Q Magazine, May 1991

The Q Sleevenotes: PINK FLOYD Dark Side of the Moon

The album was made during the summer of 1972, at a time of rapidtechnological change. It was recorded on 16-track equipment at AbbeyRoad, with the new Dolby noise reduction system being adopted halfwaythrough the sessions. A decision was taken not to do a quadrophonicmix, although that ill-fated system was just beginning to appear on thedomestic market. EMI went ahead anyway and commissioned a quad-mix fromthe then-engineer Alan Parsons, which the record company played at apress conference held at the Planetarium to launch the album. The groupdid not approve and boycotted the event, their place being taken bylife-size cardboard cut-outs.

As was the practice in those days, the Floyd maintained a steady giggingschedule throughout the period of the recordings, but Dark Side of the Moonwas the first album which the band had both written and toured beforegoing into the studio.

"It was called Eclipse when we first played it live," recalls Gilmour."We showcased it to begin with at five nights at the Rainbow,which tightened it up performance-wise, although one or two of thepieces which were a bit more performance-oriented got thrown outand replaced in the studio. On The Run started as some strange on-stagejam, but when we discovered the sequencer capability of the littleVCS3 synthesizer we used that instead."

The album bears the legend 'Produced by Pink Floyd'. "In theory we wereall producing," says Gilmour, "but in practice it meant that Roger andI would argue considerably about how it should sound." Chris Thomas (wholater produced The Pretenders, The Sex Pistols and others) was called inat the mixing stage as a 'neutral party' to try and resolve the internecinewrangling.

Clearly, Dark Side of the Moon has touched a deep chord with succeedinggenerations of record and CD buyers, a reflection perhaps of the timelessqualities of both its production and its theme. The production, althoughbasic by today's standards, does not sound unduly primitive. Indeed, thereare later Floyd albums which now sound more dated.

This was probably due more to luck than judgement. Although the Floydhave always been renowned for their stringent quality control, their music,like any other act's, was frequently locked into the spirit of its time.But not only are tracks like Money, Time, Us and Them and Brain Damagepowerful, concise musical statements, they also boast a cohesive thematiccontent.

While Gilmour provided many suitably majestic instrumental passagesRoger Waters' lyrics bore down with stark perception on a universalsubject - the simple, often trivial pressures of daily life that can leadto insanity. Still a couple of years shy of his 30th birthday, Watershad already twigged the ultimate misery of it all, and he wrought hisbleak verse with bold slashes of the pen. There was no air of a falsenew dawn or hippy optimism about this record; rather the despairingobservation that with each new day "... you're older, Shorter of breathand one day closer to death."

Dark Side of the Moon has been available in CD format bearing EMI's 001catalogue number since August 1984, and it remains among the top 10selling CDs of all time. With it striking sound effects of chiming clocksand ringing cash tills, it is the sort of album that has traditionallyappealed to the audiophile section of the rock market and has doubtlessbeen a priority purchase for many proud investors in the new CD technology.

Such fans may be surprised, if not dismayed, to learn that the earlyCD version of the album was transferred not from the master tape, but from astandard 15ips Dolby copy, a practice which David Gilmour believes to befairly widespread.

"We weren't involved initially. They just went ahead and did it. Whenwe found out about it we had to do an investigation to find out wherethe original master was, and then have it remastered."

Dark Side of the Moon was undoubtedly a high water mark in the Pink Floydodyssey. Gilmour now recalls that "it changed our fortunes everywhere. Webecame much more visible. We were selling out 12-15,000 seater venues inAmerica, but thereafter we could sell out vast football stadiums and we had tochange our way of doing shows. Whereas we used to get a respectful silencefrom the audience, once Money had been a hit single (it reached number 13 inAmerica) we had thousands of kids partying at the front. Some of the thingswe had been able to do previously, such as very quiet sequences, simplydidn't work any more."

Waters took a jaundiced view of its impact. Speaking in 1987, he declaredthat "Dark Side of the Moon finished the group off. Once you've cracked it,it's all over."

Either way the album remains a work of rare intensity, a powerful evocationof the shadowy corners of the rock psyche. Plainly unsuitable as anaccompaniment for the snappy advertising of beer or jeans, it seems entirelyappropriate that the one track from Dark Side of the Moon which has foundits way into a TV commercial - keyboard player Richard Wright's hauntinginterlude for piano and voice, The Great Gig in the Sky - was adopted fora surreal Nurofen painkiller advertisement.

Large chunks of the album still feature prominently in the live showsof both Pink Floyd and Roger Waters and it is clearly a body of work that hasbecome part of the collective rock consciousness. The secret of its longevityis anybody's guess, although one clue may be the curiously reductive qualitywhich it has demonstrated over the years. As Gilmour notes wryly, "I thoughtit was a very complicated album when we first made it, but when you listen toit now it's really very simple."