The fear of death is a fear shared by billions of people around the world. What will happen after, how will your life impact your death? How can someone’s greed, mortality, drug abuse, lead to them going insane? These are all topics discussed in “The Dark Side of the Moon”. There are messages with serious undertones that are combined with intricate, and intense instrumentals. These components made “The Dark Side of the Moon” a masterpiece, I would say the greatest piece of music ever made. The vibe is strange for a first time listener, and could be a little too much for someone that isn’t open to music. But the psychedelic nature of the album is what makes it so special.
A large factor of this album’s original success was the flow from each song. Every song drifts into each other in a beautiful symphony. This album came out during a time of cosset tapes and vinyl discs being the norm. So it was important to the band to have their songs flow into each other. When I listened to it the first time I was confused at how the songs sounded the same. But they did this on purpose.
“Dark Side” starts off with what I would consider the mortality portion. The following songs “Breath (In the Air)”, “On the Run ”, “Time”, and “The Great Gig in the Sky”, are all based after death. At 17 years old time is a concept I am just beginning to understand. It is scary how if you don’t pay attention to it, time will run away from us. This same message can be seen in the song “Time”. The line that signifies this is “And then, one day, you find ten years have got behind you. No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun”. After a legato instrumental solo the next verse begins. the faint singing of Clare Torry. This blends into the next song “The Great Gig in the Sky” sung by Torry. The message of this song faces the horrifying question that is what comes after death. The band told Torry to think about death as she sang and she did so. Like most songs on the album it starts off slow and quiet but then transitions into a beautifully extreme crescendo. There is a very subtle message in the latter half of the song that the listener can hear which is “if you’re listening to this you’re dying”.
The other half of the album dives deeper into things that can drive someone insane. Some topics discussed are money, a divided society, and brain damage. The next song On the track list “Money” which is one of the band’s most influential songs, touches on the concept of how controlling money can be on a human. This is followed by “Us and them” which is a powerful song about the topics of a divided society. This is all too relevant now with what’s going on with western society. These topics that “Dark Side” discussed are not relevant to any time period but humans themselves. That’s another reason why this music is praised as much as it is.
Drug Abuse has always been a rough part of the music industry, and still continues today. The band member Syd Barett suffered from drug abuse which had a domino effect of brain damage and then schizophrenia. His mental decline had a heavy influence on the meaning of “Dark Side”. These messages are highlighted on the song “Brain damage”.
Pink Floyd influenced the Rock genre of Jam Music, also popularized by The Grateful Dead. These two bands gave birth to bands like Phish, Government Mule, and Dave Mathews. Jam music can be seen throughout “Dark side” as there is more instrumentals than singing. It’s ironic how something so morbid has influenced people so greatly.
