169: Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
“We thought we could do a whole thing about the pressures we personally feel that drive one over the top … the pressure of earning a lot of money; the time thing, time flying by very fast; organized power structures like the church or politics; violence; aggression.”
–Roger Waters
It feels like there shouldn't be anything left to say about The Dark Side of the Moon. It's one of the best-selling albums of all time, and it's consistently rated as one of the greatest albums of all time by critics. If you tune into a classic rock station for more than a couple of hours, chances are better than 50/50 that you'll hear a track or three from it get played. It's so common to hear tracks from here out of context that it's become easy to forget that these tracks, when heard in order from start to finish, constitute one of the most stunningly coherent artistic statements of the album era, and that makes it an album that Discord & Rhyme had to cover in depth at some point. Join Amanda, Mike, Rich, and John as they discuss the 1973 classic that transformed Pink Floyd from a niche-famous British prog-adjacent band into one of the most famous bands in the world.
Miscellany
Pink Floyd briefly changed the name of this album to Eclipse when obscure blues-rock band Medicine Head released an album called Dark Side of the Moon. When that album flopped, they felt okay reclaiming their original title. The same thing happened a couple of years later with Badfinger and Wish You Were Here.
Amanda saw the azimuth coordinator, among other amazing artifacts, at the traveling exhibition Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains, which came to Toronto in 2023. If it shows up anywhere near you, GO SEE IT.
The Dark Side of the Moon has spent over 900 weeks on the Billboard 200 chart in total, but it was only at #1 for one of those weeks. Pathetic.
One of the reasons it still sells so well is because it’s so spectacularly produced and engineered, it’s famously the record you use to test out your new stereo system.
The Madcap Laughs was produced in part by David Gilmour and Roger Waters, not Nick Mason.
It was in fact the Television Personalities who recited Syd Barrett’s home address after a live performance of “See Emily Play,” for which they were fired from their gig opening for David Gilmour in 1984. Robyn Hitchcock would never. We regret the error.
Speaking of Syd, the rest of the band hadn’t seen him for years, until he unexpectedly turned up at Abbey Road while they were recording Wish You Were Here. Coincidentally, it was during work on the song “Shine On You Crazy Diamond,” which is about Syd. He had changed so much that nobody recognized him at first. It was the last time anyone in Pink Floyd ever saw him. Syd died of pancreatic cancer in 2006, having long since reverted to his given name of Roger Barrett.
Other links
Pink Floyd FAQ (pink-floyd.org)
Interview with Clare Torry (Brain Damage via the Wayback Machine)
Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd by Nick Mason (Amazon affiliate link)
Saucerful of Secrets: The Pink Floyd Odyssey by Nicholas Schaffner (Amazon affiliate link)
Discord & Rhyme’s The Dark Side of the Moon playlist (Spotify)
Discord & Rhyme’s merch store (TeePublic)
Discord & Rhyme Roll Call
John McFerrin (moderator)
Rich Bunnell
Mike DeFabio
Amanda Rodgers
The Dark Side of the Moon tracklist
Speak to Me
Breathe (In the Air)
On the Run
Time
The Great Gig in the Sky
Money
Us and Them
Any Colour You Like
Brain Damage
Eclipse
Other clips used
Pink Floyd:
Astronomy Domine
Free Four
Embryo (Live in Cincinnati, 1971)
The Travel Sequence (Live 1972)
On the Run (Live from the Los Angeles Sports Arena, 1975)
Moonhead
Us and Them (Live at Wembley, 1974)
Wish You Were Here
A Saucerful of Secrets (Live at Pompeii)
Wot’s… Uh the Deal
Merry Xmas Song
Others:
Neil Hamburger - Incident in Kabul
The Shadows of Knight - Oh Yeah
The Flaming Lips - Speak to Me
Sagittarius - My World Fell Down
The Moody Blues - Procession
Miles Davis - Blue in Green
The Alan Parsons Project - Sirius
Mike Hankinson - Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
King Crimson - Happy Family
Gene Wilder - The Wondrous Boat Ride
Supertramp - Dreamer
Easy Star All Stars - Time
John Williams feat. Margot Kidder - Can You Read My Mind
Culture Club - The War Song
Gram Parsons - Ooh Las Vegas
Television Personalities - I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives
U2 - Walk On
Syd Barrett - Octopus
Roger Waters - One of These Days (Live in Amsterdam, 2018)
Band/album personnel
David Gilmour – vocals, guitars, VCS3
Nick Mason – percussion, tape effects
Richard Wright – keyboards, vocals, VCS3
Roger Waters – bass guitar, vocals, VCS3, tape effects
Dick Parry – saxophone (6, 7)
Clare Torry – vocals (5)
Doris Troy – backing vocals
Lesley Duncan – backing vocals
Liza Strike – backing vocals
Barry St. John – backing vocals
Alan Parsons – engineering
Peter James – assistant
Chris Thomas – mix supervisor
Credits
“Discord & Rhyme (theme),” composed by the Other Leading Brand, contains elements of:
Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf
Amon Düül II - Dehypnotized Toothpaste
The Dukes of Stratosphear - What in the World?? ...
Faith No More - Midlife Crisis
Herbie Hancock - Hornets
Kraftwerk - Autobahn
Talking Heads - Seen and Not Seen
Pink Floyd - Breathe (In the Air) (this episode only)
You can buy or stream The Dark Side of the Moon and other albums by Pink Floyd at pinkfloyd.com, your local record store, or the usual suspects such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and Amazon. Follow Discord & Rhyme on Instagram, Threads, and BlueSky @DiscordPod for news, updates, and other random stuff. Editing is by Rich Bunnell, and special thanks to our own Mike DeFabio, the Other Leading Brand, for production and original music. See you next album, and keep as cool as you can.