The Dark Side turns 50 this week, and this pillar of rock music deserves today's post.
Pink Floyd is a band that had a "weird" following as they evolved from their Syd Barret days, but when The Dark Side came out, the masses embraced their weirdness. When it comes to the Dark Side of the Moon, it is cool to be weird. This album was a cornerstone of Pink Floyd's career; the albums that came after: "Wish You Were Here," "The Wall," and "The Final Cut" were all massive successes. They found the formula that worked.
This album can't be conceived without its cover, which, as the Stones tongue, has become part of pop culture. But, for a teen in the 80s, discovering what that prism was about was a mystery to solve. I vividly remember when I decided to put my savings into this album: I walked 30 minutes to "Aurrera," our closest supermarket, and on my way back, I could not resist opening the album and "sucking in" its design while I sat on the sidewalk as the cars drove by. When I got home, I sat in front of the turntable for hours, listening to it repeatedly and studying every aspect of its design.
While this album has classic singles like "Time" and "Money," it is a record I always like listening from beginning to end. One of its most iconic moments is the voice on "The Great Gig on the Sky," according to the story, they had been working very long hours on the album and didn't know what to do so they left it up to Claire Torry who came up with the melody while the band was having lunch across the street.
The album was recorded at EMI studios in London, now Abbey Road. I was surprised to learn that Alan Parsons engineered the record, a very familiar name since Parson's "Eye in the Sky" was always on the radio while I was discovering Pink Floyd.
The Dark Side of the Moon is, against any standard, one of the best albums in rock history.
