The giant pig in the sky

In the early days of the Internet for the general public, I’m talking to you about 1996-1997, a site from the world Wide Web heralded a great discovery: the album Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd was synchronized with the film The Wizard of Ozserved as a soundtrack, in a way…

True, right?

My friend Jean-Michel Gauthier and I had repeatedly watched The Wizard of Oz by synchronizing the film with Dark Side of the Moonand yes, by Jovethe coincidences between the action in the film and the rhythm of the album were stunning…

But the guys from Pink Floyd have always denied syncing their greatest album with The Wizard of Ozto make a subliminal soundtrack^⁠1. Urban legend, therefore. No big deal, we believed it.

All that to say that I went to see the exhibition Their Mortal Remains, about the life and work of Pink Floyd. I got chills throughout my visit to the Arsenal, less from the sight of the many great artefacts linked to the band than from the nostalgic trip I took to my youth…

To be clear: Pink Floyd was already an “old” band when I was 17-18, a band from when my parents were young. Like my parents, Pink Floyd had been separated for a long time when I came out of my teens; like my parents, Roger Waters and David Gilmour had an acrimonious divorce…

In the basement of my friend Martin Thibault’s parents’ house in Sainte-Rose, we listened to Pink Floyd albums. He had told me — I was sure it was an urban legend — that Pink Floyd had floated giant pigs in the Olympic Stadium, when the band had been in Montreal, not long ago…

In any case, we said to ourselves, whether it’s true or not, the affair of the giant pigs, it’s sure that the guys from Pink Floyd had written a few songs while being frozen and that they must have seen them, in their imagination, in a synchronized way, these giant pigs.

I was fascinated by the soaring music of Pink Floyd, of course, but I mostly became spellbound by the lyrics. I was coming out of adolescence, life made me anxious and scared me, I was full of uncertainties and I was looking for a meaning in life, in my life.

The first Pink Floyd song that got me high was Learning to Flyhyper rhythmic, on Momentary Lapse of Reason. But it is with Timeon Dark Side of the Moona song about the passage of time, which I fell for the lyrics of Pink Floyd.

And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun but it’s sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way but you’re older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Translated into French – You’re short of breath and death is approaching —, this sentence loses its musicality, its poetic density. I still don’t know, to this day, if it’s an objectively perfect sentence or a sentence that was perfect for the melancholic young man that I was. I know she made me dizzy, I guessed this: hurry up, life passes quickly.

I remember the first time I saw the photo that adorns the album Wish You Were Here, I was troubled: two men are shaking hands, one of them is on fire. It looked like the guy on fire was coming back from the end of the world. In the exhibition, we learn that the photographer only had time to take a handful of shots before a gust of wind set the stuntman’s face on fire…

wish you were here, let’s talk about it. It’s a perfect song about the dilemmas of life, about the choices we make. On the compromises, too, to which we give in. There is not a superfluous line in this magnificent song.

Did they get you to trade
Your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
Did you exchange
A walk-on part in the war
For a lead role in a cage?

The last question – Have you exchanged a role as an extra in a war… For a leading role in a cage? — is a perfect and perfectly written picture, by which I mean that after writing such a line, you can die: your job on earth is made, it is in the category of I am the ocean / Who wants to touch your footin do you love meby Richard Desjardins…

Die ? My friend Jean-Michel, whom I mentioned above, died before completing his job on earth, that is to say, to become the best journalist in Quebec. He died in 2002 in a car accident and I quoted wish you were here when I spoke at his funeral, at the church, in Hull: How I wish, How I wish you were heredude…

(If you’re reading this column, JM: your niece wrote to me the other day. She barely knew you, but the echo of your legend still lives… Your urn is in a forest in this Outaouais that you loved so much — If you can hear this whispering, you are dyingas we hear at the beginning of The Great Gig in the Skyon [notre] Dark Side of the Moon…)

This week, when the heir came home, I hugged him briefly, like you do with teenagers. He’s about the age I was when I was still looking for the meaning of life in song lyrics. Him, it’s the rap that makes him trip. I suspect he cares about the lyrics, too. I suspect he’s looking for meaning in life, in his life. Don’t laugh, there is very good rap, each era has its own poetry.

But I digress. I wanted to tell you that when I arrived at the Pink Floyd expo, after paying for my ticket — $50, not cheap, but for the fansit’s not stealing —, what is the first thing I saw of this exhibition Their Mortal Remainsat the Arsenal?

Cristie, yes, the famous giant pig! It was floating, near the ceiling.

I took a photo of the pink pig, I sent it to Martin Thibault, without comment. I looked at the photo, I thought: we were talking about this mythical pig, Martin and I, there is, what…

Fuck32 years ago.

Shorter of breath, and one day closer to death.

1. “ Dark Side of the Rainbow, Dark Side of Oz or The Wizard of Floyd are synonymous expressions denoting the association of the album The Dark Side of the Moon of Pink Floyd and the movie The Wizard of Oz released in 1939. At times the album seems synchronous with the film, suggesting that it might have been composed for this purpose. The members of Pink Floyd deny any synchronicity…”