Released in March 1973, the album The Dark Side of the Moon marks a turning point in Pink Floyd’s work. The group’s psychedelic influences remain, but the album no longer contains lengthy instrumental explorations. The time is no longer for the search for sound textures, but for the need to be up to the task. The group succeeds in sublimating the avant-garde technological innovations of the time in shorter and more melodic songs which, despite everything, remain soaring. The effectiveness of the sounds is formidable and nothing is superfluous.
Extract of Time
Extract of Money
If the album begins the cycle of Roger Waters as main composer, the sublime guitar playing of David Gilmour transcends the record. Even the words become clearer and more direct.
PHOTO FROM ALAN PARSONS WEBSITE
Alan Parsons in his studio
The effectiveness of the Beatles
The contribution of engineer Alan Parsons to the sound of the album is undeniable. Parsons had studied at the Beatles’ famous Abbey Road studio. He notably recorded the albums Let It Be And Abbey Road of the Beatles. One of his last collaborations with the Beatles dates back to the group’s famous concert on the roof of the Apple Corps studio, which was also their last show. His work on the album earned him a Grammy nomination.
A breathtaking voice
PHOTOMONTAGE THE PRESS
Clare Torry
We owe Alan Parsons the genius to recruit backing singer Clare Torry. The frail Briton pushes the magnificent vocal solo heard on The Great Gig in the Sky, an anthology piece. Just like the musicians, Torry didn’t know what to do with this piece.
After a few uninteresting takes, she decides to sing as if she were an instrument herself. She puts on her long improvisation in one go. The singer attempts to give it a second try, but cuts it off in the middle, finding the recording redundant. She leaves the studio without knowing if her performance will be accepted.
Extract of The Great Gig in the Sky
Clare Torry only learned of her participation in the album when she bought the record.
Oddly enough, Torry would only sing this song once on stage with the group, several years later. She only received 30 pounds sterling ($60 CAN) for this performance on the album and had to sue EMI and Pink Floyd to have her copyright recognized. His contribution was finally admitted in 2005.
The prism
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE RECORD COMPANY
The famous prism from the cover of Dark Side of the Moon
Graphic designer Storm Thorgeson was friends with Syd Barrett (first singer of Pink Floyd) and bassist Roger Waters, whom he had known in Cambridge at secondary school. Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell founded the Hipgnosis agency which produced a legion of record covers for very popular groups like Led Zeppelin, Genesis, Styx, Yes, Black Sabbath, Paul McCartney, etc.
PHOTO FROM THE VIDEO SQUARING THE CIRCLE
Storm Thorgerson
The only member of the band really interested in the cover design, keyboardist Richard Wright had asked Thorgeson to design a simple and bold cover. Thorgerson was the author of several other Pink Floyd covers and his art contributed perfectly to the band’s mystique. Five concepts had been proposed, but the idea of the prism where the light is split was popular. The album cover has become a classic.
Pink Floyd pouches created by Thorgerson and Hipgnosis
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1968 A Saucerful of Secrets
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1969 More
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1969 Ummagumma
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1970 Atom Heart Mother
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1971 Meddle
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1972 Obscured by Clouds
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1975 Wish You Were Here
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1977 Animals
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1987 A Momentary Lapse of Reason
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1994 The Division Bell
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2001 Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd
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The card game and the final words
Throughout the album, voices declaim short sentences. “ I’m not afraid of dying…”, we can hear on The Great Gig in the Sky. These recordings are the result of a curious little game by the group. Each person who entered Abbey Road Studios was given a card with a question on it. The question could sometimes be trivial, sometimes profound, but the answer was recorded.
Technicians, roadies, wives… everyone goes through it. Even Paul McCartney, whose passages we didn’t remember. The studio doorman, Irishman Gerry O’Driscoll, gets the last quote in his solid accent: ” There is no dark side of the moon, really. As a matter of fact, it’s all dark » closes the album. In fact, he added that it is the sun that makes the moon bright. A part considered too optimistic to appear on the album…
Excerpt fromEclipse
Money is a crime
Sarcastic criticism of consumerism, the song Money is the best-selling extract. The album remains on the charts Billboard 200 for 736 weeks in a row. The 45 million albums sold make it possible to reap huge revenues.
A curious irony for a band who gave singer Clare Torry a pittance and paid sound engineer Alan Parsons £35 a week for the duration of the recording session. The cash register sound effects from the beginning of the song still resonate…
Learn more
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- The Black Strat
- David Gilmour’s 1969 Fender Stratocaster used on the album, called the Black Strat, was sold at auction in 2019 for nearly US$4 million, the most expensive guitar sale ever.
- Studio musician
- Clare Torry only took three hours to record her famous participation. Disappointed with her performance, which she described as long meows, she apologized to the musicians after the session.