industry this last decade; sampling is an integral part of countless genre and bands. Now I am not an expert on the history of music, but I do not think it is a stretch to say that Several Species was one of the early influences that led to this phenomena.

And I know I might be a complete weirdo for saying this, but Several Small Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict makes me groove along with them. 

Aaahhh weee aaaahhhh whoooo!!!!!!

Happy Birthday David Gilmour!!!

Today the man that brought the world three of the greatest guitar solos of all time turns 66. Yes David Jon Guilmour, the guitarist behind Comfortably Numb, Time, and Money is celebrating one full year of social security (if he wasn't a Brit)!

David Gilmour was brought in to Pink Floyd as a lead guitarist to play for Syd Barrett when the later was having one of his episodes. One night the band decided to not pick up their leader for a gig, and Gilmour took over the role of lead guitarist and joint lead singer with Roger Waters. With this, Syd was outed from the band and the classic Pink Floyd line up was formed, David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Nick Mason, and Richard Wright. David Gilmour became the main music composer for the band with Waters focusing on the concepts and lyrics.

Where would music be without David Gilmour? Would Pink Floyd have continued to exist beyond their debut album? Unlikely seeing as Syd's downward spiral would have held the band down; as much as he was amazing and they loved him, he wasn't up to the task. So in came David Gilmour to bring the band forward to modest success, you know, mildly popular albums like Dark Side of the Moon (the 2nd best selling album of all time), Wish You Were Here, and The Wall, not to mention all of their other fantastic albums. Pink Floyd created a genre of music, were champions of the concept album, and have influenced more bands then Gilmour has years under his belt. Without David Gilmour this may have never happened, and to that glorious achievement I salute him (though the solo in Comfortably Numb would have been enough by itself).

I give you the incredibly famous song from The Wall and scene from the movie, Comfortably Numb.

Track of the Moment: Where Did You Sleep Last Night by WZRD

Rapper/singer Kid Cudi and his long-time producer Dot da Genius have created a new group – WZRD, and have recently put out a new album.

I know what you’re going to tell me – “Eric, it twas not but a pair of evenings ago that thou hast ensured me that thou would not take your Track of the Moment to talk about hip-hop”. I would then immediately punch you and burn you as a time traveling witch, what with your eloquent Shakespearean English and ability to retain memories for more than 2 days. And as your body turned to ash I would yell “But WZRD is electronic alternative rock!”

Now, the reason I throw in the “electronic”, as opposed to the media-approved just alt-rock label they gave them is that, throughout the album, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was listening to a DJ the entire time, even after knowing Mr. Solo Dolo laid down all the guitar tracks. And that’s because I was. While the relatively basic riffs are all Cudi, the rest of the compositions are all Dot da Genius’s computer. Yes, I’m sure that all of the music (besides the strings) will be played live on real instruments, but it doesn’t stop many of the tracks from having an artificial feel. Even bands that use synths and/or electronic drum kits have this feeling that everyone is playing their instrument during the recording. I’m not saying it’s bad; I’m currently enjoying the album. I just can’t, in good faith, call this alternative, lest I lead the faithful FoaLiaBMB readers astray.

Alright, now that I’m done ranting about the media and time traveling women, on to the actual music. Kid Cudi has always had a decent voice, but it seems he was told it was fantastic by too many people, and that’s how the horrible high octaves on “Erase Me” happened (or so I imagine). However, in this Nirvana, Hendrix, and Pixies inspired debut album, Kid Cudi doesn’t stretch his vocal range too far and stays mostly in the lows, where he sounds best.

And most of the music also stays in the low ranges, and, given the heavy Nirvana inspiration, it’s a bit unsurprising. However, Dot da Genius can’t seem to get past his hip-hop background, and uses drum machines and synths to create the rest of the music, and it’s pretty obvious (in a bad way). That said, it doesn’t sound horrible; you can tell they were going for more of a spacey, out-there feel, and they definitely got it. It doesn’t have that same passion as a true rock album, but it’s still in the same chilled-out vein that “The Mood” or “We Aite” are in.

This is an interesting experiment. Changing genres is harder than you think, especially from one that is more vocally focused like hip-hop to the more group-orientated rock. Check out a few songs by them, for no other reason than to just see what they did. It’s not amazing, but it’s better than expected. I’m curious to see what WZRD does for their next album, now that Cudi knows how to play guitar (he was learning to play as he wrote this album).

I decided to go with their cover of Nirvana’s “Where Did You Sleep Last Night”, so as best to get hits showcase the fact that they’re pretty committed to the whole rock thing, but still put a slight hip-hop spin on it. Past that, I would suggest “Teleport 2 Me, Jamie”, “Live & Learn”, and “Efflictim”.

Also, I threw in a link to a video series chronicling the making of the album, and which includes the various troubles Cudi and DdG went through in the conversion. It’s short and interesting.

http://www.complex.com/music/2012/02/the-making-of-wzrd/