Pink Floyd began writing their album soon after their 1971 album Meddle. A tour of the to be released album began in early 1972 with an ever changing version of the album being played each night of the tour. It was over these concerts that the album really took shape and helped the band to see what kind of product they wanted and expected when recording it. Pink Floyd took a break from Dark Side in the middle of 1972 to go to France to record music for a movie by Barbet Schroeder. They released their soundtrack to the movie later that year under the title "Obscured by Clouds". At the end of this project, Pink Floyd got back recording The Dark Side of the Moon. In the studio, much of the music for the album was already prepared for recording, and there wasn't much of the nonsense recording to trigger ideas for songs like that of the Meddle sessions.
On "Speak to Me", the album opens up with the iconic heart beat created by the sound of drummer Nick Mason's bass drum. What follows is a gradual fade in of various spoken word snippets and sound effects that along with a piano note played backwards. The spoken word pieces are taken from interviews done by Pink Floyd on random people around Abbey Road studio. The questions are quite random, but the answers are often very different than one would expect. These answers are used throughout the whole album. This all finally builds up with the piano note coming to its loudest and a wailing scream into "Breathe", the first musical piece on the album. "Breathe" is a slow, rather melancholy piece with lyrics written by bassist Roger Waters (he wrote every lyric on this album). Gilmour sings the vocals on this one, and he even double tracked his voice to harmonize with himself. During the second verse of the song, Rick Wright's keyboards become much more prominent in the mix, creating a jammier atmosphere to the song. Gilmour also plays some slide guitar throughout the song.
"Breathe" transfers right into the instrumental "On the Run". This track is composed of a repeated 8 note sequence that was played into a sequencer. The band sped up the sequencer and added various effects to create the soundscape of the song. The piece can really get your heart racing if you listen to the music as carefully and in depth as I do. Over the top of the synth notes, various noises can be heard, such as a man running down the hall, laughing, and a voice coming through an airport radio. The point of the song is how travel can bring fear of one's life, which is portray especially at the end of the song where the sound of an airplane crash can be heard, followed by hysterical laughing. Once the crash dies down a bit, quiet ticking can be heard at the beginning of "Time", the fourth track on the album. The ticking of clocks eventually leads to the sound of various alarms on clocks going off, which will scare you half to death after a very quiet fade out of the crash. This is followed by a metronomic beat that keeps time as drummer Nick Mason pounds away on melodic roto-toms while Dave Gilmour plays a simple riff on guitar. This goes on for about 2 minutes and stops with a drum fill that leads into the main part of the song. Gilmour sings the vocals on the verses pretty harshly, as the tune of the verses is very blues and hard rock sounding, which contrasts with Rick Wright's soft and nice voice during the quieter choruses. After the first chorus, Gilmour plays his first guitar solo on the album, and it is a great one! The words are very melancholy, along with most of the album, as it deals with how time is wasted and there is never enough time in one's life. "Shorter of breath, and one day closer to death," Roger writes. Deep stuff. After the second chorus is sung, there is a transition into a reprise of "Breathe". The organ is less prominent in this one than it is on the original track. It is a very interesting addition to the track, but it is welcome. This ends on a minor note with synth quietly in the background.
This transitions into the side closer "The Great Gig in the Sky". The track is essentially a jam session instrumental with singer Clare Torry singing and wailing wordless vocals over top. Her vocals are very emotional, screaming at some points even. The piece is dynamic to say the least, opening with a very quiet piano line with the bass prominently backing it up. The following section is much louder with the introduction of steel guitar and drums as well as Clare Torry's vocals. This eventually returns to just bass and piano with Torry's vocals getting softer and softer and eventually ending on a single piano note. This is a beautiful piece and fits just perfectly on this album.
The next side opens up with the hit single "Money". The tune is about, who would have guessed, money! Roger writes about how people with loads of money are often jerks, ironic as this song would become their first big hit single! The song opens with a loop of cash register sounds and other money related clips that plays while the bass plays the songs main riff. The truly amazing thing about this song being so popular is that it is composed in an odd time signature- 7/4! The verses are played entirely in 7/4 and the choruses in 4/4. Following the second chorus, Dick Parry plays an excellent saxophone solo in 7/4. For the guitar solo, though, they change into a jam type of sound instead of the funk sound of the verses, and into 4/4 the entire time. This eventually goes back into the 7/4 time signature which is truly awesome for being a hit single. The whole song has a funky sound to it, which is different than most of the other songs on the album. Also I enjoy this song, personally, because it is the first song that I listened to and noticed automatically that something was weird with the time signature, which turned out to be in 7/4. As a drummer, the time signatures matter a lot to me, as I dislike how most bands stick to the simple 4/4 and 3/4 instead of stretching themselves to go into odd time signatures like 7/4, 11/8, and 9/8 for example.
This segues via an organ note into the mellower "Us and Them", another single from the album. The song begins very soft, but changes dynamically when the choruses come as they are played much harder and louder than the verses. Gilmour's voice on this is so beautiful and delicate that it fits the music perfectly. Dick Parry gets more another couple of sax solos on this song too. Rick's melody on the piano is wonderful and guides the melody very well with its interesting chord progression. The whole song seems more like jazz and fusion rather than a traditional progressive rock song, which is a nice song, as each of the songs on the album seem to have their own distinct area of reaching into another genre, yet retaining their standard Pink Floyd sound. This remains as one of my favorite tracks on the album, even though I count the whole of Dark Side as one song that should be listened to in its entirety. If I start the album from the beginning, I can't stop it, I have to play it to the end, because otherwise it seems incomplete. "Us and Them" transitions into the jam song "Any Colour You Like". The song is a good example of the "old" Pink Floyd sound on the record, reminiscent of the jam section of "Echoes" from Meddle and the "Funky Dung" section from "Atom Heart Mother" from the album of the same name. Mason plays a cool groove beat as Wright and Gilmour take turns soloing and then work together to make a wonderful sound as the bass keeps the groove. This track is short and concise, but brings a cool feel to this section of the album.
"Any Colour You Like" ends with a chord sequence similar to that of the end of "Breathe" which transitions into "Brain Damage" one of only two songs that Roger Waters sings. The song is about people who have gone mad, and a lyric in the song is where the album gets its name. The verses are soft and mostly just guitar and a hi-hat keeping the beat. The choruses, however, introduce the whole band which makes everything louder. Also, female backing singers are present during the choruses, adding a new dimension to the song. The second chorus is followed by a synthesizer solo which ends right as the next track begins. The following track is the closer "Eclipse", and is the only other song that Roger sings beside "Brain Damage". The song borrows the chord sequence from "Dear Prudence" by The Beatles, but does so gracefully. The words are almost like a sermon, talking about how everything under the sun and all the toiling "is in tune, but the sun is eclipsed by the moon." The song ties up the album in a way no other song could possibly have done. The track ends after the riff is repeated multiple times with lyrics and female backing vocalists, and the album leads out with the return of the heartbeat and the now iconic phrase "There is no dark side of the moon really, matter of fact it's all dark."
This album is truly one of the best albums of all time. I think it should be viewed and listened to as one complete piece of music, rather than various songs put together. The album is so good that I give it a whopping 11 out of 10.
A live version of "Breathe" from the band's 2005 one off reunion performance in Live 8:
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