Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon

[MaineWriter]

Saturday, I went out and bought Dark Side of the Moon (Pink Floyd) for the 4th time in my life. I bought the album when it first came out in January 1973, then bought a second album a few years later when the first one got all scratched up. Then I bought the CD and had to buy a second CD when the first one broke in two.

I explicitly remember buying the album the first time 33 years ago. Omigod, I thought, has it been that long? If I could count up the minutes of time I have listened to this music, it would probably be a good chunk of my life--a really good chunk.

A few interesting Dark Side tidbits...(this is from Wikipedia)

The Dark Side of the Moon is one of the best-selling albums of all time worldwide, and the 20th-best-selling album in the United States. It peaked at #1 on The Billboard 200 and spent a record total of 741 consecutive weeks (over 14 years) on that list. To this day, it occupies a prominent spot on Billboard's Pop Catalog Chart, reaching #1 when the 2003 Hybrid SACD edition sold 800,000 copies in the U.S. alone. On the week of May 5, 2006, The Dark Side of the Moon achieved a combined total of 1500 weeks on the Billboard 200 and Pop Catalog charts.

Sales of the album worldwide total over 40 million as of 2004, with an average of 8,000 copies sold per week and a total of 400,000 in the year of 2002 — making it the 200th-best-selling album of that year nearly three decades after its initial release. It is estimated that one in every 14 people in the U.S. under the age of 50 owns a copy.

Any other Dark Side fans out there?

L

[ednbarby]

Yes.  Here I am. 

I'm one of those one in fourteen.  Actually, I own two copies - one vinyl and one CD.

You raise the blade, you make the change, you rearrange me 'til I'm sane...

Good f***ing stuff.

[isabelle]

Hey, other fan here! I used to listen to this album and others by PF in the 80's, on tapes because I was travelling a lot after 1984. Then I sort of lost my tapes in my numerous removals, and moved on from Pink Floyd.
Then what d'ya know, about a week ago I went to the theatre to watch a film from Quebec called C.R.A.Z.Y; it is autobiographical, about the first 20 years of a guy born in 1960, and there's a superb soundtrack, with bits of the Dark Side... so only 2 days ago, I went out and bought the CD! I am over the rainbow, and in fact will have to go and get "Wish you were here" too, as the movie has some of it also, and it was one of my favourite albums by Pink Floyd!

[Aussie Chris]

Hey there lnicoll, another DSOTM fan here too.  Somewhere I've got the CD and a DVD-AUDIO version in 5.1 sound that was taken from the quadraphonic LP that was clearly in mint-condition at the time.  I got it from a friend of a friend, some muso in put it together I think.  Now that is an amazing experience, to here DSOTM in quadraphonic stereo!  I'm pretty sure there's a remixed DVD-AUDIO version available these days, but there's something about the vinal version...

Another good thing to look for is the making of the dark side documentary on DVD.  The documentary itself only goes for 50 minutes or so, but it's pure gold, and there are about another 30 minutes of extras that didn't make it into the doco and have Roger and Dave mostly doing acoustic versions.

It's probably the most important album ever put down, single-handedly changing the direction of music in its day, and still an amazing achievement by today's standards, after all they created the sounds and effects manually, the clocks going off for example were recorded on a tape that they spliced into a loop and fed it into a tape player with the other end of the tape stretched out by a rod that someone held some distance away.

[MaineWriter]

Anyone here ever tried the synchronization to the Wizard of Oz? I've read about it but never seen/done it.

[Aussie Chris]

I only vaguely remember hearing about this, can you remind me what this was about?

[MaineWriter]

I only vaguely remember hearing about this, can you remind me what this was about?

Supposedly, if you play DSOTM together with The Wizard of Oz, there are songs and scenes that seem to be synchronized. Pink Floyd denies it, says if there is anything, it is just a coincidence. I've never tried it so I don't know how "complete" this synchronization really is...curious if anyone else has ever seen it?

L

[moremojo]

Supposedly, if you play DSOTM together with The Wizard of Oz, there are songs and scenes that seem to be synchronized. Pink Floyd denies it, says if there is anything, it is just a coincidence. I've never tried it so I don't know how "complete" this synchronization really is...curious if anyone else has ever seen it?

L

A local cable channel showed The Wizard of Oz once with the "Dark Side of the Moon" accompaniment, and I remember how struck I was by the tornado sequence being even eerier. I didn't watch the film all the way through, so couldn't comment on the whole experience.

[Ellemeno]

I listened to Dark Side of the Moon many, many, many, many times.   I haven't smoked dope since May 1987, but I sure want to right now, thinking about this.  The good thing about Dark Side of the Moon though, is it gets you stoned without drugs.

This goes well with the current rainbow thread:
http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php?topic=2433.0

I was 14 when "Money" started getting played on the radio (WNEW-FM in NY, any others who got their musical education there at THE best rock station ever?) and hearing "do goody good BULLSHIT!"  Oh I loved the freedom in that going out over the airwaves.

"Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way" from "Time" goes with the Thoreau poll:
http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php?topic=1951.0

Leslie, and others, someday, let's lie on the floor in the dark together and listen to it louder than I have listened to anything in 20 years.

[MaineWriter]

I was 14 when "Money" started getting played on the radio (WNEW-FM in NY, any others who got their musical education there at THE best rock station ever?) and hearing "do goody good BULLSHIT!"  Oh I loved the freedom in that going out over the airwaves.

Leslie, and others, someday, let's lie on the floor in the dark together and listen to it louder than I have listened to anything in 20 years.

For me, it was WPLJ (also NYC)...stood for "White Port and Lemon Juice" which I believe was a Mothers of Invention song....we talked about the Mothers back in the day when I started the horny thread. LOL WPLJ was a great station...first time I ever listened to a station that was not based at a college that played entire sides of albums. For DSOTM they'd play the entire thing--all 45 minutes. They also played Tommy from beginning to end on a regular basis.

As for the dark...next time I'm in Seattle. I'll bring the CD.

Leslie