Music The Dark Side of the Moon Turns 40

[Spang]

40-years ago this week, Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon was released.

It begins with a heartbeat. Released in 1973, The Dark Side of the Moon was Pink Floyd's eighth studio album. It would become one of the best-selling albums of all time, and its iconic cover image still hangs in college dormitories everywhere.

The record turned 40 this week. To mark the occasion, Weekend Edition asked All Songs Considered hosts Robin Hilton and Bob Boilen where they were when they heard Dark Side for the first time. Hear the full version of this story by clicking the audio link on this page.

[...]

It was so crazy to imagine how they could even pull this off; technically, how could they create these sounds? We're hearing so much crazy stuff now in music and nobody gives it any thought — because you can do anything now, right? But when I listen to Dark Side of the Moon now, 40 years later, it still sounds fresh.

 

[beanstew]

Superb album. Having a listen now to celebrate its anniversary.

Here's a very interesting article about Clare Torry, the vocalist on The Great Gig In The Sky.

The Dark Side of the Moon: Clare Torry's Great Gig in the Sky

The Dark Side of the Moon and Frankie Howerd’s Roman-era television farce Up Pompeii! aren’t as unlikely bedfellows as it first seems. The link comes from Clare Torry, whose voice opened the show each week. She also provided the unrestrained vocal on The Dark Side of the Moon’s Rick Wright-penned “The Great Gig in the Sky.”

As one of the most in-demand British session singers from 1970 to her retirement in 1996, Clare sang on ads for British Caledonian airlines and Glenrick pilchards. She appeared on French iconoclast Serge Gainsbourg’s Rock Around the Bunker album and sang the gentle theme to long-running television series Butterflies. She also lent her voice to nihilistic pre-punk weirdos The Doctors Of Madness. She was on Culture Club’s “War Song.”

 

[ledboots]

40-years ago this week, Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon was released.

It begins with a heartbeat. Released in 1973, The Dark Side of the Moon was Pink Floyd's eighth studio album. It would become one of the best-selling albums of all time, and its iconic cover image still hangs in college dormitories everywhere.

The record turned 40 this week. To mark the occasion, Weekend Edition asked All Songs Considered hosts Robin Hilton and Bob Boilen where they were when they heard Dark Side for the first time. Hear the full version of this story by clicking the audio link on this page.

[...]

It was so crazy to imagine how they could even pull this off; technically, how could they create these sounds? We're hearing so much crazy stuff now in music and nobody gives it any thought — because you can do anything now, right? But when I listen to Dark Side of the Moon now, 40 years later, it still sounds fresh.

Dear god I am so old! Have you guys listened to it with the muted Wizard of Oz?

 

[beancounter]

It's one of the best albums of all times!

 

[Spang]

What's really remarkable is that Dark Side was the band's eighth studio album. Very few bands even come close to putting out an eighth album, let alone one that is great.

 

[Spang]

Have you guys listened to it with the muted Wizard of Oz?

I did once. I purchased a VHS copy to test it out. The theory holds up.

 

[ledboots]

Have you guys listened to it with the muted Wizard of Oz?

I did once. I purchased a VHS copy to test it out. The theory holds up.

It does. It works best with giant '70's headphones and vinyl. Good times.

 

[Dedalus]

Have you guys listened to it with the muted Wizard of Oz?

I did once. I purchased a VHS copy to test it out. The theory holds up.

It does. It works best with giant '70's headphones and vinyl. Good times.

...and perhaps some mary jane. Mind = blown.

 

[Spang]

I googled "The Dark Side of the Moon" to see what else had been written about its 40th anniversary, and came across this colorful article about the Dark Side-Oz phenomenon.

The true enthusiast will play the album twice, starting it again as the Cowardly Lion appears. Tom and I instead played it as backing to a TV documentary about the Vietnam War. It worked brilliantly with that as well. Maybe it works brilliantly with anything after 12 hot knives and as many snakebites (plus a few spliffs for good measure).

I'm not familiar with some of the drug references.

 

[ledboots]

I googled "The Dark Side of the Moon" to see what else had been written about its 40th anniversary, and came across this colorful article about the Dark Side-Oz phenomenon.

The true enthusiast will play the album twice, starting it again as the Cowardly Lion appears. Tom and I instead played it as backing to a TV documentary about the Vietnam War. It worked brilliantly with that as well. Maybe it works brilliantly with anything after 12 hot knives and as many snakebites (plus a few spliffs for good measure).

I'm not familiar with some of the drug references.

Snakebite was a whiskey drink with hard cider and really strong, I think? Twelve hot knives I never heard of, but sounds pretty scary. Spliffs, marijuana joints.

And the album probably is good with a lot of different visuals--the best the laser show imo

 

[beanstew]

Hot knives is a method of using cannabis. Typically a pair of knives are heated on a hob and a small piece of resin is then placed between them and compressed and the resulting smoke inhaled. I saw some big kids do it once.

 

[ledboots]

Hot knives is a method of using cannabis. Typically a pair of knives are heated on a hob and a small piece of resin is then placed between them and compressed and the resulting smoke inhaled. I saw some big kids do it once.

Less scary than the name sounds.

 

[Amy SF]

I have a copy on vinyl. This is how it should be listened to, on vinyl, not on CD or on a digital gadget.

On the US sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati, there's a scene in which DJ Johnny Fever is playing DSOTM while having a conversation with the radio station owner. At one point, the station owner stops and says, "do I hear dogs barking?" Johnny says, "I do."

 

[Spang]

I don't have the vinyl or a vinyl spinning machine. I have purchased the CD twice, though. The first CD went missing.

 

[ledboots]

I don't have the vinyl or a vinyl spinning machine. I have purchased the CD twice, though. The first CD went missing.

Our vinyl processing machine died years ago, and we gave it to an enthusiast.

 

[Spang]

One day I hope to purchase vinyl copies of my favorite albums and a high-end audio system to play them on.

 

[das_nut]

CDs have a wider range than vinyl, but they are frequently ill-mastered.

Perhaps an older release of "Dark Side of the Moon" on CD would sound better than even the corresponding vinyl.

 

[ledboots]

One day I hope to purchase vinyl copies of my favorite albums and a high-end audio system to play them on.

When I was young the thing my husband liked to do was tape the vinyl to reel-to-reel.

 

[PTree15]

Such a fantastic album. I have it on vinyl but don't have a turntable. My nephew has a DSOTM T-shirt.

 

[Clueless Git]

Hot knives is a method of using cannabis. Typically a pair of knives are heated on a hob and a small piece of resin is then placed between them and compressed and the resulting smoke inhaled. I saw some big kids do it once.

Resin may prove harder to get than DOTSM on vinyl would be nowadays ..