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This post comes a day late, as the anniversary of the album's release was on the 10th of March, 1973. Yesterday was the fortieth anniversary, which means that I am a day late (and a dollar short).
Still, it seems like something that deserves to be honored, and I am about to commit a post in order to explain why.
I don't remember exactly how I heard about this, or when or where (or even which band member of Pink Floyd), but one member said that after hearing the album, his wife burst into tears. When asked why, she said that it was "perfect", that every note on it was just right.
Now, I cannot confirm if this is the full story or not, but I did find this quote about it by Roger Waters:
When the record was finished I took a reel-to-reel copy home with me and I remember playing it for my wife then, and I remember her bursting into tears when it was finished. And I thought, "This has obviously struck a chord somewhere", and I was kinda pleased by that. You know when you've done something, certainly if you create a piece of music, you then hear it with fresh ears when you play it for somebody else. And at that point I thought to myself, "Wow, this is a pretty complete piece of work", and I had every confidence that people would respond to it.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Side_of_the_Moon)
So, the album certainly resonated for many people, even though neither Gilmour nor Waters consider it their best album.
Indeed, Pink Floyd really hit it on the nose with this album, which has the distinction of being the longest lasting album in history to remain on the charts. It was the band's eight album.
Pink Floyd were experimenting with different sounds that they had tried out while on tour, as well as the different sounds that they were trying for, to make the space theme for the album.
It even has one of the most iconic images as the album cover. Interestingly, the band members spent all of three minutes deciding on that now legendary album cover. One of the alternative covers (obviously ultimately rejected) featured Marvel comics superhero the Silver Surfer!
The album almost was titled "Eclipse (A Piece for Assorted Lunatics"). The reason for this was that another band, Medicine Hat, had used the title "Dark Side of the Moon".
Also, legend has persisted that the album runs in sync with the classic 1939 movie "The Wizard of Oz". I actually saw a screening of the film with the music of "The Dark Side of the Moon", although I hardly remember it anymore, admittedly. None of the band members ever thought to listen to the album while watching the movie.
- It remained on the charts for what is easily a record of 741 weeks, from 1973 until 1988. It sold over fifty million albums, and was the greatest commercial success the band ever had. And Pink Floyd had some significant successes outside of that album, so that is really saying something!
So, how successful was it? It appears on numerous significant lists for "greatest albums" of all time. Here are some of the distinctions it has received:
- It posted 35th on a list of the "Top 100 Albums of the Last 20 Years" in 1987 in Rolling Stone magazine
- It posted 43rd on a list of the "Top 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" in 2003 in Rolling Stone magazine
- It posted 43rd on a list of the "Top 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" in 2012 in Rolling Stone magazine
- It was voted "My Favourite Album" by listeners responding to a poll on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 2006
- It was voted eighth in a "Best Album of All Time" poll by NME in 2006
- It was voted number one in a "greatest album of all time" poll by Planet Rock in 2009
- It is ranks second on the "Definitive 200" albums listed by the National Association of Recording Merchandisers
- It was ranked 29th in a list of "The 50 Albums that Changed Music" list by The Observer in 2006
- It was ranked 37th in a list of "100 Best Albums Ever" list by The Guardian in 1997, voted by a panel of artists and music critics
- VH1 proclaimed the album's cover the fourth greatest in history
- Listeners of Planet Rock considered it the greatest cover of all time (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Side_of_the_Moon)
I got much of the information used for this log from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Side_of_the_Moon
Much of the other information used in this blog came from the following article, "Pink Floyd's "Dark Side": 40 Years Later, 40-Mind Blowing Facts About the Mad Classic" by Chris Willman of Stop the Presses! This was a very entertaining (and highly revealing and informative!) article that I would recommend to anyone interested in this album. There are things in here that I never before even heard about, such as that there is a small bit of Muzak version of a Beatles song in the album, or that Waters felt pressured to let David Gilmour do most or all of the singing on the album. I'll bet that even if you love this album and think you know everything about it, there are things here that you did not know before, either. Check it out!
http://music.yahoo.com/blogs/stop-the-presses/pink-floyd-dark-side-40-years-later-40-205227757.html
Some other articles on this subject:
http://citizensvoice.com/news/today-in-history-1.1455741
http://ultimateclassicrock.com/pink-floyd-dark-side-of-the-moon/
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