This week I got I picked Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd. My dad owns a copy of this record and i had played it a decent amount back home, but he didn’t let me take it to school with me. I really love this record, so I decided to get my own personal copy of it to have and be able to play as much as I want. In my opinion, this is one of the greatest albums of all time. It is perfect from start to finish. So much thought and effort went into this album and because of that this album truly is something spectacular.
Pink Floyd are an interesting band. Pink Floyd was founded in 1965 by Syd Barrett, Nick Mason, Roger Waters, and Richard Wright. The band gained a little success under Syd Barrett’s leadership.David Gilmour joined as a fifth member in December 1967. Syd Barrett left the band in April 1968 due to deteriorating mental health exacerbated by drug use. The band released many critically and commercially successful albums including The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You were Here, Animals, The Wall, and the final cut. They are known as one of the greatest and originating bands of psychedelic rock. The bands heavy use of psychedelics allowed them to come up with a sound that was unique and had never been heard before. However, it did have a cost. As mentioned previously Syd Barrett had to leave the band due to mental deterioration. Psychedelics have been known to affect someone’s mental stability if there are certain mental disease precursors. The most common mental disease this is linked to is schizophrenia. It is believed that if a person has precursors that lsd-25 can activate these precursors even if genetically they wouldn’t have been activated for several years or maybe not at all. This is the mental disease that most people believe plagued Syd Barrett. Another affect of their heavy LSD use was that they made a lot of their shows light shows. This provided a visual medium designed by them to match their musical performance, truly making their concerts an artistic experience.
The album itself is amazing. It is a musical experience and was meant to be played from start to finish. There is no pause between songs and this creates the illusion of one never ending song being the record.
My personal favorite song is us and them. It is a slow psychedelic experience. It heavily contrasts the fast paced and lyric heavy song “money” that plays before it. I recommend listening to this song late at night, right before you go to bead. Just lay back and close your eyes and let pink floyd take you on a magical journey. The saxophone in it is unique and exquisite. It creates the slow relaxed feeling they were going for and often takes the place of lyrics in certain parts of the song.
The song that I think is lyrically the deepest would be time. Time is the story of waisting your life and waking up and realizing that life has passed you by. Listening to the dark and menacing sounds mixed with the lyrics you truly realize the genius of this song.
Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
Fritter and waste the hours in an off-hand 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 spell