assault the well defended: Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side of the Moon"

"If you listen to 'Dark Side Of The Moon' while watching The Wizard Of Oz, you will fall asleep - and wake up gay"

OTM!!!

For this visiting this site IN THE FUTURE, here's a permalink:

http://www.popjustice.co.uk/2005/06/pink-floyd-vs-mcfly-whos-best.htm

You are not alone.

"Lately I've been hearing Coldplay as the 21st Century's Supertramp."

Neither are you.

(x-post)

http://photos1.blogger.com/img/212/1103/320/soundsinspace.jpg

http://tralfaz-archives.com/coverart/S/sounds_spacef.jpg

Then, Syd left the band, and they were still great. Only in a different way.

Gier, today is the day that I write in my calendar that we agree.

(It's how this philosophy gets applied after the fact that we don't agree on...)

But Dark Side of the Moon is beyond my scope.

(Dad Rock)

Wow. that's a bit harsh, no?

In any case, I don't think I can be objective about this album anymore. I used to be a huge Pink Floyd fan, and this was the first of theirs I'd layed ears on. Prior to the `Floyd, rock began and ended with Kiss for me, so Dark Side of the Moon was a real....er....ear-opener. I'd be lying if I said I played it a lot, and my freshman year of college, there was a jackass down the hall from me who literally played it EVERY DAY and soul-denting volumes, so I went out of my way not to hear it for a long time after. That said, I still think there are some truly sublime moments on it (largely thanks to Dave Gilmour's guitar).

But, I'd take Animals over it any day.

A group of us once got suckered by this guy into watching Wizard of Oz with Dark Side playing underneath it. After we made him stop the movie, a friend of mine told me that he had never heard this album before. I was surprised, but asked him what he thought of it.

He said he liked it all right, but had no idea that there was all that ambient conversation. First time he heard the laughter at the beginning, he thought that it was one of us.

Anyway, that's my story. The only Floyd I ever really liked is, of course, the first album, "Apples and Oranges" and "See Emily Play" and "Arnold Layne," and I used to enjoy those people who'd learned "Wish You Were Here" and played the song on their acoustic guitars at parties to impress people. A simpler time, and Geir, *no one* was dancing!!

It's on backup... I'll fish it out here in a couple of days - keep checking my folder.

Also, not for nothing, but citing the Cocteau Twins as "atmospheric" is just as much of a cliche as calling Dark Side.. "atmospheric".
Welll...actually the cliché is to use "Cocteau Twins" and "Ethereal" in the same sentence.

xxpost

As for the comment I made in my first post, maybe I was a bit harsh about the "Floyd == Classic" crowd when I called them "Tin-Eared".
I meant cloth-eared.
Sorry. My Bad.

much obliged.

This is why Geir likes Captain Beefheart so much.

so ridiculously OTM.

Wish you were here should be on that album just so i could hate it even more.

Animals is far superior and actually the only floyd i can even think about listening to right now.

and then there's those OTHER people here who seem to be so into melody, but really interesting melodic stuff, such as odd or dissonant melodies, they aren't into at all. Some people need to realize there is a world outside straight melody.

b-b-b-but they had to have some screaming gosepl shit there. That was the tornado scene!

It's either all in the pretty much the same tempo or all in the same key, I can't remember which. Didn't one of the band members admit later that they realized this after the fact and should have varied it a bit? Anyway, I think the shapeless description is dead on although another word that would fit is monotonous.

animals > wish you were here >>> dark side of the moon

How do you mean?

The former sounds a lot like a skewered cousin of the latter to my ears. It's hard to explain but it makes sense to me. If Pink Floyd weren't so dreary I could see them making something like it.

Speaking of dreary, it amazes me how lifeless Dark Side sounds in comparison with Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom, which was recorded the following year and produced by Nick Mason.

Y'know, I'm almost pining for the days when I had to fend off an ICP fan. It was much more fun to bitch about the Incredible Shiteness of ICP instead of the Incredible Shiteness of Floyd. "ICP" merely sounds like the name of an evil corporation; whereas "Pink Floyd" sounds like the name of the flounciest redneck at the truckstop diner.

this is SO right. rock bottom is also laced with wyatt's sense of humour, which makes it an immensely more appealing album.

In fact, come to think of it: Nick Mason's drumming. Are those drum tracks completely laced with marijuana or could he just not be bothered? :D His drumming has this real 'I caaaaan't beeeeee arrrrsed' feeling about it, which I really don't get from many other Pink Floyd albums.

huh, the part where the drums come in on us and them is like my favorite part of this record

hell yes

should I turn off "Jamaica Jerk-Off" to listen to "Us & Them"

ridiculous question, I know

The most powerful drumming on the record has to be on either 'Time' or 'Eclipse'. The part where 'Brain Damage' segues into 'Eclipse' is THE moment on this record for me.

http://meanspeedmusic.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/pink-floyd-meanspeed-chart-speed-psychology-us-and-them-1a.jpg

I have no idea what this means but it rules

should I turn off "Jamaica Jerk-Off" to listen to "Us & Them"

ridiculous question, I know

― Euler, Friday, February 17, 2012 11:24 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yes :)

I think if you read that graph starting right when "Us & Them" starts, it rules

lollll i love that graph.

http://meanspeedmusic.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/pink-floyd-meanspeed-chart-speed-psychology-us-and-them-2.jpg

wtf

by which I mean, it rules

no idea what i was on about 6 years ago re Gilmour's vocals. i love those vocals!

So I guess I'm the only one whose ever turned up the volume really loud after the "Eclipse" fadeout. I was like 13 when this happened, so forgive me.

this is one of those "first five CDs i bought" albums where, having listened to it probably 500 times in 1996, i can basically play it note for note in my head. but i grabbed a fixer-upper vinyl copy this week, it cleaned up beautifully, and man, despite some very corny moments it still works for me as just this lush 70s studio-band rock experience. upthread, noiseyrock complains about the sound being too "wet," but the wetness and the studio "space" are what make it magic.

my favorite is still "any colour you like," but "on the run" really jumped up in my estimation this time. were they early Kraftwerk adopters, or what?

"breathe" also always a favorite - really like that kind of gentle overdubbed vocal vibe with Floyd. see also "fearless" and "goodbye blue sky."

"on the run" really jumped up in my estimation this time. were they early Kraftwerk adopters, or what?

Floyd's use of a sequencer predates that of Kraftwerk by three or four years!

oh wow, i had that chronology way off... it just reminded me so much of Autobahn, especially the integration of these more 60s type psychedelic "special effects" with weird slowed down sounds panning darkly through the mix...

It's more Tangerine Dream than Kraftwerk but then there's a bit in "Autobahn" which does resembles this - and that sounds more like Tangerine Dream than Kraftwerk too.

gorgeous album

“On The Run” was used as the background music on WLS-AM in Chicago in the mid ‘70s-early ‘80s when the DJ spoke to the winning caller. So they’d announce, “The 15th caller wins tickets to see the Eagles at the Chicago Amphitheater!” or whatever the fuck it was. Then, on the air, the DJ would talk to the winner, and under their conversation would be “On The Run.” It wasn’t until years later, when I finally heard DSOTM, that I found out it was a Pink Floyd song.